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A rasika on heritage, creativity and mindless innovation

Controversies, History, Innovation, Listening assignment, Misconceptions, Module 07, Module 12, Press snippets, Questions, Reading and discussions, Sampradaya, Semmangudi Srinivasa Iyer, T Brinda No Responses »

Dec 152011

Reading and listening assignment

Spencer Venugopal, a well known connoisseur, musicologist and composer , raises a few points worth pondering.

Of special interest in our context is his assumption that there may be a “contemporary” Carnatic idiom; namely a music that is different from “classical” music and even has its own grammar.

Read the entire article and check your textbook for entries dealing with related issues including the musicians mentioned and portrayed here.

Listen to the same musicians whose recordings are commonly found in the internet including YouTube; and suggest a resource.

Semmangudi Srinivasa Iyer. Photo: D. Krishnan - Courtesy: The Hindu

[...] There is a sea change now. A musician is more often an intellectual with a rational, analytical and incisive mind. He has a stunning exposure to a wide variety in culture, music, art, and to other milieus. His opportunities have increased. His audiences have enlarged. In a sense, the whole world is his stage. His eclectic mindset and versatility open a whole new access to opportunities and rewards. Through hard work, he has cultivated amazing skills and a degree of virtuosity not seen in the earlier generation. He can take changes and challenges. He has perhaps every excuse to want to think liberally, and differently from his predecessors.

But then, how liberal and intellectual is classical? Again, is classical music a product of experiment or experience? More fundamentally, is music the experience of the sound or the sound of the experience?

On the other side, one might also ask whether art is an insular discipline or a free exploration? Difficult to answer. But then, when you see music in two different forms, such as the classical and the contemporary, it follows that each has its own grammar.

Mindless innovation

If anything, classical music has to relate to tradition and heritage. Mindless innovations cannot go under the garb of creativity. It is one thing to enlarge and enrich the classical idioms in new forms where necessary, and it is totally another to destroy them and create new ones. [...]

Source: The Hindu : Arts / Music : Carnatic music ideals
Address : http://www.thehindu.com/arts/music/article2715249.ece
Date Visited: Thu Dec 15 2011 15:25:34 GMT+0100 (CET)

Birthplace of Tyagaraja aradhana in 1905 – Mint street in Chennai

Bhakti, Celebration and festivals, Controversies, History, Innovation, Module 04, Places of musical interest, Reading and discussions No Responses »

Dec 132011

Mint Street, music and memories - Photo: courtesy: The Hindu

Interesting insights of modern Carnatic music history by V. Sriram, the foremost authority in this field:

V. Sriram, The Hindu, CHENNAI, December 10, 2011

In Mint Street stand two historic schools. The first is the Tondaimandalam Tuluva Vellalar (TTV) School, founded in 1854. This was home to one of the earliest music sabhas – the Tondaimandalam Sabha. It was here that in the 1880s, an attempt was first made to sell tickets for a concert, the artiste being Maha Vaidyanatha Sivan. The earlier practice was to circulate a plate among the audience for voluntary tokens of appreciation. So incensed was Sivan at the thought that his art was being commercialised by the sale of tickets that he called off the performance. To compensate, he sang for three successive evenings at the Parthasarathy Swami temple in Triplicane. The Tondaimandalam Sabha was later known for its rough-and-ready but musically sound audience. A young Kanchipuram Naina Pillai, later to become a star at the same venue, noted with horror a mridangam vidwan slip on tala and being forced to remain standing for the rest of the performance. It was at a meeting of this Sabha at the school in 1905 that a galaxy of musicians present decided to celebrate the Aradhana of Tyagaraja in a grand manner at Thiruvaiyaru. [...]

