Udaya Ravichandrika (Chinese Legend)
Michael Robinson
About this work:
Chinese Legend originated with the main repeated melodic figure which came to me while driving home over Coldwater Canyon after midnight following an informal and moving sitar performance by Nazir Ali Jairazbhoy at his home. Out of curiosity, I searched for a raga which contained the same swaras or tones of my new-found melody, discovering Udaya Ravichandrika, a South Indian raga. There is some controversy over whether to use a natural or flat seventh. I decided to use both. The main melodic voice here is a sitar, the instrument of Ravi Shankar. In the Fall of 1997, Martin Perlich, the distinguished KUSC Los Angeles radio host, played Chinese Legend in-between music by Mozart and C.P.E. Bach, describing my music as being “highly recommended for people interested in living composers.”
- Michael Robinson, January 1999, Beverly Hills
© 1999 by Michael Robinson All rights reserved
Year composed: 1997
Duration: 00:11:21
Ensemble type: Electronic Instruments and Sound Sources:Live Electronic Sound Sources
Instrumentation: ,1 Computer/Laptop soloist(s), ,1 Sampler (Keyboard/Other) soloist(s)
Instrumentation notes: A computer and sound module are programmed to perform the fully notated composition in real time. Chinese Legend (Udaya Ravichandrika) is voiced with samples of the following acoustical timbres using Indian tunings: sitar, tabla, kora, kawala, erhu, clarinet, cuica, bonang, esraj and two tanpuras.