Koteeswara Iyer

 And the last day of the workshop referred to earlier. Was taught Maravathiru Maname in Kedaram( Deshadi) by Dr Nanditha Ravi. Excellent, precise, crystal clear teaching . I had heard her only once before singing with her mother during Navratri at Isha. Was a pleasure to attend a teaching session. Incidentally, this was a song I have heard just once before by Sanjay.

Kedaram is not a raga I am too familiar with. Have learnt precisely three pieces in this. Ananda Natana( a Dikshithar pancha bhoota krithi), Chidambara Natarajam( also Dikshithar) and Paramanananda( of Swathi Thirunal). There is interestingly a Adi thala varnam of Walajpet Venkatrama Bhagavathar( one of Thyagaraja's foremost disciples) in this. While it is not a Pada Varnam, the Chittaswaram has Sahithya. I want to revisit the three krithis once again at the earliest. There is one thing, which strikes me. Two of the three Kedaram krithis I have learnt are on Shiva( both by Dikshithar). Of course, it is understandable, given that Kedarnath is a prime Shiva abode. But what is interesting is that of the three krithis I have learnt, two have jatis( both Ananda and Paramananda) . Also observe the similarity in Sahithya. Dikshithar composed Ananda Natana Prakasham.. Swathi Thirunal, who was born in 1813, a dozen years before Dikshithar attained Samadhi composed Paramanandanatana.. similar thoughts.

A little on Koteeswara Iyer, a post Trinity 20th century composer. Incidentally, his vaggeyakara mudra is a tribute to his grand father, Kavi Kunjara Bharathi. I have learnt just one other composition of his Een Maname in Namanarayani and listened to his Mohanakara( Neethimathi) and Arul Seiya by one of S Rajam's foremost students. He was of course apparently known for his felicity with Vivadi ragas. 

Incidentally, it is interesting that if you Google Maravaathiru Maname you might get Maravaathe Maname Deva Suthane( a song on Jesus)!!!

Nice session and kudos to the principals and hosts behind this Samarpanam series.

Sangeetasikshapeetam

 Just finished two days of the online Sangeetasikshapeetam workshop. This particular workshop was a homage to Bombay Ramachandran, a noted guru who passed away in 2013. He was a bachelor who was supposed to be wedded to his music, his teaching and his disciples. Hearing that reminded me of Vamanan, who too was wedded purely to his music. Feel he was taken from us much too soon. I just had this flashback of three of us sitting in a Bandra apartment late one monsoon evening singing Evarun( the Vasudevacharya varnam in Navarasa Kaanada). We did not realise that he had already entered the apartment and promptly shut up. I remember him saying" What is wrong... continue.. continue.. you were all singing well"

One must begin by lauding the efforts of Vinod Vetri Iyer and Dr Nanditha Ravi, who have started this initiative and the teachers who are devoting their time and energy to this. Totally laudable. 

Yesterday was a composition in Malavi( a raga I have not learnt anything in). And from the first few minutes, I was haunted by it's resemblance to Poornachandrika( Telisi Rama) even though Malavi has N2 against Poornachandrika's N3. Especially in phrases like PMGMR, I still need to understand how to clearly distinguish between the two. What are the distinct phrases, signalling each of these. Taught by Geetha Raja. What a lovely teacher. Patient, crystal clear. 

One of the interesting things about today's Sahana is the way the Daivatam is handled in quite a few phrases( new to me). We are all familiar with the PMD,( flat D,) or even SNSD,( where the D, is this beautiful curve down from the Shadjam). But this was a different Dhaivatam for me. The anupallavi begins as D,NDP,,, where the D, is straight and towards the end becomes NSND.. actually it is not even that, since there is a drop. So maybe MSND..interesting... has to be heard. 

I need to get back to this blog. The detailed notes on the last Pancha Bhoota is still pending. 

But before I quit I want to just say a few words about this exquisite composition I have just learnt( still learning...work in progress).. Elateliyalero in Durbar. The Pallavi has maybe some ten sangathis. I have seldom before experienced such an incredible development of sangathis.. each one leads to the next and the next and the next. The Pallavi is almost a Master class in the development of Durbar.

Coming back

It has been more than four years since I have written anything here.  It has been longer than that since I have touched a tanpura.

