Ragas to beat stress

VK RAMAN · Post by **VK RAMAN** » 17 Sep 2009, 21:00

Some of ottukkadu compositions will be good:

KalyANa rAmA reghurAmA
Varam Onru thantharuLvai

nALai varum entru nambalaama

Others will be able to share some of their favorites.

rajeshnat · Post by **rajeshnat** » 17 Sep 2009, 21:02

srinivasrgvn,
If you want to really beat the stress (as in the synonym hit), then it is nAsikAbhUshani .

I have done something like that to few of my relatives /friends, with these insights.
1. Just first get an insight of whether he worships lord venkateshwara or muruga ?

2. More than that if you have insight that he likes a popular film song so much, just give one of that , for eg for one of my friend who liked rAja rAja chozhan nAn in a 80's movie so much, I gave him an exclusive keeravani list of about 10 ranging from KVN,MDR and SSI etc.. He got zapped with that.

3. Just get the right artist like say santhanam, looks like he is one of the best first impression musicians. One of my friend is just repeatedly listening to thyagaraja utsava sampradAya and OVK krithis of Santhanam. BTW that friend is a kannadigA but grew up with me in madras. To a great extent language matters only little when compared to melody.

4. Try to load with very less of heavy tAlA oriented songs in general and also if possible avoid the big five.

5. Apart from anandabhairavi and shyama which are great choices , include neelAmbari, reetigowlai, madhuvanti, gAnamurthi, darbAri kAnadA.

6. With respect to instruments vs vocal, I always go for vocal.

But in general let me also warn you and your friend, music relaxes but to really beat stress, you have to possibly avoid long hours of browsing and preferably talk and take long walks with your friends on any topic or do yoga or go to gym. That will be a far better choice than listening to CM, to a great extent carnatic music as a therapy is little over hyped , possibly many like me over hearing a lot is the reason

. Will add more ...

bilahari · Post by **bilahari** » 17 Sep 2009, 21:32

sahAna, naLinakAnti are other melodious ragas.

Ananda bhairavi, sAma, nIlAmbari, rItigowLa, darbAri are excellent choices.

How about krithis like:
palukE bangAramAyena (BMK's Bhadrachala Ramadas krithi CD has proven uniformly popular with all my non-CM family)
mAnasa guruguha
mAnasa sanchararE
annapUrNE visAlAkSi
SAntamulEka
SringAra lahiri
madava mAmava
OhO kAlamE
chittam irangAda
gOvardana giridara
etc...

I agree that Santhanam has universal appeal, in my experience. Some of the songs that he popularised like srI chakra rAja, naLinakAntimatim, ADAdu asangAdu vA, kuzhalUdi manamellAm, nI irangAyenil, etc might be attractive choices too.

s_hari · Post by **s_hari** » 17 Sep 2009, 22:11

Bharatiyar songs, papanasam sivan songs by DKP. These are commercial releases sung well without any manodharmam parts. There are more such albums from bombay sisters like devi keerthanas etc. As rajesh said, Santhanam's utsava sampradaya keerthanas, OVK etc are good choices. You can also try bhajans of udayalur kalyanaraman. There are 4 volumes released, for children, but anyone can enjoy them.

-hari

vasanthakokilam · Post by **vasanthakokilam** » 17 Sep 2009, 22:38

Maduvanthi , sAma, darbAri kAnaDa, Mohanam, rItigowLa, sindu bhairavi would be my initial recommendation set to some upbeat tempo.

Atleast this will give your friend an opportunity to move the focus away from his troubles. That itself may provide a basis to deal with the troubles. But if it is event-driven stress, then the event has to resolve itself or he has to learn to deal with it better by removing himself from the clutches of it and look at it as a disinterested third party would.

VK RAMAN · Post by **VK RAMAN** » 17 Sep 2009, 22:52

In addition to listening to music, encourage walking and running on a regular basis.

vainika · Post by **vainika** » 18 Sep 2009, 04:08

srinivasrgvn, it's nice of you to be thinking about solutions to your friend's stress. There have been good suggestions as to rAgas already: my recommendation would be for instruments over voice. Maybe you can personalize the gift by including some of your own veena renditions in the recording for him?