Source: The Hindu : Arts / Music : Mint Street, music and memories
Address : http://www.thehindu.com/arts/music/article2702160.ece
Date Visited: Tue Dec 13 2011 17:43:01 GMT+0100 (CET)

Continuity of dance and music – Tamil Nadu and Kerala

Dance, History, Module 01, Places of musical interest, Press snippets, Quotations, Reading and discussions No Responses »

Dec 112011

Reading assignment

The role of music and dance in South Indian society is succinctly described in the following excerpt from a lecture by Dr R Nagaswamy as summarized in The Hindu:

Dancers Somanaadi, Kallarai, Echumandai, Aravam, Eduthapadam, Porkesi (the golden haired one!) were given houses to live in, in addition to arable land. Not that they deserved less, for they were well-versed in music and dance. Yes, their names are unusual, but that is not to be wondered at, for they lived a thousand years ago. These are the names of some of the 407 dancers appointed by Raja Raja in the Big Temple.

While all the dancers were guaranteed security of tenure, the emphasis was always on their competence. If a dancer died, and the next in line from her family was not competent, a suitable replacement would be found, either by the descendant or by a group of qualified persons. These and other details were presented by Dr. R. Nagaswamy, former director, Department of Archaeology, Tamil Nadu, in a lecture on ‘Rajaraja’s Inscriptional Document on his Endowment for 400 Dancers at the Thanjavur Temple,’ organised by the Bharatamuni Foundation for Asian culture, recently. [...]

That dancers were held in high esteem even in the Vedic times is evident from the fact that Apsaras were considered guardians of the directions. The art of dance is also spoken of in Tholkaapiyam and Silappadikaaram.

The education of a king was not considered complete without a reading of the texts on music and dance. And both court and temple dancers were initiated into the art by the king himself. The Pallava king Mahendra Varma even wrote a dance drama, “Matta Vilasa Prahasana,” the only one of its kind to have been enacted for more than 1,000 years.

In the very first verse, MahendraVarma talks about angika, vachika, aharika and sattvika, terms every dancer is familiar with. The Chakkiyars of Kerala, even in recent times, spend seven days, on this one verse. Dr. Nagaswamy said that it is in Kerala that many unbroken traditions survive, and to understand Raja Raja’s inscriptions on music and dance, it would help if one were familiar with the traditions of that State. [...]

Karanas in rock

The weights and measures used by Raja Raja also had the names of Lord Nataraja, like Aadavallaan and Dakshina Meru Vidangar. Sculptural representations of the karanas that came after the time of Raja Raja show the influence of Abhinava Gupta’s commentary on Bharata’s Natya Sastra. The trend is evident in the Sarangapani Perumal temple sculptures (12th century CE). In the Chidambaram temple, the influence is complete.

Source: The Hindu : Friday Review Chennai : Legal document in stone
Address : http://www.hindu.com/fr/2010/09/17/stories/2010091750680400.htm
Date Visited: Sun Dec 11 2011 11:31:54 GMT+0100 (CET)

The author is a former director of Archeology (Tamil Nadu) and wrote Brhadisvara Temple: Form And Meaning ISBN (13) : 9788173053887; details on dkpindia.com >>

More information by Dr R Nagaswamy on the same subject

With the 1000th anniversary celebrations of the building of the Raja Rajesvaram temple under way in Thanjavur, there is an air of festivity in the town.

Built by Raja Raja Chola (who ruled from 985 -1014 Common Era), the Big Temple is not only a magnificent edifice with its majestic vimana, sculptures, architecture and frescoes, but also has a wealth and richness of Tamil inscriptions engraved on stone in superb calligraphy. [...]

Again, this is the only temple in India where the King specifically mentions in an inscription that he built this all-stone temple called ‘kattrali’ (‘kal’ meaning stone and ‘tali’ a temple). This magnum opus, running to 107 paragraphs, describes, among others, how Raja Raja Chola, seated in the royal bathing hall on the eastern side of his palace, instructed how his order should be inscribed on the base of the vimana, how he executed the temple’s plan, the list of gifts he, his sister Kundavai, his queens and others gave to the temple. [...]

