Utsyo Chakraborty: Navrasa, nine emotions for piano (2022)

Navrasa was commissioned by Indian virtuoso pianist Pervez Mody.
Pervez ji called me up one evening from his residence in Lahr, Germany and
requested from me a sizeable piece which would reflect on our common Indian heritage, albeit with a contemporary colour. Finding the suggestion interesting, I immediately embarked on a recce to search for a reasonable “Indian” basis. A sudden flash of recollection made me remember that a mere two years prior to the composition, I had decided to write a suite of nine pieces for guitar called “Navrasas” based on the eponymous nine sentiments (or emotions) which have been dominating the daily practices of our Indian performing arts since time immemorial. After pitching my idea to Pervez ji, his enthusiasm about my proposal gave me the encouragement to commence work on the project.
The music was composed between May and August 2022. Since then, Pervez Mody has premiered the piece in 2023 and has performed the cycle all over Germany.
The nine pieces are:
1. Sringara (Love) [00:09]
2. Bibhatsa (Disgust) [02:38]
3. Karuna (Compassion) [04:14]
4. Shanta (Peace) [05:46]
5. Hasya (Laughter) [08:47]
6. Bhayanka (Fear) [09:59]
7. Raudra (Anger) [13:03]
8. Veera (Bravery) [15:10]
9. Adbhuta (Wonder) [17:16]
The whole collection should last approximately 20 minutes.

[@jeffgrigsbyjones]

This is the most interesting new music I've heard in years. To think the composer was born in the 21st century and is from India, rather than any of the European centers of classical music. I say it's about time. I want to hear something really different!

[@UtsyoChakraborty]

This comment made my day. Many thanks!

[@mirrors1]

Wow! It Is a masterpiece! You know link deep feelings easy. And this is only for the greatest composers. Bravo! ❤

[@allansegall4502]

Imaginative, and well, emotional!

[@LeSheetMusicBoi]

kya baat hain, absolutely amazing

[@hm12874]

Reminds me a lot of Kurtag

[@Labratas123]

Bravo

[@nicksgottheaux6445]

Absolutely badass

[@benjaminbowlin1028]

A very fine set of compositions. When I listen to something new like this, I inevitably bring my own personal history with me. For example, Bravery reminded me very much of Mussorgsky*s piano writing in the Pictures at an Exhibition! Well-done!

[@ThomasRamsay_Music]

Very nice stuff! Enjoyed it greatly.

[@SaintDeus]

Cool piece :-)

[@LeoVEggers]

Amazing stuff!

[@CameronWattMusic]

Love these. Very well written. Someone who's good at motivic analysis would have a field day with these. The Karuna (compassion) one I especially like.

[@MicoAquinoComposer]

Such a ravishing, emotional, and sonorous work, dear Utsyo! It’s akin to being soothed by the dulcet tones of a mellifluous voice. :))

[@rohinagrawal9727]

i hope to perform these some day. great performance as well

[@finnnaginnn]

I think a good way to comprehend this song is to imagine this being a piano trying to imitate an orchestra. The sudden loud octaves in the bass stave are drums. The clicky higher notes are characteristic of violins or bells.

[@anandseshadripianist_compo3196]

Navarasa in Abstract form :) DIfferent dimension to the concept of Navarasa :)

[@pema257]

In Sringara, is the line on the first note of the 16th notes a tremolo sign or something else?

[@UtsyoChakraborty]

Think of them as the sign for 'grace notes'

[@pema257]

@@UtsyoChakraborty Oh, thank you!

[@agogobell28]

Is this a playback rendering using a certain sound-font? It’s high-quality but it doesn’t sound “live”: I think the piece would benefit from a bit of human tempo flexibility, since chunks of it sound too metronomic to me here. Either way, interesting work. The interplay of atonality and the A-major triad during the third movement is interesting - particularly with the emphasis on the C-sharp, tying in with the seeming C-sharp focus in the first movement and others. I’m not wholly sure if that’s accurate, but that’s just my interpretation. I like the fast motifs around 12:06, by the way. On the other hand, the clusters of the lowest three notes on the piano are notated in such a way that it’s hard to read, since the note-heads merge into each other; is there no way to separate them out (as in the two-piano version of Le Sacre du Printemps)? Additionally, I’m a fan of the quartal harmony in “Adbhuta”.

[@UtsyoChakraborty]

This is not live. There are plans for a recording in the future.

[@UtsyoChakraborty]

Your view on the third movement is most appreciated and is revelatory: C#/G# are indeed the dominant pitch centers of the entire work and function as sort of a tonic-dominant relationship. Of course, this music is not tonal in the common practice sense. It mostly develops through the idea of progression of pitch centers and their associated harmonic configurations. The idea I had in mind for the third piece was to unfold the sequence of intervals in a fan-like manner: unison, m2, M2, m3, M3, P4, TT, P5, m6, M6, m7, M7, octave. The melodic line was composed on top of it to reflect the spacing of the intervals, sometimes staggered and sometimes in time.

[@talastra]

I realized this wasn't live as well. The delay in the background is a nice accident.

[@jenesuispassanslavoir7698]

I love this! What a great set of pieces! I’m intrigued: if I’m not mistaken there is some use of electronics also but this isn’t mentioned in the description. How was the shining resonance and slight echo achieved?

[@UtsyoChakraborty]

They're all because of the soundfonts used. This is not a live performance. There are plans for a recording in the future.

[@jenesuispassanslavoir7698]

@@UtsyoChakraborty Oh that’s really interesting! I think it adds a lot actually in terms of bringing a quasi-spectral quality to the music. As a pianist and an organist I always feel it’s a shame that the piano resonates so quietly by comparison to its attack and that the organ seldom has any attack at all and is all sustain. Anyway. I will watch your channel with interest. :)

[@johnnyknight2157]

This is brilliant. How can I access the music?

[@UtsyoChakraborty]

Drop me a mail at [e-mail]

[@timothywilliams1359]

Sounds like when I tell the grandchildren to stop pounding on the piano, and go play outside...

[@UtsyoChakraborty]

@@timothywilliams1359 That’s probably because I always pounded on the piano as an eight year old instead of playing outside! ;-)

[@merenarin1579]

İt clearly has the technical/expressive qualities of a contemporary piano music. İt probably well organized though 20 minutes of solo music in this era tooo massive. But for my perspective it is Suite far from being interesting. To be honest İ am not sure ıf any interesting contemporary music exit anymore.. They musical scene still domained by the perspectives of 70 s and 80 s

[@UtsyoChakraborty]

You're free to believe as you wish.

[@Scriabinfan593]

Wonderful music Utsyo. Absolutely wonderful. And if I may ask, what notation software do you use?

[@UtsyoChakraborty]

I used MuseScore for this.