Help with Alapanas?

[shweta]

Hello,

I'm new here, and turning up with an odd sort of request. For context, I am a new (but multiply published and award-nominated and considered sort of promising) English-language fantasy writer and poet. I'm an NRI, but my experience of India (which includes learning Carnatic music & Bharatnatyam while I was there) is a pretty large influence on my writing, and last year I wrote a poem using a Navaragamalika structure. The poem's just been accepted for publication in the online poetry magazine Goblin Fruit (http://www.goblinfruit.net) on April 9th this year (in five days!), and the editors would like an audio recording to accompany it.

The Ragas referenced by this poem are, in order: Mohanam, Arabhi, Shanmukhapriya, Begada, Amritavarshini, Rithigowla, Bhairavi, Hindolam, Hamsadhwani.
Now, I would *love* to start each section of this poem with a fragment of its Raga, but I am not a good enough musician to do justice to them myself. I could start them with Arohana/Avarohana, I guess, but I'd like to do better than that.

Is there anyone here who could/would be willing to help me with this? I can incorporate most forms of audio file into my reading, and would of course give the musician full credit.

[mohan]

Hi Sweta - I'd be willing to help. Send me an email.

[rshankar]

Shweta (I assume you are Shweta Narayan),

What a lovely idea. I can't wait to hear your new poem. Recipie for a Year of Spring was lovely (a bit dark/morbid perhaps, but the imagery was vivid, and the message powerful!).

[shweta]

Shweta (I assume you are Shweta Narayan),

What a lovely idea. I can't wait to hear your new poem. Recipie for a Year of Spring was lovely (a bit dark/morbid perhaps, but the imagery was vivid, and the message powerful!).

I am. Hello! And thank you

This poem's pretty dark too, really. They seem to wind up that way, I think because I base them on various mythologies so often.

[shweta]

Hi Sweta - I'd be willing to help. Send me an email.

Thanks so much! I've emailed you.
Shweta

[Raga Surabhi]

Hi Shweta,

Congratulations! Regarding your request, you might want to take a look at our site 'www.ragasurabhi.com' where we have discussed about the ragas you have mentioned with audio clips as well. If you like them, please get in touch with us to collaborate for taking it further.

Regards,

Raga Surabhi Team

[mohan]

Check out Shweta's poem with Sangeetha's alapanas in the background
http://www.goblinfruit.net/2010/spring/

[rshankar]

Shweta and Mohan - the link doesn't seem to play - I know it is not a problem with the site, because the other poem recited by Shweta is perfectly playable.

[mohan]

Worked for me Ravi - try http://www.goblinfruit.net/soundbytes/bone-harp3.mp3

[rshankar]

Mohan, I finally had to use a PC to hear it. The rAga essays are very evocative, and Shweta's poetry is a bit dark/macabre!! Interesting...

[vasanthakokilam]

Interesting and unique. I could not make much sense of what it is all about but I kept wondering why Shweta chose those ragas. I found the words 'syncretism', 'appropriation' and 'liminal' in her 'About me'. I had to look up what those meant but now I have some idea. My take is, it is like counterpoint in western music except it is between two rasas, that of raga and the lyrics. The otherwise overly sweet Bhairavi seems to have gotten the biggest brunt of this appropriation and syncretism. Though the poem is still an enigma for me, this idea of having raga alapana ( done pretty well by Sangeetha ) in the background takes it to a different plane than the normal recitation of a poem.