A blistering summer
Srini Pichumani
Folks, here is a long report on my musical experiences this summer
which was blistering in many ways.
-----------------------------------------------------------------
In Madras, as usual, there were tons and tons of concerts going
under the name of this series or that festival or this navamI or
that aShTamI ! And the regular radio stuff too - the amount of
nAdasvaram broadcasts surprised me. So much for the discussion
we had a while back on rmic, I thought.
Just my luck - none of the "2-in-1"s (i.e. boomboxes) in our house
worked well enough to record anything; or else, there were power
cuts right during the program.
I stayed away from most of the concerts and still managed to hear
7 in the 4 weeks that I was there. The concerts I heard were those of
T.N.Seshagopalan
Padmavati Ananthagopalan & Jayanti Radhakrishnan (veena duet)
Recital by Prof.S.R.Janakiraman's students
T.V.Sankaranarayanan
S.Sowmya
Geetha Raja
Shashank (flute)
The concerts I missed were those of T.N.Seshagopalan (on the veena),
Vijay Siva, Unnikrishnan, Santhanagopalan (2 or 3), O.S.Thiagarajan,
Sanjay Subrahmaniam, Rajkumar Bharati, Ashok Ramani, Lalgudi GJR
Krishnan, etc. Heard tapes and radio concerts of these folks
instead, as much as I could. I was interested in hearing TNS'
veena, and OST's/Santhanagopalan's concerts but couldn't make it.
Of the 7 concerts, only the first three were interesting and
satisfying. TNS sang in his usual style restricting himself to
Tyagaraja kritis; the highlights were his Sriranjani/Devagandhari/
Todi. This concert was held in Sastri Hall, Luz to a packed audience.
Jayanti played the veena very well; she seems to be very influenced
by Balachander's style which is not surprising considering that she
has accompanied him and her guru/aunt Padmavati is a great admirer of
Balachander. They played at the TTD Hall in T.Nagar. Incidentally,
Padmavati,Rajalakshmi(Jayanti's mother),Lalgudi,Shrimati are siblings.
The recital by SRJ's students (a motley group of people; 12 < age <60 )
was at the Music Academy mini hall on June 1 at 10.30am. They sang
a set of pieces learnt from SRJ during a 6-week summer course. The
rendition was very good and had great coordination. Almost all
the compositions were rare: a simhanandana tALa gItam (taking up exactly
one cycle or Avartanam), nenarunci (varnam in Bilahari), tarali pOyE
(kriti in Todi), un adirShTam (kriti in Dhanyasi), tiruvaDi caraNam
(in kAmbhoji), and a jAvaLI. The chief guest was Semmangudi Srinivasa
Iyer who gave a chatty, rambling speech at the end for about 25 minutes.
The other concerts were decent in parts or in one or two aspects.
On the whole, most of the youngsters need more "tayyArI", as
North Indian rasikas would put it, before one can take them
seriously.
----------------------------------------------------------
Missed a concert of Prof.T.R.Subramaniam since I was away
in Calcutta. This looked like his "rehabilitation" concert;
it was his first public performance in Madras after all
the uproar from 3 years ago.
-----------------------------------------------------------
There was an excellent talk by Smt.Vedavalli on AIR on the
significance of the Dikshitar kriti "shrI rAjagOpAla" in sAverI.
Her talk was part of a regular feature, titled "pATTum pOruLum",
i.e song and meaning, which is broadcast in the morning around
7:30am. If you don't read the Radio section of the papers
carefully or miss the early morning announcement on the radio
of the day's schedule, you can miss such key programs.
-------------------------------------------------------------
I met an interesting and diverse set of people this time. One of
them was Mr.N.V.Subrahmaniam, who runs a regular sabha called
Sarasvati and also conducts a trust called Sarasvati Vaggeyakara Trust
which has music programs exclusively dealing with one composer's
works and other illuminating, educational programs.
