NSG @ Trivandrum - 21 Mar 2011

[makham]

One month back a friend from Chennai had told me that NSG was performing at Trivandrum on Mar 21. Till the morning of Mar 21 I tried every source to find out the venue and the organization under whose auspices he was singing. Finally I called the friend in Chennai to find out the details and she did. So much for Information Dissemination! Yet there must have been a hundred people in the audience.

The concert was special in the sense that, in addition to violin (Raghul - violinlover in the forum), there was flute (Sruti Sagar) as an accompaniment. Umayalpuram Mali on the mridangam completed the accompaniment ensemble. The initial thought in my mind was that the flute might disturb the structuring of the concert and prove to be an intrusion. I was proved wrong. It added value to the concert. The understanding among NSG, Raghul and Sagar was superb - no confusion, no over-playing; rather there was under-playing and the audience was seen signalling to Shruti to join in whenever he chose to remain silent. His short interludes created good effect.

NSG started with the familiar Begada varnam. The next item was Smara vAram vAram of Sadasiva Brahmendra rendered in Gowla. Sadinchane was next. If you have guessed the next piece, yes you are right. Varali with kA vA vA. Annapoorne was sung ostensibly to please some rasiks but to me it appeared that NSG sang it to please himself. Kapi and Inta sowkhya turned out to be the main piece. Mali's thani was excellent. Raghul was brilliant in playing Kapi without Hindustani touches. The camaraderie displayed on the stage among the four artistes raised the level of enjoyment for the rasikas.

NSG mentioned about the equinox on Mar 21 and hence to celebrate equal day & night chose to sing Ravichandrika - Niravadhi sukhada.

The concert was marred by loud sounds of drums as part of the temple seeveli ritual from 8.15 PM to 9.15 PM. It would be a contempt of temple to term it as disturbance. But why arrange concerts in such proximity to the sannadhis? Why not change the concert timings so as not to interfere? The venue and the temple in question is the Abhedasram at Trivandrum.

[appu]

NSG mentioned about the equinox on Mar 21 and hence to celebrate equal day & night chose to sing Ravichandrika - Niravadhi sukhada.

Could someone please mention the relationship between ragam Ravichandrika and the Equinox

[vishnu]

NSG mentioned about the equinox on Mar 21 and hence to celebrate equal day & night chose to sing Ravichandrika - Niravadhi sukhada.

Could someone please mention the relationship between ragam Ravichandrika and the Equinox

Day has 'Ravi' and night has 'Chandra'.
It could be that 'Ravi' and 'Chandra' have equal importance in the 'Ravichandrika' and so he chose to sing that on such a day where ravi and chandra show their presence for equal duration.

Vishnu

[srikant1987]

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Equinox

I didn't know about the equinox/equiluxe distinction earlier, but yes, both of them are entirely solar phenomena, and have nothing to do with chandra as such -- unless you also approximate sunset to moonrise.

[vishnu]

I think we need not go deep into physics The basic idea is by relating sun with day and moon with night.. 'Equal day and night' is assumed to be from equal contribution of sun and moon. Hence, IMHO chosing 'ravichandrika' was really appropriate, just because of the very name.

[arasi]

Makham,
Thanks for the review. A lot of effort on your part to find out the details of the concert. A Ram in Chennai and Braindrain in Bengaluru is an asset, indeed. Newspapers are not to be trusted always, when it comes to details about a concert.

Vishnu,
Is it also possible that there is more to the equinox reference in singing ravichandrikA? I'm wondering because NSG is well versed in shAstrAs too. He could perhaps chime in and enlighten us?

[VRV]

Day has 'Ravi' and night has 'Chandra'.
It could be that 'Ravi' and 'Chandra' have equal importance in the 'Ravichandrika' and so he chose to sing that on such a day where ravi and chandra show their presence for equal duration.

Vishnu

I really like this answer. It just makes sense.

[srikant1987]

This answer would only be complete upon mentioning that "ravi" refers to the sun and "candra" to the moon. Since appu couldn't make the connection for "equal day and night", I guess s/he doesn't know the meaning of "ravi" and "candra".

[makham]

The explanations that sun is associated with day and moon with night taken together with ravi means sun and chandrika means moon seem to be right. In remarks such as these we should not look for scientific rigor or literary rigor. They are approximate statements similar to the clues in a crossword puzzle.

[mridhangam]

I had a similar beating of drums experience in a concert for Sangita Kalanidhi Shri.T N Krishnan at Calicut last year and it started just 30 mins after the concert and went on till the concert was over. Even though it was distracting we couldnt help but continue with our performances.

In Chennai also many temples have their own times of deeparadhana wherein heavy bell sound or the recently installed electronic drum (coupled with bell) will come up suddenly while a beautiful phase of concert was in progress. Many temples see to it that the concert gets over either before this ritual or the concert starts after this ritual.

The Ayyappan temple in Mahalingapuram conducts this puja around 6.30 in the evening to a big sound of Panchavadhyam with bells all over. But the authorities take care to see that the concert starts at 7 pm and goes on without any disturbance till 9 pm.

More so in a temple the deity is more important and temple rituals take highest priority. It is for the artistes and organisers to take cognisance of this aspect and adjust accordingly. Our music should also be taken as an offering to the Presiding deity along with other music if anything like that comes up.

Mannarkoil J Balaji