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 [...]
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: 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 [...]
PREFACE: One of the first impressions that an observer or student of our music gets is that Muthusvami Dikshitar was a strict conformist to sampradaya and to the raga lakshanas that were laid out by Venkatamakhi. But if one undertakes a scrupulous analysis of the Sangita Sampradaya Pradarshini, one can see how hollow that statement [...]
INTRODUCTION: Andhali is an old raga with a textual tradition which is now virtually extinct. Its close cousins, Purnachandrika and the much latter born Janaranjani have usurped much of its musical material. We have compositions of both Tyagaraja and Dikshitar in this raga. There is an element of a controversy, nay a puzzle about the [...]
Preface: Since the original post and the feedbacks that were received, an update to the post had become imperative. This sequel is intended to cover 3 areas: Update the discography by providing audio links to the renditions, to illustrate raga lakshana as found in the Dikshitar kriti “Bakthavatsalam” Consider one other rendition, that of “Bakthavatsalam” [...]
