Rasikas concert series - 01.01.2010

rajumds · Post by **rajumds** » 27 Dec 2009, 13:36

The next concert in our series will be on 01.01.2010 by Sri. Tadepalli Lokanatha Sarma.

It will be a morning concert. and watch out this thread for the exact time and venue .

It will be another opportunity for rasikas who are in Chennai for the season to meet.

Nick H · Post by **Nick H** » 27 Dec 2009, 15:27

Rasikas Concert Series still lives!

Delighted to see that

arunk · Post by **arunk** » 27 Dec 2009, 20:29

I remember VKV mentioning that among all the artists he had heard, he found Sri Sarma's pronounciation and adherence to lyrics as the very best. Please invite him (if not already done, and he is still reachable from the rasikas.org circle).

Arun

rajeshnat · Post by **rajeshnat** » 28 Dec 2009, 08:25

arunk wrote:I remember VKV mentioning that among all the artists he had heard, he found Sri Sarma's pronounciation and adherence to lyrics as the very best. Please invite him (if not already done, and he is still reachable from the rasikas.org circle).

Arun

Arun
Are you quoting vgvindan or vkv , once vgvindan (v govindan) mentioned about his thyagaraja krithi pronounciation.

rajumds · Post by **rajumds** » 28 Dec 2009, 20:24

Venue: Raga Sudha hall

Accompaniments: Violin :Sri Pakala Ramadass ; Mrudangam : Semmu86 (Aravind)

There will also be a small presentation / discussion on "Preserving Musical Tradition"

Nick H · Post by **Nick H** » 29 Dec 2009, 00:44

Time?

Glad to know that Arvind is accompanying.

rajumds · Post by **rajumds** » 29 Dec 2009, 09:59

The program is between 9 am and 1 pm . The concert will be for around 3 hours.

Sri. Manakkal Rangarajan will grace the occasion.

There will be a talk on "Preserving the Music tradition - with specific reference to the Chitoor school" by Manakkal Rangarjan and Naresh Keerti.

Uday and Ramki (vainika) are also likely to pitch in and there will be an open house discussion for about 15 mins.

This could be the last get together for this season and may be an impromptu jam session may follow the concert.

mridhangam · Post by **mridhangam** » 29 Dec 2009, 11:48

Best wishes Rasikas and wish you all a very Happy New Year

Mannarkoil J Balaji

Nick H · Post by **Nick H** » 29 Dec 2009, 11:56

You think rasikas.org members can limit an impromptu open house discussion to fifteen minutes? You'd better bring a big stick!

Impromptu jam also noted with pleasure: I'll bring the morsing box in the car.

I see the hall is free until 4.00pm

rajumds · Post by **rajumds** » 30 Dec 2009, 09:55

Further to the earlier announcements , here are a few additional bits of information about the program.

1.Our concert series will be formally launched under a banner "rasAyana " with other formalities intimated to friends who have been contributing till date.With this we are moving towards a more committed approach to the goals we have in mind.
For the records , Concerts Held till date are
TV Ramprasad-Srinivasa Rao-Ramesh-[Madras-15.02.2007]

Madurai GS Mani Iyer-MA Sundaresan-Manakkal Sriram-[Madras-17.03.2007]

R Suryaprakash-MA Sundaresan-R Shankara Narayan-[Madras-14.04.2007]

Manda Sudharani-Komanduri Venkata Krishna-Parupalli S Phalgun-[Madras-28.07.2007]

Manakkal Rangarajan-M Chandrashekaran-Manakkal Sriram-[Madras-25.08.2007]

TR Subramaniam- Interactions on the subject of Telugu as a language for Carnatic Compositions

PB Shrirangachari-AG Venkata Subramanian-PBV Krishnamachary-S Manikandan-[Madras-28.06.2007]

Kalpakam Swaminathan-Thanjavur R Kumar-L Ramakrishnan-[Madras-03.11.2007]

Prema Rengarajan - Concert featuring Krithis in praise of Lord Vishnu

K Gayathri-[Madras-17.11.2007]

Prasanna Venkataraman-[Madras-24.11.2007]

S Shankar-Charulatha Ramanujam-Mannargudi A Easwaran-[Madras-01.12.2007]

Charulatha Ramanujam-Vocal- Dasara Padas [Bangalore-01.11.2008]

Toronto Brothers-Padma Shankar-Ram-[Madras-December 2008]

MV Ramana-(Lecture Demonstration on Kutchery Padthathy)-[ISEC -Bangalore-22.02.2009]

Hindusthani Vocal by Sruthi Johari of the Maihar Gharana

Vijay Siva - Shyama Sastri Krithis - Concert was not recorded at the request of the Artist.

