a sneak preview into the Sabha speech writers' diaries.

[venkatakailasam]

a sneak preview into the Sabha speech writers' diaries:

With the 'world's biggest music festival' right around the corner, a sneak preview into the Sabha speechwriters' diaries.

"She strode the world of music/dance like a colossus."

"He has done yeoman service for the cause of music."

"By awarding her, we are only honoring ourselves. Rather honoring the award itself."

"A strict adherent to the tenets of classicism, he innovates profoundly within its framework and boundaries."

"She is a fine connoisseur amongst connoisseurs, musician amongst musicians and above all one of the finest human beings one can come across. A friend, philosopher and guide all combined for her disciples."

"He's the torchbearer of his legendary guru's unique Bani. A globetrotter, this prodigy has performed at the most prestigious venues in every country in the world map."

"While their music is outward looking, materialistic and caters to the intellect, our music is inward looking, profoundly spiritual, sublimely merges our soul with the brahman, a time-tested marga for becoming one with the God."

A ready-reckoner of adjectives/terms for meejik reviews.

Awesome/authentic/amazing/astounding Atana/Asaveri/Ahiri

Boisterous/breathtaking/brilliant/ballistic Bhairavi/Begada/Bindumalini

Charming/cheerful/cherubic/cladistic Charukesi/Chalanattai

Delectable/dumbfounding/delicious Dhanyasi/Denuka/Deepakam

Exquisite/ebullient/effervescent

Fantabulous/fastidious/fluorescent/felicitous

Gargantuan/galactic/gratifying/graceful Gamakakriya/Gowlai/Gowlipantu

Harmonious/huristic/holistic Huseini/Hamsanadam/Hamsanandi

Innovative/inquisitive/impressive/imploding/ingenous/indefatigable

Jolly/jocose/jangly Jhakaradhwani


Over to you all friends to complete the rest from K to Z.

Compiled by a friend : Rajagopalan Venkatraman...


SOME VIGNETTES:

* Artistes who travelled from Tanjore and adjoining areas to perform in the city retained their hometown identity by attaching the names to their own (Ariyakkudi, Musiri, T. Dhanammal). They dreamed of going back, but never did, and the next generation of artistes saw no reason to follow this practice.

* Annie Besant, strict follower of the rule that no woman of Devadasi origin should be allowed to perform at YMIA, refused permission to Indian Fine Arts Society to host the concert of a budding singer from Madurai. She, however, sang in the adjacent Soundarya Mahal and became an instant success as MS.

* The Jagannatha Baktha Sabha held its programmes in Veda Vilas, Egmore. During a performance, a woman in the house went into labour. The kutcheri went on, uninterrupted. After half-an-hour, someone emerged to say that she had delivered a baby girl. The child would go on to be known as Mrs. YGP.

* In the 1920s, Mylapore came to be considered a desirable area for starting the Mylai Sangita Sabha. Concerts started one minute before raaghu kaalam, a season ticket cost 25 paisa, goli soda and panam kalkandu were served to the singer. Scorpions inhabiting the thatched roof sometimes dropped down to investigate the sounds below, causing commotion. AK Ramachandra Iyer, known for his outlandish habits (he owned a pet leopard) fell out with Mylai Sangita Sabha and established the Rasika Ranjani Sabha, which initiated major reforms — nagaswaram kutcheris took place as did stage plays, and for the first time patrons could sit in chairs.

* The Music Academy, inaugurated in 1928, is credited with formatting the kutcheri on modern lines — it restricted the accompaniment to one violin / one mridangam, banned the use of snuff and drinks during the performance. One change — no seven-stringed violin — got violin Chowdiah up in arms. In a huff, he gathered the Kannadiga and Telugu rasikas, and started the Indian Fine Arts Society.

* The Tamil Isai Sangam was born to rectify the complaint that concerts had only Kannada and Telugu songs. It had no location, so held its first festival at St. Mary's Cathedral Parish Hall. (“Can we imagine musicians singing on Hindu themes on church premises or vice versa today?” asked Sriram)

http://www.thehindu.com/features/metrop ... 749628.ece

[Nick H]

Wonderful story of Mrs YGP's birth!

