Vakulabharanam

Rāga related discussions
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shankarank
Posts: 4043
Joined: 15 Jun 2009, 07:16

Re: Vakulabharanam

Post by shankarank »

From dappAnguttu (nEttu rAthiri) to devotional bhajans - the raga has traveled some musical distance!

vasanthakokilam
Posts: 10956
Joined: 03 Feb 2010, 00:01

Re: Vakulabharanam

Post by vasanthakokilam »

Amrita Murali sang E Ramuni quite elaborately with Alapana and Kalpanaswaras at a recent concert. Thanks to this discussion I could figure out it is Vakulabharanam in the alapana. She did very well.

I do not have an integrated concept of this raga. In the song, I get flashes of Mokashamu Galada (Saramati) in ascending phrases towards high Sa ( for good reasons since they share the uttaranga ), during Alapana I was reminded of Charukesi (again for good reasons they share the uttaranga ) and also the general vibe of MMG. I know theoretically why these things sounded the way they do but for many other ragas with shared 'angas' I have a raga specific conception. During Kalpanaswara in fast prayogas, any identify of this ragas was totally lost. It was very generic (it is not in any way due to the Artist's lack of vidwath, it is more my perception of it )

The one place where there seems to be a specific prayoga that is specific to this raga is in 'R1 S N2' which is there in the pallavi line of E Ramuni itself. Amrita used that sequence right up front so I could pin it down as VB right away. In the Ramanathan version posted earlier, he definitely makes an effort to get to N2 as frequently as possible to separate itself from MMG.

But film music examples of this raga seems to pretty much treat it as MMG with a N2 difference. That is pretty much a scalar approach. So what we perceive as the Middle Eastern Musical aesthetic can be either MMG or VB but CM treats them quite differently.

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