Raga Madhuvanti: Gat in Fast Ektal

Raga Madhuvanti: Gat in Fast Ektal is an instrumental composition performed by Shivkumar Sharma on the santoor. The track appears as the sixteenth entry on the DVD-Audio release Surround Yourself with Hindustani Ragas, issued by Nimbus Records on June 14, 2005. The recording spans 5 minutes and 23 seconds and showcases Sharma’s interpretation of Raga Madhuvanti in a fast-paced ektal rhythmic cycle, a 12-beat structure common in North Indian classical music.

The album Surround Yourself with Hindustani Ragas presents a collection of raga-based performances optimized for high-fidelity DVD-Audio format. Sharma’s rendition emphasizes the gat (fixed composition) tradition within the khayal style, adapting the melodic framework of Madhuvanti—a raga associated with late evening performances—to the santoor’s struck-string timbre. The track exemplifies the artist’s technique in balancing intricate melodic phrasing with the percussive resonance of the instrument.

No additional details regarding session musicians, recording location, or production personnel are available in the provided context. The release aligns with Sharma’s broader discography of solo and collaborative works that popularized the santoor in Hindustani classical repertoire during the late 20th and early 21st centuries.