belated reports: S Sowmya and Sriram Parasuram lecdems

[ramarama]

Dr S Sowmya and Dr Sriram Parasuram presented interesting lec-dems - "Focal melodic points in rakti ragas" by the former and "The concept and realization of Rakti in Carnatic & Hindustani ragas" by the latter on Dec 18th and the 19th at the Parthasarathy Swami sabha. I was hoping that either or both would elaborate on what made a raga a rakthi raga. Sowmya did not address that issue at all, and Sriram opined that all ragas are rakthi ragas (or perhaps, that there is rakthi to be enjoyed in all ragas). Both artistes likened the rakthi-evoking or distinctive characteristics of a raga to the distinctive physical features of a human acquaintance .

Sowmya's well-demonstrated talk was about how every raga had a characteristic phrase or a gamaka or a pattern that you had to return to time and again to establish the raga. Sriram laid out a bunch of what he called operating principles ("dhatu" or skipping swaras (like from sa to dha in the Hindustani Bhatiyar), varja swaras (both scale-defined like in audava ragas like Hamsadhwani, and varja prayogas like skipping panchamam in Carnatic todi), vakra prayogas (as in Hindustani raga Nand), asymmetry in ascent and descent (like in the Carnatic Mohanakalyani). What was amazing was both artistes' ability to sing (or play, sometimes, in Sriram's case) snippets of ragas or swaras at will - to illustrate these principles. Both sang without any accompaniment at all.

One interesting difference of opinion between the two artistes - Sowmya said her guru had advised her to never leave the audience guessing about what raga she was singing, by singing the signature phrases right at the start of an elaboration. Sriram said often there is scope for creating additional enjoyment of a raga rendition, by keeping the audience guessing for a bit between X and Y, and then suddenly using a particular prayoga to establish that it was X. Sowmya also described how her guru, the late Dr S Ramanathan would make his students sing swara passages in allied ragas (I think she talked about Kedaragowlai and Narayanagowlai in that example) in succession so as to enhance their appreciation of what made the two ragas distinct.

The Hindu has a nice review of the Sowmya lecdem http://www.thehindu.com/arts/music/gram ... 244990.ece.

Just realized after first posting this: the honourable Sanjay Subrahmanyan had (in June 2009) this to say about rakthi ragas" http://sanjaysub.blogspot.sg/2009/06/sc ... akthi.html. Indeed, Sriram's sort of justified his view that all ragas have rakthi potential, by saying that rakthi comes from connecting the audience's memory structures to a particular rendition - as an artiste, he said, it is when you are able to touch those todi chords, or sankarabharanam nodes in the rasika's minds - that you are able to create rakthi.

I wonder how forumites feel when an artiste is elaborating at length on a relatively unknown raga - isn't it kind of difficult to appreciate the artiste's efforts as much as when they are singing a well-established raga? Or are some ragas such that even with no prior acquaintance with it, one can still immediately appreciate the bhava in a rendition?

[Rsachi]

rakti f. pleasingness , loveliness ; affection , attachment , devotion.

As simple as that. Every raga(well, almost) has a pleasing face in the hands of a good musician.
If the musician is bombarding me with strange and unpleasant phrases, I will exclaim, 'Rama, Rama!'

[ramarama]

"If the musician is bombarding me with strange and unpleasant phrases, I will exclaim, 'Rama, Rama!'"

Sach hee?

My question at the end was about whether strange meant unpleasant by definition? Can a "strange"/a-prachalit/unheard of raga be capable of creating rakthi? I think Sriram's general thesis was that it couldn't - he started his lec-dem by saying it is that connection with the audience's prior understanding of a raga's focal principles (whether they are conscious of those focal points in technical terms or not) that causes rakthi in a rendition. BMK often sings his own unique raga creations at length- and I think hardly any other contemporary vaggeyakara has composed in those ragas subsequently (or have they?) Unless you hear him (or a disciple) sing those ragas a few times, surely it is difficult to just sit back and enjoy the ragam development even at the genius hands/vocal chords of the maestro?

