Thrid day of Vaadya Vaibhava 2017

[srikant1987]

26 Mar 2017
Vaadya Vaibhava

Smt Jayanthi Kumaresh's lecture on the evolution (?) of the Saraswati Veena

She traced the history of the instrument from the original, simple construction with primitive materials. She mentioned the concept of monochord and polychord instruments (polychord meaning each string plays a specific note only, as in a harp or santoor). She mentioned that the number of frets varied, and previously they were movable, but earlier there were just enough frets to play one rAga. The 24-fret, two-octave veena roughly coincided with the 72 mELakarta scheme, and were brought about by the father-son duo Govinda Dikshitar and Venkatamakhin, who served in the Tanjavur court.

She also narrated the tale of a dragon which troubled meditating rishis, who was captivated, upon their plea, by Goddess Saraswati's own music. The dragon prayed to Saraswati to always keep it (the dragon) fixed to the veena, so that it can always listen to the music. That is how the dragon head came about. She mentioned that Thanjavur and Kerala Veenas are made of jackfruit wood and Mysuru and Andhra Veenas are made of rosewood. The former makes thicker kuDam which won't have a bright sound, but can take more pitch-bending, which gets into the Thanjavur style especially.

Shri D Balakrishna's lecdem on the Mysuru bani

He highlighted that in the bani, many compositions of Veene Sheshanna are taught, each having some specific technical training to give. He played a swarajati (khamAs iirc) to demonstrate a strumming exercise. It was so enthusing to listen to it. Then he mentioned that Sheshanna had a gift of conceiving dATu swarams in compositions, and demonstrated that with a couple of compositions including a karnATaka kApi aTatALa varNam. Subsequently, he demonstrated how sphuritams / ravais are also greatly helped by it, and played some sangatis of bilahari and the pallavi of nA jIvAdhAra to illustrate how much simpler it becomes with the split-fingering technique used in their bANi. Then he played a tAnam in bhairavi, the pancha ghana rAgas and nArAyaNagauLai to show how these components nicely add colour to tAnams.

Shri Balakrishna repeated a point Smt Jayanthi had made about making one's music richer by taking from other styles, but jovially indicated a concern saying that bANis are getting "qurbani"ed. Shri Balakrishna, after the nA jIvAdhAra, mentioned that he hasn't gotten to study to it in another bANi.

Shri Pramodh's lecture on micing Carnatic music concerts

He described different kinds of mics. There are mics which allow the diaphragm to capture sound from all sides, or just along one axis or from one direction (in the axis). There are some mics which require some seed power to operate (presumably to magnetize the diaphragm, so that its motion can produce electricity). He then talked about the different components of sound from any instrument or vocalist (body, resonance and attack). He mentioned that artistes can understand the wave forms produced when performing at home through an App, and when working with the technician, try to recreate similar waveforms in the hall. He emphasized that the artistes and technicians should work together and prepare well for bringing about a good aural experience. He also said that members of the audience should not make ill-informed requests of the technicians in between the concert.

[srikant1987]

Concert in the evening

Prof TN Krishnan - Violin
Shri Thiruvarur Bhaktavatsalam - Mridanga
Shri Vaikkom Gopalakrishnan - Ghata

brOcE vArevaru rA - khamAs - Adi - Mysore Vasudevachar (R)
padavini - sAlagabhairavi - Adi - T (R)
manavyALakinca - naLinakAnti - Adi - T
mAru palkaga - shrI ranjani - Adi - T (RS)
nA jIvAdhAra - bilahari - Adi - T (R)
enduku dayA rAdurA - tODi - cApu - T (RNS)
tani
jagadOddhAraNa - hindustAnikApi - Adi - PD (sketch)
vanga kaDal (?) - suraTi - rUpaka (R)
bhAgyadA lakShmI - madhyamAvati - Adi - PD (R)
pavamAna - saurAShTra - Adi - T
maNirangu sketch

[melam72]

vanga kaDal (?) - suraTi - rUpaka (R)
bhAgyadA lakShmI - madhyamAvati - Adi - PD (R)
pavamAna - saurAShTra - Adi - T
maNirangu sketch

Very mangalakaramaana concert, it seems

He played so many mangalams, he should've just played a mangalam for all the mangalams he played