Trichy R Thayumanavan, Cleveland, 2013-04-07

[ksharanam]

Trichy Sri. R Thayumanavan (Konnakkol)
Sri. R Thiagarajan (Flute)
Kallidaikurichi Sri. S Sivakumar (Mridangam)
Sri. Karthik Venkataraman (Khanjira)

Waetjen Auditorium, CSU, Cleveland, OH, USA
2013, April 7th, 0800-0900

I fought jet-lag to attend an 8am Konnakkol demonstration from the octogenarian Trichy Sri. Thayumanavan. I'd heard of Sri.Thayumanavan before, but had never heard him in a concert. I wish I had, for I would probably have had a better appreciation for the demonstration. He first went over how Konnakkol was used in the past as a pedagogical tool, and underscored its effectiveness with a few examples. He then went over a few sol-s (percussion phrases); he'd voice them out, and Sri. Sivakumar and Sri. Karthik would replay them. Based on Mannargudi Sri. Eswaran's responses from the audience and on Sri. Thayumanavan's explanations, I gathered these were rare sol-s and have been "out of fashion" for many years. I wish I had the knowledge to elaborate :-(, although I did notice a lot more karvai-s than in modern day korvai-s.

With Sri. Thyagarajan playing along, he then sung a Tiruppugazh with great devotion, and proceeded to orchestrate a thani for that piece. His age did show in a few places, where Sivakumar had to remind him of the kanakku, or even correct a slip or two. This did not detract from the demo, I felt. The bigger problem to me was the lack of planning and structure to the event. While I respect his devotion and piety, I was disappointed at the amount of content. I felt Sri. Thayumanavan could have picked a few aspects of Konnakkol and focussed on them - perhaps its advantages over instruments, specific difficulties experienced or even the phrases. There was no focus, and so I'm not sure anyone other than probably Sri. Eswaran took away much from the demo. Sri. Eswaran and Nagai Sri. Muralidharan felicitated the artistes, alongwith Cleveland Sri. V V Sundaram.

[rajeshnat]

ksharanam
Thanks for joining hamirkalyani123 in reviewing many cleveland concerts. There is a discussion in another thread about tani in rare thalams with thirruppugazh. May be shri thayumanavan just did that.

[ksharanam]

You're right - I forgot to mention that. Serves me right for reviewing the event a week after :-) The Thiruppugazh was in a 10½-beat taala (he was showing Misra Jhampa, but with an extra ½-beat on the little finger just before the Anudhrtam). He did a theermanam for that, but the Thani that followed was in Adi.