Vid. Ritha Rajan - Nada Inbam - 02.01.12

[keerthi]

Vid. Ritha Rajan - Vocal
R.K.Sreeramkumar - Violin
Tanjavur Kumar - mRdangam

01. sAmi nipai - Anandabhairavi - ATatALa varNam - Kuppayyar
02. palukavEmi - PUrNacandrikA - Adi - tyAgarAja [S] {Corrected post Ravi R's comment}
03. paripUrNakAma - pUrvakalyANi - rUpakam - tyAgarAja - [RS]
04. nIlAyatAkSI - paras - tripuTa - shyAma shAstri
05. cEtah srI bAlakRSNaM - dvijAvanti - M. dIkSitar [R] {Added in after shibi pointed it out}
06.sukhi evvarO - kAnaDa - Adi - tyAgarAja - [RS]
07. dhUrjaTi natincenE - gauri - Adi {2} - pallavi dorasAmayya
08. buddhi rAdu - sankarabharanam - M. chApu - tyAgarAja [RST]
09.vaDigA gOpaluni a.k.a paDakiNTiki - mOhana padam - Mishra chApu - ksEtrayya
10. IlAguna - darbAr jAvaLi - m. chApu - paTTabhirAmayya
10.5. Emandune muddu bAlAmaNi - mukhAri jAvaLi - Adi - dharmapuri subbarayar
11.kUrvel pazhitta vizhiyAlE - madhyamavati - khaNDa gati - tiruppugazh
12. nI nAmarUpamulaku - mangalam


It was a very satisfying concert. It was evident how the artiste strove hard to enunciate all the sangati-s and gamaka-s in the full-throated style of Smts Brinda and Mukta. The fidelity of pAThantaram was very appreciable.

In the Alapanas and swarakalpana, however, it seemed (to me) like there was more of her other teacher Sri Ramnad Krishnan's influence.

It was a most fulfilling way to begin the new year. It is good to see the mOhana padam being aired a little. It can now be shifted from the extinct to the endangered list..! Ditto for the dhanam family version of dhUrjaTi in gauri, which differs from the pradarshini and from Sabheshayyar's notation.

buddhi rAdu is an interesting kRti with the pallavi in vilOma chApu, and the other units in different combinations of vilOma and plain chApu. Smt.Ritha crowned the grand kRti with a meaningful pattern in the caranam - pAnamu jEyaka, amRtapAnamu jEyaka, bhaktula vAgamRtapanamu jEyaka.. buddhi rAdu.

These moments of wise handling of the sAhitya adds a whole dimension to the artistry of the performance - it was an 'Aha!' moment for me.

kAnada was lovely, as it was the platinum pAdam, and differs even in the pallavi tune from other versions. I really wanted to hear srInArada from this school, but knew that she would choose Sukhi evvaro. It was all good.

Smt. Ritha usually sings slOkam in rAgamAlika, as Smt.T.Brinda was wont to. Probably because of paucity of time, she chose not to. It would have further enhanced the concert if she had.

RKSK played excellently, responding to most of the complex gamaka-clusters characteristic of the school, to the best of the instrument's ability. his ability to anticipate is impressive.

Sri Kumar was the embodiment of sensitivity, and played very gentle, melodious strokes for songs like nIlayatAkSi, enhancing the rasanubhava of the song. He played well for the padam, which is probably a litmus test for the mRdanga vidwan, having to give the ThEka, while maintaining the framework of the tAla, but in a non-intrusive way.

[mahavishnu]

excellent review. and very well written, Keerthi. thank you.

[shibi]

Thanks for the lovely review. I thought after the Paras Krithi there was Dvijavanthi ragam followed by Chetah Sri Balakrishnam.

[keerthi]

Thanks for pointing it out shibi,

It's been a couple of days, and I typed from memory. I am still not sure I got the order of songs right. rasikas who attended should confirm the order.

[srikant1987]

to the best of the instrument's ability.

[ravir]

02. nE jEsina - PUrNacandrikA - Adi - PaTnam SubrahmaNya Ayyar

Keerthi - It was the bard's 'Palukavemi na deivama' not 'ne jesina', IIRC, with svaras @ palukavemi.