And for the glossary of words of praise, I wonder who will be the first to include supercalifragilisticexpialidocious. The sound of it is not as atrocious as some of the things that the critics write!

[Rsachi]

You asked for it:

Kaleidoscopic Kalyani, Koel-inspired Kedaragowla, Khel-khel mein Kedara.

Languid Latangi, langur-like Lavangi, Lugubrious Lalitha.

Majestic Malahari, Mentally challenged Mand, Mellifluous Madhuvanti

Nasal Nasikabhushani, Nectarine Nilambari, Nutty Natakurinji

Opulent Omkaraghoshani

Pusillanimous Pantuvarali, passable Purnashadjam, pathetic Piloo.

[arasi]

Entertaining thread! Festival fun starts here...

We have used Mary Poppins' immortal coinage in our posts years ago, I remember.

In a way, speeches are not a bad thing. While we are there for music, we get our language lessons also, getting our refresher courses in english, tamizh, kannaDa, telugu and malayALam. The only condition is that the speeches are short, crisp and are to the point

[thanjavooran]

Excellent thread !
Few lines on the performance of percussion/ violin artistes may also be brought in,
Thanjavooran
28 11 2014

[rajeshnat]

Exquisite/ebullient/effervescent

Fantabulous/fastidious/fluorescent/felicitous

* In the 1920s, Mylapore came to be considered a desirable area for starting the Mylai Sangita Sabha. Concerts started one minute before raaghu kaalam, a season ticket cost 25 paisa, goli soda and panam kalkandu were served to the singer.

Exquisite/ebullient/effervescent eesamanohari
No ragas yet in F

I cant imagine how they gave Goli soda to the singer , what happens to the throat - I guess kalyani was a main with a long violin return and very long tani ?

[arasi]

Rajesh,
We of golden years are wondering if you know what a gOli soda is, after all!

[Rsachi]

I just heard a mesmerising Manoranjani on 100.1FM. The singer with the robust voice and a BMK style was one Madhu..
The song was
Tribhuvana janani--Manoranjani--Adi--Bellary Sheshagiriachar

[Rajagopalan_V]

DhanyOsmi Venkatakailasam ji for considering it worth to be opening a thread on this

Kudos to RScachi for carrying on with it and taking it to the next level :ymapplause:

Hoping to see it reach the Zany Zeitgeist heights of Z :-BD

[mahavishnu]

Exquisite/ebullient/effervescent eesamanohari
No ragas yet in F

Fruity Falamanjari.

[Ponbhairavi]

very nice venkata kailasam,/rajagopalan. Would the title of the thread be better as A brief preview of a music critic or concert reviewer's diary or probably it is better this way as it is as it implies that sabha speech writers spoon feed most of the critics. May be you can start another thread where you can expose the routine cliches of the sabha secy or concert introductory speech makers where they praise the chief guest FOR HAVING SPARED HIS VALUABLE TIME TO HONOUR US AMIDST HIS MULTIFARIOUS ACTIVITIES artists ,donors and LAST BUT NOT THE LEAST the audience

[venkatakailasam]

Shri Ponbhairavi...

Continuing from where you left...

Speechs-in Carnatic music…. Collections from net..( The Hindu and others)

“I always begin my speeches by saying that "our country is Bhaarat & we are Bhaarateeya and all our performing arts are Bhaaratanaatya" ….At Baratha nattiam award ceremony ...

“I pointed out that since Chennai has the habit of free culture and people are reluctant to buy tickets for classical arts” , ……BN award ceremony.

“his ability to make connections and comparisons, the flair with which he delivered his lines, peppered with puns, and the way he marshalled all his stories to present, in ten exhilarating minutes”

“ Just watch. In his speech after the concert, the secretary will talk about Rajaratnam Pillai’s Keeravani in 1948….”
“the secretary started his post- tani avartanam speech with, “In the 1940s, Rajaratnam Pillai played a Keeravani near the Mylapore tank...”

speech-making in Carnatic music..An advice…

First, shower cyclonic hyperbole on the main artiste. ..