Raja Raja Chola gifted gold vessels to the temple, and their weight, shape and casting were mentioned in the lithic records. Even a small spoon, ‘nei muttai,’ for scooping out ghee, finds a mention. The inscriptions throw light on the temple’s revenue from various sources, the mode of payment and the meticulous accounting procedures. “It shows the care and attention with which the temple property was entered in the registers and the responsibility fixed for handling them. Raja Raja Chola had an extraordinary administrative talent, unsurpassed either before or after him,” Dr. Nagaswamy said.

The inscriptions even speak about the temple’s cleaners, sweepers, carriers of flags and parasols, torch-bearers for processions at night and festivals, cooks, dancers, musicians and singers of Tamil and Sanskrit verses.

Source: The Hindu : Arts / History & Culture : Written in stone – Big Temple’s inscriptions reveal a King’s passion
Address : http://www.thehindu.com/arts/history-and-culture/article793145.ece
Date Visited: Sun Dec 11 2011 11:24:57 GMT+0100 (CET)

Prepared to challenge the establishment – Bangalore Nagarathnamma

Bhakti, Controversies, Dance, History, Misconceptions, Module 04, Reading and discussions No Responses »

Dec 062011

Reading assignent

Source: The Devadasi and the Saint: The life and times of Bangalore Nagarathnamma by V. Sriram (EastWest, Chennai 2007, Rs. 350). Isbn 9788188661701

Note: please refer to the entries on Bangalore Nagaratnammal in your textbook (Index of Names).

This biography is worth reading as it gives rare insights into the history of Carnatic music and dance. Many of the details compiled by the author are absent if not taboo in other sources. Most noteworthy are the references to the role played by educated women before India’s independence.

By definition, educated women then belonged to the devadasi-community of dancers and musicians including the protagonist of this study, Bangalore Nagarathnamma(l) and her better known contemporary, Veena (vina) Dhannamal. (Through other books on Carnatic music, Veena Dhannamal’s name has rightly become a household name.)

V. Sriram is the author of several readable and equally recommendable books and articles. Here he addresses several misconceptions about the social status of women known as devadasis. Considerable changes occurred during the Chola period (the builders of great temples in the Tanjavur region) about a thousand years ago. But before and after them, the devadasi community appear to have greatly contributed to the status associated with dance and music in South Indian society:

The concept of dedicating women to temples or places of worship is as old as civilisation. The custom existed in Greek, Roman, Egyptian and other ancient cultures. Indian cultures were no exception and the system was well developed in South India in particular, from very early on. There was a rigid hierarchy among these women, based on the duties they performed at the temple, which varied from washing vessels and sweeping the floor, to stringing garlands of flowers, preparing sandal paste and at the highest level of sophistication, singing and dancing before the deity. Such women were considered to be married to the deity and were recognized as respectable members of society. There was no particular caste from which women could be drawn for dedication and there are instances in the legends of princesses and girls from priestly classes becoming handmaidens of God. [...]

The history of the Devadasis and the history of the development of South Indian music and dance are intertwined. Both depended on patronage which in turn depended on peace and prosperity. The South Indian kingdoms were largely spared from frequent invasions and it is no wonder that music and dance flourished and so did the Devadasi system. [...]

– Introduction pp. ix-x & xi

Written with a sense of humour just as compassion as for the stark realities of these womens’ struggle for survival, the author clarifies many phenomena still baffling to modern students and listeners: particularly the passages wherein her challenges to the (male) establishment of her age, the first half of the 20th century, are dealt with. An intriguing symbiosis existed between an ancient but declining “institution” and the very circle who defined then ethod we now associate with “Carnatic music”:

It was a strange situation. On the one hand the community [of devadasis] was the storehouse of arts. On the other it was [widely considered as] the repository of all evil and every conceivable vice. Opinion was therefore sharply divided. On top of all this was the western mode of education and the relentless pressure from Christian preachers and proselytisers who condemned the entire system as vile. Having never experienced the existence of such a community in their own lands, these people had no hesitation in condemning all Devadasis as prostitutes and their art as sinful.