Again I thought her voice was strained and she wasnt signing to potential. The Gauri krithi was more Pharaz'ish rather than Gauri' esque - no emphasis on the ri or the ni. It was the first time I was hearing this pAtham. In kAnadA what stood out for me was the intonation of the gandhara making it an an agmark version. I could'nt appreciate the melody of the mohana padham as it was place immediately after the Sankarabharanam, wish something was sung in between

The Anandabhairavi varna sports SGGM for good measure and akin to the Semmangudi version, it was a muted SGGM sounding more like GRGM, that I heard in her rendering. This is an archaic prayoga and I am still yet to fathom why many of the pAthams gloss over it. The only two cases where I have heard it being rendered plaintively are by Prof SRJ and Sri B Rajam Iyer in their renderings of the Dikshitar navavarana composition 'Kamalamba Samrakshatu' and by Smt DKP in 'Anandesvarena', IIRC.

Ravi R

[keerthi]

:$

My bad, as they would say.. I came in late, when pUrvakalyAni Alapanam had begun, and got the first two songs off rbharat; clearly my memory is failing.. Have made the change, Ravi.

To be fair, Vid. Ritha sang it exactly as T. Brinda would. I agree that this version of the song doesn't portray gauri as we are accustomed to it, from the caturdasha-rAgamAlika and dIkSitar's other compositions in it.

[bilahari]

An excellent review, keerthi. Thank you.

[vasanthakokilam]

>04. nIlAyatAkSI - paras - tripuTa - shyAma shAstri

Keerthi:

This prompted me to look for a rendition of this song and listen since I have a fascination for Paras. My references to Paras were along the lines of Chelinanetlu, Smara Sundaranguni and 'tAnOm_tanata_dhiranA' Poochi thillana. They all share similar raga characterisitcs. nilAyatAksI sounds different to me, too close to MMG than the Paras of these above mentioned songs. In this process, I saw a few more Paras songs in Sangeethapriya. 'trilOka_mAta_nannu' (SS) is a bit closer to the Paras I know but still a lot of MMG. There are also a few attributed to MD which also sound close to MMG.

Are there two strains of Paras?

[ravir]

>04. nIlAyatAkSI - paras - tripuTa - shyAma shAstri

Are there two strains of Paras?

Vk - Here is my take on this. The standard Pharaz that we hear today is a very normalized one and was perhaps one of the dominant flavors of Pharaz which got composed and finally overrode to become the standard version. This is best exemplified by Dikshitar's 'Sri Shukra' as notated by Subbarama Dikshitar in the SSP. The same SSP also carries the notation of 'Cintaye Mahalingamurtim' which if you hear sung as notated therein will look like MMG only. Modern versions of Cintaye Mahalingmurtim sung by sri GNB or Smt vedavalli or Sri Vijay Siva are in the normalized version of Pharaz. I have heard and also know this SSP version of Chintaye and shortly you can hear TMK's SSP documentation featuring it as is. And MD in all foresightedness embedded wisely the raga mudra in 'Cintaye Mahalingamurtim' which is the evidence for my argument. And I suppose the bard of Tiruvayyaru would have also composed in this melody a bunch all of which may have morphed off into MMG or Nadanamakriya. Mind you taara sancaras are barred in Pharaz and most likely most of the the Nadanamakriya compositions may have been originally in Pharaz. For SD Nadanamakriya or nadaramakriya was a pratimadhayama raga and the raga name was probably usurped to label off Pharas compositions under MMG. This view is entirely my hypotheses. Feel free to accept or rebut/reject but do ruminate .

Like many other desi ragas ( e.g Kapi, Bhairavi etc) - Pharaz too has undergone a metamorphosis and that is why pre-1900 compositions may exist in multiple flavors of these ragas as they stood at that point in their evolutionary cycle. It would be a folly to lambast certain renditions as they may be truthful to the pAtham and as such we listeners/students should take a literate/scholarly view when we hear all these versions. And on the authority of Rajan Parrikkar ( refer his notes on Raga kafi) I can confidently say that since strict conformity to etiquette or lakshana is not expected for kshudra ragas, you will find multiple melodic editions of Pharaz.

I rest my case.

