Bhavanuta. Maud McCarthy, and John Foulds Indian Suite

[srini_pichumani]

"yAm peRRa inpam, perukA ivvayyakam" (The happiness we enjoy, may everyone partake of !)

Browsing through the book, "Music and Empire in Britain and India: Identity, Internationalism, and Cross-Cultural Communication" by Bob van der Linden, I came across this:

"The opening of the Indian Suite, "Bhavanutha", a joyful song to the Hindu God Ram, attributed to the South-Indian saint, musician, and composer, Tyagaraja, was one of the first transcriptions that McCarthy showed Foulds after they met."

Maud McCarthy (1882-1967), a concert violinist turned Theosophist, toured India in 1908 at the invitation of Annie Besant and studied Indian music in Benares and Madras and returned to England where she lectured on Indian music in the early 1910s. Fox-Strangways heard her lecture "Some Indian conceptions of Music" and included it in his The Music of Hindostan. Robi Thakur (as Parrikar would have it!), spoke highly of her music since she sang the poet's songs in public.

You can listen to John Foulds' 1935 adaptation of Bhavanutha for the Indian suite at

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=es2cv1NrLN4

-Srini.

ps: My mind goes back to L Ramki's bhavanuta lesson with SRJ in Austin almost 15 years ago -- hope Ramji or LRamki can post it for the enjoyment of everyone !

[vasanthakokilam]

Thanks Srini. That is quite a find. The wonderful layers on top of Bhavanutha adds its own charm. MSG's bhavanutha is my favorite and I was looking for it in Youtube for a back to back listening but could not find it.

Fould's arrangement sans the gamaka makes it sound more like how Chinese play the pentatonic scale based songs, doesn't it?

[Pasupathy]

Thanks, Srini.

[rshankar]

Fould's arrangement sans the gamaka makes it sound more like how Chinese play the pentatonic scale based songs, doesn't it?

Yes, and the Thai anthem IIRC! Sounds very interesting.

[Ashwin]

Srini,

Yes, indeed this sounds a lot like SRJ Mama's version!! I would contend that this version, "sans gamaka" as vasanthakokilam has put it aptly, is a more quintessential mOhana, lacking nothing in emotion or grandeur.

Ashwin

Edit: did anyone else hear the magnificent "manasukaruga" (hamsadhwani) of PSI from 11min onwards? Thanks to Rohin for noticing it...

[mahavishnu]

Wow! what a gem.
I had somehow missed this post when Srini posted this last month.

[arasi]

I'm another latecomer to this. Thanks, Srini.

The auditory pleasure was augmented by a visual imagery procession. The first movement framed bhavanutha beautifully, the second detoured somewhat into western woods, the third was so reminiscent of a single rAgA-based early movie song, the rAjA and rAni with entourage worshipping and singing in a temple! The fourth movement was all 'dESa'dhvani for me, a chorus of patriots marching in the street, singing a national hymn as they made their way.

Good stuff...

[vasanthakokilam]

did anyone else hear the magnificent "manasukaruga" (hamsadhwani) of PSI from 11min onwards? Thanks to Rohin for noticing it

Wow, yes indeed. Thanks pointing that out.
A naive question, does this piece use a lot of counterpoints?

[vasanthakokilam]

Hamsadhwani in Western Classical: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Heb8hfhWk2w

[srini_pichumani]

Ashwin,

great that you noticed the "manasukarugademi" ! I had left it as homework

For this Hamsadhvani piece, the immediate parallel that comes to mind is a near contemporaneous 78 rpm recording of the same by Kumbakonam Nagaraja Rao in the early 1900s -- in a total viralaDi (staccato) style, full of bravura passages. This was published again on a Rounder CD in the early 1990s entitled "Vintage Music of India".

Another amazing thing about this lady Maud McCarthy was a note I read in the Journal of the Musicological Society Baroda 2010 issue -- she opened her lecture to the Musical Association, London, on January 16, 1912 with a rendition of Dikshitar's "kalAvati kamalasana yuvati" !

-Srini.