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Ever since I saw the announcement of the audio release of Dr Shrikaanth Murthy’s compositions, I was eager to listen to the compositions in these CDs. I had heard many of his compositions before, and was curious to hear the compositions featured in these CDs.
I got the CD set last week, and here I am writing a few lines about the CD set.
The CD set features compositions in Kannada, Samskrta, and Sanketi. Although there are many Sanketi speaking musicians, Shrikaanth should definitely get the credit for being the first one (as per my knowledge) to use Sanketi in a classical music setting.
The compositions are very lively, with a very good combination of rAga bhAva and sAhitya. Some of them are rendered quite elaborately too. Kangalu KambodillavE (Kambhoji), rAja rAjande rathu (madhyamAvati) and kaLLanArI rIti (nArI rItigouLa), rAjamAtangi ( suraTi) have become my personal favorites in this album set, making me repeatedly listen them.
There are several aspects in these compositions that indicate a strong influence from the style of Muttuswami Deekshita.Similar to Muttuswami Dikshita, Shrikaanth has included the rAgamudre in very innovative ways. I would like to cite a few examples here.
1. The kriti in rAga kOkilArava starts with “rAma unkOlilla ravayatneyu kanikaru” (ರಾಮಾ ಉಂಕೋಕಿಲ್ಲಾ ರವೆಯತ್ನೆಯು ಕನಿಕರೊ) , splitting the rAga name between two words, at the same time bringing the appropriate feel – “Rama, why don’t you have a grain of mercy?”.
2. Another kriti in rAga kAmbhodi says “kangaLu kaMbOdillave? kandana nODalu lakShmI” (ಕಂಗಳು ಕಾಂಬೋದಿಲ್ಲವೆ? ಕಂದನ ನೋಡಲು ಲಕ್ಷ್ಮೀ!) .
3. A pada in rAga nArI rIti goula begins with the pallavi “kaLLanArI rIti kouLikava mADida?” (ಕಳ್ಳನಾರೀ ರೀತಿ ಕೌಳಿಕವ ಮಾಡಿದ) -Who is this thief who indulges in deceit?
4. A kriti in rAga gourI vELAvaLi goes like “pAlana paNNa gourI vELa vaLi kANAdikkara bhakALa” (ಪಾಲನ ಪಣ್ಣ ಗೌರೀ ವೇಳ ವಳಿ ಕಾಣಾದಿಕ್ಕರ ಭಕ್ತಾಳಾ” – “Oh Gouri, it is the time you protect your devotees who don’t see a path ahead”.
Similar to Dikshitar’s style, the composer has included his signature at different places (pallavi, anupallavi, charaNa) in his compositions. Another nice aspect is the presence of madhyama kAla passages in several compositions, which is another feature of MD compositions too.
Ragas such as kOkilArava, jayashuddha mALavi, gouri vELAvaLi (asampUrNa mELas), and nAgadhwani are decidedly from Dikshita’s tradition. In terms of sAhity too, the compositions in Samskrta show Dikshita’s influence on the style, and flow. Whether the song is in Kannada, Samskrta, or Sanketi, they all follow standard poetic norms, and the sAhitya has been woven very well.
Volume 1 of the set features 9 compositions sung by Dr Satyavati and her desciples. Volume 2 features 5 compositions sung by Vidushi Sukanya Prabhakar.
One of the compositions is about Nacharamma, about whom I’d written before in a previous blog post.
As amply shown in these recordings, some of the compositions in these CDs are definitely “main”* or “sub-main”* material (kangaLu kAmbOdillave-kAmbhOdi, rAja rAjande rathu -madhyamAvati, mInAkashi-Ananda bhairavi etc) . I wish some other compositions of Shrikaanth, like mAtADabAradE (vasanta bhairavi) and kamalAmbikAyAm (dEsh) should have been included in this; but there is always the next time!
I’m glad to see some performers already singing some of the compositions of Shrikaanth Murthy in concerts. I wish more musicians take up these (and also compositions of other -not-so-well-known composers) and make them as part of their concert repertoire.
I’ll end this post with a few YouTube videos of Dr T S Satyavathi – singing a composition of Shrikaanth Murthy: Gurukripa illAde, in rAga kharahapriya as the ‘main’ item in a concert.
In the first, the vocalist makes a few comments about the composer, and the composition:
-neelanjana
*: “main”, “sub-main” are terms that are used to describe how heavy a composition is in a concert perspective. A “main/sub-main” has to provide scope for improvisation. In a 3 hour concert, the “main” item can take as much as 45-60 minutes, and the “sub-main” something like 20-30 minutes.
When you see the title, if you think of people like as Alexander, who created vast kingdoms by invading kingdoms far and wide, then you are out of luck. I’m talking here about invaders of a different kind. Bio-invaders.
I still remember the time in the late 1970′s when there was no Parthenium (Linn: Parthenium hysterophorus) in India. Apparently introduced to India through wheat imports from the United States, the weed has taken over large tracks of India that it is hard to find a place this does not grow. Parthenium is linked to many respiratory allergies and illnesses that have become more common after it was introduced into India.
When I visited the Nagara Hole national park in Karnataka a few years ago, I was surprised and shocked to see Parthenium becoming the major component of ground cover in the forest. It must have displaced manly local species of plants, and other organisms that depended on them. There is no better illustration of what an alien species can do to a new ecosystem than this.
An elephant in Nagarahole national park, India
(Click on the above picture to get a larger view. All the greenery, and the small white florets you see on the ground are Parthenium plants)
****
This year, when I came back to town after a few weeks of vacation, I was greeted with some icky, sticky, waxy stuff on some of the hibiscus plants in my front yard.
There were some small white moth like flies flying around these sticky spider-web like thread on leaves. I went to the local garden store, and described the symptoms. The person in the listened to my description, and said it might be an infestation of spider mites. I came home, washed the plants and sprayed them with the pesticide prescribed at the garden center, hoping that it would all be gone the next day.
It did not take too long for me to realize I was wrong. The insects, and the sticky threads came back each time I washed and sprayed the pesticide. Then I was sure that the diagnosis was wrong in the first place.
Some more on-line search, and help from Facebook friends pointed me in the right direction. This was an infestation of an insect called Giant Whitefly, which came in from Mexico to California sometime in the early 1990s, and came in to the Bay area much later – around 2005. And apparently it loves hibiscus plants, and is very hard to get rid of this pest.
One of the website said -”If you don’t care for your hibiscus plants in your garden, it is best to get rid of those plants rather than trying to get rid of the pest”. However, I do care about my hibiscus plants and the color they add to my front yard. So I’m doing other things such as using a systemic insecticide (which is slow to act, but hopefully keeps the insect population under control) and trimming branches (anyway, with winter around the corner, there won’t be many more blooms).
I’ve also come to terms with the fact that I can’t totally get rid of this pest from my yard. Oh fate!
-neelanjana
Sewa International Presents
A Violin Concert by Anuradha Sridhar
accompanied by Shriram Brahmanandam on the Mrdanga.
Date: Friday, 20th November @7:30 pm Venue: Quainlan Community Center, Cupertino, CA
For tickets, you can leave a comment here, or purchase online at: www.indolink.com/sewa
Take this opportunity to reach out the flood victims, and enjoy the wonderful music.
All proceeds will be used for the benefit of affected people.
Karnataka Flood Relief Concert
-neelanjana
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