TM Krishna @VV Mohalla Mysore

[matterwaves]

TM Krishna -- Vocals
Akkarai Subbulakshmi - Violin
KV Prasad -- Mridanga
Giridhar Udupa -- Ghatam

List:
Nenendu -- Karnataka Behag S
Chetashri - Dwijavanthi N
Rama Ninne - Useni - S
Meenalochana - Dhanyasi -- RN
Jambupathe- Yamuna Kalyani--RNS
Chatur Raga RTP in Adi Tala - Shankarabharana, Kalyani, Todi and Darbar
Marubari -- Khamach S
Vatapi Ganapathim - Hamsadhwani
Maamava Pattabhirama- Manirangu
Rama Janardhana -- English Note
Pavamana

Concert duration: 3.5 hrs

[mahavishnu]

vAtApi after marubAri?
I can only imagine being in the audience when he began that piece

[arasi]

Mahavishnu,
Come, come! By now, we all know that TMK likes to shuffle the order of songs in a concert.
Had he sung something about HanumAn instead, 'that' would have made me feel really uneasy! Knowing TMK's way of communicating with the audience, he would have said to me: relax, and enjoy the song! Order is not all, sequence is inconsequential
Actually, Something about hanumAn would have been more suitable, to usher in PaTTAbhi rAmA!

[fduddy]

I will abstain from commenting

[mahavishnu]

Arasi: perhaps he was just removing the obstacles in the way of Rama rajya
I have heard him sing Swaminatha paripalayasumam in Nattai in the middle of the concert. But so far, I am not sure if he has sung Vatapi as a tail ender. Well, it keeps things interesting and gives us something to talk about!

[arasi]

'vindaigaL anEgam Seidu viLaiyADum' TMK!

[srikant1987]

This is a pretty badly-arranged list. Most of the initial numbers/rAgams are very serene ones -- perhaps the husEni piece, swarams -- and dhanyAsi AlApanai might've introduced some briskness, but they aren't exactly tailored for it either. It might've actually been a good idea to push marubAri upwards to get a little viruviruppu, even if TMK stubbornly wanted to make vAtApi gaNapatim a post-RTP item.

[Thalaivarda]

The owner of the RTP would not have been pleased. Enough Said.

[annamalai]

it is the conditioning - Vatapi - hamsadhwani at the start !! is it the song vinayaka song as a thukkada or hamsadhwani raga at end that is the problem ?

there is a beautiful javali - Nera mora - hamsadhwani - Rama Ravi sings that often at the end. Several krithis on Lord Ganesa are sung towards the end - Hastivadanaya namastubyam - Navaroj, or Ganesa Kumara has been sung at the end.

[arasi]

Mohan Santhanam's list had a hamsadhvani at the end. I have a rAga mAlikA which starts with hamsadhvani and it belongs in the tukkaDA section--or not?

[mahavishnu]

Annamalai: I appreciate the sincerity of your question. So here's my opinion on why I think it is weird to have vatapi towards the end of the concert. Perhaps it is just conditioning...

I don't think the "strangeness" in it is about the usage of hamsadhwani towards the end of the concert. I think that's fine. In fact, there are several hindustani musicians that finish the evening with lAgi lagan (which sounds just like vAtapi). Krishna himself sings Gayati vanamali towards the end of the concert in hamsadwani which is just wonderful. tarAnas in hamsadwani are absolutely superb also.

However, it is just not "convention" to sing about Ganapati towards the end of things (not that there are no obstacles towards the end of the concert). I have heard Hastivadanaya and Ganesha Kumara several times, but mostly at the beginning of the concert despite the appropriateness of Navroj and Senjurutti as "lighter" pieces. This I have heard from several musicians, mostly descendants of the Dhanammal school.

Interestingly, the usage of vAtapi ganapatim as a concert opener precedes the Ariyakkudi paddhati. It was used quite heavily by Sri Maha Vaidyanatha Sivan in his concerts in the 19th century and he is said to have introduced many of the sangatis in vogue today.

[taladhoni]

Recently TMK bought an iPod and loved the random shuffle option. He decided why not try that in a real concert!

[mahavishnu]

taladhoni: If you are the person with the youtube channel under that name, thanks for all the great uploads!

[annamalai]

Annamalai:
However, it is just not "convention" to sing about Ganapati towards the end of things (not that there are no obstacles towards the end of the concert).

I have heard Ganesa Kumara at the very end of the concert.

Anyway, what is convention ? In a different context, In a recent wedding in the Mangalore area, they served rasam before sambar ! I was perplexed, rasam with a little jaggery taste. But it was nice. This may not be the flavour or the sequence in typical tanjore style.

