Comprehensive collection of kritis?

[GloriainExcelsisDeo]

Dear forumites,

Could someone enlighten me as to which is the most comprehensive collection of kritis listing all major composers? In the book shops, I have seen Kirtana Sagaram series, and individual collections of kritis of Tyagaraja swamigal, Dikshitar and so on. But surely there are so many more major composers we regularly hear in concerts. Are they all, or most of them, listed in one place?

With notation book is best, but without notation is also fine. And if varnams and other types of pieces are also listed, that is good too.

If they have published on CD but not printed book, that is also fine. If books are not in print, but someone is selling their used books, I would be interested to buy. Please PM me.

Thank you.

[SrinathK]

If you want lyrics, you may explore the links we have under internet resources - those links have lyrics to many composers. By far the biggest set of links are shared by Lakshman sir, who has spent more than 40 years painstakingly collecting from any source available.

T K Govinda Rao's books are good for notations of many compositions. But there are so many songs out there now that no one set of books covers all of them.

[GloriainExcelsisDeo]

I think I must mentioned I wanted printed book or CD, than an internet repository something to study when in native village or tour for job. I also prefer notation to only lyrics. I am also on a budget. I managed to get used copies of TK Govinda Rao Tyagaraja Swamigal and Dikshitar books and 2 volumes of Kirtana Sagaram from someone. Is Lakshman sir collection available in soft copy like Word file or printed book to use when not having internet. Thanks.

[Lakshman]

Please go to this site and, under Books, you will find many in different languages. Some have lyrics and others have notations as well. Any of the books are downloadable.

http://musicresearchlibrary.net/

Also look at the sites posted in post #56 here:
viewtopic.php?f=11&t=1090&start=50

[GloriainExcelsisDeo]

Lakshman sir

I went through the links you gave. I found mostly books having one vageyakarar per book, and mostly on Trinity. Few books give others, but again only one per book. This is good if you want to learn about one particular vageyakarar kritis, like Harikesanallur or Oothukadu. I just want to learn about kritis from non-Trinity which are fairly common in concerts. Mainly because there seems more variety sung nowadays. Amid all the familiar ones, I keep hearing new or not so familiar pieces. Is there one book or books that gives most kritis of non-Trinity?

[Lakshman]

I don't think you will find such a volume anywhere.

[SrinathK]

To tell you the truth, books reach a point of diminishing returns after a point. They're not nearly enough of them out there to cover the entire gamut of composers and compositions (Lakshman sir IIRC your list must have reached the 50000 mark by now), and they are for the most part not useful without any recording to guide a listener - and no book will ever be able to capture the ocean of gamakas well enough.

http://www.shivkumar.org/ is a very good site if you are very keen on notations, and his audio classes in fact give you a great idea as to how swaras are converted into phrases and gamakas.

TKG's varnasagaram is a valuable resource for varnams. Apart from this LGJ has published 2 volumes of his compositions, and the notations are very intuitive - you can quite easily decipher the gamakas from his symbols. Apart from that you could try the gAnamruta keertanamAlika by AS Panchapakesa Iyer (Multiple volumes) or visit the CM book store in Royapettah or Saptaswara and see what you can find. I saw some books by Ravikiran on Oothukadu Venkata Subbier's compositions.

Most people simply make their own notations after a point, and simply learn directly from recordings at a more advanced level, because it's simply so much easier.

The website karnatik.com has been updated since I last saw it, and it's already reached over 8000 lyrics.

So yes, that's about the best we've got. Anyone who wants more notations will have to make them themselves.