This production is based on the book Shobhillu Saptasvara: svarāvali, gītam, prabandham, sūlādi | Find a library copy on Worldcat.org >>
Savithri Rajan provides a spoken “Introduction to Shobhillu Saptasvara” on the first track.
View or download two excerpts from the book: (1) a gitam in standard notation (raga Hamsadhvani) and (2) an excerpt on the historical context and current value of the didactic repertoire covered: Gitam_Explanations_Notation_Hamsadhvani_Shobhillu.pdf
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In our present context the above exercises are meant to foster a sense of “Flow” while supplementing the Carnatic music syllabus (abhyasa ganam) attributed to 16th c. composer Purandara Dasa | More information and renditions >>
Vocalists and instrumentalists practice pairs of notes (janta svara) with the aim of increasing fluency and precision.
Janta phrases are embedded in many compositions heard in today’s concerts (notably varnam, kriti and tillana) and as part of improvised interludes (manodharma sangīta): kalpana svara and tanam as clearly heard in the following examples:
Once familiar with the pattern consider practicing the first and the last melakarta ragas (mela 01 & mela 72).
Then proceed to others that are better known as “parental ragas” for their popular “offspring” (janya “derived ragas”) – notably those associated with melas 02 (Revati & Srimani), 17 (Saurashtram), 36 (Gambhiranata), 39 (Varali), 44 (Bhavani), 53 (Hamsanandi & Purvikalyani), 59 (Ranjani), 61 (Srutiranjani), or 66 (Amritavarshini).
Note: some of these mela-janya associations have been submitted to an expert commission appointed by the Music Academy Madras in view of some ambiguity or other. On similar lines, the “omission” of one or more notes from a raga’s “parental scale” may be confusing to learners as in the case of pentatonic (audava raga) Gambhiranata – today listed under mela 36 – which might as well be listed under mela 29.
“Whether the janya is the one derived from the melakarta or vice versa, the existing janaka-janya system of raga classification enhances the paramount importance of the 72 melas as technical facts defining the janyas under them.” – S. Seetha in Tanjore as a Seat of Music >>
Practice with basic “Sa” = G# Download this audio file (2 MB, 2 min. mono) Credit: eSWAR / FS-3C Sruthi petti + Tanjore TamburaThis variation invites music teachers to create their own exercises and thereby make the practice of scale practice more enjoyable for their students.Audio | Listen to janta phrases as taught by Savithri RajanSavithri Rajan teaching phrases in raga Bauli (gitam)K. Hariprasad singing the full gitam in raga BauliSavithri Rajan teaching phrases in raga Navaroj (gitam)K. Hariprasad singing the full gitam in raga Navaroj
South Indian conventions (raga names & svara notation): karnATik.com | Guide >>
The above svara pattern may be sung, hummed or practiced silently with any svara variants: those you are already familiar with (e.g. raga Mayamalavagaula, mela 15, raga Dhirasankarabharanam, mela 29, raga Mecakalyani, mela 65) or any other you want to practice.
Become fluent with the help of svara syllables (solmisation): practice a series of exercises, each based on a set of melodic figures that lend themselves to frequent repetition (“getting into flow”) | Practice goal, choosing your vocal range & more tips >>
South Indian conventions (raga names & svara notation): karnATik.com | Guide >>
raagam: mAyAmALavagauLa Aa: S R1 G3 M1 P D1 N3 S | Av: S N3 D1 P M1 G3 R1 S
raagam: shankaraabharaNam Aa: S R2 G3 M1 P D2 N3 S | Av: S N3 D2 P M1 G3 R2 S
raagam: kalyANi Aa: S R2 G3 M2 P D2 N3 S | Av: S N3 D2 P M2 G3 R2 S
Listen to Uma Ramasubramaniam demonstrating the svaras (notes) for the present raga(s) on Raga Surabhi >>
Practice with basic “Sa” = G# Note: this recording has no fifth note “Pa” (as advised for those janya ragas wherein “Pa” will not be sung or played) Download this audio file (2 MB, 2 min. mono) Credit: eSWAR / FS-3C Sruthi petti + Tanjore Tambura
The above svara pattern may be sung, hummed or practiced silently with any svara variants: those you are already familiar with (e.g. raga Mayamalavagaula, mela 15, raga Dhirasankarabharanam, mela 29, raga Mecakalyani, mela 65) or any other you want to practice.
