Haunting Sohini by Veena Sahasrabuddhe. I’m bowled over by the voice at the back. Totally love it.

Listen to it here –

By the way, Sohini is the Hindustani equivalent of Hamsanandhi. I could relate to the raga once I realized that connection. Till then,  Sohini was just a name and my prejudiced brain told me to reject it. Interesting how prejudices are blown away once we are able to make a connection.

http://www.sangeethapriya.org/~sripathy/complete_url_list.html

It reminded me of a humorous incident a friend of mine told me a few months back. When he was in school, his class was supposed to learn a bunch of essays for their Sanskrit exam.  One of the guys was a little overconfident and prepared only one essay – My favorite animal. But there was a different essay on the exam – My favorite national leader. Our creative little friend did not flinch a bit and proceeded to write the essay this way -  “Gandhiji is my favorite national leader. Gandhiji had a goat”…….and so on about the goat

Recently, I went back to listening to MMI (Madurai Mani Iyer) quite a bit and observed a few things. His rendition of swaras varies according to the style of the mridangist. The three mridangists whom I observed were Palghat Mani Iyer, Palani Subramania Pillai and Vellore Ramabhadran. With PMI, the kalapramanan seemed to be a little rushed. I had a strange feeling that both the vocalist and the mridangist were trying to adjust to each other. This could be due to the fact that PMI doesn’t play sarvalaghu and tries to play the swaras. Sometimes he gets it right, sometimes he doesn’t even try to guess and sometimes MMI has to adjust to PMI’s anticipation. With Palani, MMI seems to be at total ease, especially because Palani doesn’t hesitate to play sarvalaghu where required. His neravals too are comparatively better with Palani. Alongside VR, his gait is at its absolute best and he seems to go on a never ending spree of swaras. It helps that VR doesn’t try anything other than sarvalaghu. For someone like MMI, it just suits him fine and he seems to sing as if uninterrupted.

I tried extending this observation to MDR and I noticed something similar. It seemed as if MDR was changing his style for VR. i.e. rendering sarvalaghu swaras and with him, it seemed to get a little boring. Someone like UKS, Raghu or even PMI is better suited for MDR especially since they have a lot of time to anticipate. I was under the impression that mridangists (I should be saying mridangam vidwan. UKS admonishes that a mridangist isn’t like a dentist or a podiatrist) were the ones who had to change their style to suit the vocalist. Well, I could be imagining things too for all you care. I’ll try to post a few clips to illustrate my observations.

I found it boring to sing the varisais since I had nothing to compare them to or nothing else to relate them to. If, instead, I had been taught, say Ninnu kori varnam in Mohanam, I’d have probably perfected it by now. How? Because I had at least 20 versions of Ninnu kori to listen to and learn from, apart from the fact that I loved singing it. Also, I could not extract the musical content from the varisais. I think that the varisais are a great way for a kid to learn Carnatic Music but I’m wondering if it’d work for someone like me. I’m at a stage where I, probably, cannot blindly do something because it’s been done that way for centuries.

Children, when they begin to talk, learn to say words that come to them easily. By the age of 2, they are able to converse easily. They are usually taught the alphabet at the age of 3 so that they can relate them to the words they know. e.g. M,U,M,M,Y is mummy which they already know. If this order were to be reversed, my guess is that children would find it difficult to learn to talk. I should probably read more on this though.

I’m trying to apply the same logic to teaching Carnatic Music. Why do we start with sarali varisais? Why not a krithi? Why not teach the basics through the krithi or krithis? Could this be a reason why a lot of kids completely abandon CM once they enter their teenage or become adults? Are there any teachers who teach this way? How have they fared in this attempt?

The California chapter of ILP predominantly raises funds and promotes awareness about ILP itself among the Indian diaspora here. Well, not many would willingly contribute if we just showed up and asked for money. So, to show our commitment to this cause, we take part in an annual 199-mile Relay from NAPA Valley to Santa Cruz (www.therelay.com). We are a team of 12 runners who start at 7.AM on Saturday morning and finish around 4.PM on Sunday evening. We live in a van for the two days and run non-stop from start to finish. This year I have decided to run the second most toughest legs of the Relay adding up to a total of 20.1 miles.

Have I given you enough reason to contribute? I suppose not. As they say, there is no true altruism. I’ll make you an offer. If you contribute a minimum of $25, I’ll send you a DVD full of music of artists of your choice. (Hint 1: I have a lot of music. Hint 2: My MDR collection itself is more than 12 GB.). For every $10 above $25, I’ll add a DVD. You don’t have to pay me anything directly. I’ll post the instructions for contributing below. The entire amount is tax deductible. I’m paying for the postage and DVD out of my own pocket plus the time spent in burning the DVDs and posting them. Obviously I cannot charge for the music since it’s not mine. You’ll receive the DVD(s) before the 1st of June, 2007.

NOTE: No contemporary musicians and no commercial recordings.

Instructions:

1. Go to http://www.ilpnet. org/donatenow. html
2. Click on “Donate Now” button
3. Enter Amount to Donate
4. Under “Designation (Optional)” Form Field, Type “ILP Relay Team”
5. Under “Dedication (Optional)” Form Field, Enter Name of the Runner i.e. Sripathi Guruprasannaraj
6. Enter email address and login
7. Once logged in, provide required credit card information to complete the donation
IMPORTANT: Please Note that Donors donating online will not get a paper receipt from ILP. A printer friendly receipt will be emailed to the Donor which they can print and save for tax deduction purposes.

Once you are done, send me your name, address, phone number and preferences by email. My email address is available in the Contact page. I shall send you the DVD(s) at the earliest.

I’m looking forward to your contribution.

“All who have meditated on the art of governing mankind have been convinced that the fate of empires depends on the education of youth.” – Aristotle

I’m not sure if someone has quoted this before. But this is what came to my mind as I was hearing TRS sing Suddha Dhanyasi for the 30th time this week. Prior to hearing this rendition, Suddha Dhanyasi (SD for short) wasn’t exactly a favorite raga. I had dismissed it off as a light raga with not much scope for elaboration. I loved Narayana ninna naamadha smarane and knew that the song Punjai undu nanjai undu in the movie ‘Unnal Mudiyum Thambi’ was in SD. But it was not exactly a raga that turned my head or made me sit up and listen.

Subramanyena is also a favorite in the raga and MMI does a phenomenal job with kalpanaswaras for this krithi. But what I heard from TRS was simply out of this world. It was as if he thought the raga hadn’t done been justice and decided to do it that day. The sangathis at Prabrava maadi Pujita Padena are just a precursor. The first brilliant moment comes at ‘Bhogamoksha Pradaanena Nityena’. Just listen to the way he sings ‘Bhogamoksha’. I can’t describe my emotions when I listen to that phrase in this rendition. It’s a mixture of love, devotion, enlightenment – all at the same time.

As he gracefully lands at Venkateshwara Nama Rupena, the time has arrived to start his agenda for the day. What follows is a lesson in Suddha Dhanyasi, an exhibition of the art of swara singing, the importance of aesthetics in Carnatic Music, all delivered in a beautiful package. I’ll say no more lest it becomes redudant. Sit back and enjoy!!

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/04/04/AR2007040401721.html