Swarajathi in dance
The morning sessions (demonstrations by senior dancers) of the Dance Festival at the Music Academy were interesting and educative.
The presentation of Syama Sastri's Bhairavi swarajathi by Vyjayanthimala Bali needs special mention as it was outstanding. I would just like to make a point regarding the vocal rendition of the swarajathi during the performance.
The swarajathi's very beauty lies in the fact that it starts in the mandra sthayi and hovers there beautifully till the word `Amba' settles beautifully on the adhara shadja. Then, each swara passage starts on the notes s, r, g, m and so on in the arohana krama (ascending order) till the final swara culminates by starting on the tara shadja.
As most singers are not able to be audible in the mandra sthayi, they start by singing half of the line `Kamakshi amba' in the tara stahyi.
Then, they continue the next line `Anudinamu Maravakane' in the same tara sthayi and then suddenly jump to the madhya sthayi for the words, `Neepadamula... Sri Kanchi' and then again move to tara sthayi to sing the line, `Kamaskhi Amba.'
Also, the first two sets of swaras starting on madhya sa and ri are sung in the tara sthayi. All this is done at the cost of the very aesthetics of the song. whose beauty is totally lost by this manoeuvring at random between the various octaves just for a matter of convenience to the vocalist. Quite a few times, I have heard this swarajathi in dance performances and most singers seem to commit this error. The singer for Vyjayantimala that day was no exception.
This is very disturbing and hampers the joy of the `listening process' in dance which is as important as the visual element.
If we use a music composition in dance, it is important to keep its melody intact, especially in swarajathis which have so much logic in their form and construction.
Radha Bhaskar,
Chennai.
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