TM Krishna, Mysore Nagaraj & Umayalpuram Sivaraman at Sydney

mohan · Post by **mohan** » 04 Mar 2007, 18:33

TM Krishna â€“ vocal
Mysore Nagaraj â€“ violin
Umayalpuram K. Sivaraman â€“ mrudangam

Saturday 3rd March 2007 â€“ 6.30pm to 10pm
Ryde Civic Hall (Sydney, Australia)
Concert organised by Pallavi (www.pallavi.org)

1. vanajakshi (varnam), kalyani, khanda jathi ata, pallavi gopala iyer
2. sujana jeevana, khamas, rupaka, thyagaraja (a, s)
3. enta veduko, saraswati manohari, adi, thyagaraja
4. janani, rithigowla, misra chapu, subbaraya sastri (a)
5. santana ramaswaminam, hindolavasantam, adi, muthuswami dikshitar
6. koluvaiyunnude, bhairavi, adi, thyagaraja (a, n, s, t)
7. rtp, saveri, tisra triputa (2-kalai) â€œkarimora vina leda, hare krishnaâ€

rshankar · Post by **rshankar** » 04 Mar 2007, 20:19

Thanks Mohan...
What does karimora mean?

arunk · Post by **arunk** » 04 Mar 2007, 21:19

based on the telugu dictionary http://dsal.uchicago.edu/dictionaries/brown/

kari: elephant
mora: cry

so i guess the interpreted translation could be something like "didnt the elephant cry and call (you)? O Krishna!" or "didnt you come to the aid of the elephant that cried out and called you O Krishna!"

Of course my knowledge of telugu is zilch - but if I am right, i owe it all to the online dictionary!

Arun

vijay · Post by **vijay** » 04 Mar 2007, 23:01

I've heard Alathur Brothers sing this Pallavi....

vijay · Post by **vijay** » 04 Mar 2007, 23:01

Aha, a description of Gajendra Moksham....

arunsri · Post by **arunsri** » 04 Mar 2007, 23:28

The varnam is attributed to pallavi gOpAlayyar (actually mUlaivIDu rangaswAmi naTTuvanAr)
kANavEnDAmO is by pApanAsam sivan

sankirnam · Post by **sankirnam** » 05 Mar 2007, 00:29

Mohan, any chance of you posting a review of UKS's upcoming talavadya kutcheri in Sydney as well? Thanks

nevermind, I just saw that that concert was actually before this one! Any reviews?

mohan · Post by **mohan** » 05 Mar 2007, 02:55

vijay wrote:I've heard Alathur Brothers sing this Pallavi....

Yes - you can hear this version at http://www.ecse.rpi.edu/Homepages/shivk ... ur-c02.mp3

Alathur Bros have sung it in 4-kalai though. Krishna sang the faster 2-kalai version.

mohan · Post by **mohan** » 05 Mar 2007, 02:57

arunsri wrote:The varnam is attributed to pallavi gOpAlayyar (actually mUlaivIDu rangaswAmi naTTuvanAr)
kANavEnDAmO is by pApanAsam sivan

thanks - have edited the post

Lakshman · Post by **Lakshman** » 05 Mar 2007, 03:03

arunsri wrote:

The varnam is attributed to pallavi gOpAlayyar (actually mUlaivIDu rangaswAmi naTTuvanAr)

Did you mean to say that Pallavi Gopala Iyer and Rangasami Nattuvanar are one and the same or that this varNa is by the latter?

mohan · Post by **mohan** » 05 Mar 2007, 04:22

sankirnam wrote:Mohan, any chance of you posting a review of UKS's upcoming talavadya kutcheri in Sydney as well? Thanks

nevermind, I just saw that that concert was actually before this one! Any reviews?