Ravi

[ravir]

To add - IIRC the Dhanammal family pAtham of 'Smarasundaranguni' has a touch of pratimadhyama in one of its lines. Semmangudi Srinivasa Iyer who learnt it from Brindamma, normalised the version by eliminating the sangathi with the pratimadhyama with all earnestness and rendered it in a concert. Legend has it that the doyenne when she heard of this reprimanded her student in her inimitable style and Srinivasa Iyer too took it in his stride. I have heard this episode from more than one source and I am sharing it as an illustration without attributing any ill-will/disrespect for the dramatis personae .

And it all goes to show what Parrikkar says "In all kshudra ragas, ‘contamination’ on account of swaras not part of their intrinsic makeup is par for the course' and Pharaz is no exception.

Ravi

[vasanthakokilam]

Ravi: Incredible stuff. Definitely worth ruminating. I do not know enough to rebut, what you say has merit. I assume that Sri Shukra' as notated by Subbarama Dikshitar in the SSP will sound close to the normalized Pharaz.

I like nAdanAmakriya very much but Pharaz, the normalized version, has a unique flavor that attracts me. I should play around with some nAdanAmakriya songs in the Pharaz idiom, just for fun.

BTW, Vidya explained before couple of different connotations of 'desi' raga. Can you point out in what context you are using kApi, Bhairavi and Pharaz as dEsi ragas? ( sticking my neck out, on a tangential note, 'pharaz' with that ending z/j sound does not sound desi. Is it just me? )

[ravir]

Ravi: Incredible stuff. Definitely worth ruminating. I do not know enough to rebut, what you say has merit. I assume that Sri Shukra' as notated by Subbarama Dikshitar in the SSP will sound close to the normalized Pharaz.

'Shri Shukra' is notated by Subbarama Dikshitar and most of the moderns version you hear is close to the SSP notation. You may want to hear Dr S Ramanathan's version as a standard (IMO). I havent heard the Dhanammal family version. If someone has a good copy please share.

BTW, Vidya explained before couple of different connotations of 'desi' raga. Can you point out in what context you are using kApi, Bhairavi and Pharaz as dEsi ragas? ( sticking my neck out, on a tangential note, 'pharaz' with that ending z/j sound does not sound desi. Is it just me? )

My usage of desi raga is in the context where the raga was dominantly from the masses and was probably taken up, burnished and inducted formally into the musical hall of fame . Different authors have defined different lists of desi ragas right from the time of 'Ratnakara' and I do not want to get into that now. My point is Pharaz was a melody from the masses to start with and evolved to the state where it is today.

It is referred to as Paras, Phara(z/s), Paraju ( MD's raga mudra line in Cintaye Mahalingamurtim runs as 'ati samīpa ṛju mārga darśitaṃ' ) etc. More so this raga is fancied as a Persian import -videsi rather than desi. And it is an old raga dating perhaps to the late 1600's- early 1700's . Subbarama Dikshitar gives as a lakshana, a composition - a gavai prabandha, the details of which you will find in my Yamuna Kalyani post in guruguha.org/blog. And according to Dr V V Srivatsa, ( a surmise for sure but a very plausible one) MD chose the raga for the Friday composition ( Shukracharya - preceptor of the asurAs) as Pharaz on purpose. All his other vAra kriti ragas where conventional classical ones ( Yadhukulakambhoji, Saurashtram, Asaveri, Surati, Nattakurinji and Atana) straight out of the Muddu venkatamakhin grammar book whereas Pharaz isnt one - an out of place/unconventional/auttara/videsi raga for the guru of asuras as he was the odd one out in that pantheon !

[uday_shankar]

Ravi: Incredible stuff.

Indeed. I just got off reading all that stuff about talas by Ravikiran and then chanced upon this delightful thread as an icing from yet another ravi and the amazing keerthi. The outpouring of knowledge in this forum is hard to keep pace with. I've always wondered about pharas.

[keerthi]

Should we take this discussion into the Raga section which has been gathering cobwebs?

Feel free to accept or rebut/reject but do ruminate

Ravi, SubbarAma dIkSitar doesn't call nAdarAmakriya a pratimadhyama rAga. It is very much an upAnga janya of mAlavagaula, with a suLAdi conforming more-or-less to the prevalent nAdanAmakriyA landscape.