Also met the Sruti magazine editor Mr.N.Pattabhiraman a few times
and showed him a couple of interesting books I had taken from the
U of M Library.
While I was at his place, another person by name B.M.Sundaram walked in.
He is the son of the late tavil player Nidamangalam (?) Meenakshisundaram
Pillai, works for AIR Pondicherry, is a musician himself and a disciple of
Balamurali, and an authority on the nAdasvara/tavil/naTTuvanAr tradition.
I had been wanting to meet him for quite some years now.
Also, only the previous night I had rummaged thru the dusty
shelves at the Karnatic Music Book center and bought an
interesting book in Tamil written by him called
mangaLa icai mAmannargaL
(lit. Great Kings of Auspicious Music)
which is a compilation of the life-histories, styles, music,
and idiosyncrasies - in brief - of about 170 eminent nAdasvaram
and tavil vidvAns.
So, this serendipitous meeting was quite enjoyable!
He regaled us with many stories. All together we had a rum
time - sans rum !!! - with the net result that I had to skip
TNS' veena concert.
Heard Smt.Rajeswari Padmanabhan play veena at her home. An
excellent artiste, she has been teaching veena at Kalakshetra
for a long time now.
---------------------------------------------------------------
Visited a lot of places that carry cassettes/books/musical
instruments.
Music Academy library/book shop
Karnatic Music Book Centre in Royapettah.
Giri Trading Agency right at the Kapaleesvarar temple entrance
Saptasvara Musicals in front of the Hanuman temple in Luz
Murali Musicals in Panagal Park next to Kumaran Silks
Saraswati near Sankara Hall and the Music Academy
all in Madras and the
HMV showroom near their factory in Calcutta
BEWARE ! Most of these are very small outfits or else they are
extremely crowded or else they are geared exclusively towards
mass taste. However, if you are lucky you can find at least one
or two very helpful persons who work there or are regular customers.
If you run into such people or if you don't mind spending a lot
of time, getting down on your hands and feet and dirtying yourself,
you can find some gems.
--------------------------------------------------------------
The most exhilarating part of my visit this time was my trips
to Smt.Kalpagam Svaminathan's home to listen to her play the veena,
talk about the music, the instrumental technique, her gurus, the
influences etc...
Before I proceed further, a few sentences of explanation for those
who have not even heard her name or know her music. I shall
refer to her as MAmi.
MAmi, who is 73 years old, learnt music and veena from
Kallidakuricci A. Anantakrishna Iyer (grandfather of the NJ-based
violinist Anantakrishnan; disciple of Ambi Dikshitar and Vedanta
Bhagavatar), her own mother, Justice T.L.Venkatarama Iyer,
Budalur Krishnamurti Sastrigal, etc. She taught veena at Kalakshetra
between 1945-1949 when MDR/SRJ were Tiger's students. Later,
she taught at the Madras Music College from late 50s to the 70s.
She has played very regularly on AIR and the concert platform;
old-timers even remember with nostalgia the BudalurAr-MAmi
gottuvadyam-veena duet concerts which went on for a while and
were well-received.
She has been felicitated many times; I remember reading a
note in Sruti on her 70th birthday celebrations in which
DKP, SRJ, B.Rajam Iyer spoke very highly of her music,
repertoire and commended her role as a teacher.
Her latest award is the Sangeet Natak Akademi award for this
year. Tiruchi Swaminatha Iyer, Kunnakkudi are the
other recipients this year.
Suffice it to say that I felt as strongly as how Rangaramanuja
Iyengar must have felt sitting in front of veena Dhanammal 60
years or so ago. Such was the beauty of her music in an overall
sense. The clarity/depth/strength in her instrumental technique,
the sharp detail in her music, the complete eschewal of unnecessary
elements, her repertoire, and in particular the remarkable fidelity
with which she rendered Dikshitar kritis, were all stunning.
Add to this the warmth of our interaction and the various musical
anecdotes she related (hilarious and otherwise) - I could ask for
little more. Needless to say, wish I were still in Madras.
