bhOgachAyA nATa - Dikshitar

[SrinathK]

The name's a mouthful, but it is the 34th asampoorna mEla of the Dikshitar school, equivalent of the 34th sampoorna mElakartha vAgadeeshwari

This is one raga where Dikshitar alone has composed in, that too a single kriti, with the raga name coming right at the start - bhOga chAyA nATakapriyE. The best version I found is a superb video from Madrasa's official channel by none other than G Ravikiran : https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rIO7szDtlmI

Dikshitar's handling of this mElakarta rAga is highly non-linear. Using phrases like S-G, S-M, RGS, PMRS - P,DNP, Even SNP, P-S, PNS, PNNS, SNDNP, and even phrases like GMPM GMRR, etc. makes it sound exactly like nATa (or nATTai if that's how you know it) with a N2 instead of a N3. Using SNP, DNP even adds a flash of bahudAri to it!

There is even a chittaswaram in it.

True to the raga name, Dikshitar turned this into another nATa.

Another rendition by Dr. BMK (when BMK isn't doing his own quirky stuff, he is another singer who tries to stick to the original versions) : https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YXnc-0HQdO8

PS : A special thanks to @gravikiran. This effort of mine to revive the raga threads is inspired by your "Colours of a Raga" from Worldspace, not to mention your effort to sing all of Dikshitar's songs - your shows were what turned me into a real CM learner and rasika.

And another PS : Here's a "modern" rendition - only this is sheer retunitis at work. It has been completely converted to vAgadeeshwari - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aZHhbc5MFFI

You realize how much of original phrasing has been totally lost here? If this is the fate of so many compositions of Dikshitar and Thyagaraja and even Oothukadu Venkatasubbier (because the original tunes have long since vanished in his case), you yourself may decide on what we've lost. This is one other reason for me reopening the ragas thread, just to show this.

[Vakulabharana]

Listen to this. This is not unrelated to your qualm.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4WQY6pctEN8

[SrinathK]

I'll save that for vasantabhairavi, thanks. Actually I had planned to quote the SSP Dikshitar versions from that channel down the road. All rasikas requested to kindly use a Youtube download addon and save the stuff!

One reason why I haven't linked to that channel already is because of a minor gripe with the SSP songs - Sometimes when a composition comes fresh right off the book, to my ears, it sounds raw -- book raw. Part of the reason is because the singer is singing extra slow to highlight each note, but most of it is due to the limitations of notated gamakas. While the gamakas are sufficiently there, you do get the feeling that all the gamakas are only approximate and over simplified. So the SSP songs are still book raw. But the tempo is slow and ideal for learning.

Having said this, the fact that a book was able to capture this much detail of phrasing is remarkable - most music books out there, if you open them simply write the swaras and the sahitya underneath. They don't give you any detail of the gamakas of a raga at all - absolutely zero.

There is another reason for the rawness. The gamaka level in CM is now way higher than what it was when those books were written as well. Many of the big numbers today have been sung and worked on for decades to reach this level of weight and detailing. There are way more plain notes in these historical versions - and gamakas are mostly in terms of the occasional kampita and patterned arrangements of notes rather than the fine detailing between the notes. Modern CM is nowhere close to this plain. Today if we say gamaka, we think of it in terms of underlying liquid phrases.

But this was long needed - the Walajapet versions of Thyagaraja are so completely different I am very surprised. Never knew retuinitis in CM was this severe. Now I have no idea if TMK's efforts to sing the entire SSP is even out for purchase, so these efforts really need to be appreciated.

Now that these kritis are coming out like this, they'll need time and nurturing and polishing by repeated singing to grow to a Brinda Mukta level of rendering (like their rendition of tyAgarAja pAlayAsu mAm as an example). So ok, I will start linking to these channels from now on when I find them.

By the way, who is Aravindhan Ranganathan? Is he here? Kudos to him for taking the effort.

[Vakulabharana]

viewtopic.php?f=13&t=29746&p=320402&hil ... an#p320402


He gives lec-dem frequently.

[Vakulabharana]

There is another reason for the rawness. The gamaka level in CM is now way higher than what it was when those books were written as well. Many of the big numbers today have been sung and worked on for decades to reach this level of weight and detailing. There are way more plain notes in these historical versions - and gamakas are mostly in terms of the occasional kampita and patterned arrangements of notes rather than the fine detailing between the notes. Modern CM is nowhere close to this plain. Today if we say gamaka, we think of it in terms of underlying liquid phrases.

Thoughts well articulated. From these versions, what I can gather is the application and definition of gamakas too vary from what we sing today. I might be wrong too. But, I feel the gamakas in Sangeetha Sampradaya Pradarshini tally well with the gamaks given in earlier texts. So retunitis (beautiful term !!) has spread to these gamakas too? Also, they are not plain always. When you look carefully, gamaka is there !!

Now that these kritis are coming out like this, they'll need time and nurturing and polishing by repeated singing to grow to a Brinda Mukta level of rendering (like their rendition of tyAgarAja pAlayAsu mAm as an example)

I feel these versions can be left like this undisturbed. These might not fit concert platforms, but what's the big deal in that?
I have a reason to say this. If a person/musician tries to polish these versions, he will only apply the gamakas that are in vogue. Will that not lead to partial retunitis ?

[SrinathK]

Oh, ok. I remember that thread. So he's the owner of that Youtube Channel.

Now that I go through those posts again, I wonder at how massive some of the changes are.

I feel these versions can be left like this undisturbed. These might not fit concert platforms, but what's the big deal in that?
I have a reason to say this. If a person/musician tries to polish these versions, he will only apply the gamakas that are in vogue. Will that not lead to partial retunitis ?

Well, about that last point - in Western Classical Music, there is now a subset of music called Baroque Music which has come up precisely for similar reasons. So now you have the modern style coexisting with the older style since both of them are too different.

It is only inevitable that compositions in CM that are right now fresh off the book will soon adapt to more modern gamaka phrasing. Perhaps a baroque style equivalent will become a special niche with CM. It is already happening.

As an example, look at this video of Bach Sonata #1 - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=96kej9yK8To
This much difference despite the fact that Bach's notation is there in his original handwriting till today and hasn't changed at all. In that time, the very design of the violin and bow has changed tremendously as well.

[Vakulabharana]

Thank you for this informative post; I am unaware about Baroque Music.

I feel we can also have such a genre in our music.