Carnatic Concert Notes

Last Updated On: June 14, 1998

T M Krishna & party
31 May, 1998 at Mindess Middle School, Ashland, MA, USA

On 6 June, T M Krishna gave an inspiring concert accompanied by Shrimati B Gayatri on the Violin and Shri Arun Prakash on the Mridangam. The concert was held at the Mindess Middle School Auditorium, in Ashland MA.

Single line summary:
If you have a concert by this group in your area, DO NOT MISS IT!

The following is the selection that was sung by T M Krishna.

Anand, one of the organizers, proposed a vote of thanks after the concert, which included some of the following comments. Words cannot describe the experience the audience had during this concert.

This was an excellent concert and a wonderful team work. The depth of music was so good that if one were to listen to the concert tapes no one will believe that it was performed by such youngsters (average age around 20). The stress on alignment of the sruthi was excellent. If the singing was wonderful the accompaniment was just right, making the whole concert an enjoyable one. The crowd appreciated the extraordinary performance by all three and only a handful left towards the end of the 3 hour concert.

The concert began in a subdued mode and fell into groove with the pUrvikalyAni piece. Then on it was a feast of music, with full utilization of their talents. When Krishna excelled in the alapanas in pUrvikalyAni, rIthigoulai and thOdi, Gayatri rose to the occasion and demonstrated that she was on even keel, if not better. Arun Prakash proved that he understood the necessary emphasis required for the mridangam in the different pieces. A very soft rendering during the slow rIthigoulai piece was very appropriate and gave superb effect to the complete performance.

The rAgam-thAnam-pallavi was the hallmark of the concert. There was total innovation and improvisation in this 75 minute piece. This is an example RTP, that youngsters should use as a benchmark. The extensive elaborations during alapana and thaanams were wonderful, from both Krishna and Gayatri. The various gathis in which Krishna sang the pallavi is not found in many a rendering of RTP. Gayatri played smoothly and followed Krishna with ease.

This is the first concert given by this group in this tour. The performance was great in spite of a bad jet lag that they were still going through.

Overall an enjoyable evening for everyone and a clear signal to the world that the wonderful tradition and rich culture of Carnatic music is in the blood of lot of youngsters.

R Prasanna at New England Hindu Temple
31 May, 1998 at Lakshmi Temple, Ashland, MA, USA

On a nice Sunday afternoon, after the Brahmotsavam festivities at the temple, R Prassana gave a guitar concert accompanied by Anand K Iyer on the Mridangam and Satish Pathakota on the Kanjira. Though the festivities delayed the concert to 2 PM from the schedule time of 1 PM, there was a big crowd with a good portion of the crowd standing.

Prasanna played the following songs. He announced the names of the rAgams, composers, etc., after each song.

A good performance by the group with teamwork and a few innovations. It is difficult to guage the completeness of the concert, when the acoustics are not good in open air. This is not to mistake the organizers who had done their best given the circumstances.

Prasanna performed all the rAgams well on the guitar, with no indication that this instrument has limitations. It was like listening to a veena or Sitar concert. His alapanas in Hamsadhvani, gowlai, bilaHari and bhairavi were excellent. A good choice of faster pieces interspersed between the slower pieces were performed with ease. Bhairavi was played very well by Prasanna, the main piece of the concert.

Anand and Satish accompanied very well. There was good comaraderie between the three. Anand and Satish played an excellent thani avardhanam.

The English Notes, which could not be resisted by Prasanna, was a damper on the concert at the end. It took us all into a rock or heavy metal setting with his innovations in that direction. The mood was spoilt by that piece, but luckily it was the last piece before the mangalam.

Trisoor V Ramachandran at MIT
5 April, 1998 - Kenneth K Boynton Hall, MIT, Cambridge, MA, USA

On the auspicious Ram Navami, Shri Trisoor V Ramachandran gave a splendid concert at MIT. This concert was held under the auspices of MITHAS, The New England Hindu Temple, MIT Music Sangam and MIT World Music Organization.

The following is the selection that was sung by Shri Ramachandran, who was accompanied by Shri G Chandramouli on Violin and Shri Umayalpuram Mali on Mridangam.

Shri Ramachandran gave an excellent Alapana of panthuvarAli and mOHanam, with swara phrases included in the process for the benefit of the people from various countries who had come for this concert. Shri Chandramouli gave a good alapana during his turn. The rAgam thAnam pallavi was great, but Shri Ramachandran did not sing the pallavi with kAla variations, that was expected in such an exposition. Shri Mali's compact thani avardhanam at the end of the rAgam thAnam pallavi was good.

The short alapana of pahAdi was very good. Inclusions of standard songs like gOvardhana giridhAra, dhikku theriyadha kaattil and rAdhA samEdhA krishnA were expected. All the songs after the rAgam thAnam pallavi were sung with lot of emotion that brought big applause.

The small hall was filled to the brim, with people lining the stairs and sitting on the floor near the dias. Shri Ramachandran announced before each song, the rAgam, thAlam and name of composer. This was very beneficial for everyone.

In my personal opinion, whenever there is an alapana, the announcement could have been made at the end of the alapana. For other songs, the announcement could have been made after the song. This way the regular listeners of Carnatic music are given a challenge to identify the rAgam for themselves.

K J Yesudas and rAgam-thAnam-pallavi

Every year, during the Music season in Chennai, K J Yesudas has always experimented quite a bit in singing rAgam-thAnam-pallavis. His experiments have been in using tAlas in different nadais.

In 1995, at Bharath Kalachar, he used a chatusra nadai with the kanda jAthi thriputa thAlam. One thAlam cycle took about 20 seconds in this variation. He counted the thAlam with one hand and the nadai in the other to keep track of this complex variation. So, the thAlam count went R L L L R L L L R L L L and so on (right and left). The rAgam chosen was shankarAbharnam.

In 1996, at Indian Fine Arts Society, he used a kanda nadai with rUpaka thAlam. One cycle of this variation took about 15 seconds. Same counting method was used (thAlam on one hand and nadai on other) and it went R L L L L R L L L L and so on. This time the rAgam was kalyANi.

Both the pallavis were about Lord Rama.

Advantages

He was able to sing the pallavi in different ways due to this elongated cycle using different speeds and starting points. That was good and enjoyed. The possibilities of variations on the pallavi are increased multiple fold. For music lovers these innovations are always a treat, if rendered well.

Dis-advantages

• If there is not much practice, things fall apart at the concert.
• Sometimes the accompanists are not able to do justice to this rendition.
• thAla consciousness causes melody to go away, especially in mUndrAm kAlam or nAngAm kAlam (third of fourth "gear").
• During music season, the accompanists may not have enough time to practise and the thani avardhanam also is bland and basic. This is again due to the thAla consciousness.
• Due to all this complexity, in my opinion, the overall music in the rendition is average, at best.

In both the concerts, the thani avardhanam was bland including simple repeated rythms only. I doubt it was due to their capabilities, since they are well known artists, with enormous experience and expertise.

Madurai T N Seshagopalan's innovation at IIT, Chennai

Refer rAgam tidbits page for this piece.

More to come . . .

Keep an eye on this page. I will try to update this page on a regular basis with more. Email me if you like to discuss any of the theoretical bits or the tidbits I have placed in these pages.