21 song salute to the Great Lata Mangeshkar
Advancing listeners of Hindustani Classical Music are intimately familiar with a few Kalyan ragas such as Pooriya Kalyan, Shuddha Kalyan and Yaman Kalyan. Now we will start with Kalyan Raga ‘Ang’ ragas such as Hameer, Kedar, Kamod, Nand, Gaud Sarang and we will begin with raga Nand.
Raga Nand, also known as Anandi Kalyan, is a very sweet melody. The song most associated with Nand is “Tu jahan jahan chalega, mera saaya saath hoga…”, a composition by Madan Mohan from the film Mera Saaya. This song is a beautiful example of the Nand melody.
All the Kalyan family ragas differ in the poorvang from the ‘Sa’ to the ‘Pa’, but many of them are very similar in the uttarang. If we look at the poorvang of Nand, it is ‘Sa Ga Ga Ma … Ma Pa’. Then ‘Pa Re Sa’ – this ‘Pa – Re’ connection is what characterizes the Kalyan Ang. We go from ‘Sa’ to ‘Ga’ leaving the rishabh, and then dwell on the ‘Ma’ - this is quite significant in raga Nand.
The next part is more from a technical point of view for readers that appreciate the delicate nuances of Hindustani Classical Music presentations.
Then ‘Ma Ga Pa’ – the “Ma – Ga’ connection is also typical of Nand. We then move on and rest on the pancham. The phrase ‘Ga Ma Dha Pa … Re Sa’ is again very typical in Nand. Then ‘Ga Ma Pa Dha … Ma Pa Ga Ma’ – this is where teevra madhyam appears for the first time. Both the mandhyams are used beautifully and then you hear the ascend to the nishad with a very typical Nand phrase ‘Ga Ma Pa Dha Ni Pa … Pa Dha Ma Pa Ga Ma … Ga Ma Dha Pa Re Sa … Ga Ma’.
Then movement towards taar ‘Sa’ can happen in a few different ways – one is like Bihag, then there is another way and sometimes there is a hint of Maand as well but then we come back to Nand.
If you wish to explore the the entire movement of Nand by combining all the phrases in Hindi, please check out this video presentation - https://youtu.be/84M5RxKy4vA
We look forward to your suggestions, questions and feedback.
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