A new star is born

[chalanata]

I remember a short story by PS Ramiah where he tells a young girl that each time a truth is revealed a new star is born without really understanding the enormity of his words; the girl some time after starts weeping seeing a falling star and the hero asks why. The girl tells that someone has lied and that is why the star passed away!
The purpose of this topic is only to briefly mention about birth of a new star. Some years ago despite criticisms I spoke about Abishek Raghuram and now he has become a celebrity.
The new star is Sunil Garkeyan. He has pleasant voice and excellent breath control. Probably comes in the TNS school. Sang an elaborate aalapana in Dharmavathi and a good rally of kalpana swara in the same raga on 11.12.2014 at 2.30 pm at Vaani Mahal. With limited time allotted he did an excellent job.
He has a great future.

[arasi]

Chalanata,
Thanks for the post. Will try and catch his program somehere.

Good to hear from you too...

[Nick H]

Some years ago despite criticisms I spoke about Abishek Raghuram and now he has become a celebrity.

Never mind: you weren't to know!


)


But your recommendation is noted. And I do think that looking for, and finding, the stars of the future, is so much better than bemoaning the state of carnatic music, so I definitely "like" your post

[chalanata]

Arasi and Nick! Thanks.
This post is about the just concluded concert of Akkarai Sisters at Vaani Mahal. The sisters have conformed to the discipline of tradition but I am surprised why they have taken to vocal instead of violin. Both of them are capable of shining independently in violin but as far as their singing is concerned they did a neat job; but I felt melody did not transcend the barrier of carnatic music. Probably this requires quite a bit of experience but it takes time and the sisters have all the time in the world. They should avoid treading the path of Radha Jayalakshmi.
The new born star however is Palghat Mahesh. Adaada Adaada! Enna naadham enna naadham! He in his aggression resembled a little bit Harikumar. He supported by ghatam Karthik gave an impressive rally.

[chalanata]

N Visweswar for Brahma Gana Sabha today at 1 pm:

He has the capacity to explore unknown areas like TR Mahalingam, has forcefulness of Shashank and melody of N Ramani. One intriguing thing however is the length of his flute. If you close your eyes it sounds like whistle (like Kesi TRM's disciple of yester years). Probably he can think in terms of lowering the pitch a little bit by increasing the length a little.
No doubt a new star. He is going to play in future Chetulara in Tiruvaiyaru before the Pancharatna!

[pattamaa]

Palghat Magesh became too aggressive and noisy during Thani, perhaps carried away. Otherwise, he played well today.

Akkarai sang well....agreed.

[Nick H]

This post is about the just concluded concert of Akkarai Sisters at Vaani Mahal. The sisters have conformed to the discipline of tradition but I am surprised why they have taken to vocal instead of violin. ...

The do give violin duet performances as well. And of course, you'll have seen them both as accompanists, with the elder sister playing for people at the level of TVG, Ravikiran, and probably many more.

Why the vocal? Just possibly because it is 100 times harder to get solo or duet instrumental programs? Because they or their parents/gurus think it is part of a more complete musical experience to sing on stage as well as play violin? All or none of these? I really have no idea: just guesses in the dark.

My new-to-me star is Dharini, but I don't think she qualifies for this thread, because she is already established.

I wandered into RS hall yesterday evening, and very much enjoyed the performance of Padma Sugavanam. A youngster, but she had the evening slot, so new-to-me but probably not to others.

I'm a stick-in-the-mud, happy to gaze at the stars I know and love, so not the best of new-talent spotters. Two new-to-me artists in a few days is exceptional!

By the way, continuing the dig... I do recall spotting a young man about 15 years ago, who I thought was going to be an enormous Kanjira star. Hey ho, we can all be wrong

[chalanata]

Brinda Manickavasagam at Vaani Mahal on 11.12.2014 at 4 pm:

A very energetic concert. Sang exceedingly well. But in her over enthusiasm perhaps she took the Rajdhani mode; has to reduce the tempo a bit. Another casualty is sruthi at times. Here and there if she irons out small small things she will be a great performer.
In my perception another star is born; she is going to be one of the torch bearers of CM in future.
KP Nandhini was quite a disappointment. Is she sulking or was something wrong with her mike?

And Nick, by the way I do not think your words are without value about your assessment of the kanjira boy because I know you are basically a percussionist.

[chalanata]

H Rathnaprabha vocal for Shanthi Foundation at Sasthri Hall today from 4.30 pm

She gave a clean performance with elaboration in Reethigowlai, Thodi and Kalyani. She was ably accompanied by Deepika on the violin and TR Suryanarayanan on the mruthangam. She however could not manage cramps in the legs and kept changing posture every time. Requires lot of practice in sitting down. This is going to be a major issue in the days to come for all vidwans especially the young. TRS gave an excellent support with sunaadham of just adequate decibels but I was surprised that he did not shine in thani.
The star is however the kutti ponnu Deepika on the violin. She returned all the balls received with the same force and with comfortable ease. She knows how to shadow when the main artist sings and is able to give instant and spontaneous reply when her turn comes.
She is not kutti ponnu; she is kutti puli! Going to go places!

[hnbhagavan]

RaGa sisters started their music journey in Violin and later switched to vocal.In one of the interviews the time required to keep practicing violin is much more than that required for Vocal.Similar may be the reasoning behind Akkarai sisters gradually moving towards vocal.This and the reason for getting violin concert chances are less compared to vocal ones as already pointed out by Mr.Nick.My own personal preference is to listen to their violin concerts.