The orthodox among the Brahmins were of the same view. Tyagaraja, being one of them, abhorred the system though there are unsubstantiated tales that he once witnessed a dance by Muttuswami Dikshitar’s Devadasi disciple Kamalam and blessed her. Given such a background and his puritanism, none could have imagined that the life of a Devadasi would become intertwined with the history of his Samadhi. As the Devadasi system declined and was stamped out, this woman alone swam against the tide and made a name for herself, all the while never allowing anyone to forget that she was a Devadasi and proud of it. This was Bangalore Nagarathnamma, a true Devadasi.

– Introduction p. xxii

Continue reading »

Carnatic music performers’ and teachers’ reach beyond India

Listening assignment, Module 12, MS Subbulakshmi, Press snippets, Reading and discussions No Responses »

Dec 022011

M.S.Subbulakshmi performing at the United Nations in 1966.

Reading and listening assignment

get a perspective based on the following article
give your own views about statements like “the highly materialistic environment” in the West and “the other end of the spectrum to seek the harmony awaiting them in Chennai ”
understand which target audiences Carnatic musicians try to reach and serve
find and post excerpts of the concert by M.S.Subbulakshmi performed at the United Nations in 1966 on YouTube
share your own experiences with Carnatic music in any other country

Continue reading »

Odissi dance history – bhakti

Bhakti, Dance, Guru sishya and teaching methods, History, Intercultural relations, Misconceptions, Module 04, Module 12, Philosophy, Press snippets, Reading and discussions, Suggest a resource No Responses »

Nov 202011

Reading assignment

Since its “rediscovery” as a classical art form in the second half of the 20th century, Odissi dance has flourished again. With the loss of its original music, Carnatic ragas provide the foundation for performances although stylistically, elements and instruments from Hindustani music are combined with “local” traits.

Read and discuss an excerpt from this interview (or all of it), and share an online resource (YouTube) if you are interested in the history of Indian dance; and its cultural impact worldwide:

Rahul Acharya Photo: S.Mahinsha - Courtesy The Hindu

Rahul Acharya literally toddled his way into Odissi. That was at age three, which would mean that this young man of 28 has already a quarter of a century of dancing behind him. And in this journey Rahul has passed many memorable milestones. Rahul is the first and the youngest male Odissi dancer to be awarded the prestigious Ustad Bismillah Khan Yuva Pratibha Puraskar from the Kendra Sangeet Natak Akademi. He is the recipient of the Senior Scholarship from Government of India’s Department of Culture, an empanelled artiste of Indian Council for Cultural Relations,and an A-graded artiste in Doordarshan, to name a few of those landmarks. Excerpts from a conversation with Rahul …

[...] Jagannath has always been close to my heart –well, devotion to Lord Jagannath is something that I was born with, I suppose. Now, with my background in Odissi and the dance form’s close association with the Jagannath temple, I am inclined to research into its antiquity and put the history of Odissi and the Jagannath culture into a proper perspective. Odissi was given the status of a classical art form in 1958. But there is no doubt that Odissi in its earliest form – as a ritual in worship – is very ancient and entwined with the Jagannath temple, as the records testify. In fact, dance as a ritual of worship practised by the Devadasis finds mention in several Puranas, as does the Jagannath temple.

Evolution of Odissi

The Devadasis of Jagannath were known as Maharis, probably derived from ‘Maha Nari’ meaning “noble woman,” which alone is enough to denote the status that this class enjoyed then. In the course of my research, I have had the occasion to interact with many old Maharis and I have heard them quoting names of Shastras such as ‘Devadasi Nrutya Paddhati’ of Narayan Mishra, ‘Nachuni Vidhi’ of Madhu Pattnaik, ‘Niladri Nacha’ of Mukta Mahari. Bharatha Muni’s Natya shastra has classifications of dance forms from different regions and the Udra-Magadhi style that is mentioned would relate to the dance of modern day Orissa. Over the years, the fate of Odissi was shaped by royal patronage, the Bhakthi movement, and the development of the ‘goti pua’ variation danced by boys. It fell in stature, as is evident from the rather dismissive term ‘Odiya nacho,’ which it was given till the not too distant past. Ratikant Mahapatra, son of the doyen Kelucharan Mahapatra, works along with me in my research. My work now would be to establish in undeniable terms the antiquity of the Odissi heritage which lies written, perhaps not in words, but in the paintings of the Rani Gumpha caves or in the stone images of the Parashurameshwara, Lingaraj, Konark, and Jagannath temples.

