Disqus - Latest Comments for ramsabode

Re: MM Dandapani Desigar

Ram — Fri, 05 Dec 2008 13:32:48 -0000

Phenomenal concert today at Jaya TV-MMU. Hats off to you! I couldn't have asked for a better start to this season's listening experience.

Re: Song lists

Ram — Wed, 01 Oct 2008 02:28:58 -0000

Bang on target on the song list part. Have been to concerts that were not so good but had song lists that would be considered "phenomenal" in internet forums, ones that would bring up comments like "people who attended the concert were blessed and those who missed it were doomed" ;-) On the other hand, there have been concerts that have been too good but people who didn't attend would nit pick and ask why not this raga, why not this song etc just based on the song list

Re: Concert at Bangalore yesterday

Ram — Fri, 15 Aug 2008 16:10:14 -0000

I remember your concert in 2006 at Ulsoor for SGBS where after the main you curtly told Ramesh Swamy not to speak for more than 3 minutes as you were planning to sing an RTP (I think that was the first time Tanjavur Ramadas played for SGBS) and I cannot tell you how happy a bunch of us in the audience were. We had been bearing the brunt of his 20-25 min long speeches for so many days and it was a welcome change. I agree he needs a platform to showcase his good work to the people and appeal for funds but doing that right in the middle of a kutcheri is cruel. Since most of the audience at Ulsoor everyday was repeat audience, he just ended up annoying everyone.

Re: Karnata/Karnataka Devagandhari

Ram — Thu, 17 Jul 2008 11:41:34 -0000

Unfortunately, I am unable to locate the CD where I had stored the document :-( Will get back to you as soon as I lay my hands on it.

Re: Karnata/Karnataka Devagandhari

Ram — Wed, 16 Jul 2008 03:26:08 -0000

I will search for that one elusive word document that has a list of references from where I had picked up all this information when I go back home tonight and get back to you. I should have the source for the Madurai Pushpavanam story also listed there.

Re: Karnata/Karnataka Devagandhari

Ram — Wed, 16 Jul 2008 02:46:53 -0000

This is what remains of notes I had taken when I was first confused about this topic (a few other things I noted down regarding AbhEri vs dEvagAndhAram/KDG have already been covered in your post and comments by arunk). Sadly I do not have the file where I had written the names of the texts refered for each of the below lines and hence cannot vouch for authenticity of the information supplied :-(

dEvagAndhAra/dEvagAndhAri is mostly described in the works of the time periods before 16th and 17th century as a raga with all seven notes.

Somanatha seems to have first suggested the use of only 5 notes in the ArOhaNa and he refered to the rAga as dEvagAndhAra. He omitted ga and ni in the arOhaNa while the avarOhaNam had all the notes. The structure corresponded to the 20th mELa naTabhairavi (the then mALavagauLa mELa) and used D1

Tulaja said that the notes ri and dha should be omitted in the ArOhaNa. Ramamatya, Tulaja, Vankatamakhin etc listed dEvagAndhAri as a rAga with D2 under the present 22nd mELa karaharapriyA (the then srIrAga mELa)

Govinda was the first one to present a third type also called dEvagAndhAri as a janya of 29th mELa dhIrashankarAbharaNam. This is what is the present day dEvagAndhAri

Ancient paintings depict dEvagAndhAra/dEvagAndhAri in two ways:
1) As a king praised by Gods. Erotic sentiment is associated with the raga in this depiction
2) As a sage. A pleading sentiment is associated with the raga in this depiction

Any song that was composed in a pleading way/ karunA rasa should have been using the D1 variant and any song that was composed in a sensuous way/ shringAra rasa should have been using the D2 variant.

So Sri Thyagaraja should have composed nagumOmu originally using D1.

Raga Nidhi by B. Subba Rao mentions that some singers at the start of the 20th century started using the D2 variant for nagumOmu. Madurai Pushpavanam is suspected of having been a major factor in propagating the usage of D2. The first recording that exists as proof of D2 usage is that of Musiri Subramanya Iyer leading to the common belief that it was he who introduced the usage of D2.

Re: Sriram V has a blog

Ram — Mon, 14 Jul 2008 11:59:32 -0000

Thanks so much for giving this link!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Re: Concert at Ayyappa Temple and Shri MSG

Ram — Mon, 23 Jun 2008 09:55:53 -0000

>> *And each of these island stages were also decked with jasmine flowers like the cots in a film 'first night' scene!!*

Good that they had the lights on in the hall ;-)

To add to your rant, the temple percussion was playing at the beginning of the concert and during the tani and we could hear it very clearly in the hall, at least at the back. It was like hearing two tanis at the same time. I hope they make the hall more sound proof.

But all this couldn't take away anything from the great experience I had listening to you. Thanks for the lovely vasantA !!!!!! Made my weekend.

Re: I am on Facebook now

Ram — Wed, 04 Jun 2008 13:04:40 -0000

So happy to see you start writing about music once again ! You rock !

Regards,
Ram