“Awakenings Suite” — Hridananda Andrés Ramón

This music has an inward quality to it, of joy with melancholy, of an unfolding beauty and awareness, that is truly refreshing, like drinking water from a brook in the mountains.

Pure and wholesome, elevating and heart-moving, Hridananda’s music has the energy to move and engage the public in the realities that it explores. Perhaps another mark of great music, in any genre, is the ability to “move” the audience, to find the resonance of the humanity in each of us, that common nature that we share, and which qualifies certain feelings as common to all and universal- the appreciation of beauty, the joys and sorrows of life, the quest for meaning and illumination.

All great art enables us to touch this fountain of elevating feelings that flow in our heart, ever upward. And Hridananda’s music has this in abundant measure.

Hridananda has studied meditation with Sri Chinmoy for many years, and brings his spirituality into the fabric of his art. Sri Chinmoy served humanity untiringly through his activities in the fields of art, music, sport, and humanitarian aid, in an effort to contribute to the unfoldment of humanity’s inner potential.

Here are Hridananda Andrés Ramón’s notes about this piece:

Awakenings Suite (2007)
Trio in three movements. For Clarinet, Double Bass and Piano:
1. A Ray of Light Within
2. Inner Search
3. Obeisance: Reality’s Dawn

Recorded in Reykjavík, December 4th, 2007
Performers:
Clarinet: Arngunnur Árnadóttir
Double Bass: Charles Gavigan Macko
Piano: Hridananda Andrés Ramón

This trio was composed and performed live at the Iceland Academy of the Arts (Reykjavík) in the Winter of 2007. It is primarily an experiment in developing variations over two melodic themes, in this case two songs by musician and spiritual teacher Sri Chinmoy: Tomara Charane Bhandiya Rekechi and Amar Amire Karite Prachar. This is the first piece in which I do a bold attempt to expound the melodic material over a varied rhythmical and harmonic basis.

The first movement, A Ray of Light Within, has three sections with a clear ABA form that is reminiscent of the first movement in Dimitri Shostakovich’s Piano Trio No.2. The A section is profoundly melodic and has a hymnal character, while the B section is more rhythmical and develops into a compound meter of 13/8 (9+4 or 6+7) over which the clarinet acquires a melodic voice that alludes to the spirit of Icelandic folk melodies. The second A section is the re-exposition of the opening hymn.

The second movement, Inner Search, is to a certain extent also divided into three sections, although the form is not as clearly defined as in the first movement. It is inspired by the dynamic jazz language of North American composer and pianist Keith Jarrett, although the piano part is in certain passages written in a style reminiscent of Soviet-Armenian composer Aram Kachaturian.

The third movement, Obeisance: Reality’s Dawn, has an air of melancholy and surrender -not totally devoid of sorrow and longing- which emulates the language of Argentinean composer Astor Piazzolla. The melodic material is exchanged between the Clarinet and the Bass and ends in a punctual phrasal articulation that evokes an attitude of spiritual obeisance to an inner and higher reality plethoric of luminescence, love and peace.

Hridananda Andrés Ramón

We are grateful to Hridananda for this soulful and elevating offering.

Artist: Hridananda Andrés Ramón
Release year: 2007
Duration: 16:11
Acknowledgements: Sri Chinmoy
Format: Advanced Audio Coding