-Srini.
ps: When I asked her about the Dhanammal style of veena, she
immediately played the Begada varnam "inta calamu" in that style
and boy, was it an audio-visual treat ! Both her hand movements
and the resultant music seemed so "floral" that one can imagine
how Dhanammal's style and music would charm anyone off their feet.
I could immediately rationalize some of Rangaramanuja Iyengar's
outlandish statements like none else among veena Dhanammal's
contemporaries knew the left-hand technique of the veena.
Chandramouli Narayanan - x6332
|>
|>
|> ps: When I asked her about the Dhanammal style of veena, she
|> immediately played the Begada varnam "inta calamu" in that style
|> and boy, was it an audio-visual treat ! Both her hand movements
|> and the resultant music seemed so "floral" that one can imagine
|> how Dhanammal's style and music would charm anyone off their feet.
|> I could immediately rationalize some of Rangaramanuja Iyengar's
|> outlandish statements like none else among veena Dhanammal's
|> contemporaries knew the left-hand technique of the veena.
It's incorrect to say or infer that none else among
veena Dhanammal's contemporaries knew the left-hand technique
of the veena. As a 9th generation veena player from the
Karaikudi tradition, I would like to say a few words in
this article.
After all, there were/are no left-hand specialist vainikas
and right-hand plucking specialist vainikas who would come and do their
job at their best. Each vainika develops certain
techniques (right-hand and left-hand) and attempts to balance the
use of techniques to produce music in unison. Both techniques
have to go hand in hand.
Dhanammal produced gamakas on the veena rather by executing slides
on the stem of the veena (left hand) than by lateral deflection
of the strings. Both are ways to produce gamakas. For instance,
you can findample instances of both types of gamaka productions
in the way Karaikudi Sambasiva Iyer and Subbharama Iyer, popularly
known as Karaikudi Brothers, played on the veena. They were
contemporaries of Dhanammal. In the Tanjore tradition,
Dhanammal is at one end, the Karaikudi tradition is in the
middle and modern-day master like S.Balachandar is at the other.
The end, as I refer to here, is only indicative of the variation
in the style and by no means indicates who is superior.
While talking about the Karaikudi tradition, some important
features:
- Use of the stopping technique employing the right hand.
- absence of vibrato, simple vibratory oscillations on a fret
including Sa,Pa frets
- use of individual side strings for effect and as an expression
of inwardly felt pulsations [right-hand]
- rare use of 'tribinna' (playing of triple notes) [left-hand]
- use of special technique to produce fast variations, spuritam
for example [left hand]
- strumming with right-hand and use of janta-s (pairs of notes)
in tanam rendering [left-hand].The techniques are different
while ascending and descending the octave.
- deflecting the strings to produce gamakas and the use
of sliding technique (left-hand)
[ For those interested:
Sruti magazine, 1989 winter bumper issue has a special
feature on Karaikudi tradition ]
Vainikas from Mysore (Seshanna .. Doraisamy Iyengar) style
employ sliding technique and use 'kartari' meetu
(a right-hand pluck employed to produce compound sounds like 'kru',
'tru'). The Trivandrum style (Kalyana Krishna Bhagathar.....
Kalyani Ganesan) also incorporates the sliding technique.
I would like knowledgeable netters, based on their experience, post
on the styles they have learnt and come to know about in detail.
And finally, a note on the continuing performing Karaikudi tradition today:
*Rajeswari Padmanabhan (9th generation, grand daughter of Subbarama Iyer)
*Ranganayaki Rajagopolan (disciple of Sambasiva Iyer)
*Dr.K.S.Subramanian (9th generation, adopted son of Sambasiva Iyer)
*Sreevidhya Chandramouli (10th generation, daughter of Rajeswari
Padmanabhan)
*Shanti Mahesh (10th generation)
- mouli
Vidyasankar Sundaresan
While on this subject, let me put in my 2 c. worth! The recording I have
of Veena Dhanammal's (thanks to Srini) is very interesting in many ways. I
do not think she employed slides that often. For example, in the Begada
varnam, Inta calamu, and the tanam in Nattai, Gowla etc., her style is
definitely the one that uses deflection of the strings to produce gamakas.