The past few months have been especially difficult. Watching the ravages of Covid. Weeping for the untimely demise of a business partner. Mourning the end of a business one has put a lifetime into. Obviously music was the last thing on my mind. Till a dear friend told me that I should get back to my music and it would provide me with the healing that I needed.

And on Gokulashtami day, 2020, I located my Radel and started singing Chetashri..by the time I had come to the Mukundam at the end of the Pallavi, I felt a small shift inside me. By the time, I had come to the last Madhyama kala sahithya - Navathulasi vanamaalam, Naaradadi Munijaalam.. I literally felt a presence nearby and this clear feeling that things would work out. This too shall pass. Yes, life will be different. But not necessarily worse. And that in a nutshell is why I sing. Not to perform. Not to teach. Not to be a renowned musicologist or a scholar. Not to have any living soul listen to me, except a few people . Not to post on youtube. Not to be known as a good amateur singer. Not to have friends say nice things. This music provides me with a rich inner landscape, I can disappear into. Even when the sound that is coming out of my throat is execrable, I can hear the phrase in all it's pristine beauty in my inner ear

Revisited some more old favourites:  Shri Kaarunya( BMK), Saagara Shayana( MDR) and Shri Venkatesham Varam( Poochi Sreenivasa Iyengar)

Will get to detailed pieces on compositions shortly

Kazuo and me

I have been in bed the last few days with a bad back. This has resulted in desultory channel surfing lying on my day bed. Sometime today morning, I happened to chance on a movie called Never let me go. It had already started at least 20 to 30 minutes back. I thought it would be some mindlesss romcom and kept looking at the screen while working on something else. But hardly a few minutes into the movie, I was hooked. And as I watched it to the end, I knew I would have to read every single thing this Kazuo Ishiguro had ever written.

I cannot remember when last I was so so touched. The movie is tragic and stoic and utterly morbid all at the same time. And it is not just the nuanced performances of Carey Mulligan or the haunting background score. There are so many places in the movie where there is a stillness in the main cast which is so much more profoundly evocative than any amount of dialogue could have been.

Went out in the afternoon itself and got all the 3 books of his that were in the nearby Crossword. I really need to read them slowly, slowly tasting and savouring each sentence since he has written only six books.

But more than that it has been the palpable excitement and good cheer I have felt all day. It is always like this when I discover a new voice, somebody who resonates and I feel like " My God! how did I not know about this person before" And this book is more than 10 years old. The movie itself is more than 5 years old. It is not like he is unknown... so many awards, so many recognitions... but our paths never crossed. But now I have the chance to start a new affair. I have almost finished half of Never let me.. since afternoon.. but still. There is something so delicate in the way the most inhuman things are alluded to. It is like a sort of gentle unveiling. Of course, in my case I had seen the movie.. but still...

Rain on parched desert

I am a bloody ignoramus... what can I say.. there is so much i do not know.. my ignorance is so deep , abiding and profound that it still sometimes amazes me.

Today, I desultorily decided to try out this new classical music channel of AIR .. http://airbengaluru.com. There was somebody playing Bilahari on the violin and it was extraordinarily good. It was not just good but it was such a deep sound.. so satisfying ... and I thought to myself this channel the sound is so good and I kept listening. After that Bilahari, an announcer came on and said it was somebody called avaneeswaram sr vinu... and I wrote the name down. I had never heard this name before. This is what I mean. There is sound like this out there and I did not know it. After that he played Thaye Yashoda and I just knew I would be out there listening to every single thing this person has played and which is available on the net.

I was just in Chennai last month and attending various concerts and some were good and yet not one of them blew me away. I left the concerts of even the current reigning queens castigating myself and telling myself that I was getting jaded. If I was not able to be moved by the music then the fault was mine. But today that changed. Do you know that feeling when for the first time you hear somebody or chance on a new author or a new actor and for one nano second the world stops spinning.... that feeling that you have perchance stumbled on to something humungous.

There is a Ranjani( just 2.45 mts), a Brindavani( 4.something minutes).... they are all so superb. His violin weeps, it dances, the sound that he produces is exuberant( .45 mts of kathanakuthuhalam), it is plaintive, it is meditative.. it encapsulates every shade of emotion the human heart experiences.

Absolutely not to be missed. After a long time.. a cleansing energising shower on  my parched soul!!

