Rag Megh: Alāp / Jorh

Rag Megh: Alāp / Jorh is a 25-minute and 17-second instrumental track performed by sitarists Imrat Khan and Irshad Khan. The composition serves as the opening piece on the album Volume 2: Raga Megh/Brindabani Sarang/Shudh Sarang, released on CD by Edelweiss Records in 1989.

The track presents an ālāp and jorh in Raga Megh, a raga traditionally associated with the monsoon season and characterized by its contemplative and expansive melodic development. Imrat Khan and Irshad Khan perform on the sitar and surbahar, respectively, employing the slow, unmetered ālāp section to explore the raga’s tonal framework before transitioning into the rhythmic jorh. The recording captures the artists’ use of meend (glissando) and gamak (ornamentation) to articulate the raga’s emotional depth.

The album Volume 2: Raga Megh/Brindabani Sarang/Shudh Sarang forms part of a series dedicated to North Indian classical music, with this installment focusing on three distinct ragas. Edelweiss Records produced the release as a commercial CD, targeting audiences of Hindustani classical music in the late 1980s. The label’s catalog often featured recordings by hereditary musicians of the Etah gharana, to which the Khans belong. Additional details about the recording sessions, accompanying artists, or production personnel remain undocumented in available sources.

Notable for its extended duration, the track exemplifies the Khans’ approach to raga elaboration, prioritizing gradual melodic unfolding over rhythmic complexity in the ālāp-jorh structure. The performance adheres to the gayaki ang (vocal-style phrasing) tradition of sitar playing, a hallmark of Imrat Khan’s artistic lineage. The album’s liner notes, where present, may provide further context on the raga’s theoretical aspects or the artists’ interpretive choices.