Rabab Preview

| world music heritage series |

The music of the rabab creates an atmosphere of meditative absorption and reflection, a non-assuming and gentle luminosity and space that communicates the characteristic sentiments (bhaav) inherent to the raag.

The pakhawaj accompaniment provides a suitable support to the gentleness and softness of the compositions so that the listening experience generates serenity in the calm flow of sounds reminiscent of ocean waves reaching the shore with differing speed and intensity, but with the same embracing, reassuring feeling of oneness. Thus the aesthetic need and significance of Indian music is revealed. According to the Sanskrit philosopher Abhinavagupta, music, as other art forms, is in fact a means for calming the mind allowing the listener to recognize the emotions as mind waves and meditate on them in order to objectify them with the ultimate aim to be freed from the afflicting attachment that results in the experience of suffering.