Music festival gets bigger, smarter !

An article of mine which  appeared in Deccan Chronicle
http://www.deccanchronicle.com/131222/news-current-affairs/article/parents-daughter

The instrumental voice

The advent of veena is considered one of the most important milestones in the evolution of music as it introduced the concept of ‘ghamakas’. Prior to this, music was sung to a few scales. The idea of the 22 srutis(while some feel it is many more) which emerged  from the veena led to a more revolutionary concept called the ‘ragas’ which is the soul of carnatic music. So it is well established that the basic singing style evolved from the veena. The influence of veena on vocal music continued for several decades, be it the Jaru ghamakas in Dikshithar’s compositions or the‘Tanam’ or  ‘madyamakalam’ sung before rendering a pallavi. The manodharma of musicians were usually staccatos, until the late Sri GN Balasubramaniam introduced the nadaswara bani(style). This involved singing of lengthy phrases(long karvais). This was probably one of the greatest contributions to carnatic music. This style of presentation does not fail to charm the rasika even to this date. ‘Tanam’ or  ‘madyamakalam’ is another contribution of veena to music.

These days we find senior musicians introducing a lot of instrumental accents in raga exposition such as that of a nadaswaram or a violin.  Many musicians use a lot of fast phrases or glides similar to that of a violin in the exposition of a raga. The adage-‘the singing violin’ could now be extrapolated to the concert stage as ‘singing like a violin’. Such is the versatility of vocalists in the current era. Neverthless, the  human voice is the best musical instrument.

Takeaways from the Bangalore Gayan Samaja Concert series (oct 24th- oct 31st)

The Gayan Samaja Music Conference is probably one of the most awaited  events in the Bangalore music circuit. It was all the more exciting as my friends & I performed the invocation on Oct 27th .We also managed to attend a couple of lecture demonstrations and concerts.

My Guru Prof.Mysore Nagamani Srinath gave a scintillating performance on Oct 28th. She is very popular for rendering rare pieces of great composers in rare ragas in her concerts. She started of with her own composition- an adi tala varnam in raga-Shanmukapriya(Ninnenammi). The uniqueness of the composition was its chitteswara (with 'M' as Nyasa svara). Next came up a vibrant Atana in the form of  vAchAma gOcharunDani –  a composition of  Mysore Sadasiva Rao in adi tala with brisk sarvalaghu svaras. The rarest composition of the lot was a composition of saint tyagaraja -" Anudinamu Nannubrova" . She sang a brief alapana for the piece. The raga sounded very close to Karna Ranjani. When she completed the piece , she threw this question at the audience (esply the students)-"what is the name of this raga?" Well we had no clue and were trying to hide our faces with a helpless smile . She finally sang the arohana & avarohana -" S R G P D N S- S N D P G R S" a  Madhyama varjya raga of Kharaharapriya. There were couple of people in the audience who boldly replied-"Karna Ranjani".  Finally she had to give up and tell the name herself- "Madyamaravali".

One more notable aspect of the concert was the main piece, again her own composition in the raga -Vachaspati in adi tala(2 kalai). The lines of the kriti-" Bhaja Manasa Sriramam Nija mukha parakramam" have been composed along the lines of RTP singing with padachedam at the drutham. Thereby the artiste could showcase her prowess by singing different variations similar to pallavi singing and then continue with the neraval & kalpana svara.. She was ably supported by Dr.Hemalatha on the violin & Sri Anoor Anathakrishna Sharma on the Mridangam.

My Inspiration...

I've read and followed Sri Sanjay Subrahmanyan's blog for over a year now . It's simply amazing to see how he pens thought provoking concepts  in an interesting manner as much as in presenting them on stage. Infact I must admit that I have gained interest in blogging after reading his articles. The past year has been a great journey for me in carnatic music. Pursuing a masters degree in music happened by chance . It has changed  my whole outlook to carnatic music ; in helping me imbibe qualities to appreciate not only fine music but also the legacy behind it. I look forward to posting interesting articles based on my academic work and learnings from concerts , workshops and lecture demonstrations.