You are talking about sindhurAmakriyA [listed as a janyam of SivapantuvarALi].Hence to offer the pratimadhyama link as evidence for nadanamakriya-Paras contamination doesn't hold water. Outside of that argument it is very plausible that mAlava-gaula, nAdarAmakriyA and Paras have played musical chairs over many compositions.


That aside, to add to the discussion about the various subspecies inhabiting the genus paraj/ pharaz, here is a sample of a slightly dhrupadised version of cintaya mahAlingamUrtim, that is the closest to the Pradarshini notation.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6ZfDhJ6owqQ

Incidentally tyAgarAja's lone song in Paras - the penultimate daru of prahlAda-bhaktivijayaM 'varamaina nEtrOtsavamani' despite being wrongly notated by Prof. sambamUrthy [odd no. of Avartas in the caranams] has some interesting sancarams like dddS\nS, which is more like ardradEsi than the familiar cliched version of Paras.

VK, there is an almost homogenous representation of Paras in the half dozen jAvalis, aDenamma as sung by the PinakapAni school and the oth er popular songs - the pUci tillana etc, which dwells mostly on the mpG>> usage where the G is actually a pmG.

http://www.rasikas.org/forums/viewtopic.php?f=7&t=13811is Thread with my post about Paraz.

There are two versions of singing nIlayatAkSi. MSS sings the 1 kalai version and Dhanammals' family, DKP/J etc sing the caukam version. The latter version better allows us to analyse the rAga's expanse. It retains more of the MMG flavour and has both sampUrnA and varjya phrases. Some interesting sancAras like Snp can be seen here.

The Mysore version of nIlAyatAksi has a slightly sharpened D, which is more than sudda dhaivatam.

Rather than use the ksudra raga description, I would say that the cliched version of Paras is closer to what BhAtkhaNDe called a 'dhun' and the dIrgha Ga has morphed into a permanent mpG.

The other non-cliched version of Paras has scope for both linear and vakra prayOgas, for sampUrna and varjya sancaras. I totally agree about a plurality of identities for rAga-s, but don't see why it is confined to smaller or kSudra rAga-s.

[ravir]

Ravi, SubbarAma dIkSitar doesn't call nAdarAmakriya a pratimadhyama rAga. It is very much an upAnga janya of mAlavagaula, with a suLAdi conforming more-or-less to the prevalent nAdanAmakriyA landscape.

Keerthi - Mea culpa. Point taken & in the rush of thoughts I should confess the mistake so made rightly with Sinduramakriya in mind as you have pointed out. Thanks !

I totally agree about a plurality of identities for rAga-s, but don't see why it is confined to smaller or kSudra rAga-s.

The plurality of identities is so obvious in the case of kshudra ragas & for the discussion on hand and I have highlighted the point for understanding. To suit the exigencies of other situations we should consider applying this logic with the appropriate disclaimers in place...well that's beyond the scope of this discussion.

[arasi]

Trying to understand at least a bit from all the fascinating back-and-forth posts of you scholars.
The one song which I don't see mentioned here is: SonnadellAm maRandArO, ennai SOdanai Seyyath thuNindArO? Composer? No mudra that I can see in the song.

[PUNARVASU]

keerthi, the song 'dEvadi dEva sadAshiva' of Saint Thyagraaa is in sinduramakriya. It does not have pratimadyamam.

[keerthi]

arasi, SonnadellAm maRandArO is a composition of dEsiga vinAyaga piLLai. GNB sang it a lot, is what I've heard people say.


Punarvasu, the rAga sindhurAmakriyA as used by tyAgarAja is a janya of mAlavagaula and doesn't have pratimadhyama as you rightly point out. there are two compositions known - sudhAmAdhurya-bhASaNa and dEvAdidEva.

In that post I was referring to Subbarama dIkSitar's categorisation of sindhurAmakriya. He calls it a janya of the 45 mEla, according to the vEnkaTamakhi tradition, as he inherited it. Incidentally he has notated dEvAdidEva in his prathamAbhyAsapustakamu, and gives rAgalakSana for it as we know sindhurAmakriya today.

SubbarAma dIkSitar in writing these books must have agonised a lot over reconciling the textual tradition that he inherited, with the lakshya traditions that prevailed in his time. He tries as much as possibble, to accomodate it all in his commentary.