[vasanthakokilam]

The violin-vocal capable duos can do something musically interesting as long as the CM fraternity does not throw a hissy fit. They can back each other up on violin in the same concert. That is, both sing and play violin either simultaneously or taking turns. People have to get over the visual issues caused by both vocalists holding the violin etc. but we need to be open enough to evaluate such efforts strictly on the musical merits.

During alapana, tanam, niraval and kalpanaswaras, they can take turns and need not sing and play violin at the same time. But there is a choice of configuration when singing the composition. Both of them can sing and play at the same time. That will be awesome if they can pull it off. Or they can take turns and then at musically appropriate places sing and play together for good effect.

[chalanata]

VK, This is already happening in a small way. S Balachander used to sing in between a little. M. Chandrasekhar also does it. Ganesh-Kumaresh are doing it even now. But I have also observed that the proficiency to the level of nuances stays only in one. As long as the sisters or anybody for that matter consider violin as their main stay vocal can only play the role of 'second fiddle'!

[vasanthakokilam]

chalanata, I agree that it has been 'second fiddle' and so it does not amount to anything substantial. If they are equally proficient in both, I want both to be used as a first class citizen. I think kalpagam mami's veena playing while singing comes close.

I see it is not easy. But I think there is a chance of a grand pay off which will of course be wonderful. While CM is predominantly vocal and we all get something 'extra' out of vocal vis-a-vis instruments, violin beats vocal in the clarity, precision, nuances and consistency of the swara contour. We can even hear that in concerts with ace vocalists and ace violinists. If the same person plays the violin and sing at an equally high professional level, I can see the potential for violin pulling the up quality of execution on the vocal side. One level short of that is the duo backing each other up and hope for a similar phenomenon.

It is all speculation of course but as we know from other endeavors someone needs to try while fully realizing the possibility of failing. Otherwise we would not know where the excellence lies.

[rajeshnat]

While CM is predominantly vocal and we all get something 'extra' out of vocal vis-a-vis instruments, violin beats vocal in the clarity, precision, nuances and consistency of the swara contour. We can even hear that in concerts with ace vocalists and ace violinists. If the same person plays the violin and sing at an equally high professional level, I can see the potential for violin pulling the up quality of execution on the vocal side. One level short of that is the duo backing each other up and hope for a similar phenomenon.

Spring cuckoo,
The vocalist pulls out manodharma from ether air and builds sangathis , post that with that refreshed memory the violinist plays and hence it appears in many cases the violin is pulling off better than the vocalist . Hence quality of execution for violinist appears higher :-! .

I would love to see atleast one off days where violin starts playing the ragamaliga swaras from ether air and then the vocalist returning the same raga, in that case my gut feel is there would not be that much manodharma pidis from violinist as much as vocalist , and for sure the vocalist return will bomb in that raga .

[arasi]

Rajesh,
Good thinking. TMK to the rescue

[vasanthakokilam]

Arasi, I was also thinking TMK when I was reading Rajesh's post.

Rajesh, your points are valid of course and are orthogonal point to what I was saying. Leave out the creativity, pidi etc., the actual execution of the CM swaras ( whether original or copied ) are much crisper on the violin than the CM voice. Voice has a lot of other things going on ( the words, meanings, the timbre and the resulting emotions expressed by the voice ) so we are quite tolerant of the not so crisp execution. Also, the raga bhava/expression still comes through fully in spite of that lack of precision and so we find it fulfilling and satisfying. BTW, when I say 'lack of precision', it is the precision of a very high order, may be beyond a level that the median people consider totally sufficient.

[kssr]

the actual execution of the CM swaras ( whether original or copied ) are much crisper on the violin than the CM voice.

I really wonder. What is crispness? Except for the 'greats' like Lalgudi and TNK and a few others, most CM music violinists have mediocre bowing technique giving karr- karr sounds. ( It is accepted as "normal" and such artistes are also called maestros.) Especially evident when one accompanies lady vocalists who sing at a high pitch. We can only call it "CRRRRRISP" Vocal may not be CRISP but in general more ear-worthy

[kvchellappa]

Is it possible that the violinist sticks to a known prayoga close to what the vocalist has brought about whereas the vocalist was 'innovating'? Is the raga distorted by the vocalist? If not, what would crispness mean?

[arasi]

Am I getting the drift of it by saying, the violinist is focusing on the svarAs which fall in their places and we hear them clearly--whereas sAhityam, and the human voice are the vocalist's extra concern?

Agree with kssr. It happens only when the violinist is competent and yes, even some acclaimed ones have 'grr brr' sounding strokes which hamper such 'crisp' yet sweet execution.

[vasanthakokilam]

I meant 'crisp' in the dictionary definition sense: notably sharp, clean-cut, and clear <a crisp illustration>; concise and to the point <a crisp reply> Arasi's explanation makes sense as well. Another analogy for crispness I am thinking is tracing a picture with with a sharp and thin pencil vs with a sharp but a little thicker one.

BTW, this is not the value judgement that the violinist is better than a vocalist etc.. As I tried to make clear, CM is predominantly a vocal medium and the voice has several layers of other things going on with it including sAthiya, the timbre of the human voice, the emotion we perceive with voice etc.

Of course, we need to assume a good violinist kssr. Also, you are way underselling the number of quality violinists. Good violinists are not restricted to LGJ, TNK and a few others. Of course they are great but for the purposes I am talking about here I am thinking of at least a dozen or two more. Also leave out any 'grr brr' sound. My point exist even when they are occasionally present. That is a different story!