Amit ChaudhuriFinding the Raga: An Improvisation on Indian Music (New York Review Book)

This is an exceptionally fluid personal narrative that leads us into the realms of Indian Classical music and performance, but in so doing Mr. Chaudhuri shares profound insight into the Western- oriented culture in which he grew up. This book is a rare bridge, not just between two views of life but to something beyond.. Here's a quote concerning the author's discoveries as he goes deeper into India's musical traditions."Tragedy creates meaning. I grew up thinking that pain assigns significance: that what was painless was trivial. That was my moral universe and, I think, many others'. Now I found a culture that had cast aside this position as if it were an anachronism. But how to describe the overhaul in deriving value not from tragedy but joy? Tragedy is a culmination but what is joy? It's not easy to pinpoint because it's not contained in an episode of importance; it's a participation in existence, with no separate definition for itself." (p.105)

Great read, a bit too biographical and irrelevant at times, but makes up for it with deep insights into the culture and practice of Hindustani classical music.

A historical cum modernist cum Renaissance perspective on the art, science and practice of the world of Ragas. 150 pages of sheer delight.

Beautifully structured, blending aspects of music with stories from the author’s life linked to it. A book that flows like a well delineated raaga.

Very good book

After A Strange and Sublime Address, Afternoon Raga, this book comes as a huge disappointment. The personal explorations of music from his youth and to early adulthood felt genuine and authentic. But once he launches into modernism and Khayal, it is an exercise in self-indulgence. It is stilted, abstruse and boring