‘The most secret part of yourself’: Amit Chaudhuri on what riyaaz means to the classical musician
An excerpt from the writer and singer’s new book, ‘Finding the Raga: An Improvisation on Indian Music.’ Apr 02, 2021 · 08:30 am
They say students of classical music practise for hours, and this must be true, because I had to. And I’d heard that classical singers begin at the age of six or seven (since the mythology is romantic, the age decreases, and the number of hours goes up); I felt inwardly at a disadvantage, like a person who’s moved to a new country, tries to learn a new language, then write a novel in it, while other novelists there have of course known the language since they were born.