Raga Darbari - Gat

Pannalal Ghosh performed Raga Darbari – Gat as Track B1 on the 1971 album Classical Instrumental – Flute Recital. The recording showcases Ghosh’s mastery of the bansuri, a North Indian bamboo flute, within the framework of the Darbari Kanada raga. His Master’s Voice released the work on a 12\" vinyl LP under its classical music catalog.

The composition follows the traditional gat structure, a fixed melodic framework in Hindustani classical music that allows for improvisation. Ghosh’s rendition emphasizes the raga’s characteristic komal gandhar (flattened third) and shuddha nishad (pure seventh), aligning with the vilambit (slow) and drut (fast) sections typical of instrumental recitals. Accompaniment details remain undocumented in available sources, though the format suggests the presence of a tabla and possibly a tampura for drone support.

The album belongs to Ghosh’s later discography, recorded during a period when he refined his technique after decades of performance and pedagogy. His Master’s Voice, a subsidiary of EMI, distributed the vinyl primarily in the Indian market, targeting audiences of Hindustani classical music. The label’s production standards of the era ensured high-fidelity capture of the bansuri’s tonal nuances, a critical factor in raga-based recordings.

No additional metadata confirms the recording location, session musicians, or alternate takes. The track’s duration also remains unverified in public records. Classical Instrumental – Flute Recital stands as one of Ghosh’s few commercially released vinyl works, contributing to the preservation of his interpretive approach to Darbari Kanada.