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PAKAD: CLOUDLESS SILENCE
It is a cloudless silence, a stretched skin of light,
White wheel of sun and moon, stars silver singing road,
Painted vast and edgeless, the deep rolling earth
Breathing in hills, dreaming in valleys.
Cloudless silence here
White light pierces winter mind.
The tumbling waters
Cloudless silence here
Lost in mist, crow calls its mate.
Cold air, dogs barking.
Cold breeze shifts the mist
Dogs bark in the distant town.
A cloudless silence
In cloudless silence
All these thoughts fall silent now.
Footsteps on the road.
A delicate touch
Keeping warm this egg of words.
New cloudless silence.
Three crows dancing song
Cold breeze on the snowcapped hill.
A cloudless silence.
Pakad, jor, alap.
A slow unfolding morning.
This cloudless silence.
—
A pakad is a theme in Classical Indian music. It is a short series of notes that identifies and characterises every raag. It appears and reappears throughout each piece of music. It is a constant moment of return to mood and purpose.
Alap is the slow development and investigation of the note sequences of a raag, a discovery of themes.
Jor is the section that continues the development within a more rhythmical framework.
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simonhlilly 