Ramakrishnan Murthy Vocal Hamsavinodhini

[bhaskaran19]

Ramakrishnan Murthy (Vocal), Hamsavinodhini Arkay Convention Centre (Chennai) Monday, December 15th, 2014
----------------------------
V.V. Srinivasa Rao (Violin),
Sherthalai Ramachandran Ananthakrishnan(Mrdangam),
Srirangam Kannan (Morsing)
A consistent performer and it was one of the most enjoyed concert at ACC. The highlight of the evening was his brilliant Todi and he literally brought back the memory of GNB in his alapana .
His Swathi ThirunaaL kirthi was just mesmerizing
The list of songs
1) dhvaithamu sukhamaa raagam: reeti gowLa (Tyaagaraaja)
2) manasu karugadEmi – hamsadhwani (PaTnam Subramanya Aiyyar)
3) Tillai ambalattanai govinda rajanai darishittu Surati ( Gopalakrishna Bharathi)
4) Parakela nannu paripalimpa murari sodari amba Kedaragaula ( Shyama Shastri)
5) Gajavadana Sammodita Veera Gajavalli Ramana Maamava Deva-Thodi (Kumara Ettendra)
6) Virutham on Lord Muruga
7) Vishveshvara darshana kar chal man tum Hindustanibhairavi (Swathi ThirunaaL)
8) Thillana

[HarishankarK]

Surutti kku appuram KedaraGowlai aaa?

[bhaskaran19]

Surutti kku appuram KedaraGowlai aaa?

yes

[vasanthakokilam]

I do not know why that is eye brow raising. There is the dry theoretical matter that they are related due to common swaras, but as a raga they are distinct enough to hold their own and hence singing them next to each other should be perfectly comfortable and aesthetically satisfying. Right?

[sridhar_ranga]

The two ragas definitely sound similar to souls like me with low-fidelity raga antennae.....but then it should surprise no one, coming from a less-evolved specimen who is still battling his pantuvarali-purvikalyani, bhupalam-bowli and many other such confusing pairs

[Rsachi]

Check this out:
http://www.ragasurabhi.com/carnatic-mus ... rutti.html

[vasanthakokilam]

sridhar_ranga: I do not claim to have hi-fi raga antennae either ( I like your usage there, consider it stolen ) but until I heard some lec-dem ( i think by Neiveli Santanagopalan ), I did not even know that they share the same swaras. Even stranger, Suratti is a latter addition for me but I always had a well defined identity for KG (based primarily on Saragunapalimpa and the few great viruththams in KG). That is, there will be a song in Suratti and I would not know what it is at all and the radio announcer will say it was 'suratti'. I just shrugged and moved on since I did not have a mental concept of that raga. That is why I am surprised a lot of people say that these two sound similar. Later on I acquired the suratti concept but never associated it with KG.

Anyway, if I recall right, Santanagopalan's lecture treated KG, Suratti and Desh as allied ragas. I do not understand that either. Desh has a totally different feel for me.

By the way, to expose my low-fi credentials, I have my own confusing pairs. Pantuvarali-purvikalyani is very much there, similarly sri ranjani/Abhogi or revagupthi/bowli ( boopalam is wrongly brought into this equivalence due to popular usage but the real bhupalam can quickly distinguish itself with its subhapantuvaraliesque usages ).

Let me ask a question: for those who consider KG-Suratti close, is it at the same level as pantuvarali-purvikalyani or sri-ranjani/Abhogi etc?

[bhakthim dehi]

Surutti is mainly recognised by the phrase mgpmr (at least in the present scenario )making it easy to identify. But, if the musician is going to use the phrases like mgrs, it will be difficult then. Anyhow kedaragowla can be identified from its svarasthana. Gandharathayum nishadhathayum athosa edathulaye pidikanum for kedaragowla. The above statement was given by Smt RV to one of my friend.

[sridhar_ranga]

So, knowledge of swara/ swarasthana is key to know the difference then.....but what does a swara-ignorant layman who goes by the 'feel' of the raga do, especially if it is an instrumental rendition?

VKM, please feel free to use 'hi-fi raga antenna' - just promise me that you will donate a dollar to the Tambura Artiste Welfare Fund every time you use the expression

And you are right, I don't have a problem with Bhupalam any more. But bowli-revagupti is a tough one to crack for sure. I can't quantify the problem vis a vis a case of PV-PK or even a Shanmukhapriya - Simhendramadhyamam. I just seem to be challenged on more occasions than not with such allied ragas.

[ganesh_mourthy]

Sridhar_ Ranga and VK

A lot is there in the pattern per se. Carnatic music dwells on sangathis and not on swaras for identification. YOu can sing completely sing off key and yet pull the essence of the raaga quite well ( at least to satiate the carnatic audience). So if the audience is struggling between pantuvarali and purvi , then it means the singer is singing a lot of common phrases than the distinguishable phrases. If one starts prperly as nsndpp or the proper uttaraanga part of pantuvarali that is enough to give a start and carefully come along the way throughout.
When BMK sings he sometimes keeps the usual phrases away and makes his melodic phrases, where then I decipher note by note.

MS is totally against it ; " if you are singing kalyani move on to Ga quickly and dont dont dwell on Ri to give a Shankarabharanam feeling".

For instance , the titanic song is a proper C major or bilawal or Shanakarabaranam in crude theory, scalewise. But actually it is far from Shankarabaranam.

But the problem in some raagas there are no many predefined phrases. I used to have problem years ago when I played the instrument. So you have to have a HI fi "deft "cut paste fingers with a supporting antenna.

[bhakthim dehi]

'Carnatic music dwells on sangathis and not on swaras for identification.'

are sangathis not made of svaras?

[ganesh_mourthy]

theoretically yes. But, I can play the notes ( swaras ) alone for 10 minutes without bringing in any flavor of the raaga.

I cited an example already. The titanic song is theoretically Shankarabaranam if you correspond it to the notes of Shankarabaranam.

C Major is a set of notes , a scale equivalent to Shankarabaram. But , grammar wise it is far from shankarabharanamville. There are numberous sangathis or patterns which we are conditioned to Shankarabaranam. If you omit all those and try only new ones for 10 min it may still be shankarabharanam but will get you eons of years for acceptance.

[prahalad_rag]

Watch this lec dem by Chitravina Ravikiran where he demonstrates the difference between Kedaragowla and Surutti.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0b9C1_X ... ooOObkuBgg

[bhakthim dehi]

I think u got my message wrong.... I never said svaras alone can give the feel of a raga. Its definitely the phrases which give the colour of any particular raga. Here the question on board is the difference between Kedaragowla and Surati for which I gave few points of difference. The argument was not about the phrases or svaras giving / augmenting raga lakshanam.

[vasanthakokilam]

So, knowledge of swara/ swarasthana is key to know the difference then.....but what does a swara-ignorant layman who goes by the 'feel' of the raga do, especially if it is an instrumental rendition?

s_r, I do not think that is the correct conclusion to draw. It is in the way the swaras are sung in their respective characteristic phrases that make the difference ( the 'intonation' as people refer to it ) but rasikas do not need to know all that. Your high fi raga antenna (cha ching!) is an apt analogy and it crisply captures the essential nature of it. Stated another way, a high fi swara antenna is not a requirement.

Now the question is whether one really needs a high fi raga antenna to distinguish the pair. My own case says it is not, mine is def low fi and they come through differently

[sridhar_ranga]

Bhaktim dehi, vasanthakokilam, thank you both. Yes I got you now.

[arvenky]

And RKM himself realized 'Suruttikku appuram kedara gowla" after starting that krithi His reply in FB on this Q....