Kala Ramnath belongs to a family of famous violin exponents: Prof. T.N. Krishnan (Carnatic music) and Dr. N. Rajam (Hindustani music). She was taught by her grandfather Vidwan, Narayan Iyer. Read the full bio on her homepage www.kalaramnath.com >>

Producer’s notes on YouTube

Full Concert of Kala Ramnath at RASA in Utrecht (The Netherlands), April 23rd, 2006. Kala Ramnath: violin. Satyajit Talwalkar: tabla. Celine Wadier: tanpura. No use, no copying and no publication of this material is allowed without my permission. Produced&filmed by Pieter de Rooij. Recording mixed by Pieter de Rooij. P.P. de Rooij / Tonal Ties Productions, C. 2013
00:00 – 57:48 Raag Madhuvanti
58:13 – 1:27:40 Raag Dinki Puriya
1:27:54 – 1:39:45 Composition in Raag Des

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• Up-to-date information from several leading periodicals and other websites
• Song lyrics

The book starts out with the history of the nattuvanar and the syllables.  Then there’s a brief introduction to tala.  Then I talk about the nattuvangam for the jatis in varnams as a compositional form, explaining how they’re traditionally structured and what the rules are for composing them.  I interviewed a lot of nattuvanars from a lot of different traditions and they all, of course, disagreed about the rules so I’ve included everyone’s rules.  The appendix has old compositions from the past that I transliterated into English text.

Source: personal message by author 17 January 2013 (disciple of T. Balasaraswati, T. Ranganathan and T. Viswanathan) – homepage >>

Available on Amazon (with previews) >>

Bharata Natyam is the classical dance of south India. It is accompanied, along with vocal and instrumental music, by compositions of recited syllables and percussive hand cymbals performed by a person known as the nattuvanar. The Nattuvanar’s Art analyzes and discusses this unique musical form and the distinctive characteristics of these compositions. Included are the history of the nattuvanar and the syllables, and a general introduction to tala. The appendix to The Nattuvanar’s Art includes transliteration of compositions from the past from Natanadi Vadya Ranjanam, a Tamil text; Sabdam alias Tala Solkattu, a Tamil transliteration of Telugu texts; and Bharatarnavam, a Sanskrit text.

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Kapila & Sushruta, sons and disciples of Sreevidhya Chandramouli, perform “Sarasiruhasana” (Nata raga, Adi tala); a kriti composed by Puliyur Doresvami.

Recorded on the occasion of Dhvani’s Carnatic Composers’ Day 2012

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S.Rajam is a multifaceted genius with creative talents in a variety of fields such as music, musicology, classical painting and acting. In the field of music, S. Rajam is an unparalleled authority on Vivadi ragas and has done much to popularize Koteeswara Iyer’s kritis. He has the distinction of being the only musician to have recorded all the 72 compositions of Kanda Ganamutham, most of the kritis being accompanied by Raga, Niraval and Kalpana swaras. He was also well known for keeping the Classical Indian Painting style contemporary. He has immensely contributed to enrich our cultural heritage for over six decades. Read more >>

Launch and screening of the movie: 11th November 2012 at Tatvaloka, Eldams Road, Chennai (2.00 PM)