The Rhythm Spectrum concert was at the famous Sydney Opera House (Utzon Room). The format was

1. Percussion solo by Sri Umayalpuram Sivaraman in Tisra Eka tala (2 kalai) 30 mins
2. Konnakol and mrudangam interaction by Sridhar Chari (disciple of Sri Sivaraman) and Sri Umayalpuram Sivaraman 10 mins
3. Violin duet by Mysore Nagaraj & Dr Mysore Manjunath with Sri UKS 40 mins
Abogi varnam
ra ra ma inti daka - asaveri
nannu palimpa - mohanam
jagadhodharana - kapi

interval

4. TM Krishna with Mysore Manjunath and Sri UKS 45 mins
RTP in Thodi, Adi talam with kalpana swaram in Sahana, Surutti
+ 1 other piece and mangalam

I think a review will be coming on kutcheribuzz.

vasanthakokilam · Post by **vasanthakokilam** » 05 Mar 2007, 05:18

It is great that a CM concert is organized at a top tier auditorium. Is this commonly done in Sydney and in other major cities in Australia?

mohan · Post by **mohan** » 05 Mar 2007, 06:51

vasanthakokilam wrote:It is great that a CM concert is organized at a top tier auditorium. Is this commonly done in Sydney and in other major cities in Australia?

No, it is not that common here. Unless there is a major sponsor involved it is alomost impossible to break even on such a concert. Also our Carnatic patrons often complain about the high ticket prices + high cost of parking at such venues. We had 120 in attendance at the Opera House and around 450 at the other concert at a community hall!

meena · Post by **meena** » 05 Mar 2007, 07:03

mohan

pallavi.org is the site down?

mohan · Post by **mohan** » 05 Mar 2007, 07:32

meena - it just is taking a while to load but it did load for me when I tried a minute ago.

rasam · Post by **rasam** » 05 Mar 2007, 11:14

Looks like it must have been a great concert ...

I find it amazing that the kalyani varnam is the only prati-madhyamam piece even including RTP ragamalika swaras and the ragamalika virutham!!

arunsri · Post by **arunsri** » 05 Mar 2007, 11:22

Lakshman Sir

What I meant was, most books attribute it to Pallavi Gopallayar. However, I think the one by William Jackson (I think) mentions it as a varnam by the naTTuvanAr. He also says it is wrongly attributed to Gopalayyar.

I would like to agree a little, since the mudra rangasAmi is the mudra of the naTTuvanAr. It is not seen in any varnam of pallavi gOpAlayyar.

mohan · Post by **mohan** » 05 Mar 2007, 14:03

Wasn't Pallavi Gopala Iyer the student of Pacchimiriyam Adiyappayya? I have read about how the latter accepted the former as a student.

During a long train journey Gopala Iyer approached Adiyappayya (composer of the Viriboni Bhairavi varnam) to become his student. Adiyappayya asked him to compose a varnam by the end of the journey. Gopala Iyer took up the challenge and the result was Vanajakshi Ata tala varnam in Kalyani. Needless to say, Gopala Iyer passed the test and was allowed to be a student of the great Adiyappayya.

rbharath · Post by **rbharath** » 05 Mar 2007, 14:15

how on earth can gopalayyar and rangaswami nattuvanaar be the same person? i am confused.

I am told, that The vanajakshi varnam is a composition of Rangaswami Nattuvanaar and it bears the mudra 'rangasAmi' in the anupallavi.

rbharath · Post by **rbharath** » 05 Mar 2007, 14:16

train journey? in the days of Adiyappaya???

trains came to madras presidency in 1850s. That too between Royapuram and Arcot.

drshrikaanth · Post by **drshrikaanth** » 05 Mar 2007, 14:20

The story of the train journey is of vINe SEShaNNa and maisUru vAsudEvAcAr. And the test for MV was not to compose a varNa but to learn one by the end of journey with being taught the bits only once.

vijay · Post by **vijay** » 05 Mar 2007, 14:56

Kalyani Ata tala varnam, if it had indeed been composed during a journey (railway or otherwise), the mind boggles at the genius of the composer (Nattuvanar or Gopalayyer)...one of the most slippery compositions in carnatic music...

mohan · Post by **mohan** » 05 Mar 2007, 15:08

rbharath wrote:train journey? in the days of Adiyappaya???

