Sowmya

Dear friends,
Some time in 1994/95, I heard smt. sowmya.She was a budding artist then. But she had a resounding voice and a very knowledgeable friend of mine referred her as the Vasantha kokilam of the 21st centuary in the offing.

She had a little bass voice as that of vasanthakokilam, DKP, MSS and MLV. Her timbre was distinct while her fellow female artists squeaked and screached, in their usual feminine voice.

But as the years passed, the bass element in her voice also passed and faded out. One consolation is that she had retained the heaviness in her voice. OK. If not as great as the doyens, atleast she is as popular as her other contemporaries.

It seems she had taken lot of pains and did much home work to see that this folk-cum-traditional concert become sucessful. And indeed it was a great success. The response at my house was tremendous, everyone praising her effort to galactic heights.

She explained various ragas with ease and her repertoire was amazing. How could it be otherwise? Trained by Tiger Ramanathan, the cub ought to be ferocious. Well done Sowmya.

With all Love, greeting you and your family,A HAPPY NEW YEAR 2010.

SR

unni sowmya Part 2

Dear friends,
Sri. Yugi Sethu, the cine artist, during one of his talk shows with Sri. Unni krishnan in Vijay TV 8 or 9 years ago, referred Unni's voice as Velvet voice. Without any least hesitation, i also subscribe to his view. All the songs that he rendered in this concert were in keeping with the mellow nature of his voice.

Unni began his concert with the famous Tamil song of the great Divine poet Papanasam Sivan in the varali ragam KAA VAA VAA, made extremely popular by the one and the only Madurai Mani Iyer.

The inherent sympathetic tone of his voice pleaded Muruga to come. Very nice to hear. This kind of worship is called Daasyam-The servant pleading God to show grace. But it appears to me that the poet was rather worshipping Muruga by Sneham-friendship- and is demanding Muruga to come. Has MMI or TVS essayed the poet's feeling better than Unni? Or is it because of the "Gambeeram" in their voices? Even though Unni has done best, I want your opinion.

I have not heard this Krithi of Annamacharya before and this song in Lalitha instantly enticed me.

Devi neeye thunai in Kirvani was appealing. I had heard Unni telling audience once that this was his favourite raga. He has also given an excellent one hour cassette in this raga with charsur digital work station. The neraval Alaimagal kalaimagal was not good and I felt that he was unnecessarily biting these words.

Jaya TV choked his voice, intervening with unnecessary comments when he started singing on Lord Nataraja, depriving listeners from hearing one more good song? When will Jaya TV get corrected in this aspect?

A special request to Unni: Has any body threatened you with dire conquences, if you open your mouth more than one inch? When you were a judge in Asianet's Idea Star Singer,I heard you telling many contestants to open their mouth and sing, so that the power of their voice would become explicit. Just two days back, Your friends, the famous cine play back singers, K.Chitra and Subha asked a girl, who muffled her voice,to open her mouth a little bit, so that her voice could be powerful. And the result was rewarding. Please consider, as this will add further lustre to your voice and singing.

With Love
SR

Unnikrishnan Sowmya Part 1

Dear friends,
I propose to give my review on the concerts of Shri. Unnikrishnan and Smt.Sowmya in 3 parts. This is the 1st one.
Before reviewing the concerts of Shri. Unni krishnan and Smt. Sowmya, it would be befitting to give a briefing on their Guru,Dr. S.Ramanathan, a great soul, who relentlessly shared the abundant knowledge he gained over years, munificently with the factory of disciples he produced,two among the gems, are the above ones.

I passionately remember him for the many Tamil songs he popularised, the chief among them being'Yarukku thaan theriyum"in the raga Deva manohari and also the hither to unknown or very very rarely sung raga,Lalitha.I had not heard this before Ramanathan sir.

As Sowmya rightly remembered and paid tributes to him during the folk round,I also tearfully, remember this great, simple soul,for the extraordinary contributions he has made to carnatic music

A brief biography of Dr. Ramanathan

Birth: April 8th, 1917 at Tirukoilur (Velavanur)

Parents: Subramania Shastri & Pattammal

Initial tutelage: At age 7 from Tirukoilur Ramudu Bhagavatar & Manalurpettai Subramania Dikshitar

Gurus: Tanjavur Ponniah Pillai, Tiruvaiyaru Sabhesa Iyer, Sattur Krishna Iyengar, Madurai Subramania Iyer, Tiger Varadachariar

Advanced Learning: Valadi Krishna Iyer, Devakottai Narayana Iyengar

Education: Sangita Bhooshanam from Annamalai University; Ph. D. (Ethnomusicology) from Wesleyan University, CT, USA for his dissertation on Silappadikaram.

