(das gupta) a raga has got only six or seven or eight basic phrases, each lasting for five seconds.ow, if you are going to give a two-hour recital, what are you going to do? even that precomposed portion, the theme, that would possibly last for a minute at best. how are you going to fill in the rest of two hours? improvisations and improvisations. [ensemble playing a raga] (narrator) since the late 18th century, composers of western art music have left little room for improvisation. instead, they have relied on the score as a blueprint for performance. however, the interpretation of that score by the musicians is an essential element. [ensemble playing classical music] (ying) even though you have that limited parameter, there's an infinite variety in the number of ways that a given passage can be played. for instance, you can have the same passage of music, and one person could play it very nobly and heroically, and another person could play that very same passage of music and bring out maybe the more thoughtful and reflective quality of it. and the interesting thing was both of tho