[RaviSri]

What actually happened with Brinda vs Semmangudi was this: She taught him 'smarasundarAnguni' and warned him that should he sing it in concerts, he should not avoid the M2. In a subsequent concert SSI sang the song without the M2. On coming to hear of it, Brinda scolded him saying he had no businss to change what he had learnt from her. A sheepish SSI promised to rectify matters and subsequently he would sing the javali with the M2 in the word 'sabAShinchunE'. I have a recording of SSI singing this song in 1961 with M2.
------------------------------------------------------
In a conversation with her Bombay students like Alamelu Mani, Brinda calls Paraz a misra ragam and demonstrates how the M2 has to be sung. I have seen her play 'nIlAyatAkShi' on the veena at close quarters and saw/heard her intone the M2 in the charanam line, 'sAmagAna'. On mentioning this to Muktha she sang the line intoning the M2 but very fleetingly. In his lec-dems at the Music Academy in the 1940s-50s, which he gave along with Brinda and Muktha, the scholar K.V.Ramachandran clearly said that ragas like Gaulipantu, Paraz etc took both madhyamas and only after the needless obsession with the Melakarta scheme began, the M2 was filed away from these ragas. Dikshitar might not have used M2, but certainly the madhyama used in certain sancharas, as sung by B-M in 'srI shukra bhagavantam' is much higher than M1.

[ravir]

RaviSri - Many thanks for the information provided. Do you have a recording of B-M rendering of 'Sri Shukra' or some other's who render it exactly as taught by BM to share ? Thanks in advance !

On a related note , Mela 15 is truly odd from an SSP standpoint in that we have a bunch of ragas bundled thereunder which use M2 as a foreign note and its indeed not surprising to note that Pharaz is one as well. In some of the ragas belonging to the clan of the 15th mela the M2 appears masquerading as the so called cyuta pancama ( e.g. Vasantha, Mangalakaisiki etc ) and as an outright pratimadhyama ( Malavapancama, Ramkali and Margadesi). SD's notes and or the notation for the raga/composition bears this out. In the same breath its need to be pointed out that for both Gaulipantu and Pharaz, SD makes no such reference to cyuta pancama/M2 in his notes or in the notation to the compositions for these two ragas.

Ravi

[mahesh3]

Have Dr. BMK or Nedunuri sung "smarasundarAnguni"?

[rbharath]

Ritha Rajan - R K Shriram Kumar - Thanjavur Kumar

Nada Inbam
2 Jan 2012, 6:15 pm

sAmi nIpai - Anandabhairavi - ATa - VK [varNam]
palukavEmi - pUrNacandrikA - Adi - T (S)
nIlAyatAkshI - paras - tripuTa - SS
paripUrNakAma - pUrvakalyANi - rUpakam - T (RNS)
cEtah srI bAlakRSNaM - dvijAvanti - MD (R)
dhUrjaTi natincenE - gauri - Adi {2} - Pallavi Dorasamayya
sukhi evvarO - kAnaDa - Adi - T (RS)
buddhi rAdu - sankarAbharaNam - misra cApu - T (RST)
vaDigA gOpaluni (paDakiNTiki) - mOhana - misra cApu - ksEtrayya [padam]
emandune muddu bAlAmaNi - mukhAri - Adi - dharmapuri subbarayar [jAvaLi]
IlAguna - darbAr - misra cApu - paTTabhirAmayya [jAvaLi]
kUrvEl pazhitta vizhiyAlE - madhyamavati - khaNDa gati - tiruppugazh
nI nAmarUpamulaku

and that was my season finale...

[venkatpv]

Are there any audio recordings of dhUrjaTi natincenE - gauri available? Couldn't find any on sangeethapriya. TIA

[doyoucare]

I am so glad that Cleveland is featuring her as part of Brindamma anniversary. Look at this song list!

[knrh05]

Are there any audio recordings of dhUrjaTi natincenE - gauri available? Couldn't find any on sangeethapriya. TIA

Stumbled upon this rendition by Sri Rallapalli Ananthakrishna Sarma.
http://www.esnips.com/displayimage.php? ... play_media

[venkatpv]

Stumbled upon this rendition by Sri Rallapalli Ananthakrishna Sarma.
http://www.esnips.com/displayimage.php? ... play_media

Thank you!