Ustad Ali Akbar Khan

Alap - a Sarod Solo Ustad Ali Akbar Khan

Shri Rag is a serious rag for the hours of sunset and twilight. The qualities of devotion (bhakti) and heroism (vir) are supreme, with touches of pathos (karuna). a particular character of the rag is brought out in the inflection of the flatted second scale degree, or komal re. It is several degrees flatter than it might be intoned in Western tuning and further, is played with the slow wavering of pitch known as andolan. The quality of this note is very strong in the coloring of the rag, and puts a virtuostic demand on the player to keep it pure.