Viswanadha Sreenivas

[sreeni]

Namaskaram rasikas!

I want to introduce myself to the forum and show some of my original carnatic-style lyrical works to knowledgeable folks here.

DISCLAIMER: I'm not a musician. I'm just a semi-literate listener of carnatic music.

Background: I have been sitting in my son's music classes in the San Francisco bay area, with Sri Ashok Subramaniam for 15+ years. By god's grace, my son (Kesav Viswanadha) picked up great interest in this art form. Couple of years ago he asked me to write a pallavi for him. So I started working on one and suddenly found myself writing song lyrics! Now I'm up to about 150 songs so I wanted to share a few here and get feedback.

I did study some Sanskrit in high school and also used to attend/participate in many religious events in temples back in my village Kaikalur (and our agraharam Someswaram). So I picked up quite a few hymns and slokams and religious context of those. After I started listening to carnatic those things from 30+ years ago started coming back.

My Journey

Originally I wanted to start writing some songs that depict mythological stories. Remembering my childhood puranam stories of Sri Parimi Ramakrishna Sastri garu, I set out write a song on Hanuman, the main hero of sundara kanadam. So this was my very first song written back in late 2018. Also this effort gave motivation to my son to set those words to carnatic tunes! At that time I was not aware of the 2nd syllable prAsa rule so it's not there but I still like it as this was my first work. Please listen here:

Audio:
https://drive.google.com/file/d/1DXks_6 ... p=drivesdk

Lyrics
https://docs.google.com/document/d/16u0 ... p=drivesdk

Then suddenly things stated coming to me especially when I go for my bike rides. So I began doing more works on other deities in both Telugu and Sanskrit. I got to know about the prAsa rule in a lecture at the Academy in late 2019. So I tried to fix some of my songs and also started following the rule better. You can see some of my works on my Facebook page.

https://m.facebook.com/sreeni

The process

I found a few different ways to get motivation - take a theme and expand on it, while listening to popular carnatic songs, get ideas for similar tunes as well as themes and word sequences.

For example, I found this rare gem in yamuna kalyani by Thyagaraja (vidhi sakradulaku)

https://youtu.be/H5rhSFrpMgA

And that gave me ideas for three songs! One for the procession in the village after rama navaratri (still to be tuned)

https://docs.google.com/document/d/1Bch ... p=drivesdk

Then the tune sounded very pleasing so I wrote a song with similar syllable structure:

https://docs.google.com/document/d/1E3R ... p=drivesdk


And also the word

udupati mukhulella (don't know what it means even though I'm Telugu)

Got me excited to think of a similar sounding word

munupati janmambu

And I wrote a song around that phrase in a charanam. Still need to be cleaned up and tuned but here is a rough version

https://docs.google.com/document/d/1KUh ... p=drivesdk

So this has been and continues to be a great joy for me that I wanted to share here.

I would love to hear your opinion and also any guidance on how to go about this process to make it better. I strove hard to make my works to be as original as possible though a lot of it is inspired by Thyagaraja and Dikshitar to a great extent.

Hope to continue the discussion here.

Thank you for reading my rather long post

Sreeni.

[Ananthakrishna]

Had a chance to look through the lyrics you have shared. They really appealed to me. The Telugu was very simple and easy to understand, and there were no unwieldy grammatical workarounds or other such contrived phrases in the sahityam and tuning.

A job very well done! I look forward to hearing and learning your compositions. You are clearly quite prolific in your composing, having composed nearly 150 krithis already! Please share them all if possible, and also new ones as and when they strike.

[sreeni]

Thank you for checking them out and encouraging words @Ananthakrishna! Yes - we are collecting all these. Since you asked for more here is a short playlist with some of our (team Viswanadha) songs:

https://youtu.be/9hvWLV8_gA0

[Ananthakrishna]

Thanks a lot for sharing this!
Are all these compositions tuned by your son Master Kesav Vishwanadha? Or a few are your own tunes?

Have heard the two varnams in Dwijavanthi and Vachaspati. Quite an interesting take on the ragams. The Dwijavanthi varnam was particularly interesting, had a few flavors that I have not observed anywhere else. May I ask if notations for these pieces are available?

Again I must compliment you and your son for your fine penmanship and tuning!

[sreeni]

Thank you again! The music is *all* Kesav. I don't know anything about tuning. Here are the words for the varnams with notation.

https://docs.google.com/document/d/1dHa ... p=drivesdk

https://docs.google.com/document/d/1UbD ... sp=sharing

[ramakriya]

@sreeni Good to know about your compositions! I have seen Keshav sing ( in fact my daughter is part of Laya too

[sreeni]

Wow! It's a really small world @ramakriya!