There will be some discussions in moving towards making these open-sourced and looking for willing collaborators in taking these on board -free of cost- and putting on the Web.

For the present , all these recordings are available for interested rasikas on a NO-Cost basis ( say like transfer digitally to the individuals DVDs or hard discs.More details at the meet.

2.The Concert of the day is one arranged on an impulse .Disenchanted by the representation , The Chittoor school had managed in Chennai , this season.

It will be professionally videographed and the work of the day will be the inputs for producing a documentary .

Keerthi will talk for a while on the Chittoor School and the need to preserve such legacies for posterity.

Manakkal Rangarajan will grace the occasion and speak on his impressions about the Chittor School.

VKV will speak for a few minutes .

There will be opportunities for interested rasikas to speak to the Documentary producer , on the sidelines and into the camera , or on the stage - For which a full hour has been allotted .

rbharath will be the master of ceremonies .But all the rest can feel free to participate .It is your day.

We will use the occasion to felicitate the Hostess - owner of Raga Sudha Hall - for the grace with which she continues to hold engagements and making Raga Sudha Hall an important land mark , for us Rasikas.

Friends who have been funding till date , can remember to stuff their wallets and come.Typically Students , and Performing Artists are not encouraged to spend and contribute , financially.

Please spread the word around so that we get a critical mass for the event.

Some help is needed in identifying Tadepalli Lokantha Sarma in this picture (If he is there with one of the tanpuras).
Any other material - Photos - clippings , articles on the Chittoor school are most Welcome.

uday_shankar · Post by **uday_shankar** » 30 Dec 2009, 11:10

If I were to guess, Shri Lokanatha Sharma would be the one on the right playing the bigger (meeraj) tampura, but I'm not sure. I usually pride myself in being able to identify vintage artists in pictures but I cannot put a finger on anyone except Shri Madurai Somu. I presume the main artist is Shri Chittoor Subramania Pillai.

That apart, that is a fascinating picture. I simply cannot place the Katcheri context, i.e., what exactly is going on? Look at the contrary evidence:

1) Both Shri Chittoor and Shri Madurai Somu seem to be singing something with their mouths open and the mrdangam player seems to be "playing" something.

2) However, the violinist has put his violin down! This happens only when the mrdangam tani is going on. The fact that the vocalists seem to be keeping taalam indicates that this could be the context.

3) But they have their mouths open, clearly singing. So it cannot be Tani.

4) Could the mrdangam player be "posing" for a photo ? Both he and the violinist seem to be looking at the camera. But certainly the vocalists are not posing for anything...

5) But if it's a photo session why wouldn't the violinist be holding the violin to make it look more "authentic". Moreover why would the vocalist be singing ?

6) The Khanjira player seems to looking at the audience for a tAla cue...Shri Chittoor is not visible to him from his line of sight and Shri Madurai Somu is known to keep the tala finger count to himself

.

Could it be that the tani is getting over and the violinist missed the KOrvai ? Not impossible.

Fascinating.

cienu · Post by **cienu** » 30 Dec 2009, 11:26

Fascinating Uday, the way you weave a story around this incredible picture.

Maybe you have just missed the Ghatam vidwan (bare chested and to the extreme right) who is with great concentration keeping pace with the mridangam vidwan.

This seems to be a Kalyana Kutcheri in a pandal. Look at the number of children around.

What is the box right in front of the mikes. It cannot be an electronic sruti box ( as Radel was not around those days)
Is it possible that the concert is being recorded ? (If so one wonders where the tape is now

)

Also there is a possibility that the string on the violin snapped and the violin vidwan is waiting for the song to be completed before retuning the instrument !

uday_shankar · Post by **uday_shankar** » 30 Dec 2009, 11:32

Aaah! Awesome! Cienu to the rescue ! More evidence that it may just yet be the completion of the Tani and the violinist kind of forgot ?