Once internalized you may want to contemplate and remember the same exercise with the help of the “8 x 8 beads” pattern shared here >>
The long-term goal is to become fluent in all the 72 melakarta ragas (including those rarely heard). In this manner it becomes easier to recognize both, melakarta and janya ragas, by distinguishing their characteristic notes even when modulated or “embellished” in accordance with classical conventions (gamaka). Their application is demonstrated in an elegant, highly instructive video (duration: 7 min.): The 13-part Sanskrit composition of Chitravina N Ravikiran. For a more detailed application, listen to Smt Kiranavali’s students at Cleveland Aradhana (Part 1) | Part 2 >>
Venkatamakhi while justifying the derivation of 72 melakartas by permutation and combination interestingly remarks that countries are many with people having variety of tastes and it is to please them ragas have been invented by musicians. Some are already known while some are in the process of being brought to life, while some may be invented in future, while those surviving only in treatises and the ragas not known at all during their time may be brought to life in future, for the benefit of the people.
Therefore his mela arrangement “is intended to visualise all the desi (regional) ragas which differ from place to place, from people to people and which according to the suitability of the voices, must be utilised for practical purposes.”
As a result, “the melakarta assumes a real scientific meaning during Govindacarya’s time […] and help in the preservation of the identify of many a janya [derived raga]. […] The ragas assume different colours and shades of expression in their attempt to satisfy the musical needs and tastes of the people. But the 72 melakartas are perhaps ever the same in structure and remain as the material forever out of which the thing of beauty – the raga – is made. […] Whether the janya is the one derived from the melakarta or vice versa, the existing janaka-janya system of raga classification enhances the paramount importance of the 72 melas as technical facts defining the janyas under them”.
Govindacarya and the present Kanakāngi-Ratnāngi nomenclature
Since Venkatamakhi proposed his original mela arrangement, “varali ma” became known as “prati ma” since the late 18th c. when a scholar known as Govindacarya wrote his treatise, the Sangrahacūdamani.
Govindacarya also had good reasons for giving the 72 melas individual names within the famous list, the Kanakāngi-Ratnāngi nomenclature: it helps musicians and listeners “ascertaining the mela and the kinds of notes taken both in the purvānga [Sa-Ri-Ga-Ma] and uttarānga [Pa-Dha-Ni-’Sa]”.
As a result, “the melakarta assumes a real scientific meaning during Govindacarya’s time […] and help in the preservation of the identify of many a janya [derived raga]. […]
The ragas assume different colours and shades of expression in their attempt to satisfy the musical needs and tastes of the people. But the 72 melakartas are perhaps ever the same in structure and remain as the material forever out of which the thing of beauty – the raga – is made. […]
Whether the janya is the one derived from the melakarta or vice versa, the existing janaka-janya system of raga classification enhances the paramount importance of the 72 melas as technical facts defining the janyas under them”.
9.Tillana 05:33 Raga: Brindavani; Tala: Adi; Composer: Tanjavoor S. Kalyanaraman
10. Ni Nama Rupamulaku (Mangalam) 00:59 Raga: Saurashtram; Tala: Adi; Composer: Tyagaraja (followed by Madhyamavati raga)
Place and date: Hitzacker (Germany), 27 May 2002
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Performers
Bhushany Kalyanaraman – Vocal Pakala Ramadas – Violin T. R. Sundaresan – Mridangam, Kanjira, Morsing and Konnakkol Katharina Bunzel – Tambura
About the main performer
SINGLE-MINDED devotion to Carnatic music — that sums up Bhushany Kalyanaraman. Hers is an extraordinary tale, spanning oceans. Born and brought up in Colombo, Sri Lanka, it was a typical Tamil household where her father used to ensure that everyone was awake at 5 a.m., reciting the Tiruvempavai. A renowned musician, her father had won the title “Sangita Bhushanam” from Annamalai University. All her sisters too sang well.
Love of Carnatic music brought Bhushany to Chennai, at 16,to stay and study music at the Government Music College. She went back to Sri Lanka, to teach music at a Jaffna college. The riots in 1982 brought her back to India, drawn by her deep admiration for her subsequent guru and husband, Tanjore S.Kalyanaraman, senior disciple of the legendary G.N.B. […]
A senior vocalist today, Bhushany has number of students both here and abroad, and many foreign students of Indian origin, who come to live with and learn from her. Many of her foreign-based students have had their formal arangetrams, proving her success as a teacher. […]
Grateful for everything that music has bestowed on her, she also wishes to do something for destitute women and children “to be able to reach out to people who do not have the luxury of music, people weighed down by pressing basic needs, to survive.” […]
Bhushany is a fortunate person — she has the best of both Sri Lanka and India, the best gained by besting life’s many odds
Source: Rupa Gopal in The Hindu (print edition), 7 March 2004 profiling “women who have made a career out of their passion”
Credits
Johann Wellendorf and Media Department, University Lueneburg (Germany); recording for the benefit of participants in its distance education course The Music of South Indiawww.carnaticstudent.org
