1. RKS is truly a top class lecturer. Never repeating a sentence, no chittas, no jokes, no personal anecdotes, no praise or criticism of any other artist or organiser, never deviating from the topic in question- Brilliant.
2. I think that the time given was only 1.5 hrs as he was repeatedly apologising for taking more time - just about 2 hours. Felt it was too short.
3. New Insights. We assume that alapanai- kriti-swarams are three compartments traditionally placed one behind the other but essentially independent. He clarified that the kriti is the heart. According to the kriti, you should sing ragam , neraval and swaram. He demonstrated with several compositions, how the manodharma items are to be sung to match the song and how inappropriate it would be to sing otherwise.
4. There are primarily three types of ragams.
a. Where the essence of the raga bhaavam can be understood and learnt only by listening to the stalwarts of CM - gamakaas and emphasis to be given or not to be given in particular swaras, how to slide from one swara to the next (or not to slide) Many other intricate, simple and yet raga defining aspects were demonstrated. The classic Shankaraabharanam- Kalyani distinction without even touching Madhyamam was also explained. These ragams cannot be sung based purely on the scale of the ragam.
b. Ragams based on phrases. The ragam will come out only by using these characteristic phrases. Demonstration of examples.
c. Purely scale based. These will work just based on aarohaNam- avarohaNam.
5. How the manodharma swaraprasthaaram is to be in alignment with the song that has been sung. He listed the thodi kritis of Thyagaraja where he has the pallavi starting from each of the seven notes!! (Just had it on his fingertips). While presenting any one of these compositions, he said, it will be correct only if the swaras are also sung centred around the important swara that is highlighted by the composer in that composition.
6. Manodharma is to be appropriate to the ragam as conceived by the composer: He gave the example of HindoLam. Thyagaraja and MDikshitar have different ways of expressing this ragam. Their compositions will accordingly only showcase their respective interpretations. Therefore the singer has to use the same concept while singing ragam or swaram to that particular composer's song. It will be UNETHICAl (word used by RKS) to mix them up.
I have just tried to put in words what little I understood (E&OE-Errors and omissions expected
)It was a delightful experience. He is not a bad singer at all. It is heartening to see that someone has identified this additional skill in this top class violinist and brought it to light. Thanks are due to SRLKM and Neela mami for bringing it to Bangalore.