Noted scholar, researcher and teacher. Author of several papers, treatises and monographs. Associated with B. Rajam Iyer in the Tamil production of Sangita Sampradaya Pradarshini. Dean, Visiting Professor, Principal and Research Director in various institutions

Proficient vainika

Concerts and music marked by bhava, deep understanding of sahitya. Emphasis on classicism and chastity of original music and lyrics.

Titles: Sangita Kalanidhi (1985), Isai Perarignar (1981), Sangita Kala Sagara, Swati Tilakam and so on.

Sishya Parampara: S. Sowmya, P. Unnikrishnan, Savitri Satyamurthy, Geetha Ramanathan Bennett, etc.

Passed away on March 19th, 1988 at Chennai

I am giving the following Tamil song "AAdidum Arase" rarely heard krithi composed by Dr. Ramanathan sir,sung during the dance performance of his grand daughter. Enjoy

Aruna Sairam

Dear friends,
                     You would have by now listened to the concert of Smt.Aruna sairam either directly through Jaya TV or through the upload of Shri. Manjunathji at Sangeethapriya.

Doubt has arisen in my mind whether my listening ability underwent any depreciation or the quality of MMU or the performance/interest of the artists participating therein is fading. From the beginning till yesterday, the quality of all concerts was not even comparable to last year MMU. Or is it my hallucination?

Whenever any one sings any krithi, our mind automatically begin to probe for the one we had  heard as the best.When Aruna sang Ehi annapurne-the punnagavarali, I could not but recollect the one better sung by Vijay Siva with all the emotions of the raaga. Similarly,Unnai Allal-Kalyani was no where near the one rendered with all its nuances by Sri. Maharajapuram Santhanam.

Smt. Aruna knows that her strength is in singing Uthukadu and Abangs. I don't comprehend why she avoided both, this year. I am happy that she elevated the lady, who inspired her to concentrate on Uthukadu krithis, to sit behind her twinging thambura.

The Bengali song in Durga is not appealing and not music to ears. When the songs in languages we do not know seem Greek, French and Latin to us, the introduction of a Bengali  piece is amusing. Should Aruna impose such things on us?  Please don't blame that I am not a nationalist.

So what is left for us this year? The one sung in the last in Kadhakudhukalam was lilting and was her only best rendition this year, I think. We seek best from You, Aruna.  All the best.
SR.
NB: You would have read my 1st posting wherein I had raised a query on Guru/Acharya. I received an authentic answer. It may be of interest to you too. Refer Below an article.

http://www.sssbpt.org/Pages/Prasanthi_Nilayam/therevolutionoflove-sundayspecial-27dec2009.html

Yours lovingly, SR

Neyveli Santhana Gopalan(NSG), Ganesh andKumaresh

Dear friends, Sorry for this belated posting on Nsg and G&K,

Reg the concert of NSG:

He told during the concert that he would feel angry whenever elders remark against his concert. I have been following his music since his singing at sath sangam,Block-2, Neyveli days when he might be 11 years old.
True as a honest disciple of carnatic music, he followed guru kula vaasam under the sakala kala vallavan of carnatic music, the great TNS, who is not only a vocalist, but also a vainika,Key board artist, Katha kalakshebam specialist and most knowledgeable expert on carnatic music and an authority on Harikesanalllur kirthanams.

Shri. NSG imbibed all these qualities of his Master and the answers he give for the Q&A session reflects the amazing repertoire he acquired from his Guru.

You may wonder why all this prelude. Every listener of carnatic music knows very well that since the last four or five years,Nsg is having problem with his voice. His vocal chord refuses to obey him as he traverses from madhyama sthayee (middle range) to taara sthayee(higher range). This was very evident in this concert also.

When he announced that he would sing Karna ranjani, I could see the worry and fear engripping the faces of the audience. I also had the same feeling whether he could do justice to the song as it involves higher octave notes from Vanchidhapala dhayini onwards. And God! it happened. His voice cracked, as he sang past vanchida....

Again the same disaster happened when he sang Nalinakanthi, making listening horrible.Sri. Balamuralikrishna had the same problem in 1970,when he switched over to viola and mridhangam.Fortunately, by God's grace he recovered his voice and is maintaining it till now

I am sorry NSG. It is high time to mend your voice under an able voice expert/ENT specialist. Or switch over to Kathakalakshebam or be content as a good Guru. I am not finding fault, but telling you from my heart.

I know NSG is a good person and let us all pray for him.

Regarding Ganesh and Kumaresh:

Carnatic music is very difficult to understand-even when a vocalist sings- as most of the songs are in Telugu,Kannada and sanskrit. Atleast a threadbare knowledge of Ragams and taalams are required for pleasant listening. Otherwise after one or two songs, the listener may quit.

