Tough assignment meticulously handled
G. SWAMINATHAN
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Lec-dem S.A.K. Durga with her erudition and communication skills presented the complex topic with consummate ease.
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An engaging lecture demonstration on a topic, like `Vivadhi Melas Handled by Different Composers' is rather a tough assignment as this involves substantial theory and examples of their practical applications.
S.A.K. Durga with her erudition and communication skills had elucidated this complex topic with consummate ease.
Durga started with the basic seven notes and how they extended to 12 swarasthanas by singing the various notes with great vocal precision.
She said, in fact Venkatamakhi suggested the scheme of 72 melakartas based on the sruti differentiation. In that 40 of them use one sruti interval. So notes identified by the sruti intervals were termed as vadi (consonant), samvadi (assonant) and vivadhi (dissonant) notes. Those with one sruti intervals are termed as vivadhi melas. She observed that the melas are exactly not ragas and only scales. It is only the composers, with their expertise and inspiration, who have converted them into vivadhi ragas.
Exclusive ragamalika
The programme got under way with the exclusive 72 melakarta ragamalika of Maha Vaidyanatha Iyer `Pranadharti Hare Prabho Murare' by the students of Durga. The rare pedagogic composition covers the notes and names of the melakarta ragas meticulously with every chakram of twelve ragas returning back to the pallavi.
Nattai had been in use even before the Trinity and Durga sang the popular `Thodudaiya Sevian' from Thevaram which was called Nattapadai in chaste Tamil.
Here too the singers or composers avoided the vivadhi notes of rishabam employing only `sa ga ma pa ni sa.' Muthuswami Dikshitar also had done this in his composition `Maha Ganapathim Manasasmarami' eliminating the vivadhidwa to the possible extent. Durga also explained that in certain cases like the raga Vagadeeswari, Tyagaraja had shown the vivadhi nature of the swaras through his kriti `Paramathmudu.' She highlighted the regions in the start and the anupallavi how it distinguished from Harikhambodi shades. (`Narulata Surulata'). The example of Yagapriya christened as Kalavathi by Muthuswami Dikshitar according to Asampoorna Mela Paddathi was sung with explanation where the vivadhidwa was well handled in several places with appropriate gamaka or eschewing of the swaras.
In the post Trinity era, Durga had taken the example of Koteeswara Iyer who had composed kritis in all the 72 melakarata ragas. She presented the example of a prathi madyama raga Jyothiswaroopini with the kriti `Ganamutha Paanam.' Iyer had avoided rishabam in the ascending scale but at the same time vividly portrayed the vivadhi swara in the anupallavi `Mela Raga Rathnakarathil Kadainthedutha Kanda.' Meanwhile, listening to Durga, one wondered why she is not presenting recitals?
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