nAgaswara bAni

[mohan]

This is a chicken-egg sort of question.

We often hear that some vocalists follow or are influenced by the nAgaswara bAni, especially for rAga AlApana-s, however isn't the nAgaswara bAni based on the vocal tradition itself?

[srikant1987]

1) Members like harimau feel understandably annoyed at a singer said to show influence of nAdaswaram. I think it's weird too.
2) Yes, certainly the nAgaswara bANi/s ought to be based on the vocal tradition.
3) However, every instrument has its strengths, and briga-ish stuff come well on nAdaswaram and, I think, the flute too.

[arasi]

Mohan,
In my view, it looks as simple as this: a hippopotamus rolling a pea. Why? Because I think the mighty word pANi misleads us! pANi (hand, and so, 'handling' it all through the concert) is not what it is. The word we need to use here is piDi-s (flourishes), and that's all. We are giving it the label pANi. Is it suitable?
Am I showing my simple-minded rasikatvam here, or is there more to it? I don't know

[Ponbhairavi]

Nagaswaram has a potentiality that vocal chords or human breathing( in or out ) does not have. coming out through the shivali((flat piece at the mouth) and the instrument's hole with controlled blocking by the finger a swaram can stand prolonged for a long time(several minutes) without any" asaivu". When there are 2 nagaswarams the second vidwan takes it up and continues just when the first one fades out.This is what enables a raga alapana in nadaswaram go for hours together.( Flute also does not have the shivali though the hole can be partly blocked )This is not possible with human voice at least as often as nadaswaram can. Sanjay Subrahmanyam invariably performs successfully this at least once or twice in his concerts.. I am under the impression that this is what is called nadaswaram bani.

[varsha]

Nagaswaram has a potentiality that vocal chords or human breathing( in or out ) does not have

And so it follows that the creative singer takes it as a challenge to do exactly what he/she is not designed to do .
It is known in his closer circles that Somu was fascinated by this for a considerable period , at the height of his powers .
The effects of this attempt is not a point by point comparison between Nagaswaram and the voice . It appears sporadically in modulations , in approach to the raga and a host of other aspects as can be seen in this clip .

http://www.mediafire.com/?wcn8mcbh6giugym
In my ( layman ) books , the voice adopting the nagaswaram bani is akin to
swimming at the deeper end of the pool ,
climbing the rock from the steepest , untried angle
pausing halfway on the ropebridge to savour the scene more exhaustively ( instead of rushing to safety at the other end )
Enjoy this track . It is one in a billion - a very rare moment in the CM history .
Nagaswaram - Time to shed a tear for all practitioners of that art.

[annamalai]

Here is my 2 cents. Firstly, the instrument sound is full of unmatched majesty. Nadaswaram artists present an elaborate raga alapana of ghana ragas
with long raga phrasings and the it projects an expansive raga mood one of vistara. There are many famed stories of TNR, and other nadaswaram greats.
Just listen to Janaki Ramana (sudhha seemanthini) rendered by TNR.

Many great vocalists were inspired the music of Nadaswaram artists and have tried to incorporate that approach in their music GNB, Semmangudi
(who has listened to many of the great Tanjore district nadaswara artists in his younger days) who have incorporated that approach in their raga
alapanas.

There is a classic book - by SY Krishnaswamy - Memoirs of a Mediocre Man - that has a chapter on Nadaswara Bani and SYK mentions Tiger Varadachari
as an example of Nadaswara bani.

A tidbit which Prof. S. Ramanathan mentioned in his lecdem - Tiger and SR (Tiger was SR's teacher @ Annamalai univ.) were traveling by train -
In the middle of the night, Tiger was perhaps sleep taking .. Sabash, bale .... SR woke him up and Tiger replied, that he was listening to
Chinna Pakkiri's Nadaswaram in his dream.