If this is the case for the listener of a vocal concert, imagine the plight of a novice to carnatic music, listening to instrumental carnatic music. And that too about the abstract theme: seasons.

When they played brilliantly the swarams of Bilahari, Shanmukapriya and Charukesi, I could see empty faces of listeners wondering what to do. Some were looking at roof munching bubble gum.

When Ganesh announced that he would play Bilahari for Vasanthakalam and Shanmugapriya for Kodaikalam, my son sitting next to me asked, how they had  chosen the respective ragams for the respective seasons. I was also wondering. For the third item Charukesi,Kumaresh promptly announced that they had chosen this ragaa for Rainy season, as this is a sampoorna ragam. There are many sampoorna ragams like Sankarabaranam, Kalyani etc. Why charukesi? Hence the explanation  did not satisfy me. My son jovially intervened.

When some notes expressing pathos/sorrow were played during charukesi, my son told me to imagine rain flooding hutments and people shifting to corporation schools, a sad scenario they face every year. Or imagine ditch water entering the drinking water sump in our apartment during the rainy season the common sorrowful experience the citizens of chennai face every year. Then i would accept Charukesi, he said.

Yes. the audience need to be creative and imaginative for such concerts. But how many would be?

G&K!!..This margazhi maha utsavam is once in a year free concert and reaches millions around the globe through TV. Hence on behalf of all listeners of good carnatic music, I request you both to render classical carnatic music at this utsavam. You may try your innovations elsewhere. This is my earnest appeal. Thank you.

Ranjani and gayathri

Dear friends, You would have heard these sisters yesterday. I could not but refrain from comparing their performances with their 2008 season,In 2008 their rendition of vazhimarithrukkuthe was superb. This was sung in Nataikurinji, where as the same was rendered by Sri,Dhandapani desigar in Thodi.The attempt by sisters was excellent when one sang in bass voice, the other followed in treble. Also their singing of Ranganayakam in Nayaki was full of bava and and soulful.

With all the above in mind I started listening them yesterday. But to my utter disappointment, their singing this year was very ordinary and fail to impress me.Ranjani went out of pitch at one instance during Amrithavarshini. Their Rithigowlai was very prosaic and on Lord  Muruga and looked typical to me as that of Thathvamariya in the same raga on Lord Ganapathi. I could not observe any nuances or new kalpana here also. Other three songs  are the usual run of the mill type.I suggest progress should be their watch word and every year  they should seek new heights, instead of singing very ordinarily. They can take their last year's performance as their scale for further improvement.

One more thing I want to say about Jaya tv. This year the music programmes are frequently interruppted with Q&A in addition to commercials. This takes away the fervour of concerts. Less interruptions would be welcome.
SR

Hi  all friends,
yesterday, you all would have heard Smt Nithya sree and today Sri. T M Krishna. I will tell my opinion. Your remarks are welcome.

Nithyasree: I have been hearing her since 1992. She sang Kanchadalayadakshi in vilamba kaalam, which I felt as extremely slow. I am used to MSS's rendition of this krithi since 1973 in the madhyama kaalam and hence I could not relish this slow pace( DKP's paadantharam).
Further she sang this krithi splitting words in such a way like instead of telling sukku, milagu,thippili, she sang like sukkumi,laguthi, ippili that sounded awkward to me.
Music is for listening pleasure.Clinging to once school of music,like DKP's, is commendable,if it could promote better enjoyment.I am sorry that it didn't happen.

The other song,Eppadi paadinaro was not in keeping with the DKP's style. DKP sang as Eppadi paadiNARO and not as sung by Nithyasree as Eppadi padiNAARO. The additional aakaram removed the sowkya bavam of the song. Many of her songs in this concert appeared to me like recitation and not song rendition due to the slow pace and unnecessary intonation of lyrics at various places.
T M Krishna; Better keep quiet than to say any thing. God save the rasikas,i can only plead.OK?
Lovingly yours,
SR

Entering my blog

Hi. I am Ramakoti. I have just created my blog. Here I wish to share my views on my passion carnatic music.Even though i am an ardent fan of carnatic music and bajans, I simply love all music types. That is why I named my blog as MMM.

I am a chennaite. The december music season is on. Today 18th Dec. I heard Shri. Vijay Siva in margali maha utsavam under the caption GURU KRIPA.

He said that we pay pranams to our guru on Guru poornima day and to Acharyal on Vijaya Dasami day.

Is not guru and acharyal the same? I dont understand. Please clarify if any one could.

He sung guruvinagulama of Purandaradasa in Panthuvarali. I have heard the same in Hamsanandi.Which is correct according to the text and bava of the song. Please comment.