The string snapping theory is probably unlikely because the male vocalists sang at around 2 kattais and the string tension is too low to snap. It take 5.5 kattais and higher for them to snap, if at all.

As for the electronic gadget, it is certainly not a shruti box as you say

.

If it is a tape recorder, then it is too small to be a spool recorder. Casette recorders came to India I think the early 70's and Shri Chittoor looks old enough to have been in his 70's (I believe he was born in the first decade of the 20th century...1901 if I can guess). So it is possibly a very early casette recorder ?

cienu · Post by **cienu** » 30 Dec 2009, 12:07

rajumds wrote:Any other material - Photos - clippings , articles on the Chittoor school are most Welcome.

A clipping from "The Hindu" of Jan 4th 1955.

Quote :

"dated January 04,1955: Music Academy Sadas

Presiding over the Sadas of the 28th conference of the Madras Music Academy on the premises of R.R. Sabha Hall in Madras on January 2, Mr. M. Patanjali Sastri, retired Chief Justice of India, pleaded that linguistic intolerance should not enter the domain of music. The title of Sangita Kalanidhi was conferred on the President of this year's conference, Vidwan Chittoor Subramania Pillai. The Academy also honoured on the occasion Sri T.K. Sesha Iyengar, a prachina vidwan, Sri Annaswami Bhagavatar, a master in Harikatha, Prof. P. Sambamoorthi, the well-known musicologist, and Mr. E. Krishna Aiyar, dance and music critic. Mr. K.V. Krishnaswami Aiyar, President of the Academy, garlanded Mr. Patanjali Sastri. Sangita Kalanidhi T.V. Subba Rao, welcoming the gathering, said Mr. Patanjali Sastri was a great scholar, an eminent thinker and a person truly imbued with the spirit of orientalism. Sangita Kalanidhi Semmangudi Srinivasa Aiyar said the music of Vidwan Subramania Pillai was majestic and it was but fitting that the Academy had chosen him to honour this year. "

Unquote.

uday_shankar · Post by **uday_shankar** » 30 Dec 2009, 14:11

Ok...Cool texted me the solution to the puzzle, I think.

Shri Madurai Somu is doing konnakkol! That would explain everything, if we posit that Shri Chittor only appears to be singing because his mouth is slightly open...many people when tired have slightly open mouths.

Doesa anyone know if Shri Madurai Somu did konnakkol also in his guru's katcheris apart from pin-paattu ?

davalangi · Post by **davalangi** » 30 Dec 2009, 19:31

Uday - I am 90% sure that the person on the right is Sri.Sarma; of course, for a person who has seen him many times back in early 70s when he was doing his M.Mus in S.V.College of Music (Tirupati), I should be a little more certain

Here is TLS singing the bristling Arabhi varnam with Prof.SRJ - this is around 1992/93! The video guy obviously had a lot of freedom to experiment

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c-qXbfvPe8Q

rshankar · Post by **rshankar** » 30 Dec 2009, 20:32

davalangi wrote: Here is TLS singing the bristling Arabhi varnam with Prof.SRJ - this is around 1992/93! The video guy obviously had a lot of freedom to experiment

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c-qXbfvPe8Q

Ramji - I assume that it was you?

davalangi · Post by **davalangi** » 30 Dec 2009, 22:56

rshankar wrote:
davalangi wrote: Here is TLS singing the bristling Arabhi varnam with Prof.SRJ - this is around 1992/93! The video guy obviously had a lot of freedom to experiment

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c-qXbfvPe8Q
Ramji - I assume that it was you?

No, Ravi. This was professionally recorded; the color schemes (green mikes etc.) and the video effects are quite psychedelic in a few places

Rajani · Post by **Rajani** » 31 Dec 2009, 13:29

Would love to attend the program. Hope I can make it.

Will the speeches/felicatations etc be after the concert or before it? It would help to know this.

uday_shankar · Post by **uday_shankar** » 31 Dec 2009, 14:33

Ramji thanks for the clarification and the video.

rajumds · Post by **rajumds** » 31 Dec 2009, 14:36

The Telengana Bandh has forced us to reschedule the engagements for the day.
Tadepalli Lokantha Sarma will be unable reach Chennai in time and so his concert will be rescheduled.

