Carnatica Brothers-15/11-NGS

[ganeshkant]

Event organized by ‘HarikEsAnjali’ a tribute to gAyaka ShikAmani HMB.
Accompaniments:
Mri:Srimushnam rAjA rao
Vio:S.VaradarAjan
Kan:K.V.GOpAlakrishnan

Most of you know that HMB is a multi-linguist and has composed kritis in Tamizh,Sanskrit,Telugu & Kannnadam but a few of you may know that he was the first doctorate in CM.

The doyen was instrumental in spotting & bringing up a lot of young talents.When the music festival was going on in Karur under the president ship of him,a tall and lean boy from Kerala came and asked for a chance to perform.The schedule was already planned and it was very difficult to accommodate any new comer.Apparently this youngster from Kerala got the news from some one and reached Karur with a lot of difficulty.He requested the doyen to accompany on violin at least since he was adept in violin & vocal.HMB asked him to wait and created a chance for him to perform just after lunch to sing for an hour and he was totally taken back by his music and immediately gave him a slot to perform during the week long shashti celebration at Harikesanallur and also recommended him wherever he went and shortly he shot to prominence and fame and was latter called as “Chembai Vaidhyanatha Bhagavathar’.

The performance by the Carnatica Bros.was befitting the occasion and they sang with a lot of involvement.

The song list:

1.GamganaapthE – hamsadhwani
2.Jalandhara – Valaji – ( N@ bhavarOganivAsini,S)
3.BhuvanEswariya – mOhanakalyAni
4.MeenalOchani amba – Todi – (R,N@manikyaveenAdhAri)
5.Neethumahima – hamsAnandi – S
6.sArasadhaLanayanE – sAramati – (R,S,T)
7.sArasamukhi – gowdamalhAr
8.Note (English – as it is normally called)

The bros.have a unique style where the singing of one is complementary to the other.While Sashikiran is good at singing in mandhra and madhyama sthAyi Ganesh takes on the thAra sthAyi to give a fullness of presentation.This continued here also and this format was good in both the rAgam and svaram portions.

The svara exchanges in Valaji,hamsAnandi and sAramati went in the above way and this time Ganesh without any probs.touched the thAra D in hamsAnandi. (Incidentally Sashikiran announced that this kriti was learned directly from HMB by his grand father Sri.Narayana Iyengar.)But Ganesh has to control his volume in the thArasthAyi it is almost shouting even at G no need to tell about the notes above.

The Todi AlApanai by Ganesh was unhurried,simple without any ostentation yet it was classical and brimming with life in each phrase just like the ‘vathakozhambu ‘ made by our moms.

Sashikiran excelled in his Alapanai of sAramati effortlessly taking from mandhra S.This seems to be a favorite rAgam of the bros.I myself have heard few times this as main and also see reports where this was taken as main.

SV excelled in his replies of Todi and Saramati and his replies for the svara exchanges were awesome.

RajArao was in his elements throughout and his tani with the talented KVG was aesthetically appealing and drew huge applause.

[rajeshnat]

GaneshKant
Tx for your review , I did not know this chembai-hmb anecdote

[pavithrac71]

It was a fabulous concert by Shashiran and Ganesh. Thodi raga alapanai by Ganesh was beautiful ! Saramathi was the highlight- Wonderful raga alapana by Shashikiran and interesting exchanges of swarams ! Varadarajan's ragam was melodious. Sarasamukhi came up as a good contrast after the main item !!! The duo sang the English note with superb dynamics that it sounded like a perfect western classical piece !!! Raja rao sir & KVG provided great support for each and every song !

Looks like the brothers are in top form....Hope to listen to some great performances by them in the season !!

[Lakshman]

Isn't it normally called english noTTu?

[Sundara Rajan]

the "English Note", popularised by Madrai Mani Iyer, is so referred to by tradition for many years. I believe that Dikshitar's sankarAbaraNam based compositions are referred to as "nOttu swarams".

[vasanthakokilam]

Right, sometimes generic words tend to acquire very specific meaning in (South) Indian contexts, like the word 'note' here. Another example is 'band' ( as in Nadamuni band ).

BTW, there is indeed a name for the compositional structure that the HMB English Note is set in. It is Swara Pallavi or Jathi Swaram which some teachers teach in addition to the Swara Jathis.

[rshankar]

BTW, there is indeed a name for the compositional structure that the HMB English Note is set in. It is Swara Pallavi or Jathi Swaram which some teachers teach in addition to the Swara Jathis.

Along the lines of 'generic' usage, it might be better to refer to the English note as a svarapallavi, to distinguish it from the commonly understood format of a jatisvaram seen in bharatanATyam - if I remember Vidya and Keerthi's explanation, the common-garden jatisvaram is like a svarajati sans the sAhityam.

[vasanthakokilam]

OK, swara pallavi it is. Also, I read somewhere that in jatiswaram, the jati part is optional! In those cases, it seems to be no different from a swara pallavi.