Raga Shyam Kalyan

Raga Shyam Kalyan is a track performed by sitarist and dilruba virtuoso Baluji Shrivastav. The composition appears as the third track on the album The Art of the Indian Dilruba, released on CD by ARC Music in 1997.

The track spans 10 minutes and 17 seconds and showcases Shrivastav’s interpretation of Raga Shyam Kalyan, a late-evening raga associated with the Kalyan thaat. The performance highlights the dilruba, a bowed string instrument with a tonal quality bridging the sitar and the sarangi. The album focuses on traditional North Indian classical music, with Shrivastav accompanied by unspecified tabla and tanpura artists. Further details about the accompanying musicians or recording sessions remain undocumented in available sources.

The Art of the Indian Dilruba serves as a dedicated exploration of the dilruba’s role in Hindustani classical music. The album features Shrivastav as the primary artist, with the label ARC Music specializing in world music and traditional recordings. The release date of 1997 places it within a period of growing international interest in Indian classical instruments, though specific reception or commercial performance data for the album is not publicly recorded.

The track exemplifies the alap-jor-jhala structure typical of instrumental raga presentations, with Shrivastav employing meend (glissando) and gamak (ornamentation) techniques characteristic of the dilruba. The recording captures the instrument’s resonant, sustained tones, emphasizing its capacity for expressive microtonal modulation. No lyrical content or vocal elements are present in the composition.