After the men are introduced, they enter and bow respectively to a family member of Ravi

Shankar. They then sit down in a semi-circle facing the crowd and start tuning their instruments.
There is a short pause at 2:43 and then the performance starts with the sarod and tanpura playing
maestoso notes (2:43-2:54). The sitar joins in and plays a raga pattern while the sarod and
tanpura continue playing maestoso notes in the background (2:57-3:36). The next sam is started
by the sarod playing a similar raga pattern while the tanpura continues to play in the background
(3:37-4:24). At 4:30 the sitar rejoins and plays along with the sarod for a couple seconds. Then at
4:35 the sitar and the tabla create a new melody and begin playing at an accelerando tempo. All
four instruments play the melody in harmony until 5:49. From 5:49-8:05 the sarod and the sitar
exchange solo patterns while the tabla and tanpura play in the background. They then all play
together once again at 8:05 and begin to play at a slightly accelerando tempo again until 9:40.
After that, the sitar and sarod take turns playing the main pattern at a slightly ritardando tempo
while the tabla holds the tempo and the tanpura plays in the background until 10:20. They then
begin to play at an accelerando tempo with the sitar and sarod playing in sync until the end of the
first performance. Towards the end of the first performance, they begin to crescendo. Once they
finish the audience cheers and applauded them. The tabla player switches to the cello and
everyone retune their instruments. The second movement starts out with a maestoso note from
the sarod, sitar, and cello (19:00-19:07). Then the sarod and cello play mezzo piano low notes in
ritardando tempo (19:08-20:02). At 20:03 the sitar joins in and takes over the melody. The sarod
and the cello create a call and response phrasing at 20:23-20:36. Then the sitar repeats the phrase
they were playing and they all play together until 20:58. The sarod and cello do another call and
response phrasing (20:59-21:12) and then the phrasing switches to the sitar and sarod (21:13-
21:28). At 22:00 the cello player starts to pizzicato his notes instead of playing with the bow, but
then switches back over and the tabla takes over the tempo beat. At 23:00 they all play together
in harmony. The sitar and cello do call and response phrasing at 23:28-24:43. They built up the
ending by playing in accelerando tempo and ending on one note. All through the second
movement the tempo slowly accelerando and they also started playing mezzo forte and
sometimes forte. There were also a lot of call and response phrasing and melodies throughout. At
the end of their performance, the crowd cheers and applauded the performers and then they stand
up and listen to a speech made by one of Ravi Shankar’s family members. The tabla to me
sounds similar to different sized bongo drums. The sarod sounds a tiny bit like a banjo and
maybe a guitar. Both the sitar and tanpura are unique to this type of music and can’t be compared
to another instrument. The cello is definitely a truly global instrument since it is more widely
known and used in multiple countries. I think this type of music is more melodically oriented
because there is constantly a melody being played and sometimes repeated. Drones do play a part
in the harmony all throughout the two performances from the tanpura and cello. The audience
seems to be engaged during the performance and sometimes did hand movements to the music.
They do not explain the music during the performance because the audience knows this event is
in remembrance of Ravi Shankar. I don’t think under the circumstances of the event that it is
socially acceptable to get up during the performance, but I did notice someone using their phone.
This performance is closer to a Western classical music concert, but the music does sound more
similar to pop music since it has a beat that drives the music. While the performance isn’t terribly
long the audience does pay attention all throughout the performance since most of them are used
to that type of music. The music made me feel like I was back in the 70’s era and also it was very
majestic sounding. The endings were anticipated because they went from playing the same
rhythm at a slow pace to a fast pace or vice versa. In my opinion, I find a Western classical
concert boring and too long for my attention span towards music, but this concert kept my
attention because of the different instrument sounds. A classical concert is also very formal about
things like what you wear and movement during the concert and this one felt more like a semi-
formal event. I learn that music from “the other world” is interesting, but is not my type of music
to listen to.