And Srini is right - it is definitely a treat. As for Rangaramanuja
Iyengar, well we all tend to exaggerate our own guru's abilities at the
cost of being unfair to others. On the other hand, Dhanammal's rendition
of Rama nee samaanamevaru could have been much better. In this kriti, she
could have produced better continuity by using lateral deflections of the
string. As it is, the one major fault that listeners find with the Veena
is the lack of continuity as compared to the violin or the flute. One
feature that Veena Dhanammal's playing was refreshingly free of is the
patterned meettu that most Vainikas resort to. However, some gamakas are
better produced by a combination of the slide and deflection e.g. the
phrase rpmg in Mahima teliya tarama (Sankarabharanam) that Dhanammal plays
sounds odd to my ears. Because she does neither. Rather she splits her
fingers and gets the pa on the fret rather than pulling it on the ma fret,
starting with a slide from ri. The gap between the phrase produced on the
Veena and the phrase that she sings along is plainly evident.
> you can findample instances of both types of gamaka productions
> in the way Karaikudi Sambasiva Iyer and Subbharama Iyer, popularly
> known as Karaikudi Brothers, played on the veena. They were
> contemporaries of Dhanammal. In the Tanjore tradition,
> Dhanammal is at one end, the Karaikudi tradition is in the
> middle and modern-day master like S.Balachandar is at the other.
> The end, as I refer to here, is only indicative of the variation
> in the style and by no means indicates who is superior.
If this style variation is based on the sliding vs. deflection (which SB
took to exhaustive limits), I would not personally put Dhanammal at the
other end.
Also, S. Balachander did not himself claim to represent any end of the
Tanjore tradition. He was wholly self-taught, and rather than continuing
on the old Tanjore tradition, he can be said to be the originator of a
completely new style of Veena playing (Mylapore style, maybe?!!).
Vidyasankar
L Ramakrishnan
Pichumani, Chandramouli Narayanan and Vidyasankar Sundaresan. Some more
thoughts on this...
My exposure to this style stems from listening to the (sole?) recording
of Dhanammal's music that begins with the bEgaDa varNam. Besides this, I
have read Rangaramanuja Iyengar's descriptions of her left-hand
technique, and also got to see the technique in a concert of Mrs. Padma
Varadan ( RRI's daughter) in 1981 or so.
Here's what her technique seems like to me. Her left-hand technique
employs largely 'finger-splitting' . Lateral deflections (vali gamakas)
are very much present, but do not seem to extend beyond two notes inward from
the fret, at most. Many of her phrasings consist of fast glides across
the frets in the ascent and a combination of mild 'pulling' and heavy
'finger-splitting' in the descent. All of these impart tremendous visual
appeal to the style, with fingers virtually dancing across the fretboard.
In addition, the high pitched 'feminine' shruti of her veena helps
maintain a persistent tone (without the pronounced decay of volume in
successive notes after the mIttu, that is associated with lower pitches ).
Any continuity in her playing exists only as far as the tone production
is concerned, and not with respect to the sAhitya phrasings, which in her
tape sound to me to be rather clipped and disjunct.
I grant that her technique is intricate and probably indicative of a
high degree of sensitivity to the tonal potential of the veena.
But it is not satisfying if viewed solely in its capacity to do justice
to sAhitya. ( I admit to judging her music by contemporary standards,
which is not entirely fair). After reading Vidyasankar Sundaresan's
comment on 'Mahima teliya taramA ' I went back and heard that song once
again. He is absolutely right - the disparity between what is produced
on the veena and what is sung is quite striking. The overall effect of
her singing along with the veena is very pleasing, nevertheless, and this,
I think, contributed in a major way to the appeal of her music in those days.