trains came to madras presidency in 1850s. That too between Royapuram and Arcot.

haha -- i didn't think I'd get away with that one

mohan · Post by **mohan** » 05 Mar 2007, 18:14

Have added a photo to the initial post.

mahesh33 · Post by **mahesh33** » 05 Mar 2007, 21:31

For the record, the brilliant Mysore Nagaraj accompanies

!

rasam · Post by **rasam** » 06 Mar 2007, 09:31

Whoever the composer is, the varnam is simply too good ... especially the charanam "chiru navvu ..." which is easy to sing in swarams but the akaram gets pretty challenging to sing in one breath ... I get the goosebumps when TNS adds some of his own sangatis to this charanam

rbharath · Post by **rbharath** » 06 Mar 2007, 14:52

The varNam is indeed a composition of srIrangam mUlaivITTu rangasAmi naTTuvanAr.

mohan, please edit your opening post again.

mohan · Post by **mohan** » 06 Mar 2007, 15:41

I'm not totally convinced. The sources I checked say Pallavi Gopala Iyer only. Sri Lakshman can you shed more light on this? Also, what are the known compositions of rangasami nattuvanar?

sr_iyer · Post by **sr_iyer** » 06 Mar 2007, 16:08

One of the caraNa (ciTTa) svaram-s notated in Sangeeta Sampradaya Pradarshini starts as ndd, mgrr, mgrndpm is rarely sung. (The remaining 5 are sung commonly.) I have heard this svara passage being played by Smt Kalpakam Swaminathan and Sri MSG.

Subbarama Dikshitar in his Sangeeta Sampradaya Pradarshini in 1904 has attributed this to Pallavi Gopala Iyer. The other varNams attributed to Pallavi Gopala Iyer are kanakAngi (tODi aTa tALa) and inta calamu (kAmbhOji aTa tALa). I would be interested in knowing the period of Rangaswami Nattuvanar (the composer of varNa calamEla in nATTakkurinji).

sr_iyer · Post by **sr_iyer** » 06 Mar 2007, 16:22

A tidbit: Sri BM Sundaram, in an article in his book on varNams, identifies various mudras of (pre-trinity) Pallavi Gopala Iyer used in his varNams and kR.ti-s and uses the vanajAkshi aTa tALa varNam to point to the mudra kastUriranga. (However, he questions the attribution of the tODi varNam kanakAngi!). (I do not have Sri BMS book handy as I write this.) This is just an additional piece of info I wanted to add...

mohan · Post by **mohan** » 06 Mar 2007, 17:26

Pallavi Gopalayyar is the author of three classical Varnas in Ata tala: Vanjakshi (Kalyani), Kanagangi nee chelimi (Todi and Inta Chalamu (Kambhoji) ...

The story goes that when Gopalayyar composed his Varna in Kalyani raga and sang it before his guru, Adiyappayya for his opinion, the latter remarked that it was just a 'school boy's composition'. It was not Adiyappayya's intention to snub his distinguished disciple. He offered the remark just to prevent his puil from being unduly proud of his attainments. Subsequently, he encouraged his pupil to direct his genius to the composition of more Varnas. The reference to Kasturi Rangaswami in the anupallavi of the Varna is only to Vishnu, the father of Manmatha.

Prof. P Sambamoorthy (reprinted from The Hindu19-4-1970 in B. Dayananda Rao (1995), Carnatic Music Composers, The Triveni Foundation, Hyderabad, p.88.

rasam · Post by **rasam** » 07 Mar 2007, 04:17

The story goes that when Gopalayyar composed his Varna in Kalyani raga and sang it before his guru, Adiyappayya for his opinion, the latter remarked that it was just a 'school boy's composition'

Thats some attitude! Does someone have a list of Adiyappayya's compositions? Viriboni is the only composition of his that I know of, and if thats all he has composed, he had no business to deride other people's compositions

gn.sn42 · Post by **gn.sn42** » 07 Mar 2007, 04:18

arunsri wrote:the mudra rangasAmi is the mudra of the naTTuvanAr.

