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RAgam, ThAnam, Pallavi - fascinating facts!


Unusual Pallavi Themes - 1.


"There was a Zamorin at Calicut who was fond of music and had also a good knowledge of the art. He used to patronise

deserving musicians and give them rich presents. Once a great pallavi vidwan happened to go to Calicut; the Private

Secretary to the Zamorin, himself a rasika, arranged for a concert by the vidwan at the palace. The Zamorin had one

weakness – he would ask the artist to give beforehand, the wording of the song he proposed to sing. When the vidwan had

elaborated a raga and was about to begin the pallavi, the Zamorin made his usual demand. The vidwan got wild and shouted

‘Which fool would care about the sahitya of a pallavi?’ and went away from the palace. The Zamorin also got angry. The

Private Secretary was a tactful man; he pacified the two and arranged for a recital the next day: he had managed to get the

Zamorin to waive his stipulation regarding the wording of the pallavi. The vidwan started the pallavi and elaborated it with

such mastery and skill and charm that the Zamorin was highly pleased and made extra presents to the vidwan. When, the

artist was about to leave the palace, the Zamorin asked him to give the wording of the pallavi at least then. The vidwan faced

the Zamorin and said, ‘I am prepared to give you the sahitya on the condition that you will not get angry.’ The Zamorin agreed

to the condition, and the vidwan gave him the sahitya, and immediately ran away. The Zamorin was taken aback, and got into

a rage, but he could not do anything as the vidwan had in the meantime run away. The sahitya was 'samoodiri thavidu thinnu',

meaning that the Zamorin ate the chaff, the implication being that instead of enjoying the pure art of music, the Zamorin was

after the words which especially in a pallavi was as insignificant as the chaff as compared to the grain."
 

Unusual Pallavi Themes - 2.

Lest the reader think that such pallavis are mere oddities, we refer to the great musician Tiger Varadachariar. In the words of

S. Y. Krishnaswamy, Tiger felt that “pure music, which is important in a pallavi, for instance, depended very little on words.

He then proceeded to demonstrate this view by singing a pallavi which translated to ‘the breeze blows through the window’.”


T.K. Sethuraman narrates an incident when Tiger performed in Sirkazhi village and was asked to sing a new pallavi after he

had sung an elaborate alapana and tanam in Kambodhi.
blank.gif
Apparently, a street-vendor came around at that time, selling brinjals

shouting “katharikkAi, katharikkAi” and Tiger sang "katharikkAi vAnga vAyENdi thOzhi" - (Come to buy brinjals, O friend).

Another pallavi he was fond of elaborating was "uppumA kiNdadi peNNE, nandrAga" - (Hey lass, stir the uppumA well).
 

Unusual Pallavi Themes - 3.

There are several pallavis composed in praise of an individual. The first example is a pallavi sung by Smt. D. K. Pattammal,

at the Tyagaraja Aradhana in Thiruvaiyaru. The lyrics of the pallavi is the first line of Tyagaraja’s famous pancharatna kriti

in Sri rAgam - 'endharO mahAnubhAvulu, andhariki vandhanamu' (There are several great people and I bow to them all).

It is worth noting that Smt. Pattammal, who is often described as a musician with great fidelity to tradition, sang it in the

rAgam KambOdhi and not in Sri rAgam. V. Sethuramiah and Palakkad Mani Iyer accompanied her in this recording.
 

Unusual Pallavi Themes - 4.

The next example is Madurai Mani Iyer’s rendition of 'MahAthmA maNi mozhi vazhi nadappOm, mAperum thalaivar Gandhi'

(Let us follow the footsteps of the great leader Mahatma Gandhi) in Shanmukhapriya at an AIR concert on Gandhi Jayanti.

Mani Iyer was a staunch Gandhian and has also sung pallavis about the rattinam (spinning wheel).
 

Unusual Pallavi Themes - 5

Balamuralikrishna is a musician who has innovated extensively. He has sung several interesting pallavis,

which are often marked by intelligent and catchy movements. He sang a short pallavi in Natabhairavi, the

theme being musical notes.

Another singer who exhibits a flair for wordplay in coming up with unusual pallavi lyrics is T. N. Seshagopalan.

He also had an interesting variation on the pallavi, 'nAttai kurinji enbAr siRandha engaladhu', by singing it in

Nattai, Kurinji and Nattakurinji.
 
i skimmed thru last 10 pages of this thread, didnt find mohanam, Mam. the reason for my search is i tried to distort mohanam yesterday i this is what i got

s r2 g2 p d2 s
s d2 p g2 r2 s

shifting one note upwards

s r2 m1 p n1 s
s n1 p m1 r2 s

am within the boundaries of making an RTP here or its dappangoothu? LOL
 

Dear Sandhya,

I wrote about sruthibEdham of SankarAbharaNam and MOhanam in the very beginning. You might have missed it.

Here they are for you: :)
Raji Ram said:

Sruthi bEdham - continued:

Taking all the twelve swarams in an octave in a row, if we write the existing swarams and

leave gaps for the non existing swarams, SankarAbharaNam can be written as follows:

S - R - G M - P - D - N S'

( I tell the beginners to play Sa; oru gap Ri, oru gap Ga, Ga kittE Ma, oru gap Pa;

oru gap Dha; oru gap Ni; Ni kittE Sa' - to play SankarAbharaNam on the veena )

When we take the octave from R to R' we get this pattern:

R - G M - P - D - N S' - R'. By changing R as Shadjamam, we get this octave

S - R G - M - P - D N - S' which are KharaharapriyA swarams.

