@johncarlosbaez @mdreid @androcat I went hunting for the Locrian mode in Hindustani khayal music (north Indian art music), which uses a variety of different modes.

The building block of khayal music is a raga, which is, roughly speaking, a melodic template. Often the template (raga) prescribes a particular mode (thaat), but there are many ragas that mix modes or use non-standard modes. Locrian is not one of the standard modes.

There is a very popular raga, called raga malkauns, that is technically in Locrian mode. But is a pentatonic raga, involving only the notes 1, 3♭, 4♭, 6♭, 7♭ (where the unadorned numbers refer to the Lydian scale), so it is also (technically) in the Phrygian and Aeolian scale. In khayal music theory, it is classified under the Phrygian mode (bhairavi thaat).

Nevertheless, I did find a raga that uses the full Locrian scale: raga lalit-bilas. From the name, it seems like it is a mixture of raga lalit and raga bilaskhani todi, two fairly standard ragas. But the raga lalit-bilas itself is quite uncommon. It is listed with a recording of a performance on https://oceanofragas.com/. I am attaching the audio.

#Hindustanimusic #khayal