Rela - Sandeep Das

Rela is an homage to the railroad workers of the Indian subcontinent who toiled to develop the country’s massive network of railways in the 19th and 20th century during the British Raj (the era in which India was under British colonial rule). Many parallels can be drawn between the American Transcontinental Railroad and the British development of railroads in India, with both undeniably marked by a complex web of history, modernization, and exploitation in the name of industrial progress.

This piece was inspired by chants attributed to the railroad workers of that era and incorporates a traditional Tabla rela, which is a type of improvisatory composition renowned for its high speeds, virtuosity, and cascades of complex notes and rhythms. The Hindi term rela comes from the word “rail” or “train”, and it is believed that modern Tabla relas were created to mimic the sounds of the first Indian railways.

Rela begins by evoking the sound of railroad crossings through a layer of complex rhythms on metallic instruments such as the triangle, gradually unveiling the sounds of deeper drums as the “train” embarks. Primarily a percussion ensemble piece, it is accompanied by a nagma  (a looping melody that traditionally accompanies percussion performances in North Indian Classical music) composed in Raga Bhairavi, and features a variety of Indian percussion instruments such as the tabla (a set of two hand drums from North India), morshung (a South Indian metal percussion instrument played with the mouth, also called a “jaw harp” or “mouth harp”), and kanjira (a small frame drum prevalent in South Indian music) and incorporates instruments like the Piano Accordion, Marimba and Japanese Taiko Drums. The piece concludes with an exciting tukda (genre of fixed tabla composition) that dances between multiple instruments in a fiery finale.