Praying for no obstacles for the rasikas to return safely back - dealing with all the autowalas ...

[tiruppugazh]

Annamalai - Singing Vatapi as a tukkada is like having rasam before sambar in a "tanjore" wedding! Continuing in your logic it would have been most appropriate to finish with Vatapi instead of a Mangalam

I think TMK should just start a new trend of finishing concerts with Ganapathy songs. It would be a great way to pray for all obstacles to be removed after the concert especially when you get up the next day with hangover thinking about what happened the previous evening at his concert

[matterwaves]

TMK looked pretty frail yesterday, he has lost a lot of weight since i last saw him at BIAL men's room! He was red eyed(jet lagged?) I was sitting right under his nose and his voice was intransigent, until Jambupathe. There were many minor sruti lapses.

Dwijavanti was ok and Rama ninne was delivered in Usen(i) bolt style.Akkarai played swarams well with some authentic useni patterns. Dhanyasi was ordinary. From Jambupathe on,we saw a different TMK..perhaps he had warmed up by then. A lovely raga exposition and a nereval followed by swaras in the first 'kaala' only.KV prasad embellished with some pakhawaj like sangathis. Flash photograhy pissed TMK off for a few moments while rendering the kriti.
The RTP was extraordinary.Inspired singing, there was a great degree of spontaneity and creativity. He held the audience spell bound for over 85 mins. He was able to bring out authentic raga bhava even when he sang swaras for 1/4 aavarta(2 beats--adi talam). And he he transitioned between the ragas fantastically

I heard TMK after a hiatus-- 5 yrs to be precise. I thought of him as a 'formula' singer then but he doesn't appear so anymore(except for the 2nd Kaala Nereval that is )

The audience was left in a guffaw when he started Vatapi Ganapathim. It was sung with only plain notes, shorn of any gamakam(hence looked 'light'). He wanted to end it right there but audience prodded him on to sing a couple of more compositions. Manirangu was presented beautifully in slow tempo. He made 'its over' kind of gestures after the English Note and again the audience coaxed him to sing Pavamana. Akkarai was amazing. Giridhar Udupa sparkled in the tani-- he is a star! Overall it was a very good concert.

[Thalaivarda]

Why not eat thair sadham first ?? its not gonna kill you !!

[thenpaanan]

The audience was left in a guffaw when he started Vatapi Ganapathim. It was sung with only plain notes, shorn of any gamakam(hence looked 'light'). He wanted to end it right there but audience prodded him on to sing a couple of more compositions. Manirangu was presented beautifully in slow tempo. He made 'its over' kind of gestures after the English Note and again the audience coaxed him to sing Pavamana.

It looks like TMK wanted to be even more unconventional than the list suggests. If he actually wanted to end the concert right after Vatapi, that would require some intestinal fortitude. Then again it looks like he wanted to end without a mangalam.

We need people like TMK who can credibly ask such questions from time to time. I recall BMK would do provocative things in the 70s-80s as well -- sing his own compositions in his concert (that was frowned upon since the "greats" did not do it) and that too as the opening item to rub it in, sing standard compositions in new ragas or tunes, sing unknown ragas with only four swarams, etc. TRS once sang a javali as the opening item and some purists complained. Today hardly anyone remembers and so these things tend to have a topic-of-the-season feel to them.

My personal wish is that instead of these less weighty matters such as shuffling order of presentation, TMK would experiment with opening entirely new vistas in CM. His current actions such as skipping a season or protesting the insistence on religiosity and shuffling order seem like inside baseball to me.

-Thenpaanan

[arasi]

Yes. Something as trivial as a shuffled list should not get our attention this much. I'm guilty too, being drawn into the humor that it generates (ire on the part of some, who take these things seriously).

Thenpaanan,
You turn our focus away from the trivial, by making relevant statements. Yes, at some point, we should realize that it's not a novelty anymore, this 'any which way order' that TMK adheres to (more a given thing). We better listen to his music seriously, without getting carried away with his gimmicks. Keep our eyes on the ball game rather than be distracted by what happens in the bullpen or in the manager's office.

[mahavishnu]

My personal wish is that instead of these less weighty matters such as shuffling order of presentation, TMK would experiment with opening entirely new vistas in CM. His current actions such as skipping a season or protesting the insistence on religiosity and shuffling order seem like inside baseball to me.

I couldn't agree more.

[vasanthakokilam]

My personal wish is that instead of these less weighty matters such as shuffling order of presentation, TMK would experiment with opening entirely new vistas in CM.

I agree. What are some example such vistas?

[srikant1987]

What are some example such vistas?

