What's the right proportion of gamakam?

music_is_life · Post by **music_is_life** » 16 May 2009, 01:20

The other day I was listening to a vidwan speaking about how much gamakam to be used for any raga. He was mentioning that some of that gets evolved after several stage performances. What I might think as sounding very good may not be so on the stage and it takes a while to optimize the use of gamakam. He demonstrated this also beautifully. I have felt that Shri Sanjay Subramaniam amongst the current generation of artists who have mastered this art. Is there any structured way one can achieve this perfection?

Rasika911 · Post by **Rasika911** » 16 May 2009, 07:26

The amount of gamakam required will vary from raga to raga. There is not one right amount. You will have to adjust according to the raga you are trying to perform.

S.NAGESWARAN · Post by **S.NAGESWARAN** » 16 May 2009, 07:32

Music_is_life,

A speech by Sri Madurai G.S.Mani in one of his concert stressing the importance of gliding the notes in Carnatic music
(Gamakas) with specific mention of gliding the note from "SA"

ignoramus · Post by **ignoramus** » 16 May 2009, 08:26

Nageswaran

i dont see that link as downloadable. Any idea where this is indicated? i just checked that out.

mohan · Post by **mohan** » 16 May 2009, 09:19

Rasika911 wrote:The amount of gamakam required will vary from raga to raga. There is not one right amount. You will have to adjust according to the raga you are trying to perform.

Further to this the amount of gamakam will vary from sangati (phrase) to sangati within a raga as well.

srikant1987 · Post by **srikant1987** » 16 May 2009, 10:11

I also feel the right amount of gamaka will depend to some extent on the listener you're singing or playing to.

keerthi · Post by **keerthi** » 16 May 2009, 12:05

At the sampradAya festival in bangalore gayana samaja, on the 10th may, (see my post under kutchery reviews) I had occasion to talk to Vidushi shachi dEvi, who is a professor in the Dept. of Music..

She had this most interesting theory about the degree of oscillation in gamakas like the kampita and andOlita, and said that the degree must be the same in the VAdi and samVAdi notes.. this holds good for the M and N notes in KalyANi..

This had to do with the extent of andolana or kampana..

If one has to know about how frequently or where the gamaka-s, the krtis must be used as the guide.

S.NAGESWARAN · Post by **S.NAGESWARAN** » 16 May 2009, 13:53

ignoramus,

In esnips website, you can only listen and is not downloadable.

Iwill try to upload in media fire.

S.NAGESWARAN.

S.NAGESWARAN · Post by **S.NAGESWARAN** » 16 May 2009, 14:12

ignoramus,

The download link for G.S.MANI'S speech about gamakams is given below [MEDIA FIRE].

http://www.mediafire.com/file/z1zmngxjgoy/08-Speech by SriG.S.MANI.mp3

S.NAGESWARAN.

ignoramus · Post by **ignoramus** » 16 May 2009, 14:20

hi
thank you very much. will try this out.

binmux · Post by **binmux** » 17 May 2009, 01:05

One of the most important charateristic of CM as I heard from my guru was that, when a gamakam is employed such that a a glide is done between one swara and another swara (eg between D and M), in such instances we should never find/perceive a trace of P which is in between these 2 swaras. It does not matter if the glide also between 2 much far apart swaras like N & M - the same principle should hold.

My perception of gamakam is also this - the swaras are the skeletal basis for the raga - you build the raga swaroopam by embellishing it with various kinds of gamakams. At one point in this evolution when this becomes seperately identifiable from other ragams then we can probably say the kind/amount of gamakams employed has gained some identity. Now how to maintain this depends on whether one still can recognize the feel for the ragam.

The very basic principle therefore is this - any gamakam that is employed so that it sounds good and also maintain the feel of the ragam is a good one. Now the paradox is ragam is also defined by the gamakams that are employed !!

Of course this becomes a very grey area where there is contention between innovation and sticking to tradition.

narayan · Post by **narayan** » 17 May 2009, 14:16

A slightly related question. Is there any 'new' ragam (e.g. karnaranjani or such) where there is strong usage of gamakams? To decide as to what sounds good as a gamakam, the ragam probably has to have a certain age, even to allow people to actually form opinions.

srikant1987 · Post by **srikant1987** » 17 May 2009, 18:55

narayan wrote:A slightly related question. Is there any 'new' ragam (e.g. karnaranjani or such) where there is strong usage of gamakams?

It's not so much about "strong" use as about peculiar gamakams. Many "new" ragas, such as obscure mELakartAs for example, have "standard" gamakams, like oscillating between rishabha and madhyama for a sadharna gandhara when the raga also has a shuddha gandhara.

music_is_life · Post by **music_is_life** » 18 May 2009, 00:32

Nageswaran sir, thank you. I listened to the excellent demo of Kalyana vasantham. It was very interesting because the vidwan I refered in my topic was actually demonstrating this ragam. In case you have other similar demos, please send the link.