Did you know Batish?

[makham]

While attending a "Tukkada only" concert of Shri Rama Varma recently, I came to know about an SD Batish. He is known as a lyricist, playback singer and music director of Hindi and Punjabi films. He moved to USA in 1970 and passed away in 2006 at the age of 92.

The reason to refer to him in this forum is that he seems to have created short compositions on all the 72 melakarta ragas; another report says that in addition he has created 2500 compositions in janya ragas as well. The mela raga compositions are short pieces describing the raga lakshana, the chakra it belongs to and its position within the chakra along with chittaswarams. Some of these contain references and acknowledgements to Venkatamakhi. Shri Rama Varma sang the composition set in Raga Ganamoorthi. The following link gives a sample of the piece (not sung by Rama Varma , probably sung by Shri Batish himself).

http://ragmala.com/Clips/72/3indu.mp3

Members familiar with the works of this gentleman can share more information.

[Rsachi]

Pandit SD Batish was the singer/director for many hits in Hindi cinema! You can listen to his voice and his songs here :
http://www.saregama.com/portal/pages/ar ... D%20BATISH#

[keerthi]

There isa video of him singing the MAnavati bandish on youtube, that is one of the most ingenious interpretations of the rAga I've heard. I look forward to the release either of the book or of a full set of his renditions.

Very intelligent and musically sophisticated composition. I hope all his songs are as good.

[Rsachi]

Keerthi, the website maintained by his son have books and CDs for sale. Some are online too.

[uday_shankar]

There isa video of him singing the MAnavati bandish on youtube, that is one of the most ingenious interpretations of the rAga I've heard. I look forward to the release either of the book or of a full set of his renditions.

Very intelligent and musically sophisticated composition. I hope all his songs are as good.

Very nice, thanks for sharing. Another beauty of this composition is that not only is it enjoyable and creative, but it would work 100% as a composition in Kantamani too. All we need is a slight change in perspective .

So that makes me wonder if many such pairs of vivadhis are really ONE raga identity, not merely in terms of the mathematics of grahas, etc but also all of the aesthetics 100%.

[SrinathK]

Wow, it has a real "Durga" flavour to it. Unlike CM, here the G1 is treated exactly as a R2 with the R1 avoided in most phrases. The D2 is a totally plain note on which you can hover all day.

In ragas like Shankharabharanam, Begada, Kalyani, Mohanam, Valaji, Lathaangi or Charukeshi or Harikambhoji, they all have a G3, but in each one of them the notes are handled differently and are clearly distinct from each other. The vivadis on the other hand, use the same gamakas more or less for their common notes so you would find 6 ragas sounding almost identical to each other in common phrases with the same notes. Thyaagaraja has handled many of these brilliantly, yet vivadis as such still need further evolution before each acquires it's own unique treatment of the notes. 4 vivadi ragas share the same P D2 N3 S of Manavati, and in one the D2 would have a full gamaka while in another the D2 would be plain or with a minor shake, but we haven't come to that point yet -- where the vivadis are as distinctly evolved as some of the major and more popular ragas. The same may be said for other sampoorna raagas like Sarasangi as well.

[vasanthakokilam]

I also enjoyed that video by Pandit Batish. I did not know anything about him until reading this thread.

Uday, Srinath: I have the same issue. Quite a few ragas sound like Ganamurthi to me!!

Beware, we are getting in to the Begada Banditry territory.. or is it Begada Bigotry? Just kidding.

If what I remember correctly, this scheme of R3, G1, D3, N1 was a technical device invented to accommodate vivadhi ragas that already existed in practice.(nAttai being one of them?). I assume they would not attained their individuality over time. The same technical device then gave birth to a whole lot of other vivadi ragas when all the 'slots' are filled out. I guess that is what we have now. I wish CM can accommodate M1 and M2 in the same fashion like S R M1 M2 P D N S. I just tried it, it has an exotic sounds to it, just like most of the vivadhi ragas.

I also wonder how such raga evolution happens in this highly conservative CM eco system where even small changes are pounced up on and characterized as circus, buffoonery and anti-sampradaya (that is on the milder side). May be it happens at an infinitesimal level over time and not due to any specific conscious effort on the part of an individual musician.

[Rsachi]

VKM,
I think all the major innovations in raga interpretations were accomplished by the famous composers = the Trinity. The way it happened was that they deeply contemplated the raga and poured their emotion into the krithis with maatu and dhaatu with their uniqueness. Then it was reverently taken forward by their disciples. A milieu of mutual respect encouraged such innovation.

All this merely underlines that ragas are not scales.

My wonder is how a musician with a 12 note HM scale training and film and bhajan music background ventured into melakartas and scored them ably.
Until we hear all the compositions it is premature to judge the music of Sri Batish.

[rshankar]

Keerthi,
Thank you for that link...it was awesome! I will leave the musical dissection to the experts, but, to me, it would make a wonderful padam to dance to....rAdhA as the khaNDita nAyikA being asked to forget her wounded pride and forgive kRshNa....mAn taj mAnavati SrI rAdhE.....I have to look for his compositions on iTunes.

