Report on R.K. Shriramkumar's Lecdem - 29.12.2010

[bilahari]

R.K. Shriramkumar gave a lecdem (accompanied by K. Arun Prakash) on how to articulate vocal music on the violin at Parthasarathy Sabha.

RKSK began by emphasising the need for every instrumentalist (be it violinist or mrudangist) to learn vocal music. He emphasised that ours is still primarily a vocal music and that it should be the primary objective of an instrumentalist to reproduce vocal music as faithfully as possible on his or her instrument, within the inherent constraints of the instrument.

He said that stAna shuddam (adherence to pitch of each note) and shruti shuddam are of utmost importance in the violin and are a basic requirement for any violinist. To this end, he suggested the beginning lessons including varisaigaL are invaluable. He said violinists should learn all the gamakas that are used in vocal music, but these should be taught incrementally. He demonstrated the non gamaka way of playing the shankarAbharaNa Adi tAL varNam, and then with minimal gamaka, and finally with performance-grade polish, in which sAhitya shuddam and rAga bhAvam must be intact.

In addition, RKSK said that one must constantly return to varNams at each stage of the learning process - polishing them with newly armed knowledge.

He constantly reiterated that each syllable should be played with a separate bow. He said that even varNams should be taught as sAhitya and not as swaras – only then will they accurately reflect the sAhitya when played on the instrument. RKSK emphasised that students should always be encouraged to bow as hard as possible, even if it means suffering a lot of screeching and squeaking initially. He said a certain azhuttam is necessary in bowing to accurately reproduce the inflections in vocal music. For instance, an inflection in sAhityam is represented by a forceful bow, and without a strong bowing technique, these modulations would be ineffective.

RKSK importantly observed that even though the melody of the end of the charaNam in many krithis is identical to that of the anupallavi, the sAhitya and the import of the sAhitya are both different, and as such, students should not merely be taught to play the charaNam like the anupallavi in these krithis. With krithis like inta sowkhyamaninnE, he demonstrated how the inflections in sAhitya change even though the melody is the same, and this should be accurately reproduced on the violin. He said the greatest challenge lies in the madhyama kala lines in MD krithis, where students are all too often taught to play the lines as mere swaras without giving any emphasis on certain syllables.

He said the lecdem can be summed up with requirement: every instrumentalist should sing internally while playing his or her instrument. Short of that, an accurate reproduction of vocal music is impossible.

RKSK then discussed the difficulty of swara-sahitya lines in compositions such as the bhairavi swarajathi. Since it is technically impossible to articulate actual sAhitya on the violin (he said that is true in this janma but perhaps not in the next!), special care must be taken to distinguish sAhitya from swaras. Again, this is accomplished by bowing modulations in the sAhitya parts of the composition. For instance, the phrase “karuNAlaya sadhayA” in the bhairavi swarajathi should be played softly in alignment with the import of the sAhitya (karuNa). He repeatedly emphasised the need for the instrumentalist to be sensitive to sAhitya bhAva.

When accompanying, RKSK emphasised the need for inflection and kAlapramANam to align with those of the main artiste. For instance, he said that if the vocalist sings a phrase in the raga alapanai and emphasises one swara, and the violinist then reproduces the phrase emphasising a different swara, the vocalist’s thought process can be severely disrupted. Additionally, he said that if a vocalist is singing in a certain kAlapramANam, the violinist should reproduce his or her music in an identical kAlapramANam. Otherwise, the difference can be jarring and disruptive as well.

In neraval, RKSK highlighted the need for the violinist to be aware of the sAhitya. He said if the sAhitya is not playing in the violinist’s mind, second speed neraval will easily go awry and lose sAhitya shuddam and even deviate from the tALam. Indeed, RKSK said that even in kalpanaswaras, a violinist should not think in terms of individual swaras but of the macroscopic rAga bhAvam when playing. It is the rAga and not individual swaras that should be playing internally as the violinist plays kalpanaswaras. Otherwise, there will be little fluency in the music.

RKSK sounded a warning that it is all too easy to skip the labour and merely learn modulations, but that these memorised inflections will invariably sound contrived. He emphasised again the need for instrumentalists to really learn and appreciate the import of sAhitya when playing. He said one must immerse oneself in the music entirely, and he played a bit of varugalAmo aiyyA here to demonstrate the impact of sAhityam in our music, and it was – to put it lightly – divine.

He concluded the lecdem discussing two tAnam techniques – sAhitya bowing and cut bowing (I have explained these elsewhere on the forum).

It was an illuminating and beautiful lecdem – RKSK used excellent examples and a lot of my enjoyment of the lecdem lay in listening to his music. The lecdem gave a brief glimpse of what makes RKSK a brilliant accompanist. I doubt 95% of other violinists pay attention to 95% of the nuances his playing has. RKSK repeatedly emphasised that musicians should not take rasikas for granted, and said that instrumentalists must necessarily put in the hard work to learn vocal music in addition to mastering their instrument. He said one should never give excuses like, “well, the anupallavi and charaNam are pretty much the same – they won’t notice if I just repeat it” or “mEl kAla neraval is just like second speed swaras – who cares about sAhityam”. Again, just like Suguna V, RKSK showed us both the incorrect and correct ways of playing a certain phrase, which was particularly educative. KAP accompanied very beautifully throughout and RKSK frequently complimented his sensitivity to sAhityam.

Indeed, there was a lot of sowkhyam in a lecdem that has inspired me to correct my ways of learning the violin.

There was great attendance – the hall was 80% full midway through the program.