Indeed! If such vistas include maining rAgas like sunAdavinOdini and vandanadhAriNi and karNaranjani it is worrisome.

[ragh_avan]

My feeling is that over exposure of the artists, the reachability and the financial aspects of today's music has given us too many artists but very few will stand the test of time. Earlier singers were almost mythical; that charm and the halo surrounding the singers have slowly disappeared. In this crowded space Ithink TMK is trying to differentiate himself by doing these rather silly antics!
Having said that I feel TMK is an extremely gifted artist and if he just follows the Paddathi which by itself is not an easy accomplishment, he may gather a set of dedicated rasikas.
However let us not compare the vistas opened by TMK with what BMK has done; BMK is in a different league.

[arasi]

Yes, they all have their own stamps. Why compare?

As for the 'charm and halo that surrounded' the singers of yore--distance adds enchantment to the view. In a way, they were fortunate in being around when the media did not have a clue about the details of their concerts or their conduct. Today's artistes have to keep working hard to stay in the limelight. Competition is aplenty, and web-wise rasikAs monitor their performances within hours while living thousands of miles away from the concert halls--this, the doyens didn't have to deal with.
I also hope that it creates a healthy sense of competition among today's musicians. Yes, the old timers did their sAdhakam and that was about it. They didn't have to worry about rasikAs picking on their lists or their manners and mannerisms. While today's musicians reap the rewards of their exposure to the media, they also have to put up with the glare of the light of the public's critical eye.There isn't just one Subbudu, but many of them around
Still, we seem to be living in an exciting period of CM history and I'm thankful for that. I'm sure, they are too.

[thenpaanan]

I agree. What are some example such vistas?

It is not for me to say what these vistas could or should be. It is for vidwans to propose, develop, and demonstrate the possibilities. The idea of singing pancharatna kritis as a group must have been a new vista at some point that has stood the test of time. Muttuswami Dikshitar's compositions of the so-called English Note is an example of an attempt at a new vista (I am assuming that he was trying this) that did not go far. Some years ago (perhaps decades ago) people experimented with group performances. That was a modest success -- the evidence is that we still have 'vAdyavrinda' performances today and there was the junior group singing alapanai by turns at Cleveland this year. It is not just a new mode of performance -- it is a platform that makes it easier to experiment with new things such as the collaboration between konnakkOl and rap that was posted on this forum recently.

In my own way I tried experimenting some years ago with having multiple melodic lines in a scalar ragam like Hamsadhwani. Muthuswami Diskhitar did that first as demonstrated by DKP/DKJ. I tried coming up with multiple lines in the format of a charaNam swaram in a tAna varNam except that two lines have to be sung at the same time. It turned out to be very challenging. I am sure if any rasika had been around it would have set their teeth on edge.

Other possibilities are constructing entire concerts with a leitmotif, a recurring melodic pattern that comes up again and again (hopefully in a nice surprising way) in multiple ragams in the course of a concert. But I am just speculating here, have not actually worked out an example.

But an important lesson I am learning is that it is not enough for artists to innovate. They need to educate their audience as well. Otherwise, audiences tend to want to hear the things they are used to, with small variations.

-Thenpaanan

[vasanthakokilam]

Good reply Tenpaanan. Something to think about. I will also add some such new forays in the use of layam ( not new thalams, but layam as in rhythmic composition )

[thenpaanan]

Good reply Tenpaanan. Something to think about. I will also add some such new forays in the use of layam ( not new thalams, but layam as in rhythmic composition )

I look forward to your inputs!

-Thenpaanan

[vasanthakokilam]

( We will move this interesting discussion to another thread later on )

Thenpaanan, when I wrote that, I meant that I would like artists to consider laya aspects in exploring the new vistas. I did not have any specific ideas. But your post today brought to mind one thing that I played around recently. This is just about motifs in the laya sense and not about any great new directions.

There was a discussion on the song 'SmarasundarAnguni'. I was quite taken by that song. The discussion in that thread made me listen to a few versions of the song, especially how the Mridangists played for that song. That obviously made me focus on the rhythm. I was inspired by that laya and played to a similar beginning laya in the raga Dayavathi. There was no attempt to compose anything seriously, but just play something in my favorite raga to the general framework of the starting laya of SmarasundarAnguni. I recorded it and when I played it back, I could sense the leit-motif that you mentioned, in the laya sense. It is not exactly the identical laya but there is enough similarity to possibly remind someone of the original. May be that is because I had that specific intention.

Here is that recording. (It was a single shot recording of what came to me, so there are a quite a few blemishes. It does not even follow the tala avarthana that well. Please bear with all that.)

http://soundcloud.com/dabbler125/dayavathi