[Rsachi]

Ravi,
I already choreographed a Kathak piece for it

[keerthi]

My wonder is how a musician with a 12 note HM scale training and film and bhajan music background ventured into melakartas and scored them ably.

Until we hear all the compositions it is premature to judge the music of Sri Batish.

Sachi,


1. There are many cases of unusual meLakartas and even janya rAgas being interpreted in beautiful, novel ways by North Indian musicians. Shivkumar's Sharma's Rasika priya, the Dahgar family's GangeyabhuSaNi and calanATa and KanakAngi; why even from the non-vivAdi stock - Hafiz Ahmed Khan's sparkling composition in SaNmukhapriya and Ravishankar's intepretation of simhendramadhyama, Girija Devi's kIravani, with traces of pilu and bhupala woven in; I have written somewhere on rasikas about an unforgettable vacaspati I heard by the Harmonium wizard Ravindra Katoti.

Why should we worry about background, when there is such amazing music in the foreground.


2. I am happy to appreciate this solitary composition and respect Batish's vaggeyakAra-hrdaya based on it alone, even if I don't get to see/ hear too many more of his melakartha songs. In my book rasAnubhava isn't contingent on sample size. I am able to appreciate the good [in my opinion] compositions of Patnam Subrahmanya Iyer, Vasudevacarya and BalamuraLikrishna, while I am painfully aware of their forgettable compositions.

it would make a wonderful padam to dance to....rAdhA as the khaNDita nAyikA being asked to forget her wounded pride and forgive kRshNa....mAn taj mAnavati SrI rAdhE.....

Agree vigorously. Or you could plan for a jugalbandhi with Rsachi, while he interprets this song, and you interpret the piece 'mAdhavE mA kuru mAnini mAnam aye' from Jayadeva's classic.

[Rsachi]

Keerthi, agree with respect. I have not heard those great pieces you mentioned.
Please do share the link again for the Vachaspati.. Dr Ravindra Katoti is an amazing musician!

[sweetsong]

Batish Ganamurthi song sung by Prince Rama Varma

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f7rYe-1in5I

[SrinathK]

@vasanthakokilam Humans fear what they do not know. Many people who talk about tradition and blast innovation -- their knowledge goes back a couple of generations at best. But if they would study the evolution of the art (and most wouldn't), they'd know the history.

Ragas are still evolving and have changed dramatically with what I can call the Gamaka Explosion in the last 150 years or so (like the Cambrian explosion of multi cellular life forms). I opened a new thread in the raga and alapana section with some of my observations.

[uday_shankar]

I wish CM can accommodate M1 and M2 in the same fashion like S R M1 M2 P D N S. I just tried it, it has an exotic sounds to it, just like most of the vivadhi ragas.

Already been done by the late shri Thanjavur S Kalyaranaraman. Basically, he combined the two halves of the melakarta circle, threw out the panchama and came up with 36 "dvi madhyama" ragas with a scheme for their nomenclature: for example the intersection of kanakangi and salagam was "kanakshri" and so on. He even performed some of them in his katcheris. A great visionary and innovator, unsung in Carnatic orthodoxy . S Kalyaranaman was also a mechanical buff who could take apart and put back together his car !

[sureshvv]

There isa video of him singing the MAnavati bandish on youtube,

Endearing facial expressions too

[vasanthakokilam]

Already been done by the late shri Thanjavur S Kalyaranaraman. Basically, he combined the two halves of the melakarta circle, threw out the panchama and came up with 36 "dvi madhyama" ragas with a scheme for their nomenclature: for example the intersection of kanakangi and salagam was "kanakshri" and so on.

Yes, I remember that. Great work by TSK. I am thinking of a close cousin which accommodates P, something like S R2 M1 M2 P D2 N3 S ( extending Venkatamakhin's scheme, we can call that M1 as G4 )

This does couple of things. The resolution to P after the vivadish sound of M1 M2 provides for some good contrast.
Second, the upper tetrachord of P to S and its consonance are retained.

As for the contrast, I find this phrase quite satisfying: P, M1 D2, D2,,, P, M2 P, P P M2 M1 R2 R2 S,,,
The highly catchy P, M1 D2.. (as used in Sahana) takes a totally different hue when followed with the P, M2 P, P. It creates a bit of a suspense which is then resolved by the cascading vivadhi'ish sequence P M2 M1 R2 R2 S..
There are a few variations on the last part:
a) P M2 P M1 R2 R2 S
b) Same as a) but with oscillatory gamaka on M2, P(PM2PM2..)P M1 R2 R2 S..)
c) Same as b) with Irakka Jaru from P to M1
( these variations reduce the vivadish effect )

[Christian Kenit Ram]

I was looking forward to listen to the whole catalogue of the 72 melas sung by Pt Batish , but it seems that only the first volume ( 12 melas ) have been released .
The website maintained by his son doesn´t help much ...
I am wondering if the other tracks have ever been recorded .