Bomblymlux by Harini Aswin

My name is Harini. I am 11 years old. I have been learning the piano for nearly 5 years.

This offering consists of three tracks, which are based on notes representing ragas of Carnatic music, played solo on a digital piano and synthesisers. These pieces, in long form, are mostly improvised with a smattering of pre-composed segments. The fourth track in this album is a second take on PoorviRocks, the second track.

Here is an informal video recording of the HamirKalyani. The audio in this video has not been mastered: https://youtu.be/691y5e8L-kU

CharonG, which is based on the raga Charukesi, is a piece of music depicting the different emotions of a person. A large part of the song is improvised. The piece opens with a free-form, non-rhythmic improvisation, also known as an ‘aalap’. The rest of the piece is played over a steady rhythm and a backing track. The name CharonG is derived from two words - Charukesi and Song.

PoorviRocks has many parts. First, its improvisation starts off with its parent scale Gamanashrama. And then, it moves on to related scales Hamsanandi and Amrutavarshini. Finally it comes to Poorvikalyani, the raga in which most of the track is in. At first there is a small partially composed prelude. Then, this prelude leads to the main composition, pre-composed more as a framework than as a structured piece. The composition has several parts. First, it explores the raga itself. Then, it moves on to playing the same raga on a different tonic. After exploring this, it moves on to the natural minor scale (corresponding to the raga natabhairavi), which is ‘complementary’ to the parent scale gamanashrama. After alternating between Poorvikalyani and the natural minor, it morphes into a chromatic scale (essentially the union of gamanashrama and natabhairavi), finally leading back to the main melody.

This track is set in the raga Hamir kalyani. It begins with an alaap-style improvisation. Then, it moves on to the tune of a traditional song from the Carnatic music canon, Purahara Nandana, composed by Muthuswamy Dikshitar. Towards the end of the song, we have a rhythmic improvisation, which then leads back to the main melody.

HHMusic features original works by Harini, a child pianist / keyboardist from Bangalore (India), whose current and ever-evolving interest is in composing and improvising over scales from South Indian classical music. She often works with her twin Hamsini who plays the guitar and ukulele.