Dear Rasika, The wonderful thing about Ragas in the Indian Classical music system is that they are unique, and each one of them have something that is typically only associated with them, that which is irreplaceable. It is easy to fool an average listener in a little game of "Identify the raga" in a post-dinner Carnatic music party, and chuckle as he identifies a Sri raga as a Madhyamavati or a Pharas as a Mayamalavagowla..but how many of us self-confessed aficionados of this great system really have a fool-proof method of unambiguously identifying, each time, every time, the raga correctly? I doubt very many of us do, and this includes the smug critic or the know-it-all mama-mami duo next door. Lets face it - there are many factors that go into identifying a raga - the musical intelligence of the person who is playing or singing in the specimen recording, the level of sophistication of the music system, the extent of deafness of the listener or the lack of it, peer pressur...
Dear Sir/Madam:
ReplyDeleteThis morning, I was reading an article in the Hindu (Saturday, Jan 21) on Simhendramadhayamam
by Ms. Charulata Mani. The article has been well written except for some minor errors.
The 3 kritis attributed to Saint Tyagaraja are not his own compositions. They are compositions of KV.Srinivasa Iyengar with Tyagaraja mudras in them.
About 15-20 kritis composed by others with Tyagaraja mudras are in circulation.Unfortunately, these kritis are printed in some books and compilations of Tyagaraja kritis.
These are spurious kritis or Prakshipta kritis of Tyagaraja. Kindly check all info. before the article is sent for publication in news papers like the Hindu, which is widely read.
I will send an article prepared by me on the "Prakshipta Kritis of Tyagaraja" in my next mail.
Regards
Ashok Madhav
@ Ashok Madhav:
ReplyDeleteIt appears that you have not read the article thoroughly. I have worded it as "is attributed to Thyagaraja" and NOT stated that IS composed by Thyagaraja. In my wide experience with several illustrious gurus I very well know about "Needu.." and "Natajana" not being confirmed as Thyagaraja's compositions. You may refer to my booklet (see PDF above) published along with my DVD Vol 5 even back in 2007 in which I have explicitly stated that the authorship is in question. I have also NOT mentioned anywhere in the article that "Natajana" is composed by Thyagaraja.
Regards
Charulatha Mani
Sub: A Raga’s Journey-The Passionate appeal of Simhendramadhyamam
ReplyDeleteThis is with reference to Charulatha Mani’s fortnightly article ‘A Raga’s Journey’ that has raga Simhendramadhyamam in today’s issue of Metroplus supplement.
Why this time Charulatha did not get a rhyming title for her article like ‘Scintillating Simhendramadhyamam’ or ‘Soothing Simhendramadhyamam’, I wonder.
The music composer of the M K Thyagaraja Bhagavathar film Ambikapathy(1937) is Papanasam Sivan and not G Ramanathan. G Ramanathan is the composer of only the Sivaji Ganesan starrer Ambikhapathy (1957). G Ramanathan did not even compose for films during the 1930s.
KUMARASWAMY SUNDAR.
@KUMARASWAMY SUNDAR:
ReplyDeleteThe alliterative (not rhyming) titles were created by the MetroPlus editor, not by me, so I cannot comment on the change.
The reference to G.Ramanathan is indeed erroneous. Thank you for pointing it out. A correction will be included in the next instalment.
I convey my hearty wishes to Ms Charulathaman on her birthday today.
ReplyDeleteMay God bless her with good health, lasting joy and everlasting service to the cause of music !
God speed and Godless
Major V Narayanan
Sent from BlackBerry® on Airtel
Hello Charulatha:
ReplyDeleteLove your work! Thanks for keeping all these lovely raagas in the popular consciousness! Heard you a few years ago when you visited Toronto and have been following your work whenever I could ever since...
The other Simhendramadhyamam reference that always comes to mind first for me is the Ilayaraja fusion instrumental album "How to name it"..The first song, called "How to name it" I believe is also Simhendra Madhyamam based?
p.s. BTW I believe a friend of mine was your classmate at Sishya school
How can I find out in which volume a particular raga is discussed? Thank you.
ReplyDelete