[sreeni]

Happy Sri Rama Navami all! Here is a song on Rama that I wrote that my son Kesav tuned in Kuntala varali/desadi.

Audio:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bextNut43OE

Lyrics/notation:
https://docs.google.com/document/d/1yzo ... sp=sharing

Somehow I find it easiest to write on Rama! I think about 50% of my songs are on Rama. I will share some more graudally.

[sreeni]

Here is a song on Krishna in Sanskrit that I wrote two years ago. Though it didn't have prasa it has an interesting musical element that Kesav really wanted - chittaswara sahithyam.

My motivation for the song was charanam line 3 - akrUra kuCElAdi - I really wanted to use that phrase in a song so I built it around that. Kesav tuned it in Kannada ragam back in 2019.

https://drive.google.com/file/d/1BHlJyr ... sp=sharing

[sreeni]

On the auspicious occasion of Varalakshmi vratam day today, here is one of my early works on Lakshmi that Kesav tuned in janaranjani and performed:

https://youtu.be/mwPwEO5BecM

From lyrical point of view, I did not maintain the normal second syllable prAsa but I have "horizontal prAsa" 1st and 3rd words of every line mostly rhyme.

Feedback welcome!

[sreeni]

Happy Vinayaka chaviti/Ganesha chaturthi to all!

Here is a composition of mine on Vinayaka in Sanskrit that my son Kesav tuned in Todi in rettukalai (slow) adi talam. It has madhyama kalam in both anu pallavi and charanam.

He presented it as part of ASFA (Adi Sankara Fine Arts) inauguration last year.

https://youtu.be/A6sFCYQpWFg

[rajeshnat]

Happy Vinayaka chaviti/Ganesha chaturthi to all!

Here is a composition of mine on Vinayaka in Sanskrit that my son Kesav tuned in Todi in rettukalai (slow) adi talam. It has madhyama kalam in both anu pallavi and charanam.

He presented it as part of ASFA (Adi Sankara Fine Arts) inauguration last year.

https://youtu.be/A6sFCYQpWFg

First time I am hearing your Todi krithi - Herambam vande , well done father -son . This Todi song of yours is just like Karthikeya Kangeya krithi of papanasm Sivan In its adaptation (atleast to my ears).Keep posting and also bit more into how you processed will be interesting . I did not know about your inspiration and what made you compose , some thoughts on your childhood early teens may be from your village and then if any inspiration with your present place in usa and what made you compose will be good .

I just googled to find your village root is in Krishna district in AP. Many years back I met one vageyyakara who composed lot of krithis based on New york Rush Temple of Lord Vinayaga after he moved from South India to USA. They were well done.

@arasi are you there in this thread

[sreeni]

Thank you for your kind words and encouragement, @rajeshnat!

Please see my intro post that has some more on my background/inspiration. And yes, I'm originally from Kaikalur in Krishna district in Andhra. We lived across from Sri Syamalamba temple and back in the day with no other entertainment (not even radio!), temple puja and programs were our main form of entertainment. Spending so much time there when young helped me pickup a lot of hymns and slokas by listening to the programs there. I also studied Sanskrit as my second language until high school. So I try to bring some of that into my songs.

For this specific song, the inspiration is Dikhsitar's Sri mAtR bhUtam - how the first syllable of every line in madhyama kalam starts on the previos line like su-vAsita, vi-kAsa priya etc. Kesav liked it a lot and said we should do something like that. So I scour vinayaka slokas and ashtakam and came up with it. I also felt that there were not many songs praising Ganesha as hEramba (until later when I found hErambAya in aTHaNa). Finally Kesav wanted to do a slow paced one like kamalAmbam bhajarE so that's the final product!

https://docs.google.com/document/d/1FCh ... sp=sharing

[sreeni]

For contrast, here is a fast song in Nattai on Ganesha that Kesav performed at the Hamsadhwani NRI Sabha in Chennai December 2019.

https://youtu.be/9hvWLV8_gA0

[sreeni]

Here is a song on Lord Venkateswara in Telugu that I wrote and my son Kesav tuned it in Deva Gandhari and sung today. The idea of this song is to bring the story of Adi Seshu's seven heads forming the seven hills in kaliyuga.

https://youtu.be/bKl91iXzkqE

[sreeni]

Happy Navaratri to all!

