Nandita Ravi, Lec-dem on The Music of Shyama Sastri, Music C

rbharath · Post by **rbharath** » 18 Nov 2008, 16:22

Nandita Ravi - Akkarai Swarnalatha - S J Arjun Ganesh

The Music of Shyama Sastri
Music Club IIT Madras, BT Auditorium
8th November 2008. 10 am

The Programme began with a brief introduction about the Composer, giving biographical details about him. Emphasis was laid on the style of the composer highlighting the essentialities like simple and elegant sahityam, handling the sahityam and ragams. The speaker also said that though it looks simple, the handling is actually very intellectual and needs sound knowledge of music to understand and learn the kritis and perform them. The mudra used is 'shyAma krishna' and he composed predominantly in telugu. Also present are compositions in tamil and sanskrit.

A classification of the kritis on ragams/talams was presented. Also mentioned was an analysis on which kriti became popular during which period of time in history.

All compositions are composed in the bhava of a son talking to his mom, where Goddess bangAru kAmAkshi is the mother.

'kannatalli gAdA biDDayanikanikaramintaina lEdA' from 'ninnE nammi nAnu' in tODi is the ultimate essence of all his compositions. This line was sung and explained word by word to reiterate the mood and theme of all his compositions. Also, cited for the same theme was 'mAyammA yani nE' in Ahiri.

Availablitiy of 4 varNams, 3 svarajati, 4 gItams and 60 kritis was mentioned.

The various specialities of Shyama Sastri kritis was listed and later explained in detail. This include the vilOma cApu construction, the various eDuppus that are employed, and svara sAhityams. The concept of vilOma cApu was explained in detail and illustrated as well.

'pArvati janani' the gItam in bhairavi set to kaNDa maTya tALa was sung as an illustrative piece for the style of SS' gItams. Also explained in detail was the construction of the svarajatis. The bhairavi piece was taken up for this. The beginning of each caraNam having each successive svaram from the ArOhaNam was highlighted. Also mentioned was the yadukula kAmbhOji svarajati for its beauty.

Explained in detail was the construction of SS' varNams. While popular varNams have a pallavi, anupallavi, muktAyi svaram, caraNam and eTTugaDa svarams, SS' varNams have a sAhityam for the muktAyi svarams and also present is anubandam which is prevalent in many old varNams but is not present in varNams composed in later days and is omitted even in the older varNams.

The varNam in saurAshTram set to catusra aTa tALam was rendered. Also explained in detail was the different phrases in the varNam. The way the caraNam should be sung, with the ending changing each time it is rendered eventually leading to each of the next eTTugaDa svarams was explained in detail. presence of varNams in bEgaDa and kalyANi was also mentioned.

Next, the style of kritis was explained in detail. The compositions are filled with Raga Bhavam. They have a unique style and have very nice sangatis.

'nIlayadAkshi' in paras was rendered and similarity in the tunes between anupallavi and caraNam was highlighted. The style of svara sAhityam was explained and parts of 'durusuga krupajUchi' was rendered.

The various eDuppus employed by SS in his kritis was explained. 'talli ninnu nEra' in kalyANi, 'marivErE' in Anandabhairavi, 'ninnE nammi nAnu' in tODi, ' mInalOchana brOva' in danyAsi were all taken as examples of various eDuppus in cApu tALa kritis.

The various 'angams' used for beauty by SS were explained. The clever usage of svarAksharams in 'mAyammA nannubrOvavammA' in nATTakuranji and 'durusuga krupajUci' in sAvEri were explained. The classifications as suddha and suchIta svarAksharams were also explained. The prAsam he has employed was explained taking 'sarOja daLa nEtri' in shankarAbaraNam and 'karuNA nidhi ilalO' in tODi as examples.

'birAna vara' and 'himAdri sutE' in kalyANi were both sung to highlight the same tune, different sAhityam. The eDuppu used and the renditions in rUpakam and tisra Adi were both highlighted. Non-rakti rAgams that have been employed by SS was next mentioned. kalgaDa, cintAmaNi, janaranjani were cited as examples. 'pAlayAsumAm' in Arabhi was rendered next.

Presence of kritis in tamil and sanskrit was highlighted. 'taruNam IdammA' in gauLipantu was rendered.

The family tree of Shyama Sastri was mentioned. Subbaraya Sastri compositions are known for their high intellect. He is a disciple of all the three in the trinity. His mudra is 'kumAra'. His compositions have sangatis like those of Thyagaraja kritis and madhyama kAlam like those of Muthuswami Dikshitar. 'mIna nayana' in darbAr was rendered. Annaswami Sastri, adopted son of Subbaraya Sastri (Actually Annaswami Sastri was the nephew of subbaraya sastri. He is the son of Shyama Sastri's other son.) He was a very learned man and has composed a lot of great compositions. 'srI kAnchi nAyikE' in asAvEri was rendered highlighting the madhyama kAla caraNam.

