Charumathi and Subhashri Ramachandran, San Diego, Mar 19th

[Sindhuja]

IFAASD just concluded their week-long annual music festival on Sunday. This time the festival was a dedication to Pt Ravi Shankar who was closely associated with the academy and to the Indian music community in SD at large. I couldn't attend many concerts this time due to a variety of reasons but thought of jotting down some thoughts on the few I did attend.

The theme of Smt Charumathi and Subhashri's concert was "nava ragas" ("nava" as in "new") in memory of Ravi Shankar since he was a fan of new, rare ragas and also was well known for borrowing ragas from Carnatic music into Hindustani. (#2 and #5 below were performed for this latter reason.)
Violin by Amritha Murali
Mridangam by Kalladaikurichi Sivakumar
List:
1. Nenarunchinanu - Malavi, Adi - Thyagaraja
2. Neecharanambuja - Keeravani, Adi - GNB (Ragam)
3. Vanchatonuna - Karnaranjani, Rupakam - Muthaiah Bhagavatar
4. Kaatrinile varum geetham - Natabhairavi/ Ratipatipriya/ Sindhubhairavi/ Savitri ???, Adi - Kalki Krishnamurthy
5. Krupaya Palaya - Charukesi, Mishra Chapu - Swati Thirunal (Ragam, Swaram)
6. Kamala charane - Amrita behag, Adi (Deshadi) - GNB
7. Ravi Shankara - Ravi Shankara, Adi - Charumati Ramachandran
8. Muddugare yashodha - Kurinji, Adi - Annammacharya
9. Omanathingal - Navarasam?, Adi tishram - Irayimman thampi


The highlight of the concert was Smt Charumathi's own composition in a raga she had herself come up with - Ravishankara - as a tribute to Guruji. It goes as follows: s g m p n s, s n p n s n d p m g r s, notes of Harikambodhi. When she first sang the arohanam avarohanam it sounded a bit contrived, but then the song sounded very natural and "well-formed" - true to the GNB-style compositional genius. There was a chittaswaram as well which made it sound even more complete.

Overall, this didn't seem like a regular concert, may be because it was very short. It probably wasn't even intended to be a regular concert. I think it was more of "showcasing" rare ragas and songs in memory of Guruji. In the first half (1-4), Smt Charumati announced the details of each piece and Subhashri sang the kritis. 5 onwards, Smt Charumati sang (and Subhashri joined for 8 and 9). She had to change the shruthi after Subhashri was done - this seemed a bit unsettling but I guess they couldn't help it. Her voice was just as shrill and sweet. But for the high registers which strained her a bit, her voice hasn't changed much over the years. Also enjoyed the violin (especially Charukesi) and mridangam accompaniment.

There was another interesting part to the concert: Smt Charumati told us that she and Sukanyaji (who was in the audience) go a long way and were school and college mates. She told us that Sukanyaji used to learn from M.D. Ramanathan (I hadn't known that till now). She also went on to say that they would visit each other and sing together, encouraged by the respective moms. She then tried to convince and get Sukanyaji on stage to sing with her but that didn't happen. If it had happened, we could've witnessed a rare sight.

[mahavishnu]

Sindhuja, thanks for your review of what sounds like a very unique event!
Nice to see a write-up from you after a long time.

I still can't quite visualize what this new rAgam Ravishankara would have sounded like.

And thanks for sharing the interesting piece of trivia about Smt Sukanya. I had no idea that she trained with MDR!

[rajeshnat]

9. Omanathingal - Navarasam?, Adi tishram - Irayimman thampi

Sindhuja
What is navarasam , is that a ragamaliga of 9 ragas , cant understand what you exactly meant by navarasam.I do know there are many versions for this lullaby. Googling on charumathi and Omana thingal I am assuming she sang it in aarabhi? Tx for your review.

[Sindhuja]

Thanks mahavishnu. Ravishankara sounded somewhat like a melange of Ravichandrika, Navarasakannada, and Gavathi.
rajeshnat: It sounded a bit ambiguous and I wasn't sure what raga it was, but Arabhi was definitely the closest. I did in fact think it might be Arabhi but it had a different feel. Googling the song name revealed that it was originally composed in a raga called Navarasam, which I thought might have been what they sang in this concert.

[rajeshnat]

rajeshnat: It sounded a bit ambiguous and I wasn't sure what raga it was, but Arabhi was definitely the closest. I did in fact think it might be Arabhi but it had a different feel. Googling the song name revealed that it was originally composed in a raga called Navarasam, which I thought might have been what they sang in this concert.

I never knew a raga by name navarasam. Long time back smt charumathi herself made one post. As she is our forumite , perhaps she herself can clarify.

[Lakshman]

If you want to listen to the rAgA, here is the audio of dhanyayAyi jnAninnu of Svati Tirunal in navarasam:
http://swathithirunal.in/linkfiles.htm

[braindrain]

I never knew a raga by name navarasam. Long time back smt charumathi herself made one post. As she is our forumite , perhaps she herself can clarify.

Is it the other name for 'navroz / navarOj / navrOj' ?

Here is a kathakalipadam clip in 'navarasam'. Some one can verify :

http://www.kathakalipadam.com/index.php ... VRKUVfoxVc

[arasi]

Sounds like it. Isn't sItA kalyANa vaibhOgamE one?

[mahavishnu]

navrOj = new day / navarasam = the nine essences in aesthetics.
I wonder when the semantic crossover happened.

From the kathakali padam it is hard to determine if the grammar/swaroopam of the two ragams is even the same, although the skeletal similarities are there.

navrOj is commonly seen in utsava sampradaya kritis like nApAli srI rAma and others. It has a folksy sankarabharanam appeal.

[arasi]

Mahavishnu,
Am I mistaking it for kuRinji?

[mahavishnu]

Arasi, sItA KalyAna vaibhOgamE is indeed in kuRinji. Interestingly, there is a discussion of AlivEni in a parallel thread.

Both NavrOj and KuRinji are truncated versions of SankarAbharaNam (cut off at D and P). Their flavour is very much like Sankarabharanam, but due to the truncation only some prayogams are valid. And they are best sung in Madhyamasruthi.

Other famous kritis in Navroj include Dikshitar's HastivadanAya namastubhyam, which is sung a lot by the Dhanammal bAni people.

[Sindhuja]

Hmm, I think I can be sure that Omana thingal in this concert was not Navroj/ Kurinji, especially since it followed muddugare yashoda. It surely sounded different. May be it was just Arabhi as rajeshnat said. The notes were definitely those of Arabhi, but it just seemed to have a more folkish feel.

[rshankar]

Wasn't the original tune for OmaNa tingaL kiDAvO in nIlAmbari befitting a tAlATTu? The first version I heard in Arabhi was when Sikkil Sri Gurucharan and Srinivasan (voice and piano) presented it in their CD, madirAkshI.

[rajeshnat]

Wasn't the original tune for OmaNa tingaL kiDAvO in nIlAmbari befitting a tAlATTu? The first version I heard in Arabhi was when Sikkil Sri Gurucharan and Srinivasan (voice and piano) presented it in their CD, madirAkshI.

Ravi
There are 12 versions prevailing, I am assuming the original tune is either neelambari or kurinji .Check this url below .
http://maddy06.blogspot.com/2011/02/oma ... idavo.html .

[rshankar]

There are 12 versions prevailing, I am assuming the original tune is either neelambari or kurinji .Check this url below .
http://maddy06.blogspot.com/2011/02/oma ... idavo.html .

Rajesh - unbelievable - thank you!!