Janardhan Mitta in a Ravi Shankar tribute concert at Arkay convention centre this season played a RS creation called Jogeshwari - which I think he said was a combination of ragas Jog and Rageshri (rather than a tribute to the Mumbai suburb) - and he opined that this was a beautiful new raga with its own distinctive graces (unlike, he said many other jod-raagas, which are poorly defined and sound like bits and pieces of the two different ragas in the mixture). Indeed, I think in RS's case too, hardly anyone from outside his sishyas seems to have taken on his new creations for elaborations. I wonder which is the most recently "created" or "discovered" raga (other than borrowed ragas from the north or south traditions) that have been accepted into the pantheon of "ragas worthy of elaboration" in either tradition - any guesses?

[Rsachi]

I don't care much for RS's creations or other, newfangled, ragas like Lavangi or Dorai.
Of course, RS's early recordings are great.

When we talk of new creations and discoveries, I am reminded of an Osho joke.
Charles Darwin's students were celebrating his birthday. They wanted to surprise him with a gift, and so they went to the lab, and pieced together different body parts from lab specimens of insects and created a synthetic creature in a glass case. They then went to him, and solemnly presented it, as a tribute to the man who had contributed so much to science from his life-long study of insects. In feigned seriousness, they asked Darwin that he should identify this rare specimen, as he was an acknowledged expert.
Darwin, turning the case around in his hand a few times, asked, "well, does this thing hum?" "YES!" was the chorus.
Darwin exclaimed, "so it's obvious! This is a humbug!!"

[vasanthakokilam]

Sachi:

he started his lec-dem by saying it is that connection with the audience's prior understanding of a raga's focal principles (whether they are conscious of those focal points in technical terms or not) that causes rakthi in a rendition

I will go with that hypothesis. I struggle with enjoying ragas that I do not have much familiarity with. I have very high regard for those folks without much familiarity with ragas who can sit through a 3 hour concert. They are indeed enjoying it at a different level than I do.

I will add one aspect to it. Such established familiarity is necessary but not sufficient. It needs to have aspects from Sachi's definition as well. This 'polishing' is basically that.

I do have another related topic in mind which is probably a different thread which I will open once I get to structure my thoughts. It is the rasa induced by the rhythm. There are a lot of songs of Thyagaraja which are attractive even on first listen on ragas that do not have this great established rakthi quotient ( as in the 'past familiarity' definition ). I think the rasa and rakthi are carried by the laya in those cases. Here, by Laya I mean not just thala but the rhythmic structure of the composition itself. In fact, a lot of the so called 'hit' songs in film music are achieved through laya that makes the melody instantly attractive rather than the raga.

[Rsachi]

VK, the definition is from Monier Williams:


In a way, the four tracks I selected and posted of Prof. Nagamani Srinath in another thread recently talk to the theme of rakti.
http://www.rasikas.org/forums/viewtopic.php?f=16&t=20699
Including use of ragas, words and rhythm. Kindly listen and tell me what you think!
Sachi R

[sankark]

He said, "I'd rather listen to a satisfying Ranjani than a badly sung Sahana."

Thats the money quote from sanjay's blog post.

[arasi]

sachi,
I'm glad you brought all those meanings for the word rakthi. Would perhaps make some see unfamiliar rAgAs with a little more tolerance.

VK,
Yes, do start a new thread on the rhythm effect and appeal of certain songs. We don't need any entangled threads

The example of chArukEsi in Sanjay's essay spells it out.
Familiarity may breed contempt, even with grand rAgAs like kalyANi during the season when you hear them often and back to back to boot. On the other hand, unfamiliarity seems to be a barrier to many, when appreciating a rAgA. Knowing you, I'm surprised to hear that it's so for you as well

With very little that I know of the grammar of music, I'm still able to appreciate new rAgAs when I happen to hear them. The more I hear them (that 'polished state' factor as well as getting more familiar with them?) I like them even more. Yes, I don't take to all of them, but some lodge themselves endearingly in my mind. Thanks to Koteeswara Iyer, S.Rajam, Kalyanaraman, Neela Ramgopal et al.