General comments: current styles and standards in veena playing have evolved
considerably, and, I maintain, sound pretty refined in comparison with
some vainikas of the yesteryears like V.Dhanammal. The Tanjore bhANi,
typified by vali (deflection) and odukkal gamakas is what one hears most
often in AIR concerts in Tamil Nadu. Prominent vainikas in this
bhANi include the Karaikudi shishya parampara, the Dhanammal school,
KS Narayanaswami, Pichumani Iyer, KP Sivanandam/ Sarada Sivanandam,
MG Gowri Kumari and Kalpagam Swaminathan (an incomplete list).
S Balachander's style could be termed 'exaggerated Tanjore' , though
he was quite capable of 'finger splitting' and, indeed, had demonstrated
this on several occasions.
L Ramakrishnan
Zoology, UT Austin
Srini Pichumani
>In article <31bfa2$o...@zip.eecs.umich.edu>, sr...@quip.eecs.umich.edu
>(Srini Pichumani) writes:
>|>
>|>
>|> ps: When I asked her about the Dhanammal style of veena, she
>|> immediately played the Begada varnam "inta calamu" in that style
>|> and boy, was it an audio-visual treat ! Both her hand movements
>|> and the resultant music seemed so "floral" that one can imagine
>|> how Dhanammal's style and music would charm anyone off their feet.
>|> I could immediately rationalize some of Rangaramanuja Iyengar's
>|> outlandish statements like none else among veena Dhanammal's
>|> contemporaries knew the left-hand technique of the veena.
>
>It's incorrect to say or infer that none else among
>veena Dhanammal's contemporaries knew the left-hand technique
>of the veena. As a 9th generation veena player from the
>Karaikudi tradition, I would like to say a few words in
>this article.
>
>After all, there were/are no left-hand specialist vainikas
>and right-hand plucking specialist vainikas who would come and do their
>job at their best. Each vainika develops certain
>techniques (right-hand and left-hand) and attempts to balance the
>use of techniques to produce music in unison. Both techniques
>have to go hand in hand.
Mouli, your point is well-taken. No, I didn't mean to suggest
in the least, nor did I infer, that veena traditions other than
Dhanammal's were lacking in the left-hand technique. For, among
other things, it would imply a denigration of the veena technique
of the very artiste, Smt.Kalpagam Swaminathan, about whom I waxed
eloquent.
Here is some clarification.
Rangaramanuja Iyengar's statement in his book "History of South
Indian music" which I paraphrased - grossly opinionated/outrageous
as it is - has always bothered me. It has been all the more irksome
since he says it, in a slap-in-the-face style, right after discussing
the music of famous vainikas who were contemporaries of Dhanammal.
Since I am not a vainika, I have only been able to deconstruct the
instrumental technique of an artiste in a very limited way by merely
hearing the music. However, in this specific case, I had the
opportunity to visually/aurally observe two very different styles -
one, that of Smt.Kalpagam Swaminathan herself, and the other, her
reproduction of Dhanammal's style, while playing the Begada varnam,
which was faithful within limits.
The latter style had such a lot of filigree in the aural/visual
sense, almost entirely due to the left hand, that it was clear to
me that RRI must have been blinded :-), in more ways than one, by
this particular technique to make such a sweeping statement.
-Srini.
Vidyasankar Sundaresan
In fact, this brings up a point that I had completely omitted in my
earlier posting. The high pitch at which Dhanammal played the Veena (vide
"Memoirs of a mediocre man - S. Y. Krishnamswamy who claims to have been a
regular at her Friday concerts) is not conducive to large scale
deflections - "pulling". Dhanammal however does a marvellous job of finger
splitting; there is no extraneous noise of hitting the frets etc. that
more mediocre Vainikas suffer from. S. Balachander, in order to produce
notes an octave or higher, by pulling, resorted to lowering the pitch of
the Veena to somewhere between C# and D, with much thicker strings. His
early recordings sound too flat in tone. His later ones seem to have
overcome this problem. Still one wonders whether a combination of finger
splitting and pulling may not be used to great advantage. The sitarists do
it routinely.
