The link is here: https://youtu.be/FqFJvp9RNSc
What I am going to discuss about this lecture demonstration is totally a personal opinion and how much it impacted my learning and knowledge. Some of the readers might already be aware of a lot of this, but I wanted to share my joy of learning with this forum.
She was accompanied by Dr.Hemalatha on the violin and B.Sivaraman on the Mridangam.
She starts of with giving an introduction of the theme and explaining how these compositions have formed the nucleus of the compositions by the Trinity. She speaks about how these composers contributed in developing compositional forms and defining raga lakshana through their compositions.
The songs that were presented
1. Gamakakriya Ata Tala Varnam- Sonti Venkatasubbaiah
2. Bilahari Ata Tala Varnam Anubandham-Sonti Venkatasubbaiah
3. Taralipoye Samayamu Nannu-Todi-Kavi Matrubhutayya
4. Ninnuminchinavarevaramma-Natakurinji-Srinivasayya
5. Neeke Daya Tochi-Kalyani-Kuppusamy Ayya
6. Spurathuthe Charana Nalina yugalam-Devagandhari-Gurumurthy Sastry
7. Ye Mayaladi (Swarajathi)-Huseni-Based on Melattur Veerabhadrayya, Taken from the Tanjore Quartet School
8. Upamuga Ne Jeyu-Yadukulakhamboji-Sarangapani
9. Samajagamana-Ragamalika-Ramaswamy Dikshitar
10. Mangalam-Surati-From Brihaddeshi
Gayathri Girish is one musician I follow all the time. Her music caters to all my tastes. In her concerts, she strikes an excellent balance of rare and common compositions. Her choice of ragams is always beautiful. She does a very interesting presentation of her manodharmam and of course, her pronunciation of compositions, be it Sanskrit, Telugu, Tamizh or Kannada, she definitely takes care to present it the right way. This shows the level of seriousness with which she practices music. From my experiences, I can say, I have seen very few musicians who revere every aspect of music with such seriousness. The last time I remember attending her concert in Hyderabad, January 2013. I still clearly remember her mindblowing Tanayuni Brova and an interesting Pallavi in Poorvikalyani. Many years ago, i think in 2008, I heard her live for the first time. The Anandabhairavi, the Navaratnavilasam and the Kalyani are also still fresh in my mind! That is how powerful her music was and how much it means to me. I cannot forget it.
Considering the little knowledge I have and abundant love to learn and know more about our form of music, there was always a piece of my mind that wanted to understand the scene of Carnatic music before the Trinity. I did know that Annamacharya, Purandaradasa, Jayadeva and Bhadrachalam Ramadas composed too but as you all know, the tunes of their music are not available the way they did it. I knew very little about the composers apart from these. This presentation of Gayathri Girish covers a wide variety of composers whose music has given a foundation to the style of Trinity.
I will not delve into the details of the explanation given in the lecture demonstration as I definitely want everyone to watch it and experience it. I will just talk about the components that I enjoyed the most, apart from the learning that this lec-dem was catering to.
Her style of singing which balances everything is something that appeals a lot to me. And the level of depth and research this musician goes in order to do justice to music, I am speechless. I remember reading her detailed concerts of the year long Shiva series. She is like an encyclopedia! What a vast repertoire! What a wide variety! She picks really interesting themes and presents them with earnest dedication. Salute to her efforts!
Coming to the concert now. She presented the Gamakakriya Varnam and then an anubhandham part of the Bilahari Ata Tala Varnam. She spoke about how varnams were different from today's versions in the format they are composed to. She also mentioned some facts about how the varnams today are truncated form of the original elaborate versions. She tells us about the Viriboni Varnam here (I remember Sowmya's version of the detailed Viriboni Varnam in the album "Maiyyal"! What a master piece!)
When she spoke about the Krithis. She speaks about how Venkatamakhin described Todi and Kalyani as videshi raagas and how they got popular in the post trinity period. The ragas were plain before but the pre-trinity composers have added gamakas and popularized them in the form that they are today. The compositions she presented in Todi, Natakurinji and Kalyani were such beautiful krithis, rendered in absolutely beautiful pace. The structure of the Natakurinji compositions reminds one of the famous "Manasu vishaya" of Tyagaraja.
She speaks about Gurumurthy Sastry, who has composed more than a 1000 geethams which gave him the name "Veyigeethapaidhala Gurumurthy Sastry". She presents a beautiful Sanskrit composition in a Devagandhari. All these compositions are notated in Sangeeta Sampradaya Pradarshini, she mentions.
After Varnam and Keerthana, she moved to Swarajathi. She presents the famous Huseni Swarajathi. She speaks about how Huseni swarajathi has inspired different composers to composers swarajathis in the same line. I happened to hear the swarajathi a couple of years back from a musician and I must admit that I did not understand the composition at all. The way Gayathri Girish presented it was absolutely clear. I really respect her for the care that she takes to balance all the components of music.She gives a detail description of the history behind the composition. This one is a swarajathi I always loved and the way she presented it made me love it even more!
She then presents the padham of Sarangapani. Padhams are always a joy to listen to!
One can only be amazed by her knowledge. She then moves to a ragamalika of Ramaswamy Dikshitar. These ragamalikas are very close to Dikshitar's format of Ragamalikas like the famous "Sri Vishwanatham" and "Simhasanasthithe" (Another favourite of mine!) She mentions about the ragamalika on one of the Kings of Tanjore. This grand ragamalika has twenty raagams. She explains the structure and the history of the composition before moving towards the ragamalika. She also talks about how the general perception around Hindustani ragas in Carnatic Music started only from Dikshitar not being accurate. She mentions that even before Muthuswamy Dikshitar, the Hindustani raagas like Ramkali were prevalent and this is evident from compositions of composers like Ramaswamy Dikshitar. The ragamalika is in Sama, Lalitha, Hammiru (Hamir Kalyani), Bhupalam, Nata, Padi, Mohanam, Shana (Sahana), Manirangu, Kapi, Sri, Darbar, Kannada, Ramkali, Ghanta, Sowrastra, Varali and Ahiri.
After a round of question and answers, she explains why she has not chosen to sing Ashtapadi, Tevaram and Divyaprabandham despite them being there even before the Trinity. She speaks about how they have paNs but not taalams.
She concludes the concert with a mangalam verse in Surati from Brihaddesi.
I was absolutely excited after watching this and could not resist but type a report on rasikas forum. This report is from the notes I made while I was listening to the concert online. There might be some errors in the report I gave, please forgive me if I made some mistakes with the details. Despite being dead tired of traveling, as soon as I got back to Ahmedabad, I started writing this review. I hope those who are interested get to watch it
I thank Parivadini for organizing a lec-dem of this sorts and uploading it on youtube for the benefit of many of us who cannot attend these programmes live.