Sikkil Gurucharan

Landed up in Chennai today for my husband's 40th IITM reunion. Forgotten how beautiful this campus is.. how peaceful.It is 40 years since I have lived on this campus. There used to be just one girls hostel.. apparently there are now 4!!!Of course IITM is especially significant to me since this is where I met Tabby almost 40 years back.. right around the Gajendra circle. I think I have a special affection for the campuses I have spent time on( even if it is just for a few weeks)...right from Delhi University to the beautiful bare brick buildings of IIMA, to the fern scented UCSC, to the arid BITS Pilani in the middle of the dessert.

Anyway, this is a blog on carnatic music so enough rambling.

Gurucharan started his concert in Parthasarathy Sabha with the Jalajakshi varnam with some nice variations on nee saati right at the end.

This was followed by a short alapana in Nattai followed by Thyagaraja's Ninne Bhajana. Nice. Only this was sung in 1 kalai instead of 2 kalai like I have learnt. So the first line ninne bhajana seyu vaadanu is covered in 2 avarthanas. His chittaswaram was also different. The version I have learnt has a p,np,n mp g,mg,mrs reminiscent of jagadananda in the later half. But this chittaswaram was different.

This was followed by a beautiful kaanada alapana and mamava sada. Lovely variations on mamava sada during the kalpana swaras.

Followed by the day's thirupaavai in Behag

Then a crisp orajupu chucheti nyayama of Thyagaraja which I had not heard and did not recognize at all.. My smart phone was resolutely dumb and no help at all. Finally whatsapp and my friend Ramya confirmed that it was Kannadagowla( srgmpns, sndpmgs-- janya of 22).

Followed by the main piece jesi nadella of Thyagaraja in Thodi .

The thani which followed this was quite disconcerting for me. For the first few minutes of UKS playing I kept trying to figure out if there was some other instrument on the stage. He kept producing a sound I had not heard .. resembling the twang of a pull on a musical string, complete with the resonance one hears after a string pull. Very unusual . Unlike anything I had heard.

I have heard Gurucharan thrice in the last 12 months and he has never disappointed. Overall quite satisfying.

The Mahathi concert

And yesterday a concert by Mahathi at Bhavan's Andheri. I had heard of her as a child prodigy who was recognising ragas when she was 18 months old. And maybe I had even heard a song or two by her.. but never a full fledged concert.

Mahathi started with the Kalyani Ata tala varnam by Pallavi Gopala Iyer. She has a voice that is capable of moving through musical phrases at  lightning speed. This was demonstrated right in the beginning at Chirunavvu itself and sort of set the pace for the rest of the concert.

This was followed by Deva deva( Mayamalavagoula, Swathi) with neraval at Jaata roopa nibha chela, janmaarjitha maamakhila. And I clearly remembered Dr T S Sathyavathi telling us that if we had to sing neraval for this piece , it would be better to do it at Dithi jaali vidalana, deenabandho maamava. TSS, could in general be extremely acerbic about many musical irregularities. And she used to be particularly biting about people who sang neraval without understanding the meaning of a line. I am unable to remember which workshop she said this in.. so I could not listen to the recording again. But I remember the gist of what she said in this context. It was her contention that all krithis would not lend themselves to neraval( obviously). She believed the musician should select that line which was not just amenable to musical variations but was also a line which encapsulated a lofty thought or idea and was worth repeating again and again so as to bring forth the composer's core vision.

And therefore I came back and sat with my Sanskrit translator and Govinda Rao's book again today morning . And yes, janmaarjitha maamakhila encapsulates an incomplete thought which gets completed only with the next 2 lines paataka sanchaya... karunaaya. All of it together means " Please obliterate all the sins I have accumulated in previous births" .

This was followed by Jagadananda and then Lavangi( Omkaarakarini by BMK). Lavangi as we know is the raaga with the least number of swaras( just 4 .. S R M D). Mahathi of course was able to traverse till the upper dhaivatam easily.

This was followed by a krithi called Saravanabhava, which I had never heard and sounded like it was Sudha Saveri and had all the Sudha Saveri notes. However, it was later announced as Pasupatipriya.. again a raga which I have not heard anything in.

The main piece was Kadanuvaariki. During the thodi alapana, there was a brief graha bhedham to rishabham resulting in mohana kalyani

Followed by a RTP in Malkauns .. other ragas during this piece were Brindavani, Durga, Behag and Revathi.

Followed by a thillana and a mangalam.

The musician has a very flexible voice, great skill and high energy.