Shri Rama Varma@ Kalpakkam

[bharathi]

Prince Rama Varma@KalpakkamSangeetha Sabha
22.2.2015 6:30pm
VarsiddiVinayakar Temple
Prince Rama Varma : vocal
S. Varadarajan: Violin
Arjun Ganesh: Mrudangam

Song list
1. VAtApiGanapathim: Hamsadwani: Adi: DIkshithar
2. RakshimpaveSree raja nilaye: mAyAmalavagowla: Jhumpa: TyAgarAjA
3. HariyumHaranumOndre: atAna: M D RAmanAthan
4. Rama Rama gunaseema: Simmendramadhyamam : Adi: SwAthiThiruNAl
5. Sree Rama nama maruva: BhadrAchala RAmadAs
6. TamboorImeetidavA: Sindhubhairavi: PurandaraDAsAUgAbhOgA
7. TillAnA: KuntalavarAli
8. BhujagaShAyeeno NAma Mangalam

Prince Rama Varma presented a peaceful and meditative concert at Kalpakkam on Sunday the 22nd February . The opening piece was rendered with extraordinary poise, and it filled the quiet of the evening with blissful ‘suswarm’. There were a volley of imaginative swaraprastharas in Hamsadwani with equally brilliant repartees from the violinist Shri Varadarajan. After this very popular song we heard a very rare composition of Thyagaraja, in Mayamoulagowlai. There were swarams for this piece too, with swarams spanning the three octaves, with great ease. This piece brought out the depth of Shri Rama Varma voice, which is even in tone in all octaves.
There was a raga elaboration for Simmendramadhyam, followed by the masterpiece of Swathi Thirunal, Rama RamaGunaSeema, there was a round nice swaraprastharas, followed by a crisp and apt thaniavartanam by Arjun Ganesh.
All the songs were rendered with perfect diction and meanings explained. This approach kept the entire audience riveted. Shri Rama Varma connects beautifully with the audience, with his humorous interludes, miming many a time, making it an audio visual presentation.
His music is like yoga therapy using pure musical notes. No quizzing with rare and complicated ragas, it was sans brigas and musical acrobatics. On the whole it was a memorable, melodious concert by the “Prince”. I cannot help marvel at the violinist Shri Varadarajan, who is able to capture the mood of the vocal artist and add sheen to the presentation, time and again, irrespective of the style of the main artist. Young Arjun Ganesh, contributed immensely to the success of the concert, by his characteristic melodic accompaniment.

[Rasikapriya2013]

Thank you for that nice review Bharathi ji !
One small observation, the thillana was kadanakuthuhalam.
Could not help but notice the surprise and happiness on Sri Varadarajan's face when Sri Rama Varma started on this thillana as it was composed by his Guru Sri T.V. Gopalakrishnan.

[bharathi]

Yes,
that's right.. M D N G P S..
somehow.. I got the raga name wrong.
Thanks Rasikapriya2013

[Govindaswamy]

RakshimpaveSree raja nilaye: mAyAmalavagowla: Jhumpa: TyAgarAjA-
I do not find this kriti among Thyagaraja's compositions. Who is the vaggeyakara?
Govindaswamy

[bharathi]

Govindaswamy
Yes, I too checked, it wasnt there in Shri T K G book. But it had the mudra and was announced during the concert

[keerthi]

RakSimpave srIrajatagirinilaya is one of a set of 26 fake songs attributed to tyAgaraja. This set was first promulgated from a TiruvayyAru publication entitled tyAgarAjarin 27 apUrva kIrtanaigaL. The book doesn't carry a year of publication, but I have a copy which was accompanied by a letter written by an eminent musician who was involved in the propagation of the book, and the letter has a 1974 date. So the book is from before then.

It is known that Maharajapuram Viswanatha Iyer along with a certain Tiruvayyaru Subrahmanya Iyer was part of the project of publication and dissemination of this set of songs with forgettable lyric and regrettable tunes. VIswanatha Iyer, I suspect was so blinded by his devotion to tyAgaraja that he unwittingly became a celebrity accomplice in this whole business.

One original song [imo] was put in along with this set of absurd songs, to give it some air of credibility. That song is the beautiful muccaTa brahmadulaku in Madhyamavati.

The scholar-musician rangarAmanuja Iyengar, who was never one to mince words, called this hoax the moment he heard of it [vide Musings of a Musician, 1977]. V.Raghavan was astute enough to exclude it from the compilation he helped edit - The spiritual heritage of tyAgaraja, as well as from the special issue of Academy Journal printed for tyAgaraja's bicentenary. S.Rajam too was cognizant of this swindle.

Unfortunately, when Manchala Jagannatha Rao published a multi-volume set of tyAgaraja kRti-s in notation, he included this set of songs. As a consequence, they got currency among musicians of Andhra who didn't know any better, and couldn't tell apart the fakes from the real McCoy. Dr Sripada pinAkapANi was immune from these fake songs, and never sang or taught a single one of them. The same can't be said of his students though. Balamuralikrishna too, did his mite in singing some of these songs and giving them some popularity.

Raksimpave is one of this set of songs. Another is that absurdity 'avatAramenduku AyAsameduku' in harikambhOji which was sung and taught with rare fervour by the mahAvidwAn T.Viswa. His students continue the legacy of singing [and teaching, I suppose] this song, undeterred by T.Brinda's comment on the song. AbhIStavarada in hamsadhwani was nurtured by the santanams of the Maharajapuram line, and now enjoys healthy patronage by musicians who have no cares for provenance or quality of songs.

