Fire --The Rain, Ghazal, Persian and Indian improvisations

This CD (The Rain) is composed of three major improvisations (artists Kayhan Kalhor and Shujaat Husain Khan), this is the first one. It begins over a traditional drone...and the melody langoriously develops, as the piece moves into its later stages, it uses repeated and constantly stretched out melodic sweeps over an increasingly fluid and dynamic rhythmic texture--halting every now and then and then beginning again...it moves out and out as though one were riding into the night, but it stays warm and close--the sitar is a very versatile instrument and can change the texture from relatively monophonic to a lushious waterfall of notes. The music builds over rhythmic cycles. It's hard to divide this piece up into form due to its improvisatory and mulitcultural nature (as it combines both persian and indian techniques). Towards the end it calms again and the volume decreases. Melodically it seems to end unresolved (like in a sort of ti). I wonder how it symbolizes fire. Perhaps it is the leaping flame that the rhythmic inventiveness represents (though it doesn't go too far), perhaps the repeated and subtly altered melodic gestures evoke the image of sweeping flames flickering there and next roaring up into the sky. There is a lack of real melodic venture in it compared to the following piece (Dawn)...I suppose I picture it as a night fire in the desert whose flames entrance the contemplating soul. When dawn comes, the new light is like the intrusive and flowing melodies that cause the soul to stir again from its reverie.