Name for new raga

Sramana · Post by **Sramana** » 30 Apr 2006, 03:46

Hey all - this will be a rather unusual question.

I'm an insider to Chinese classical music, and a devoted outsider to Carnatic music. My Carnatic concert collaborator and I have been experimenting with the idea of developing ragams out of Chinese pieces (China having no systematic improvisation of its own). These would have a grammar based on the source-material; though many of them would be reducible to one of the standard pentatonic ragas as far as arohana/avarohana is concerned, the phrasing and rasa would be more diverse. (Frequent modulations and absence of a fixed 'sa' make traditional Chinese melodies non-classifiable in raga terms; our work represents a kind of fusion.)

Right now I'm working on a raga that I really want to be named "Spring Dawn", after the Chinese piece that grounds it. I have some knowledge of Sanskrit but am heavily reliant on dictionaries. I've looked for some appropriate Sanskrit compounds for this phrase, but have found most of the solutions cacophonous or semantically a little off.

Questions:

1. Are traditional raga names always in the nominative case? One solution I found, Vasantakalyam, is technically a locative--would this fly by traditional tastes?

2. I'm assuming Vasanta is the standard term for the spring season; I don't like the sound of Vasantosha, Vasantaprabhat, or other solutions with a sandhi -o- and hard consonants. Are there some other words for morning or dawn that would combine euphonously with Vasanta?

3. Semantic shades. A lot of the words for 'dawn' seem to emphasize brilliance or shining forth; I want a softer feeling, recalling just the time of day iself. I suppose Vasantaaruna is adequate but focuses too much on color.

OK, sorry if this is all rather strange to follow. I'm asking all the rasikas the Sanskrit experts out there--how to melodiously render "Spring Dawn/Early Morning" in a way suitable for a raga name?

Thanks very much!

drshrikaanth · Post by **drshrikaanth** » 30 Apr 2006, 03:59

Hmm! You have not left much choice have you. Although you say you dont know sanskrit very well, you seem to be well acquainted with words and sandhi rules.

Be that as it may, I suggest vasantOdaya which sounds nice despite the "O" in sandhi. Ot reverse it to udayavasanta. Or try vasantAnkura(sprout of vasanta). Good luck.

vasanthakokilam · Post by **vasanthakokilam** » 30 Apr 2006, 05:06

udayavasantha has a nice flow to it... ( may be this means dawn of spring )

If a significant chunk of your audience is Chinese, do you need to consider the accomodation of easy pronounceability by them?

Also, just for grins, what is chinese for Spring Dawn.

drshrikaanth · Post by **drshrikaanth** » 30 Apr 2006, 05:12

I woul also ask you to consider "vasantakOkila". :cheesy:

If chinese pronounciation is taken into consideration, I guess "R" is out of the window. vasantAnkura wil become vasantAnkula which is no good.

Sramana · Post by **Sramana** » 30 Apr 2006, 05:19

Thanks for the replies! I'll continue working through this rather silly problem

Hah, pronuncibility for Chinese-speakers is no concern, since my target audience is more like "international hotshot urbanites" 8)

Chinese for 'Spring Dawn' is Chun Xiao; x- is pronounced rather like Sanskrit palatal (talavya) s. Chun is high-level tone, xiao is a dipping tone. It sounds rather nice in combination.

cmlover · Post by **cmlover** » 30 Apr 2006, 05:51

This is an unusual request indeed. Just like picking the name for one's child. We can't read your mind. Apparently you want 'spring' in there. Hence it has to have 'vasanta'. The word for morning which may fit your restrictions is 'prabhAtam' and the combination would be 'vasantaprabhAtaM' spring-morning or daybreak-at-spring. If you want to be a bit poetic you may use 'vasantAvataraNaM' (the descent of spring). Perhaps you should look into kALidaasa's ^Rirusamhaaram sixth sarga (spring) if you want something exotic. Good luck indeed!

vasanthakokilam · Post by **vasanthakokilam** » 30 Apr 2006, 07:09

And keep us posted on what you ended up deciding.

cmlover · Post by **cmlover** » 30 Apr 2006, 20:27

and of course my friend vk (I mean vasanthakokilam) is very much interested in knowing whether you have opted for 'vasantakokila..'

(and since you know sanskrit you must be knowing that 'kOkila' besides being the cuckoo also means 'fire-brand' (the regular meaning and not the implied one

)