Audio | “Dedication to her guru, Veena Dhanammal” by Savithri Rajan

Tips: (1) to automatically play both the sides of the LP-recording, click the play button; (2) to view or download the audio files, item details, liner notes and images, click here; (3) Please be patient if it takes some time to load. – Enjoy! In her private LP recording titled “Dedication to her guru, Veena … Read more

What’s the difference between Hindustani and Carnatic music?

At first, this question seems easy to answer: just watch performers from either strand of Indian music and you’ll know Which is Which, merely going by the instruments in use, or how they dress and watching the body language involved: harmonium or sarangi vs. violin for melodic accompaniment for most vocal recitals, and tabla drums … Read more

A musical tribute to Prof. S. A. Srinivasan by Karaikudi Voyage – Sreevidhya Chandramouli (vocal & vina)

Dr. Srinivasa Ayya Srinivasan, a dear friend of ours, and an Indologist at University of Hamburg, Germany, passed away on May 2nd, 2019. Our thoughts and prayers are with his wife, Pia Srinivasan, who was a student of late Rajeswari Padmanabhan. We pay homage to his great soul with a few of his favorite compositions … Read more

Flow | The right tempo or “kalapramanam”

If there is a single feature of Carnatic music to account for its mesmerizing effect on listeners it may well be a feature known as kalapramanam: practicing rhythm (laya)1 and performing in the the “right tempo”2 (kālapramānam) which, once chosen, remains even (until the piece is concluded). Adopting it as part of regular practice enables … Read more

“Cosmic Order, Cosmic Play: An Indian Approach to Rhythmic Diversity”

Music by Kalaimamani TR SundaresanConcept by Ludwig PeschInspired by a conversation on the subject of ‘korvai’ with the late Sangita Vidwan S. Rajam Originally published in 2001 by KIT Publishers in Rhythm, A Dance in Time by Elisabeth den Otter (ed.) in conjunction with the exhibition titled “Ritme, dans van de tijd” at the Tropenmuseum … Read more