Raag Madhuvanti Alaap | Debasis Chakroborty & Giuliano Modarelli
About This Video
Pandit Debasis Chakroborty (Indian slide guitar) and Giuliano Modarelli (guitar) opened their set with Raag Madhuvanti in Alaap at the Raga Unison: Wind, Drums and Strings concert, Assembly Rooms, Edinburgh, on 16 November 2025. Ustad Shahbaz Hussain provided tabla accompaniment throughout.
Madhuvanti belongs to the Todi thaat and sits in the late afternoon. Its defining features are the Komal Gandhar and Teevra Madhyama, an interval pair that creates tension between the raga's lyrical pull and its harmonic sharpness. Re and Dha drop out in the ascent, keeping the line lean and upward-striving; the descent fills in through S' N D P M# g R S, with Pa as the vadi carrying most of the raga's weight.
Over thirteen minutes, Chakroborty traces Madhuvanti's characteristic leaps (g M# P, N S') through the slide's sustained glissando, a technique that maps directly onto the raga's meend-heavy tradition. Modarelli moves within the same framework, voicing phrases that respond to the slide rather than shadow it. Ustad Shahbaz Hussain's tabla marks time with lehra, holding the pulse underneath the melodic exploration.
