Shun the raga! :D

srikant1987 · Post by **srikant1987** » 06 Sep 2009, 15:30

Now as we have some ragas being performed less and less often, in spite of multiple concerts virtually every day in Chennai, we need to sense that certain ragas are being over-featured, thanks to which these ragas are sidelined.

In his interview with Shri Ravi Kiran, Sangeeta Kalanidhi Shri R K Srikantan expressed his concerns over the prominence given to vivAdi rAgas, hindustAni ragas, and to some other ragas like naTanArAyaNi.

I feel that hindustAni ragas as such have been by and large kept for the tukkaDa section only: it's only in the one-off concert of TNS's or Sanjay's that and RTP is devoted to it. Why? Even naTanArAyaNi is mostly reserved for the fast-paced fillers, and only on some rare occasion taken up for deeper exploration. And sadly enough, these are the concerts that form the news.
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But in a "routine" concert, pratimadhyama ragas like hEmavati, dharmavati, simhEndamadhyamam, vAcaspati get a lot of prominence, as do some other mELakartas like kIravANi or naThabhairavi, thanks to a one-off 2-kaLai Adi composition. Or maybe dragging kIravANi is a little too much?

I feel these ragas should be, not shunned ... but kept aside, to make way for narayanagaulai or balahamsa.

bilahari · Post by **bilahari** » 06 Sep 2009, 17:02

Never--I will never agree to send kIravANi packing!
Although I personally enjoy some of the Hindustani RTPs, I definitely agree with people's grouse that there are so many ragas in CM yet to be explored, and that these should get preference. I am not a big fan of vivAdi ragas like shUlini or tAnarUpi, though some artistes like TSK, Sanjay, and to some extent Malladi Brothers too can extract some melody from them. But I agree that ragas like nArAyaNagowLa, balahamsa, etc, have lots of rakthi content that desperately needs to be fleshed out.

vasanthakokilam · Post by **vasanthakokilam** » 07 Sep 2009, 02:20

I think the test for 'side lining' of ragas for major exploration as in RTP is 'Is it a scale based raga for the most part?'.

Not that there is anything inherently wrong with scale based ragas but they need to have their melodic identities developed. RTPs are not the proper forum to do that. So those who prefer such side-lining should also support another 'incubator' where such scale based ragas are given melodic identities. I do not know which one it is, this is definitely missing from CM concert practise. If such a 'incubator' slot(s) exist in CM concert as a regular item ( it can be a self-composition by the artists or their vaggeyakara friend ), then there is avenue for ragas to 'fight' for their place in RTPs. Who is going to be the 'Ariyakudi' for introducing such an incubator slot in CM concerts?

If such a test is used for RTP ragas, what it does, interestingly, is, while roping in bAlahamsA and nArAyaNagowLA and retaining kIravANi, it also opens up a lot of Hindusthani ragas as possibilities for RTP. This is because, Hindusthani music does not believe in strict scale based ragas. The musicians work on it over a period of years to give them true melodic identities. Not that all of HM ragas are possibilities for a CM RTP but I am sure there are a lot of low-hanging fruits out there ready to be plucked and shaped into the CM mould.

srinivasrgvn · Post by **srinivasrgvn** » 07 Sep 2009, 06:27

srikant1987 · Post by **srikant1987** » 07 Sep 2009, 07:35

vasanthakokilam,

To give shape to these scalar ragas, we should compose songs.

And there should be more space given to composers of recent times.

srinivasrgvn,

I am not complaining about kharaharapriya, but about simhendra madhyamam. Narayana gowlai definitely is appealing ... and no one will run away even if 10 minutes are spent on a strange ragam that isn't very catchy. Ahiri is indeed anti-catchy to those new to CM.

srinivasrgvn · Post by **srinivasrgvn** » 07 Sep 2009, 14:18

Radhika-Rajnarayan · Post by **Radhika-Rajnarayan** » 24 Sep 2009, 18:03

Well, it's only by use does a so-called 'scalar raga' become 'fleshed out' with colour and body. Take Chakravakam. If Maha Vaidyanatha Iyer could sing it in those days when obviously it was a 'scalar raga' and popularise it, why not other ragas?
A classic example of a person who treated a 'scalar' or 'minor' raga expansively is that of Dr.S Balachander (I know, I know - everyone will say 'but he was a genius' - so, we need geniuses, we need the stars, we need everyone to do this). Sri. SB elaborated Neetimati & Rishabhapriya so enticingly in a couple of radio programmes that I wrote him a letter asking for the notation of the kriti. Which he, being the generous soul he was, immediately sent me. And I got obsessed with these ragas, and played them over and over again on my veena and thoroughly enjoyed them.
Once he played Kamalamanohari (kanchadalaaya daakshi) at Malleswaram for 45 mins. And people were in a trance!
Why, Gangeyabhushani - after hearing Dr Balamuralikrishna, both Raj Narayan and myself got obsessed by the raga and kriti (Nee sari evvare) and latched on to it for the next few weeks! Some of these 'scalar' ragas can be magnetic!
And finally, as my teacher Smt V Saraswati used to say, when I, as a young teen, told her I did not like one raga or the other - 'abbebey! alaaga cheppakoo! Anni raagaalu manchidey! Anni nerchukovaale, anni paadaale!'

ramakriya · Post by **ramakriya** » 24 Sep 2009, 22:07

I fully agree to what Radhika-Rajnarayan says. Some of the so-called vivAdi rAgas are too wonderful to be thrown away like that! Let's not forget that both nATi and varALi are vivAdi.

Also, if you look at the history of rAgas, it is a natural evolution some rAgas go out of favor, and some some new ones come in, for various reasons. In ragas like Kalyani or kharaharapriya (which have gained popularity), sAmanta and pADi (which have gone into oblivion) the results are there to see.

-Ramakriya