Tomorrow Ms Sandhya Dharini - a senior disciple of Akella Mallikarjuna Sarma , will sing instead.
Supported on the Violin by Badri Govindrajan ( disciple of Coimbatore Dakshinamrthy)
on the Mridangam by R Aravind (disciple of UKS ) and known as semmu86 in our circles.

There is some pressure being built up for an impromptu Jam Session- Vainika has confirmed that he will bring his Veena along.Nick is requested to bring along his "morsing' accessories. Uday threatens to bring his bamboo stick .

Akellaji will be the "ring master " and help us with his mukthayees, in case the jamming goes out of orbit.

Other invitees can bring their respective instruments along.And their families and friends in good numbers.
We start gathering around 9 am and have not strictly scheduled the concert timing as yet.

There is yet another dimension to our meeting .
Two years after starting our series of concerts , We think it is time to change a few things .
We have been seriously considering the idea of looking at our group's work as a debt we owe to the artist community.We have roped in a few competent documentary makers who are willing to support us with making a definitive Audio-Visual Statement on all the Maha Vidwans we still have around us .
A Multi disciplinary effort that would create a "Rasika's" Product that would be as good a work of art , by itself.
It is in this context we have thought of christening our group as "rasAyana' and formally kickstart the work of naming , registering etc tomorrow.

rasAyana -
rasa -

1. the sap or juice of plants, juice of fruit, any liquid or fluid,
water, liquor, drink, juice of the sugar-cane, syrup, any mixture, draught,
2.elixir, potion, nectar, soup, the best or finest or prime part of anything, essence, marrow, broth, a constituent fluid or essential juice of the body, serum;
3. mercury, quicksilver (sometimes regarded as a kind of quintessence of the human body, else- where as the seminal fluid of Siva) myrrh; any mineral or metallic salt, metal or mineral in a state of fusion;
4. =amrita, taste, flavour, any object of taste, condiment, spice, seasoning,
(as the organ of taste), taste or inclination or fondness for, love, affection, desire, charm,
the feeling or sentiment prevailing in a literary work.

ayana - path, road, journey;
Precession, course, manner, source of refuge

rasAyana - an alchemist, Garuda, an elixir,
a canal or channel for the fluids of the body,
a medicine supposed to prevent old age and prolong life, elixir
vitae, the first fructifying rains;

rasa-ayana ....... rasa-journey - aesthetic journey.

More ideas for the name are Welcome .
Please get your friends and Folks in good numbers.
Thanks
Venkatraman

rajeshnat · Post by **rajeshnat** » 31 Dec 2009, 15:34

Since yesterday i am having very high temperature(close to 103 ), I am doubtful to come tomorrow. Sorry cool ,rajumds & others

Nick H · Post by **Nick H** » 31 Dec 2009, 16:07

Rajesh, that is a great shame, and we will very much miss you.

Rajumds... Congratulations on the quick-change last minute flexibility. Good Work!

The name sounds (in both senses of the word) great to me.

Among the original aims that were 'on the table' at the inception of our group 'sabha', that I would not like to see forgotten, were...

1. The opportunity to hear very skilled artists (some senior in years, some less old) who are not necessarily often encountered on the concert circuit.

2. The opportunity to see these artists in a situation that is more intimate than the concert hall, thus facilitating interaction with them.

3. The more intimate concert venue also to facilitate the use of no or minimal amplification. Thus we would benefit from experiencing the actual voices and sounds of the instruments.

4. We should be open to the widening of our musical horizons, and the Hindustani performance we had should not be the only one.

... Just thoughts

srikant1987 · Post by **srikant1987** » 31 Dec 2009, 19:28

I am attending another concert tomorrow morning, with luck I might able to join the later part of this.

cienu · Post by **cienu** » 31 Dec 2009, 19:59

Wish all Rasikas a great time

bilahari · Post by **bilahari** » 31 Dec 2009, 22:45

Best wishes for a successful and enjoyable gathering!
Rajesh - get well soon!

Sreeni Rajarao · Post by **Sreeni Rajarao** » 31 Dec 2009, 23:06

I wish great success for this initiative, and I hope I will get a chance to attend an event down the road.

Sreeni Rajarao

rajeshnat · Post by **rajeshnat** » 01 Jan 2010, 18:17

Post about the concert in the new thread (not here)
http://rasikas.org/forums/post151079.html#p151079