The programme ended with 'karuNAjUDa ninnunammina' in srI rAgam.

bharath

vijay · Post by **vijay** » 18 Nov 2008, 17:26

As usual thorough and comprehensive. Thanks once again Bharath. BTW last line of first para should probably be Tamil instead of Telugu.
BTW in one of TRS' lec dems he was slightly dismissive of viloma chapu saying it is nothing more than misra chapu with kriyas reversed. Is there any other significance of Viloma Chapu?

knandago2001 · Post by **knandago2001** » 18 Nov 2008, 20:37

Thanks so much Bharat for such a comprhensive report - wish I had attended Smt. Nandita Ravi's program in person. I have very fond memories of having learnt "durusuga kripa joochi" from her grandmother Smt. Thulasi Subramaniam, a scion of the Parur Sundaram Iyer school. Mami's gamakas are sublime!

rbharath · Post by **rbharath** » 18 Nov 2008, 23:18

vijay wrote:As usual thorough and comprehensive. Thanks once again Bharath. BTW last line of first para should probably be Tamil instead of Telugu.

yes it should!

vijay wrote:BTW in one of TRS' lec dems he was slightly dismissive of viloma chapu saying it is nothing more than misra chapu with kriyas reversed. Is there any other significance of Viloma Chapu?

yes. it is true that vilOma cApu is indeed misra cApu with the kriyas reversed. the significance is that, it fits SS kritis more aptly than the misra cApu in compositions in which it is employed. and this was explained in detail.

vasanthakokilam · Post by **vasanthakokilam** » 18 Nov 2008, 23:58

bharath: Thanks very much for the report.

If possible, can you describe the details for these topics, if you can happen to have notes or if you can recollect. ( How we wish there is a recordings of this great presentation )

1) "The various eDuppus employed by SS in his kritis was explained. 'talli ninnu nEra' in kalyANi, 'marivErE' in Anandabhairavi, 'ninnE nammi nAnu' in tODi, ' mInalOchana brOva' in danyAsi were all taken as examples of various eDuppus in cApu tALa kritis."

2) "he various 'angams' used for beauty by SS were explained."

3) "The eDuppu used and the renditions in rUpakam and tisra Adi were both highlighted."

4) "it is true that vilOma cApu is indeed misra cApu with the kriyas reversed. the significance is that, it fits SS kritis more aptly than the misra cApu in compositions in which it is employed. and this was explained in detail."

rbharath · Post by **rbharath** » 19 Nov 2008, 00:14

1. in talli ninnu, the pallavi, anupallavi and caraNam actually begin at various points of the tALam vilOma cApu however, the kArvais are so adjusted each time to either return to the same line or go back to the pallavi. in ninnE nammi nAmu, the pallavi starts 2 aksharams after samam in misra cApu. in marivErE it is sama eDuppu in cApu. in mInalOchana brOva, it is again various eDuppus thro' the composition.

2. angam = parts. in varNams he has used the anubandam and also gives sAhityam for the muktAyi svarams. In kritis he gives the svara sAhityam part.

3. birAna vara and himAdri sutE were alternatively rendered in rUpakam first and then in tisra Adi. While doing so, the exact eDuppu to be employed for each of the sangatis in either tALam was mentioned.

4. talli ninnu nera fits for the 4-3 split but not for 3-4 type split. while it is viceversa for ninnE nammi nAnu...

vasanthakokilam · Post by **vasanthakokilam** » 19 Nov 2008, 00:30

Thanks bharath. I have been listening to a rendition of talli ninnu by MSS for the past couple of weeks and I found the laya structure to be quite appealing to me and sort of unique, especially the beginning.

Since I did not know it is in vilama chapu, I thought it was MC and adjusted the eduppu accordingly

( with some struggle in getting there of course ).

Viloma Chapu sama eduppu should be equivalent to MC 4th beat eduppu, I thought. That is from the point of view of technical thala keeping. Is there an aesthetic difference that makes talli ninnu viloma chapu or this is just a way to avoid the eduppu to be too far away from the samam?

thanjavooran · Post by **thanjavooran** » 19 Nov 2008, 07:29

shri Bharath, Thanks a lot . Excellent coverage of the memorable event. Best wishes,
Thanjavooran

ram · Post by **ram** » 19 Nov 2008, 08:15

Thanks Bharath for putting in so much effort and posting these detailed write-ups.