Could you provide more information on the naTTuvanAr?

mohan · Post by **mohan** » 07 Mar 2007, 04:56

rasam wrote:Does someone have a list of Adiyappayya's compositions? Viriboni is the only composition of his that I know of, and if thats all he has composed, he had no business to deride other people's compositions

There is a separate thread about Adiyappayya at http://rasikas.org/forums/viewtopic.php?pid=32739

More than being a composer he was a famous musician of the Tanjore Court. He is mentioned as a guru of Shyama Sastri as well.

mri_fan · Post by **mri_fan** » 07 Mar 2007, 07:03

One of these days we'll need a thread about Sri Nagaraj...he's an excellent yet humble musician. Whenever him and his brother perform he doesn't do the speaking before each piece, but he makes his violin speak beautifully

vijay · Post by **vijay** » 07 Mar 2007, 12:21

rasam wrote:
The story goes that when Gopalayyar composed his Varna in Kalyani raga and sang it before his guru, Adiyappayya for his opinion, the latter remarked that it was just a 'school boy's composition'
Thats some attitude! Does someone have a list of Adiyappayya's compositions? Viriboni is the only composition of his that I know of, and if thats all he has composed, he had no business to deride other people's compositions

Just the one composition Rasam, but singularly brilliant! However, if that was really his opinion of the Kalyani Varnam, I must differ - it does not have the elegance of Viribhoni but as I have observed earlier, one of the most complex compositions in CM. Very far from a school boy's work...

drshrikaanth · Post by **drshrikaanth** » 07 Mar 2007, 13:47

There is also Adippayya's varNa in rAmakriya/kAmavardhini.

jayaram · Post by **jayaram** » 07 Mar 2007, 14:14

Thats some attitude! Does someone have a list of Adiyappayya's compositions? Viriboni is the only composition of his that I know of, and if thats all he has composed, he had no business to deride other people's compositions

Perhaps you didn't read the second part of the article?

It was not Adiyappayya's intention to snub his distinguished disciple. He offered the remark just to prevent his puil from being unduly proud of his attainments.

That's been the style adopted by several gurus from time immemorial. In fact, they reserve it for their best students.

ksrimech · Post by **ksrimech** » 08 Mar 2007, 02:07

drshrikaanth wrote:There is also Adippayya's varNa in rAmakriya/kAmavardhini.

Was it the one made popular by DKP and DKJ? Or was the popular one SaTkAla narasayyA's?

drshrikaanth · Post by **drshrikaanth** » 08 Mar 2007, 02:20

DKP- sang the Adi tALa varNa which is ShaTkAla narasayya's. Adiyappayya's is in aTa tALa.

Lakshman · Post by **Lakshman** » 08 Mar 2007, 03:12

madavAti nIpai. rAga: kAmavardhani. k/aTa tALA. Composer: Pachchimiriam AdiappaiyA

P: madavAti nIpai cAla marulukonnAdirA
A: sadayUDau dakSiNa dvAraka cakkani shrI rAjagOpAla
C: dharalOna nIvE daya galavAdani

ksrimech · Post by **ksrimech** » 08 Mar 2007, 03:17

Wow thank you DRSji and Lakshmanji. Beautiful lyics yet again on SrIrAjagOpAlan. I have never heard this one. Does anyone have a recording?

meena · Post by **meena** » 08 Mar 2007, 03:25

ksrimech
http://rasikas.org/forums/viewtopic.php?pid=32739

rbharath · Post by **rbharath** » 15 Mar 2007, 16:11

rbharath wrote:The varNam is indeed a composition of srIrangam mUlaivITTu rangasAmi naTTuvanAr.

mohan, please edit your opening post again.

i guess i have to go back on my statement earlier..

Pradrashini also lists this kalyANi varNam as a composition of Pallavi Gopalayyar.

mohan · Post by **mohan** » 15 Mar 2007, 17:06

Review of the Opera House concert - http://kutcheribuzz.com/features/column ... ahouse.asp

rshankar · Post by **rshankar** » 15 Mar 2007, 21:47

VERY nice Mohan!