Medium Tintal

Nikhil Banerjee recorded Medium Tintal as the fourth track on the 1970 sitar performance Hemant. Raga Records released the recording on CD in 1994. The composition spans 5 minutes and 49 seconds.

The album Hemant captures Banerjee’s interpretation of raga Hemant, a melodic framework traditionally associated with the late evening or early night. The track Medium Tintal adheres to the 16-beat rhythmic cycle characteristic of tintal, a foundational tala in Hindustani classical music. Banerjee performs on the sitar, accompanied by tabla, though the specific tabla artist remains undocumented in available sources.

The 1994 CD release by Raga Records marked a posthumous issuance of Banerjee’s work, as the artist passed away in 1986. The label specialized in archival and reissued recordings of Indian classical music during the 1990s. No additional production credits, recording location, or original session details for Hemant are publicly verified. The album title references the raga rather than a thematic or conceptual framework.

Banerjee’s rendition in Medium Tintal exemplifies the gayaki ang style, where sitar phrasing emulates vocal nuances. The track structure follows the alat-vilambit-jhala progression typical of instrumental recitals, though the CD release presents an excerpt rather than a full-length performance. The recording quality reflects analog-to-digital transfer standards of the early 1990s.