If it is an upcoming artiste, tell her she is worthy of being in the top rung.

If it is a musician at the height of her powers, tell her she has proved today why she is there.

A “doyen” must be spoken of with the necessary honorifics and references to their experience and mastery.

The accompanists are usually spoken of in comparisons to the legends of the past. For instance, if you tell a mridangam player that he sounds like Palghat Mani Iyer, you can never go wrong…..

Reminiscing is a bonus, precise reminiscing — in such-and-such year, so-and-so's concert with so-and-so as accompanists at such-and-such venue — makes you a Jedi of the art form…

If the musicians are NRIs, talk about how culture has been preserved so far away from our land. ..

Secretary can give these speeches even before the concert begins…

One should attend award functions to understand the alankara of atishayokti — the device of exaggeration…

Various references to nadopasana , nadabrahma are made, and the musician is almost always referred to as a nadayogi…

After stating that the musician needs no introduction, lengthy, soporific introductions can read out….

A clueless chief guest, usually a corporate executive or a businessman, makes a speech whose contents can all be gathered from the Wikipedia page of the artiste…

The awardee talks about himself for a while,… thanks the sabha for recognising his achievements, and thanks his gurus, his parents, his well-wishers and a host of sabha secretaries. …

[Ponbhairavi]

Not to leave the list incomplete,
Rapturous raga malika,ravishing ranjani,royal rAjahamsini
Sensuous sahana,soporific sAramathi,suave sindhubhairavi
titillating tatillatika,,trotting tilakavathi, truant tilang
Ubiquitous udayaravichandrika,urbane ushAvali,unswerving urmika
variegated vAchaspathi,vanishing vaishnavi,volatile vAgadiswari
Yearning yadukulakAmboji,yogic yAgapriya,Yawning yamankalyAni
Karnatik.com does not give any raga with Q,X,W, Z.

[Rsachi]

Sirs
I have confidentially been informed that this year the following ragas will be unveiled during the Season:

Questara = a raga where the Sa changes constantly.
XeroxiNi = This raga sounds simultaneously like at least five ragas
Yavanika = a raga designed for and directed at foreigners and NRIs and PIOs (all airlines signature tunes will be in this)
Zebrati = this is a confusing raga with most swara positions a bit uncertain - much like the conundrum of whether a zebra has black stripes on white or white stripes on black.

[Rsachi]

Forgot the most important:
Whatpriya = this raga sounds like purvang=Rasikapriya, uttarang=Natakapriya

[Nick H]

We have seen from a recent newspaper review how artists are now "computing" in their music. Perhaps soon we will see them placing swaras on the stack, from whence they will be taken by the violinist. We hope for no stack/heap collisions, but if they happen it will probably be in that thani.

[arasi]

There's ample proof in this thread that the season bug has bitten, and how

[makham]

The pièce de résistance of guidelines issued to reviewers of a politically correct newspaper prohibits the use of foreign language phrases; prima facie it may appear as curtailing the freedom of the reviewer; there is also a moratorium on certain phrases / constructs which inter alia include -"scintillating" swaraprastaras, "icing on the cake", "brisk" varnam, a kriti being "attached" to an alapana, "racy" kuntalavarali, and "torrent" of sarvalagu prayogams

[arasi]

The Lament of Adjectives and expressions:

Yes, I'm lame now, after they barred me in reviews Brisk
I landed in this stagnant drain water after they drove me out Scintillating
Bakeries are not doing a brisk (sorry, take back the word) business since I retired Icing on the Cake
I am stalled like an injured horse after keeping company with kunthalavarALi Racy
I am blamed anyway, even in the meteorological context...No big deal, still Torrents.

[vasanthakokilam]

Arasi, that is great stuff.

[rshankar]

After all this should we just say: 'Silence is golden --- QED'?