Conservatory of monkeys.

“Show me something original!” said the producer.
“Original?, but there is no such thing Sir!”, replied Benjarong.
“What do you mean there is no such thing?”
“A musical piece is but a permutation of notes that sound pleasing to the ear, is it not?”
“Yes”
“If I had a million monkeys and gave them a million pianos and left them in a room, one of them would likely come up with a musical piece, could he not?”
“A trillion monkeys perhaps, but I see your point.”
“And what if there was an infinite number of monkeys and an infinite number of pianos kept there forever. Is it not guaranteed that all the musical pieces that ever were, are, and will be, will be produced by them, eventually?”
“You have been reading too much Borges, Ben!”
“Guilty as charged Sir, but why pick on this glorified monkey?! Let us just make the audience happy and leave ‘originality’ to the critics!”

Great Masters

I had to share these videos. I am spellbound every time I hear this kind of music. In the first, Pt. Bhimsen Joshi unleashes a drut bandish in Raga Todi at the Sawai Gandharva festival ‘63. In the second, the other master from Karnataka, Pt. Mallikarjun Mansur presents a sublime Raga Bihagda.