Smt. Vijayalakshmy Subramaniam AIR Concert 14-Oct-2011

[Sundarnrao]

According to historical chronicles, Amir Khusro is said to have invented “tarana” singing during the 13th century and charily even till-date, there is a principal allegation on “tarana” encompassing futile syllables all the time. I have personally listened to a rare recording of late Ustad Amir Khan where Khan-sahib explicates many allied mendacities on tarana syllables by elucidating the nub cologne of Persian-poetry. Ustad Amir Khan Sahib, who popularized the famous drut ek-taal based darbari tarana “ Yaar-Ae-mann beya beya; Dhire naa thadim, tana tana dhim , Tom tanana na;” explained it as “ Oh! my love, come soon, come at once to enter my soul, for I’m all-yours” (as said by Ustad sahib in the recording). According to Persian vocabulary, “Tom” connotes “ I’m yours”, “Nom” denote “ ours” “Tana dhire na” imply “enter the soul”, “Dhani” indicates “knows”, “Nadhir dhani” entails “you know everything”. I have also heard another Islamic-interpretation on “tom-nom” as “spiritually one”.

When this lexically-afar, blustery, "tarana-musical-axiom" further gets condensed into a ‘taanam’ format of CM to intercede between Ragam and pallavi to empower extraterrestrial enormity of euphonic illumination, It exquisitely befalls a seraphic sanction for all the listeners. It was one such sternly sacramental sensation that was experienced in Smt. VS’s RTP labeled AIR concert. Smt. VS actualized the concert with a begada based “vallaba nayaka” to animate the ambiance for the RTP to be followed. She lashed out excessively distinctive idioms of begada and endorsed ennobling mastery on manodharmas. The multiple variations on the phrase “MMGRS (upper octave) NNDPM (normal octave), MMGRS (normal octave)” were austerely beyond deliberations and affirmed smt.VS’s maturity to bring emotional variance, expressive variance, sargam-ki-laykaaris and also her tihayis (in the same phrase) to notch up the finish in style.

RTP exegesis demands a strong voice, flexible range, ideal aesthetic sagacity, extraordinary capabilities for laykaaris, lengthy breath controls to allow enjoyment of long passages & graceful pronunciation of syllables. Smt.VS was extremely par excellence on all the above and excavated the concert assiduously with a charukesi based RTP (taal: tisra-rupakam, sthayi/pallavi: srikrishnam sagatham bhajami; with mukda 16 beats away from “sam”).

Enchantingly, Smt. VS erected the vein of RTP in the raagdhari itself and deployed almost all the ‘alaap’ syllables including “aa”, “ra”, “na”, “ae”, “raa raa”, “naa raa” to muster the celerity. The vivacious “pakad” (start-phrase or the catch-phrase) of charkukesi “DPMG, RGM, RMGR SD ND” espoused an impelling incite of carousal visualization to her opulent canvas. Her improvisations on raga-elaboration displayed multiple frontiers of alapana colors that are mandated in the doctrine blueprints of alaphana-ziggurats (Poornang-alaap, auchar-alaap, raag-alaap, sur-ki-alaap etc). Smt. VS’s formidably panegyrized stylistic diversities on alaapcharis and fizzy bequests to titivate embellished vistaars were stunningly confounded with her flowery imaginations in the raga development phase. Smt. VS’s scrupulous tonal shades were matched to the congenial moods covenanted to the raga contours.

Smt. VS aggravated an additional verve to the recital during the Taanam-Phase through syllable-based-complicated-curves (rhythmic and melodic) and her speedy-expositions of multihued ornamentation on the syllables was a sheer treat. Smt. VS clarified salient intonation of Taanam-bols ( Tom, Nom, Dhaa-nom, Tha-nom dha etc) with right pause, curls, riff-like movements, meends and vocal-weight added extra magic to the T-phase. Smt.VS’s single-note-gamak, gamak-ki-taans, multi-note gamaks etc attested perfect testimonies to her tayyari, stamina on tonaa/passage sustenance and full-voiced tonal production. Octave transitioned same-note and multi-note gamaks reinforced her influence on dhrupads during all her assortments of lahak, hudaks, kampits, spruthis etc.

Smt.VS further intensified her doyen touch of characteristic manodharma edicts on pallavi with phonemic play of words, badhats, bol-baants, bol-alaaps, bol-taans; sargam fireworks ; diversely modish gamaks and a series of swiftly paced taan passages aggrandized her unswerving mastery across RTP components. Smt.VS ensured the vital eight-limbs of improvisation-structures across R, T & P presentation and accentuated each of the limbs with plenary edifications. Her influence on ‘agra gharana’ was also a source of silver-lining to some of the expert complex-phrases that she casted at ease. Her accompanists ( Charumathi.R on violin and Vittal on mridangam) presented a prominent equilibrium to the concert as well.

Smt.VS’s submission of purity, spirituality and devotion throughout her performance would have definitely enabled a divine-unison-with-god for both her as well as for all the rasikas. For a fledgling tyro like me, This experience of divine-unison to God through smt.VS’s performance was akin to what Amir-khusro sings to God in the antara of famous hamsdhwani tarana (popularized by Ustad Amir Khan) “ Ithiyadest miyaa ne mann-o-tu; mann-o-tu neist miyaa ne man-o-tu” ,where Amir-Khusro resigns to God stating that, “ there is a such a divine-union between you and I such that, there is no “you and I” between You and I“ – Such a Godly concert it was!

[arasi]

Vijayalakshmi Subramaniam,
That must have been a very good chArukESi.
Hope to listen to you this season!

Sundarnrao,
I went searching in the bazaar of your prose, heavily perfumed prose, for a review.
'The champak odour fails'... Shelley.
Why do you make it difficult for us to find the review in all this?!

P.S: Do you write romance novels?;)

[ganeshkant]

Yes.It was a good concert.The pallavi had rAgamAlika svarams in 3 rAgams I believe - ranjani,nattakurinji and one more.My concentration was distracted a bit as I was watching India- England cricket match on TV with the volume muted.And she rounded off with a tirupugazh in hamsAnandi.Her voice strained a bit in the thArasthAyi but that surely didn't mar the quality.

The tAlam was tisra rupakam misra nadai.

I think it was 'krishnam satatham bhajAmi...'

[mahavishnu]

I went searching in the bazaar of your prose, heavily perfumed prose, for a review.
'The champak odour fails'... Shelley.
Why do you make it difficult for us to find the review in all this?!

P.S: Do you write romance novels?;)

Arasi: Your best post yet!