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Soaking Music

Discovered this quirky essay on raagas while looking for the history of Raag Chhayanat - one of my favorites and well-known to be a crowd pleaser. There are many amazing renditions of this raaga but the one I love the most has to be by Rashid Khan - no matter how many times I hear it, there is always the special kind of resonance. 

I have not been fortunate to attend any of his concerts but even listening to a recording can create that soaked-in music feeling that I love. Many years ago I had read a piece by an architect who said that music soaks into the pores of buildings - bricks and stones, so there is a great value in playing beautiful music throughout a home. In time you can feel the difference. I don't believe this was any scientific evidence provided to substantiate this claim but I loved the concept of inanimate things soaking up music and the house being "alive with the sound of music" in a sense. 

Since reading that I have always tried to see if I can tell the difference between places that are exposed to a lot of great music and those that are not. I heard a trio of musicians accompanied by a pianist perform some popular arias in an old church recently. The acoustics of the place were fabulous and the setting very intimate. We were seated three rows way from the performers' dais. It seemed to me that the church had steeped in so much beautiful music for hundreds of years that it was able to take an active part of our musical experience that evening. It would not be the same thing if the venue had been something modern without as much experience with music. Maybe the walls, pews and the altar has soaked it all in.

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