[srikant1987]

RKSK emphasised that students should always be encouraged to bow as hard as possible, even if it means suffering a lot of screeching and squeaking initially. He said a certain azhuttam is necessary in bowing to accurately reproduce the inflections in vocal music. For instance, an inflection in sAhityam is represented by a forceful bow,

For instance, the phrase “karuNAlaya sadhayA” in the bhairavi swarajathi should be played softly in alignment with the import of the sAhitya (karuNa). He repeatedly emphasised the need for the instrumentalist to be sensitive to sAhitya bhAva.

This will create dangers of overemotion and melodrama, but with constant attention to the previous point, that should be avoided.

RKSK sounded a warning that it is all too easy to skip the labour and merely learn modulations, but that these memorised inflections will invariably sound contrived.

Something that should draw attention from students as well as gamaka pedagogists.

There was great attendance – the hall was 80% full midway through the program.

Good! For an morning slot, that too!

[vasanthakokilam]

Additionally, he said that if a vocalist is singing in a certain kAlapramANam, the violinist should reproduce his or her music in an identical kAlapramANam. Otherwise, the difference can be jarring and disruptive as well.

Good point. In fact, this applies to the alapana as well. One thing I noticed with violin accompanists in the noon and afternoon concerts at the academy, who tend to be up and coming violinists, is the lack of concordance with the general kAlapramANam of the alapana of the singer. It all starts all right but during development things go too fast.

[rshankar]

Thanks Bilahari for taking me on that vicarious trip - I find RKSK to be a really very unique musician - not only is he an exemplary violinist, he and Sri Vijay Siva share the same (vocal) music teacher, so he practices what he preaches (I think it was his violin guru and grandfather, the late Sri Venkataramana Sastry who set him on this course). He is also fluent in several languages - tamizh, kannaDa, sankEti, sanskrit etc, helping him enormously in understanding the sAhitya, something many vocalists, let alone instrumentalists are handicapped with...He has set many compositions to music, composed pallavis etc and the list goes on...In addition to these, he also has the incredible capacity to connect with the audience and explain & demonstrate things so well and deconstruct them to the first principles if you will that it is a pleasure to listen to him (not all great artists are good at this - something that was very apparent in many SPIC-MACAY lec-dems).

[bilahari]

VK, aye! In fact, RKSK was referring to alapanais only. With respect to the speeding up, I feel it is because young violinists are unable to judge to what extent they should develop the raga. There is also this time consciousness (not to overplay). I feel a lot of these problems subside naturally with experience. I actually witnessed the converse in a concert I will write about - the violinist's playing was far slower than the vocalist's singing. That sounded quite bad.

Ravi, this is my first lecdem of his, and I definitely look forward to more! As an aside, I have enjoyed all the lecdems I have attended this season. If only college lectures were this interesting...

[S.Balaji]

Thanks Bilahari for the detailing. Very informative and educative.

Our Shri Akellaji had held a demo on 25th . Did anyone participate ?

[rajeshnat]

Bilahari
Very very nice review. Particularly the charanam and anupallavi not being played differently is perhaps a nearly century old topic, in a lecdem by TK JayarAmaIyer (violinist who is a SK) he just said the same and even told in the lecdem that today's youngsters should make a choice to play AP and C differently(this lecdem was posted by his TKJ's grandson Vinay).

[Nick H]

Bilahari, your report was gripping. Literally! I was so tired, and ready for sleep, when I started reading it, but could not go to bed until I had finished.

Once again, you have done a great job of not only conveying the understanding, but of doing so in translation.

Have you ever thought of writing an English-language music text book?

Yes, that is a serious suggestion, and let me append this anecdote: some years back, my mridangam teacher asked me to take some lessons for juniors. I asked, "why me? Most of your ten-year-olds can play better than I can!". He said, "yes, they can, but they can't explain as well as you can".

What I mean to say is, whether you consider yourself a music scholar or not might be secondary to your communication abilities.

[rsrsrikanth]

hello..

i just joined this website..i am looking for swararaga sudha sone with notation..i saw some email exchanges in this web site..how do i get it by request..can you pl help..

thanks

srikanth[update][/update]

[hariniraghavan]

Excellent narrationBilahari. Many of these lec dems are educative and informative and those who cannot go to chennai really miss them. I wish you could attend all of those lec dems and reproduce the contents here. Thank you for all your reports and reviews so far.
Harini.

[mahavishnu]

Bilahari, I am amazed by your energy and enthusiasm in conveying your experiences and standing up for your well-justified opinions (PV/PK confusions notwithstanding)!

Are you on some kind of magic diet that allows you to use your sleep hours to write reviews? Keep up the great work!

[rshankar]

Bilahari, I am amazed by your energy and enthusiasm in conveying your experiences and standing up for your well-justified opinions!

He's amazing, isn't he?

[bilahari]

Thank the musicians who deliver such interesting lecdems!

Mahavishnu, my magic diet consisted purely of homecooked food. My pATTi and I made a pact that I would get to attend all the concerts I wanted every day but would be home for every meal. It was really a very easy decision for me - pATTi's cooking is far superior to anything I've ever had in a restaurant or sabha canteen.

[vasanthakokilam]

bilahari, that is quite a nice luxury.. The pact is so one sided in your favor
pAttiyin pADu pADal pAttellAm ... ..... ( arasi, pv, pb... help!! )

[bilahari]

Yes - pATTi always complains that she never gets to cook for me when I come to India. Keep in mind my grandparents spend 6 months with us in Singapore every year, but she claims that vegetables are only fresh and tasty in India, and that one can only get the full impact of her cooking there.