When I point it out to professional singers, they give me a lesson in philosophy saying, 'It sounds good, what does it matter who composed it, or if the words are a bit defective, you shouldn't be so uptight about these things'. I clearly haven't learnt the lesson.

[rajeshnat]

Keerthi
Lovely post , interesting information. I clearly learnt something from you.

[arasi]

Keerthi,
Spoken like Keerthi--I did not know anything about them until now.

You don't stop amazing me--a scholar nourished by a family of generations of musicians/rasikAs. I repeat--how many know how old you are?

Wonder why those 'philosophical' professionals you mention don't dust up and breathe life into hundreds of songs of great merit of vAggEyakArAs of yore

[sweetsong]

Dr.Balamuralikrishna's recording.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q7-uI9vew6g

[sweetsong]

I have heard Varmaji sing Two thillanas in Kadanakuthoohalam.
This seems to be one more!

By M..D.Ramanathan
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VbtbtxX-haQ

By Balamuralikrishna
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A7K2urwj27g

[shankarank]

Dr.Balamuralikrishna's recording.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q7-uI9vew6g

What about kalasamhara? Even Dr BMK is capable of better output ! - it doesn't even sound like his own kriti eventually - although it starts to sound like that at the outset

[SrinathK]

RakSimpave srIrajatagirinilaya is one of a set of 26 fake songs attributed to tyAgaraja. This set was first promulgated from a TiruvayyAru publication entitled tyAgarAjarin 27 apUrva kIrtanaigaL. The book doesn't carry a year of publication, but I have a copy which was accompanied by a letter written by an eminent musician who was involved in the propagation of the book, and the letter has a 1974 date. So the book is from before then.

It is known that Maharajapuram Viswanatha Iyer along with a certain Tiruvayyaru Subrahmanya Iyer was part of the project of publication and dissemination of this set of songs with forgettable lyric and regrettable tunes. VIswanatha Iyer, I suspect was so blinded by his devotion to tyAgaraja that he unwittingly became a celebrity accomplice in this whole business.

One original song [imo] was put in along with this set of absurd songs, to give it some air of credibility. That song is the beautiful muccaTa brahmadulaku in Madhyamavati.

The scholar-musician rangarAmanuja Iyengar, who was never one to mince words, called this hoax the moment he heard of it [vide Musings of a Musician, 1977]. V.Raghavan was astute enough to exclude it from the compilation he helped edit - The spiritual heritage of tyAgaraja, as well as from the special issue of Academy Journal printed for tyAgaraja's bicentenary. S.Rajam too was cognizant of this swindle.

Unfortunately, when Manchala Jagannatha Rao published a multi-volume set of tyAgaraja kRti-s in notation, he included this set of songs. As a consequence, they got currency among musicians of Andhra who didn't know any better, and couldn't tell apart the fakes from the real McCoy. Dr Sripada pinAkapANi was immune from these fake songs, and never sang or taught a single one of them. The same can't be said of his students though. Balamuralikrishna too, did his mite in singing some of these songs and giving them some popularity.

Raksimpave is one of this set of songs. Another is that absurdity 'avatAramenduku AyAsameduku' in harikambhOji which was sung and taught with rare fervour by the mahAvidwAn T.Viswa. His students continue the legacy of singing [and teaching, I suppose] this song, undeterred by T.Brinda's comment on the song. AbhIStavarada in hamsadhwani was nurtured by the santanams of the Maharajapuram line, and now enjoys healthy patronage by musicians who have no cares for provenance or quality of songs.

When I point it out to professional singers, they give me a lesson in philosophy saying, 'It sounds good, what does it matter who composed it, or if the words are a bit defective, you shouldn't be so uptight about these things'. I clearly haven't learnt the lesson.

When you say 26, do you happen to know which are the rest? There's a handful on this link : http://www.carnaticcorner.com/articles/prakshipta.html

[narayara000]

Allepey Venkatesan and his disciples present 12 or so of these krithis in this presentation:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r1U7xTq31T0&t=2185s

[narayara000]

By the way, what makes these songs inferior?

[shankarank]

I did listen to Sri Allepey Venkatesans presentation. There is indeed tentativeness in many Avartas IIRC. A good formation ( yati) and viSrama ( well balanced and distributed rests , kArvais) is a lakshana that is laid out in sogasuga Mridanga tALamu.

Well if Mridangam is not music - then all of these can be sung - with somebody who taps along!

[shankarank]

The Mridangam less renditions like the SrI dakshiNAmUrtE by SSI in Kalki Gardens or somewhere - only prove that Mridangam compatible composition is essential and Mridangam is music. Can these other compositions be rendered with the courage of not having Mridangam accompany ( dhIrudevvaDO in reverse ) ?

They will need Mridangam even more to camouflage the inherent musical flaws!

Whether Mridangam is essential to a concert is a different question from whether Mridangam is music in general. Both should not be mixed up. The later is about what defines music, and former is about a performance choice.

Will an instrumentalist be inspired to practice these other vaRNa meTTus and present it. There in lies part of the proof. sAhitya bhava is achieved by the fuller sAhitya and sangIta put together and one does not go without the other.

People who consider sAhitya bhava as the core of music in fact have to be more careful about this aspect than those that focus on just aesthetics!