The Lost Melodies

Miscellaneous topics on Carnatic music
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The Lost Melodies
Posts: 78
Joined: 28 Jan 2021, 21:40

The Lost Melodies

Post by The Lost Melodies »

Dear Rasikas,

It is with utmost pleasure I am introducing you all to The Lost Melodies, an initiative to preserve the old versions, thereby helping us to understand the ragas as they were. I am much sure many of you are much familiar with the name TLM-The Lost Melodies. I sincerely thank my friends @SrinathK And @Vakulabharana for taking pains to quote the contents of this channel whenever required.

The responses and comments made by the forumites made me introduce myself on the behalf of The Lost Melodies and interact with you all for a better learning experience. I will be posting the research articles / some interesting kritis here to make everyone aware of the changes that had taken place in our music. Also, we place an open request to all the rasikas to share information about manuscripts, that they are aware of.

The purpose of starting THE Lost Melodies is definitely not to bring in a change in the existing system. Rather, it was aimed at archiving our past music. We must adapt to the changes that happen to our music. But it is also equally important to preserve the past, at least at this point in time. This helps us to understand the musical thoughts of a composer and his way of envisioning a raga.

I believe forumites here welcome our attempt and contribute in all possible ways.

Thank You!

Regards,

Aravind T. R.

The Lost Melodies
Posts: 78
Joined: 28 Jan 2021, 21:40

Re: The Lost Melodies

Post by The Lost Melodies »

We start with our first post as a tribute to Sri Tyagaraja Svamigal.

https://tlmthelostmelodies.wordpress.co ... -svamigal/

Expecting comments and feedback from you all.

SrinathK
Posts: 2477
Joined: 13 Jan 2013, 16:10

Re: The Lost Melodies

Post by SrinathK »

Welcome Dr. Aravindhan!

You have been the inspiration behind the raga posts essays and only thanks to countless discussions with you, I realized how big the topic really is and what a history is waiting to unfold. Still a lot, lot more to come.

What we can do is, open a separate thread in vaggeyakaras for only the manuscript versions of composers. The regular threads for Thyagaraja, Dikshitar, Shyama Sastri, Subbarama Dikshitar or Ramaswami Dikshitar are heavily discussed on many other matters, so for your type of rarer known topics, it would be better for an exclusive set of threads. Only manuscript versions should be discussed there and links of contemporary performances should be for understanding purposes. One post per kriti or article will be Hopefully the mods will wake up and ensure that those threads will stay on the Royal path (chakkani raja marga) and not stray into irrelevant bylanes (sandula) of gibberish rant. :lol:

However being Thyagaraja Aradhana day, please share your lec dem made with Parivadini on the history of the Pancharatna kritis in the general Thyagaraja thread with a brief summary write up.

Also please add your channel to the growing list of YT channels in "Internet Resources".

The Lost Melodies
Posts: 78
Joined: 28 Jan 2021, 21:40

Re: The Lost Melodies

Post by The Lost Melodies »

Thanks @SrinathK for you support.

I shall post the links.

The Lost Melodies
Posts: 78
Joined: 28 Jan 2021, 21:40

Re: The Lost Melodies

Post by The Lost Melodies »

Here is an article on the raga Stavaraja.

https://tlmthelostmelodies.wordpress.co ... stavaraja/

shankarank
Posts: 4043
Joined: 15 Jun 2009, 07:16

Re: The Lost Melodies

Post by shankarank »

Read through most of it. Two questions:

1. Based on the principle of reversibility of traversal , with an excursion upto one svara ( is there such a limit?) , many phrases seem to fall within the mURcana. The example you cited from Dr Hemalata on AndOLika. SRMPNS , SNDMRS -> since SRM and MRS are allowed, PMRS as done from an arOha krama preceding that should be allowed isn't it? It is only one svara excursion from a arOha perspective! Same argument would extend to many phrases cited as outside the realm of the mURcana indicated for stavarAja.

<<Pardon the use of a string of technical terms. I always like to exploit the power of English!>>

2. Secondly, S, P - the prakriti svara varjya are naturally allowed in most rAgAs. I think they would be just careful not to infringe on patent of other rAgAs, in terms of phrase or cAyA similarity! But in rAgAs like this, very unlikely to happen, given the odd svarams in the mURcana. So if you are jumping across tetrachords (MDP, DRS etc), then as long as it does not threaten the integrity and uniqueness of the rAgA , this should be allowed, in a natural development of the rAgA.

shankarank
Posts: 4043
Joined: 15 Jun 2009, 07:16

Re: The Lost Melodies

Post by shankarank »

For example, the rāga Āndōḷika with the scale SRMPNS SNDMRS cannot have the phrase PMRS or SNP (Hēmalatā 2001:89)
I think I resolved the answer to (1) - for SRMP to PMRS the excursion starts at PM on the avarOha direction. So it has to be PM - DMRS to keep it within one note, to make it acceptable? There - PM -> DMRS, M->D jump is allowed due to avaROha krama? or it has to be PM - PNDMRS?

SNP is understandably not allowed, as SN is already avarOha. May be SNS PNDM can be done?

The Lost Melodies
Posts: 78
Joined: 28 Jan 2021, 21:40

Re: The Lost Melodies

Post by The Lost Melodies »

Secondly, S, P - the prakriti svara varjya are naturally allowed in most rAgAs. I think they would be just careful not to infringe on patent of other rAgAs, in terms of phrase or cAyA similarity! But in rAgAs like this, very unlikely to happen, given the odd svarams in the mURcana. So if you are jumping across tetrachords (MDP, DRS etc), then as long as it does not threaten the integrity and uniqueness of the rAgA , this should be allowed, in a natural development of the rAgA.
I feel this is a research question. A doctoral thesis can be written. I will make my answer short.

From what I have understood, these raganga ragas were created with much caution. They are definitely synthetic but tries to retain the texture of an old raga. By saying an old raga, I refer to the ragas like Gauri, Narayanagaula etc., which provide a broader scope. These ragangas are not as broader as these ragas; at the same time they do not restrict themselves to a tighter scale. If my understanding is correct, they have some pre-fabricated phrases, which are to be used in a specified fashion to get the svarupa. This aspect is missing in 'madhurambam bhajare', a non SSP kriti, which was highlighted in the article. I hope you can understand.

Alternatively, these ragas can be analyzed with the number of svaras they have. This was attempted by Dr. Hemalata. Her thesis is available for download. You will get your doubts clarified (or the reverse? :))as you read through her thesis and also as we progress to other ragangas.

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