Here is a song on Saraswati that I wrote mainly because I like the slokam last line sAmAmpAtu Saraswati. So much just built a song around that phrase using simple descriptions/traits of her. Kesav saw that and immediately said it has to be in Sama! So here it is.

https://drive.google.com/file/d/1MYOHnK ... p=drivesdk

[sreeni]

Here is one more in Telugu from 2019. Not sure what inspired it though lol. I think I was feeling somewhat philosophical and it came out this way. Basically the theme of the song is searching in vain for Vishnu everywhere because we heard from all the sages and elders that he is everywhere. Kesav tuned it in Suryakantam.

https://drive.google.com/file/d/1XBWyNP ... p=drivesdk

Lyrics:

https://docs.google.com/document/d/1vDw ... p=drivesdk

[sreeni]

Happy Maha Sivaratri to all rasikas! Here is a song by me praising lord Siva. Pretty simple but Kesav tuned it in Niroshta so the song was purpose written to avoid the letters pa pha ba bha ma. He also added a chitta swarm.

https://youtu.be/wfBcIP79rCE

Lyrics with notation:

https://docs.google.com/document/d/1cMu ... p=drivesdk

[sreeni]

Happy Sri Rama Navami to all rasikas! Here is a song from this day 2020 where Kesav sang this song on Rama (in Telugu) written by me and tuned by Kesav in Charukesi. I just wanted to use the Telugu word "grakkuna" (meaning right away) in a song so this came On the spot Kesav changed it to a 3 short charanam song in chapu so we made up the anupallavi on the spot. Thanks!

https://www.facebook.com/10000471295673 ... 047522713/

[sreeni]

Happy mother's day for all US friends

Here is a song where I was trying hard to make non-devotional/secular songs I wrote this for mother's day 2019 with theme as tribute to mother in Telugu. Kesav tuned it in Kalyani. It was the second or third songhe tuned so a bit rough around edges but I think it did bring out the sentiment.

https://drive.google.com/file/d/1_jhumR ... p=drivesdk

[sreeni]

Happy Vijaya Dasami to all rasikas!

Here is a song on amba (inlcuidng all forms ) in Telugu. One day Kesav asked me what gamanasrama means and it was aragam and he wans a song that starts with that word. Literal translation was stop by during the journey I thought so abstractly meant like stop/rest in the journey of life. So here is the song:

https://drive.google.com/file/d/107R25L ... p=drivesdk

Thank you!

[Govindaswamy]

Dear Sir
I suggest to you to refer to the Website 'thyagaraja vaibhavam' of Sri. V.Govindan. He gives word by word meaning of the lyrics. I am giving below the meaning of udupathi mukhulella in caranam 1,

As all (ella) the Moon – Lord (pati) of stars (uDu)(uDu-pati) – Faced (mukhulu) (mukhulella) women standing in a line (varusagA), holding (paTTi) medallions (birudulanu), hail (anagA) victory (jaya jaya) (jayamanagA) to the Mother at every step (aDugaDugu),
Govindaswamy

[sreeni]

Thanks! I am aware of that site. But I try to figure it out myself most often as a way to remember and be connected with my mother tongue:)

Dear Sir
I suggest to you to refer to the Website 'thyagaraja vaibhavam' of Sri. V.Govindan. He gives word by word meaning of the lyrics. I am giving below the meaning of udupathi mukhulella in caranam 1,

As all (ella) the Moon – Lord (pati) of stars (uDu)(uDu-pati) – Faced (mukhulu) (mukhulella) women standing in a line (varusagA), holding (paTTi) medallions (birudulanu), hail (anagA) victory (jaya jaya) (jayamanagA) to the Mother at every step (aDugaDugu),
Govindaswamy

[sreeni]

Celebrating Sri Rama's triumphant return to Ayodhya!

On this auspicious occasion of Sri Rama's triumphant return to Ayodhya, wanted to share a song I wrote a while ago.

It is inspired by Thyagaraja composition vidhi sakradulaku dorakuna. I originally based it on Rama navami parade we used to have in our village. But I felt it's an appropriate song for this occasion as well. Not yet tuned though. I was originally thinking Deva manohari for this song.

Telugu:
అజరుద్రుల కైన-అరుదు
సుజనులార చూడరే రాముని

కుజశుక్రాది నవగ్రహములు
అచరములై వేడుకజూడ

ద్విజవరుల వేదఘోషలతో
భజనసేయుచు సద్భక్తులు
గజతురగము లతో విశ్వ-
నాధనుతు నూరెరిగింప

English script with words/meaning

Pallavi:
aja rudrulakaina arudu
(It's rare for even Brahma and Siva)
sujanulAra cUDarE rAmuni
(But good people get to see rAma)

Anupallavi:
kuja SukrAdi Nava grahamulu
(Nine planets like mercury and Venus)
acaramulai vEDuka jUDa
(Stopped to watch the celebration)

Charanam:
dvija varula vEda ghOShalato
(Brahmins reciting Vedas)
bhjana sEyucu sadbhaktaulu
(Devotees doing bhajana)
gaja turagamulato viSwa-
(With elephants and horses)
nAdha nutunUrerigimpa
(The lord goes to the town in a parade/float)



https://docs.google.com/document/d/1Bch ... p=drivesdk