Reena Esmail, Ram Tori Maya

String Orchestra Version
A string orchestra version with optional singers is available on the composer’s website.

Full Orchestra Version:
Instrumentation: 2*(second double piccolo) 222-4231, timp + 2, Harp, strings

Soli: 2 Hindustani singers – the audio guide explain the singing style

Duration: 5 minutes

Program Note:

Ram Tori Maya is a bhajan by the ancient Indian saint-poet, Barabas, set to a melody by Ninu Majumdar. It speaks about how worldly distractions can prevent us from focusing on what is the most important and most sacred to each of us, and invites us to find that spirit within ourselves, and commit fully to it.

I originally arranged this bhajan for our Shastra Summer Collaborative, to teach Hindustani singers to sing with a string quartet. But the music is so direct, so lilting, so engaging that when Carnegie Hall’s Link Up program approached me to write a new piece, I knew that the students would benefit more from connecting with this ancient wisdom that is even more relevant in today’s world.

NOTE: I arranged this work in two parts: there is a beginning prelude that is participatory — students can participate by singing or on recorder. This corresponds to the resources in the Carnegie Hall Link Up curriculum, which is available here. The second part, which starts at 1:09 in the video above, is a part that only the orchestra plays. Students can listen in after participating, or the prelude can be omitted entirely if there is no participatory element to the concert.

This work calls for a trumpet solo at the very beginning, and the rest of the work is very much repetition. It can be done with out the voices, but I found it very charming and rewarding to include Hindustani singers if they are available. Our performers were amplified, and chose to sit on the floor for the performance.

However, there are discrepancies between the vocal/piano part and sample midi and this orchestral version for sell. Apparently an orchestral introduction was added which was not included in the vocal music. Some rehearsal letters were also at different places – so be cautious!

Indian-American composer Reena Esmail works between the worlds of Indian and Western classical music, and brings communities together through the creation of equitable musical spaces. 

Esmail’s life and music was profiled on Season 3 of PBS Great Performances series Now Hear This, as well as Frame of Mind, a podcast from the Metropolitan Museum of Art.

Esmail divides her attention evenly between orchestral, chamber and choral work. She has written commissions for ensembles including the Los Angeles Master Chorale,  Seattle Symphony, Baltimore Symphony Orchestra and Kronos Quartet, and her music has featured on multiple Grammy-nominated albums, including The Singing Guitar by Conspirare, BRUITS by Imani Winds, and Healing Modes by Brooklyn Rider. Many of her choral works are published by Oxford University Press.

Esmail holds degrees in composition from The Juilliard School (BM’05) and the Yale School of Music (MM’11, MMA’14, DMA’18). Her primary teachers have included Susan Botti, Aaron Jay Kernis, Christopher Theofanidis, Christopher Rouse and Samuel Adler. She received a Fulbright-Nehru grant to study Hindustani music in India. Her Hindustani music teachers include Srimati Lakshmi Shankar and Gaurav Mazumdar, and she currently studies and collaborates with Saili Oak. Her doctoral thesis, entitled Finding Common Ground: Uniting Practices in Hindustani and Western Art Musicians explores the methods and challenges of the collaborative process between Hindustani musicians and Western composers.

For more information, please visit her website, www.reenaesmail.com/

● Full Orchestra Version:
Ram Tori Maya — recorded by Carnegie Hall’s Link Up program