Besides the birthday gift of music, you might suggest sounds of nature (sitting by the water's edge at the beach late at night can clear the cloudiness within), walks, and yoga. Many people from our cultures are averse to seeing a counselor (the "I'm not mentally ill!" phenomenon), but such sessions can really assist in identifying sources of stress - which he may not always feel like discussing with friends/family - and evolving strategies to reduce it. Should he be willing to consider this possibility, I'll be happy to suggest names offlist.

manikand28 · Post by **manikand28** » 18 Sep 2009, 04:22

This is a nteresting discussion, personally i find RTPs very refreshing rather than types, i find certain artists rendition help in relaxing. we listen to sanjay subrahmanyam's and gayathri girish more than other musicians. saveri as a raga puts my daughter to sleep as is lalgudi or kunnukudi's volin

srinivasrgvn · Post by **srinivasrgvn** » 18 Sep 2009, 07:47

arasi · Post by **arasi** » 18 Sep 2009, 08:36

Srini,
All such sound suggestions. One more for you--print out this thread and give it to your friend. Your concern for him and all the cures from friends on the forum would make him stop and think if all his worries are worth it. And the music you are putting together is bound to make him bounce back to a relaxed state of being.
I have heard a very good SringAra lahari from Malladi Bros. Others will help you to locate it. VedanAyakam Pillai's oHO kAlamE is something Sanjay sings. I think it is in one of his CDs too.

Bilahari,
Curious--why do you youngsters like OhO kAlamE? It's a philosophical song with a dash of irony--is humorous and has a 'trot' to it. Any of the above reasons or is it something else?

rshankar · Post by **rshankar** » 18 Sep 2009, 08:56

I would certainly not include OhO kAlamE in a CD that is to reduce stress - it is a composition where the ravages of time (which waits for no man) are described (see http://rasikas.org/forums/viewtopic.php? ... aning.html for our previous discussion).

SringAra lahari by Sri Nedunuri is probably the best one, and I think it is available on Sangeethapriya. nIlAmbari, sahAnA, sArangA and behAg would be some of the rAgas I find soothing.

There is a CD called praSAntam featuring Pandit Janardhan Mitta on the sitar and Vid. Kanyakumari on the violin - it has some of the most calming tracks I have ever heard - they play Ahir bhairav/cakravAham, dvijAvanti/jaijaivanti etc - and the effect is SAntam...

arasi · Post by **arasi** » 18 Sep 2009, 09:29

Doc's orders--Yes, no OhO kAlamE

More like--suhAnA safar aur mausam hasIn...

rajaglan · Post by **rajaglan** » 18 Sep 2009, 09:50

If he is a non CM guy then pls think of the following.

It has to be a mix of janaranjakam and soothing effect.
1. Mandolin U srinivas.....sangeetha edition , double mandolin , consisting of very good ragas but vey audience friendly. Almost every song has cool swarams.
2. MSS...Tukkadas like UN concert II half.
3. Unnikrishnan.....AVM edition , classical volcal by unnikrishnan
4. MSanthanam... only tukkadas like Sambho, chentamil nadenum, vilayada ithu, shuttam vizhi only for his voice.
5. Sanjay-unni- pancharathna keerthani album
6. Sankarabarnam movie songs.
7. dream journey .. kadrigopalnath .. carnatic songs mixed with western in a non jarring fashion.. volume 3 only

rajesh_rs · Post by **rajesh_rs** » 18 Sep 2009, 10:11

I highly recommend Anandabhairavi, Neelambari, Reetigowla and Shyama over the others. I also found Budhamanohari relaxing.

rajesh_rs · Post by **rajesh_rs** » 18 Sep 2009, 10:14

For those of you who have an interest in the western classical tradition, I recommend Mozart's horn concertos, especially Concerto #47. Notable among his other compositions are Eine Kleine Nachtmusik and the Moonlight Sonata. Also, listen to La Ci Darem Na Mano sometime. It is performed beautifully by several well known Opera singers like the great Luciano Pavarotti.

srinivasrgvn · Post by **srinivasrgvn** » 18 Sep 2009, 12:44

coolkapali · Post by **coolkapali** » 18 Sep 2009, 12:55

Try Anil Srinivas + Sikkil Gurucharan combo....i find it very soothing

srikant1987 · Post by **srikant1987** » 18 Sep 2009, 20:06

bilahari?

malavi · Post by **malavi** » 18 Sep 2009, 20:58

I would suggest some of O.S. Aruns devotional songs. CDs like ' yaadavaa madavaa 'and ' varuvan vadivelan' are soothing to the ears .
Unnikrishnans ' Vasanta guhane 'is also a nice one.

rshankar · Post by **rshankar** » 18 Sep 2009, 21:02

I also find the inherent rhythm (band music) of the noTTusvarams to be enormously relaxing..

srinivasrgvn · Post by **srinivasrgvn** » 19 Sep 2009, 16:14