Source: The Hindu : Arts / Dance : Disciple of Odissi
Address : http://www.thehindu.com/arts/dance/article2633049.ece
Date Visited: Sun Nov 20 2011 13:35:47 GMT+0100 (CET)

iRaagam – reference for iPhone, iPod touch and iPad

Apps, Melakarta system, Mobile device, News and updates, Tips No Responses »

Nov 202011

Information by the makers

The iRaagam is a must-have app for any carnatic music enthusiast. It provides a ready-to-use and easy reference for about 350 carnatic raagams, The user can listen to the arohanam (ascending) and avarohanam (descending) notes that define each raagam. There is also a link to Wikipedia, if the user wants to explore a raagam in more detail on the internet.

The intuitive user interface lists raagams alphabetically as well as by their melakartha number. When viewing by melakartha number, janya raagams of each melakartha raagam can be shown or hidden using the +/- button. The user also has the ability to show/hide the Janya raagams of all melakartha raagas, using the “+ All/- All” button in the status bar.

The “Lite” (Free) version has a limited number of Janya raagams. Get the regular version for a more complete list of Janya raagams. Future updates of the regular version will include more raagams.

Source and more information: App Store – iRaagam
Address : http://itunes.apple.com/us/app/iraagam/id317078350?l=es&mt=8
Date Visited: Sun Nov 20 2011 12:32:06 GMT+0100 (CET)

The Oxford Illustrated Companion available again – extra service

News and updates Comments Off

Nov 192011

illustratedcompanion_cover_thu The 2nd impression of The Oxford Illustrated Companion to South Indian Classical Music (2009 ed.) is now available. As before, one free copy is sent to each new course participant – see also Enrollment.

New service

Recent and former course participants may avail of a not-for-profit service: extra copies can now also be sent as a present to friends and relatives anywhere in the world.

Copies of the companion are be carefully packed and sent by registered airmail (priority) straight from India. More information on request – please send your inquiry after selecting “Other” in the form seen here >>

Talanome tala trainer App for iPhone, iPhone touch and iPad

Apps, Mobile device, News and updates, Tala exercises, Tips 1 Response »

Nov 192011

Ragamalika – unity and diversity

Alapana (ragam), Aruna Sairam, Embar S Kannan, Module 06, Neyveli R Narayanan, Raga types, Ragamalika, S Karthick, Tani (drum solo), Voice and vocal music No Responses »

Nov 112011

Listening and reading assignment

An elaborate ragamalika as this one provides a Carnatic performer with a rare opportunity to combine a variety of moods within a single item; and this in quick succession rather than spread across an entire concert. It goes without saying that for any unexperienced accompanying violinist, this would pose a major, if not unsurmountable, challenge.

Listen repeatedly to two items from a live recording wherein Aruna Sairam combines 8 ragas (aShTarAgamAlika) in several ways; and identify the names of the ragas:

aShTarAgamAlika raga alapana for eight ragas
composition by S Kalyanaraman karuNai madi tavazhum- Adi

Source: Kutcheri December Season 2002 Charsur CDWL067D
Audio player tips >>

Accompanists

Embar S Kannan – violin
Neyveli R Narayanan – mridangam
S Karthick – ghatam

Tip: in the second part (preceeding the taniyavartanam drum solo starting at 19:56), the raga names are clearly pronounced after each of the fast kalpana svara sequences; to crown her elaboration of the eight ragas, Aruna Sairam reverses their original order laid out at the beginning (raga alapana).

More

check your text book for the following chapters and entries: raga alapana, ragamalika, types of raga (check the Glossary-cum-Index for orientation)
find another ragamalika in your personal collection of Carnatic recordings (Note: liner notes do not always mention the presence of a ragamalika)
suggest a ragamalika you like on YouTube

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