Why I do what I do is a question which is both difficult
and easy to answer.
Let me take writing here as an example. As mentioned
many times ad nuaseam, what drives me
is the passion for music in general
and his music in particular and my
yearning to share with others what I
observe, feel and enjoy. The logical question which would follow is, how I
decide what to write. This ‘what’ encompasses many things and these include the
song, the introduction, the topic, the flow and the caption.
Though it is a process, it would not be that easy to
describe this as many factors are involved. I would have listened to a particular song that day and would wonder
as to why I had not written about that song. If I had already written, I would
then have the incline to write about it again taking totally a different
perspective. At times, I would note down in my note book and take up that song
months (or even years!) after that. At times, I would read about something- not necessarily on music- and immediately
would think of a song which according to me matched with that item. There have
also been cases where I have related my personal stories and real life
incidents with the song.
There are many more things as well which go into
this, but let me stop here as of now. As regards the flow, I do not plan
anything and just ‘go with the flow’, that is, I write what strikes me at that
particular moment. The caption is
one area which I pay a lot of attention to. I see to it that the caption gives the essence of the post/song. Most importantly I avoid
using the word(s) used in the caption in the posts. For example, if the caption
of a post is ‘Rose and Thorns’, you
will not find those two words anywhere in the post. I do this to challenge my creativity.
Now, what made me write about the song of the day?
During the December
music season, a musician sang a Ragam
Taanam Pallavi in two different ragas.
What is this RTP is a question which
is beyond the scope of this post. Suffice to say that it is a composition where a musician takes up
just one line in a particular raga,
expands the raga before singing that
line by singing an aalapana followed
by taanam and then sings swaras in that ragam.
The particular musician took up two ragas instead of one(this too is done
sometimes) and within seconds of her first aalapana,
yours truly could make out that it was a rare vivadi raga not commonly sung in the concert circuits, but used by
the Maestro long ago in a film. I
had also written a detailed post more than 11 years ago in the Orkut community
which was reproduced in my blog (https://rajamanjari.blogspot.com/2008/11/ilaiyaraaja-musician-par-excellence.html) soon.
This raga called as ‘Chitrambari’ hold a special place in my
heart, a fact known to regular attendees of Geetanjali, and since I have mentioned about this several times, I
would refrain from giving the reason yet again.
I keep humming this song whenever I feel like it.
And somehow, since this morning I have been having a strong desire to write
about this song again. And this post was born...
‘Sangeetam En Degam AndRo’ from Bala Nagamma(1981) is a gem not known
to even many die-hard fans of his. What makes this song unique is of course the
raga. But as I have been saying, the
beauty in any composition is enhanced not just by the raga but by the way it is used. And this is what makes Sangeetam great (pun intended!).
Though this may not be a blog for technical details,
it is incumbent on me to say a word or two about the raga as this would help in appreciating this song more. Even a
person not too familiar with Carnatic
Music, knows that there is a raga called KalyaNi (Can any Raaja
fan or even people who are neutral, forget that song which goes something like
‘Janani
Janani’?). What separates KalyaNi
and Chitrambari is just a variant of
one note and this note is a vivadi note.
Now, let me stop here lest this goes into a classification called ‘out of
syllabus’. The concept of vivadi has
been covered in some of my posts in my other blog and it has also been
discussed in detail during ‘Geetanjali-2019’.
Simply put, vivadi note is one which
is very close to another note (getting too close to anyone is dangerous?).
In ‘Sangeetam..’, there are phrases with
that distinct vivadi note and there
are also phrases without that vivadi note.
If the latter dances in KalyaNi, the
former prances and smiles in Chitrambari,
albeit mischievously. Take the beginning for example. Till the flute melody, it is in pure KalyaNi. It is the VeeNa- which follows the flute
- which first gives the shade of Chitrambari
by playing the vivadi note. And as if
to make everything clear and candid, the violins,
flute and tabla tarang combine together playing the ascending notes with that vivadi note appearing without fail
towards the end.
The first half of the Pallavi has that vivadi note,
while the second half(from ‘aalilai meloru’) is in KalyaNi.
Chitrambari
dances with elan in the first and the second segments of the first interlude what with the veena,
flute, and the violins moving
with ebullience combined with enthusiasm.
As if to challenge Chitrambari, the tabla
tarang(backed by morsing) and
the flute show some mudras of/in KalyaNi. Not used to being passive, the vivadi Chitrambari jumps into the fray yet again with the veena, tabla tarang and jalatarangam coming to its rescue.
The first CharaNam
is dominated by vivadi and the akaaram in the honey-soaked voice of VaNi Jayaram makes one feel how
beautiful and distinct vivadi is
despite giving that eerie feeling.
The second
interlude is a connoisseur’s delight. The VeeNa sounds a melody. The Jalatarangam
repeats it. The flute repeats it. The violins
repeat it.
Aren’t parrots musical too?
It is then tharangam
all the way with the Jalatarangam
and the Tabla tarang combining
together to bring out the beauty of Chitrambari. This is followed by the veena-venu and then the violins. Just towards the end, we see glimpses
of laya-natana
raaja when the mridangam is joined by the ankle bells.
Dance of sound!
The second CharaNam
is structured differently from that of the first one and don’t we know that one
should expect the unexpected while listening to this composer?
In a way, this answers the question I raised in the
beginning. Doesn’t it?
