Recorded at Darbar Festival 2011, on 24th April, at London’s King’s Place

Musicians:
- Roopa Panesar (sitar)
- Sukhvinder Singh (tabla)

Raag Puriya; Thaat: Marwa; Samay: Night

“Growing maturity has drawn me into music that is devotional and spiritual, such as Raga Puriya, which is my current favourite.” (Roopa Panesar)

Roopa Panesar remains within the Hindustani classical idiom, but brings a distinctive style to sitar performance. Born in Leicester, she trained under UK-based maestro Dharambir Singh, and went on to receive instruction from others including Shahid Parvez, Bahauddin Dagar, Arvind Parikh, and Ajoy Chakraborty. Her sitar’s design is modelled closely on those from the Imdadkhani gharana, and she takes inspiration from the greats of that region including Vilayat Khan. Aside from touring Europe and the US, she has made numerous BBC appearances, collaborated with Talvin Singh and the Belgian Symphony Orchestra, and recorded on the soundtrack of the film ‘West is West’. She recently released her debut album, Khoj (‘discovery’), and her promising career continues on an upward trajectory.

Puriya is considered by some to be the ‘king of night ragas’, traditionally intended for sunset performance. It takes the sames notes as Raag Marwa [SrGMDNS], but combines them differently to bring a distinct mood, said by some to be one of ‘sombre piety’. Ga and Ni are respectively the vadi and samvadi [king and queen notes], and are also used as nyas swaras [notes to pause on]. Musicians often focus on mandra and madhya saptak [low and middle octave], and tend towards playing Dha and Ni weakly in ascent. Sitarist-scholar Deepak Raja notes that ascending and descending phrases should be present in equal measure, and that ‘the lasting aural image of a well-delivered Puriya should be the phrase MMG in the middle octave’.

“I was a chemical engineer and went to Aston University, and didn't think I would take up music professionally until about six years ago. I worked...for about two years, but then I decided to to take music up full time. I just didn't feel fulfilled in my job.” (Roopa Panesar)

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