INTRODUCTION: Subbarama Dikshitar in his preface to his Sangita Sampradaya Pradarshini (SSP) mentions a number of personalities who played a major role in enabling him to complete the treatise. They are: The past rulers and members of the Royal family of Ettayapuram (profiled by Subbarama Dikshitar in his Vaggeyakara Caritamu – entries 67 to 71) [...]
INTRODUCTION: We have lost quite a few ragas over the last few centuries either by disuse or abuse. The raga Hindolavasanta or Hindolavasantam under the Nariritigaula/Natabhairavi raganga/mela is one such instance of a raga with a rich textual tradition, having been given a royal treatment by two of the Trinitarians. This raga has a hoary [...]
Preface: Adiyapayya (Adippayya or Adiyappa Iyer/Ayya), whom Subbarama Dikshitar refers to in awe as a Margadarshi or trailblazer for the genre of tana varnas, shall forever be remembered just for his magnum opus, the Bhairavi ata tala varna “Viribhoni”. This varna has captured the imagination of both lay rasikas and the cognoscenti spanning across centuries. [...]
INTRODUCTION: Tarangini is a fairly old raga of the Carnatic Music system. It was the 26th mela both in the earlier as well as the later Kanakambari list (circa 1750), sporting chatushruti rishabham, antara gandharam, suddha madhyama, pancamam, suddha dhaivatam and kaisiki nishadam, with the mela being asampurna or vakra sampurna ( in modern day terminology). [...]
Click for Part II here. OTHER INTERPRETATIONS OF YAMUNA KALYANI: Apart from the famous compositions “Krishna Nee Begane”, “Pibare ramarasam” and “Bhavayami Gopalabalam”, Yamuna Kalyani is elaborated by musicians during concerts only in viruttams/shlokas usually under the pretext of lending a “Hindustani” touch to the musical proceedings. I present two of them. First, Sangita Kalanidhi [...]
Click for Part I here. Subbarama Dikshitar’s Compositions: The jatisvaram found notated under this raga in the SSP can be considered as Subbarama Dikshitar’s second composition composed in the year 1856, the first one being the varna in Durbar “Intamodi”. The reference to his is found in his autobiography that he wrote as a part [...]
Introduction: Patrons have played a very great part in our past in fostering Carnatic Music. Composers and musicians have been sustained, patronized & honored by both the Royals as well as the aristocratic/business magnates of the last few centuries. They were one of the essential components of the musical ecosystem of India. Given the social [...]
INTRODUCTION: Raga Yamuna Kalyani, also called as Yamuna, is a supposedly lighter melody and a minor raga today, under the Kalyani raganga/melakartha. A look at the musical history as available to us and also given the fact that we have major compositions from both Tyagaraja and Muthusvami Dikshitar, would show that this raga was not [...]
( Click here for Part I ) SUMMARY OF THE ANALYSIS : To summarize the understanding from the 3 works from the post 1750 era : Ma or Ga and Ni were vakra/varja in the arohana, according to (Muddu) Venkatamakhi. In arohana/avarohana terms the archaic Kambhoji as one should call it, would be defined as [...]
INTRODUCTION: Kambhoji is a purva prasiddha raga of yore which has ornamented Carnatic music for ages. There are many beautiful compositions adorning this raga. Sometime ago I happened to study some of musicological books to understand Kambhoji’s raga lakshana and its evolution, in the context of the earlier blog post on Pallavi Gopala Iyer.,which is [...]
