Bach's 48 & S. Balachander's Melakartas

These two are the towering achievements in Western Classical Music & Indian Carnatic Music respectively.

The musical octave being divided into 12 semitones, there will be 24 scales if both major & minor scales are reckoned. Johann Sebastian Bach composed a set of Preludes & Fugues in each of the 24 scales in 1722. Twenty years later, he composed another set of 24, making in all 48. They were named "The Well Tempered (tuned) Klavier (keyboard instrument)" & helped to popularise equal temperament over just temperament. Instead of being mere academic exercises, they turned out to be supremely varied artistic creations, known as  "The Keyboard Player's Bible." Svetoslav Richter's set is widely acclaimed.

Carnatic (& Hindusthani) Music also has broadly 12 semi-tones in an octave. A melakarta raga has seven notes (included in the 12 semi-tones). Keeping the fourth (Madhyama) & the invariable fifth (Panchama) constant, by permutations & combinations, one can obtain 36 melakarta ragas for Shuddha Madhyama & another 36 for Prati Madhyama ragas, making a total of 72 melakarta ragas. Veena maestro S.Balachander decided to record all 72 melakarta ragas in alapana & thanam only, omitting the pallavi. In spite of hurdles posed by the record company, he successfully managed to complete the project (spread over 12 vinyl LP records) between 1971-76. A project of this magnitude had never been attempted by an Indian musician & they remain a connosieur's delight.

Planning Behind S. Balachander's Recording of Melakarta Ragas

The 72 Melakarta Ragas comprise 36 Shuddha Madhyama (F) Ragas & 36 Prati Madhyama (F#) Ragas, the latter differing from the former only by substituting Prati Madhyama for the Shuddha Madhyama of the former. Examples are Dheera Shankarabharana (Bilawal in Hindustani) & Mecha Kalyani (Yaman in Hindustani) differing only in the fourth.

Further these 72 are divided into twelve chakras, namely Indu, Netra, Agni, Veda, Bana, Rutu, Rishi, Vasu, Brahma, Disi, Rudra & Aditya. The 12 chakras each contain different combinations of the second & third notes in the purvanga (first half) & the sixth & seven notes in the uttaranga (second half) of the raga, the natural fourth being common to the first 36 & the sharpened fourth for the second 36, the first & fifth being common to all.

The vainika has arranged the ragas on each LP so that they belong to different chakras to provide variety but share the same Madhyama so that ragas having different Madhyamas do not appear on the same LP. Also some ragas are presented mainly in Alapana & some in Tanam, to make them listener-friendly.

Gustav Mahler & Children

Gustav Mahler was one of the few composers who used Children's Chorus in his symphonies. 

In his third symphony, in the fifth movement ("What the Angels tell me") the children's Chorus enter singing "Bimm, Bamm" accompanied by bells. In the fourth symphony, though children's voices are not used, a soprano sings about a child's view of heaven. 

In the eighth, "The Symphony of a Thousand", in the first part "Veni Creator Spiritus", a Gregorian Chant in Latin, children sing "Gloria sit Patri Domines" (Glory be to the Lords) & in the second, set to the final part of Goethe's "Faust", they sing "Ich spur soeben." (I am just tracking).

In 1904, he composed "Kindertotenleider" "Songs on the death of children", despite his wife Anna's pleading not to tempt providence. In 1907, his daughter Anna, aged four years, passed away due to scarlet fever, justifying her mother's premonitions.