RAAG is a melodic framework for improvisation akin to a melodic mode in Indian classical music.
-While the rāga is a remarkable and central feature of the classical music tradition, it has no direct translation to concepts in the classical European music tradition.
-Each rāga is an array of melodic structures with musical motifs, considered in the Indian tradition to have the ability to “colour the mind” and affect the emotions of the audience.
-Each rāga provides the musician with a musical framework within which to improvise.
-The specific notes within a rāga can be reordered and improvised by the musician.
-Rāgas range from small rāgas like Bahar and Shahana that are not much more than songs to big rāgas like Malkauns, Darbari and Yaman, which have great scope for improvisation and for which performances can last over an hour.
-Rāgas may change over time, with an example being Marwa, the primary development of which has gone down to the lower octave compared to the traditionally middle octave.
-Each rāga traditionally has an emotional significance and symbolic associations such as with season, time and mood. -The rāga is considered a means in Indian musical tradition to evoke certain feelings in an audience. -Hundreds of rāga are recognized in the classical tradition, of which about 30 are common.
-There are two main classical music traditions, Hindustani (North Indian) and Carnatic (South Indian), and the concept of rāga is shared by both.
-Rāga are also found in Sikh traditions such as in Guru Granth Sahib, the primary scripture of Sikhism.
-Similarly it is a part of the qawwali tradition found in Sufi Islamic communities of South Asia.
-Some popular Indian film songs and ghazals use rāgas in their compositions.
-The roots of Indian classical music can be traced back nearly two thousand years to its origin in the Vedic hymns of the Hindu temples, the fundamental source of all Indian music.
-Later on, many musical varieties, like, music for dance, music for instrument, music for vocal rendering, etc., got evolved.
-So in practice, some musicologists gave importance of tala, some gave importance to the svaras, and some to purity of ragas.
-RAAG Yaman emerged from the parent musical scale of Kalyan.
-Considered to be one of the most fundamental ragas in Hindustani tradition, it is thus often one of the first ragas taught to students.
-Raga Yaman expresses the ultimate humility.
-The raga has an untainted appeal or urge of shaking off ego, haughtiness and arrogance.
-One can completely surrender one’s soul to the ultimate, through immersing in the ecstatic melody of Yaman.
-Prayer and love are complementarily expressed through the rendition of the raga just like the inseparable connection between the moon and moonbeam, or between fish and water.
-Both the artistes and the audiences can reach the absolute nothingness through meditating the raga.
-Yaman is the called the king of the entire raga,
-Yaman means the full moon. -Hazrat Amir Khusrau composed the raga at the time of Khilji dynasty.
-Raga Yaman is performed at a time when the nature or the universe creates an ambience of complete surrender to the ultimate, after a hectic day.
-The rasa of Yaman emits when the nature takes all the living beings in her lap with kindness and generosity. -Yaman is a raga through which one can purify oneself with the holy hum of evening prayer at a mosque, temple, pagoda or church.
-Raga Yaman is an evening raga which is romantic in nature.
-Some say its origin is from the Persian mode “Ei’man” from which “Yaman” was derived.
-Others say it has Vedic origins as Raga Yamuna which over time altered as Yaman.
-Raga Yaman generates bhakti, gambhir, shringar and suggestive rasa.