Let us take from G to G' of SankarAbharaNam. We get this octave

G M - P - D - N S' - R' - G'. By changing G as Shadjamam, we get this octave

S R - G - M - P D - N - S' which are ThOdi swarams.

The same logic to be used for shifting Sruthi to M, P, D and N. Only for 'N' we will not get a mELa rAgam,

as mentioned in the earlier post, because M1 and M2 will appear in the octave. This concept is very easy

to understand with Harmonium, Keyboard or Piano which have keys for each swaram and the Veena which

has a fret for each swaram. The violin does not have frets for each swaram and so it may be difficult to

understand. Hence I wrote the swarams with gaps, for easy understanding of the patterns. Hope it is clear! :)
Click to expand...

Raji Ram said:
One more interesting rAgam for fascinating sruthi bEdham is MOhanam.

The swaram pattern in ArOhaNam is: S - R - G - - P - D - - S'

Shifting sruthi to Rishabham we get S - R - - M - P - - N - S' which is MadhyamAvathi.

Shifting sruthi to Gandharam we get S - - G - M - - D - N - S' which is HindhOLam.

Shifting sruthi to Panchamam we get S - R - - M - P - D - - S' which is Suddha SAvEri.

Shifting sruthi to Daivatham we get S - - G - M - P - - N - S' which is Suddha DhanyAsi.

So, MOhanam, MadhyamAvathi, HindhOLam, Suddha SAvEri and Suddha DanyAsi are have the similar pattern of gaps

in the swarams. So any of these rAgams will bring the other rAgams by proper shift of the sruthi! :)

P.S: In the western music, shifting of sruthi is found. But the same notes (rAgam) will continue.
Click to expand...
 

Among present day singers, Sanjay Subrahmanyan seems to sing several pallavis based on unusual themes. Some examples

are 'vaNdAdum sOlaiyilE, malayamArutham veesum' in MalayamArutham, 'pArukkuLLE nalla nAdu, engaL bhAratha nAdu' in

ShaNmukhapriya and 'apakAra nindhai pattuzhalAdhE, ariyAdha vanjarai kuRiyAdhE' in ChakravAkam.


P.S: In K K Nagar sabha, Sanjay sang a pallavi - long back - so do not remember the lyrics - would have noted down if I knew

that I will start this thread! :D - which contained the words 'annai varAL idhO', intelligently set to VarALi rAgam! :cool:
 
Sangita Kalanidhi is the coveted title conferred on the carnatic musicians by the Music Academy. I have received through email a write up on the past selections of musicians for this award. As the write up is a bit lengthy I have attached it as a word document for the forum members to read. The politics behind the selection process makes interesting reading.
 

'அரசியல்' நுழையாத இடம் ஏது?

சங்கீத உலகம் மட்டும் விதிவிலக்கு ஆக முடியுமா? :tsk:
 

Some rAgams are easy to handle and there are many compositions in those rAgams. Some are rare rAgams!

By rAgams I mean seldom used rAgams which are generally known ONLY through some famous compositions.

Let us have glimpses of such rAgams and listen to the famous compositions in those rAgams. :music:
 

1. Vivardhini.

This is a janya rAgam of SankarAbharaNam

ArOhaNam: S R2 M1 P S. - avarOhaNam: S. N3 D2 P M1 G3 R2 S (in the three number system)

Please enjoy this song: Dr K J Yesudas -- Vinave

In the video details Vivardhini is said to be the janya rAgam of HarikAmbOji. (Few other sites say so!)

But, Sri. T. S. Parthasarathy gives it as the janya rAgam of SankarAbharaNam and Sri. K J Y sings with kAkali nishAdham! :cool:
 

Dear Subbu Sir,

Some sites mention that Vivardhini is janya rAgam of HarikAmbOji (kaisiki nishAdham)

where as Prof. T. S. Parthasarathy says in 'Thyagaraja keerthanai' book that it is janyam of SankarAbharaNam.

M. S. Amma sings with kaisiki nishAdham where as Sri. Yesudas sings with kAkali NishAdham!
 

We can conclude like this.

S R M P S. - S. N D P M G R S with HarikAmbOji swarams is Kunjari

and with SankarAbharaNa swarams is Vivardhini! :cool:
 

Here is something interesting about singing R T P.


Source: Carnatic Music and anything else: Ragam Tanam Pallavi

Instead of presenting trikalam (singing the pallavi in three speeds), Sanjay sang kalpana swarams in different speeds

(slower speed, tisram and tisram fast speed) ensuring the purvangam (first half) of the pallavi finished on the arudi. “This is

similar to a technique used in Hindustani music” observed Mohan Ayyar, a senior instrumentalist and avid rasika in Sydney.


It is interesting to note that this technique is identified as being similar to something used in Hindustani music. Personally I

am not familiar with how it is employed in Hindustani music, but as far as Carnatic music goes, it was Madurai TN

Seshagopalan, who started doing this frequently on stage. None of the earlier "greats" have done this at least from the

evidence of the recordings that we have with us. TNS has been a real innovator as far as the modern RTP goes and many of

the things that I do are inspired from what he did at least 40 years ago!


Just another point regarding the above quote - There is a special item in Nadaswaram called "Rakthi melam" which was a

specialty of the Sembanarkoil lineage. In this they generally played kalpana swarams to 6 different eduppus in 6 different

kalams to get the jathi to the arudi. According to my guru Sembanarkoil SRD Vaithyanathan, their family has being doing this.
 

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