At a totally different level though, Vainikas seem terribly inefficient at
"pulling strings". One routinely feels that the general impression about
the Veena is that it is outdated, more fit to be a showpiece than a living
instrument to be played.
>
> Any continuity in her playing exists only as far as the tone
production
> is concerned, and not with respect to the sAhitya phrasings, which in
her
> tape sound to me to be rather clipped and disjunct.
>
> I grant that her technique is intricate and probably indicative of a
> high degree of sensitivity to the tonal potential of the veena.
> But it is not satisfying if viewed solely in its capacity to do justice
> to sAhitya. ( I admit to judging her music by contemporary standards,
> which is not entirely fair). After reading Vidyasankar Sundaresan's
> comment on 'Mahima teliya taramA ' I went back and heard that song once
> again. He is absolutely right - the disparity between what is produced
> on the veena and what is sung is quite striking. The overall effect of
> her singing along with the veena is very pleasing, nevertheless, and
this,
> I think, contributed in a major way to the appeal of her music in those
days.
>
> General comments: current styles and standards in veena playing have
evolved
> considerably, and, I maintain, sound pretty refined in comparison with
> some vainikas of the yesteryears like V.Dhanammal. The Tanjore bhANi,
Absolutely. It is somewhat unfair to judge the greats of yesteryears by
contemporary standards - what with the ever present demand to improve the
quality of playing. Papa Venkataramaiah, Chowdiah and other violinists of
that generation sound "unrefined" as compared to today's violinists like
Lalgudi or MSG. Whatever little one has recorded, of Dhanammal's singing
though, is of a high calibre, by today's standards. This is what leads me
to doubt the oft-made comment that Carnatic music has never had an
independent instrumental style. Dhanammal's playing style is more
instrumental than "gayaki".
Again by the testimony of S. Y. Krishnaswamy, the character of gamakas in
Carnatic music has also changed subtly over this century. This is borne
out if one listens to old recordings of Ariyakudi singing the Kanada Ata
tala varnam. His ga is considerably less "andolified" than is usually done
today - in fact it is almost flat at the swarasthana. Similarly, the
playing technique that was great by past standards, falls short by today's
expectations.
> typified by vali (deflection) and odukkal gamakas is what one hears most
> often in AIR concerts in Tamil Nadu. Prominent vainikas in this
> bhANi include the Karaikudi shishya parampara, the Dhanammal school,
> KS Narayanaswami, Pichumani Iyer, KP Sivanandam/ Sarada Sivanandam,
> MG Gowri Kumari and Kalpagam Swaminathan (an incomplete list).
> S Balachander's style could be termed 'exaggerated Tanjore' , though
> he was quite capable of 'finger splitting' and, indeed, had demonstrated
> this on several occasions.
Finger splitting is one thing that Balachander was absolutely great at. Of
course he eschewed it mostly in favour of pulling ("exaggerated Tanjore" -
I like that!). S. Balachander of course was very good at pulling strings
in more ways than one. When playing on the mandra sthayi strings though,
he would produce the same phrases, not by pulling the string, but by a
series of fast slides. In fact, he also made use of finger splitting in
some key phrases, much more than the more traditional Vainikas. His
continuous use of this in a tanam in Kharaharapriya is something I'll
never forget.
Of all the more "traditional" players, Sivanandam and Sarada seem to
employ the minimum of finger splitting. Still, it seems to be a given that
all janta swaras need to be played by 'viraladi'. My own teacher,
Padmavathy Ananthagoplan, who is also mostly self-taught, and her
niece-disciple Jayanthy, rarely use 'viraladi' even for janta swaras. To
my knowledge, I haven't heard anybody else use meettu for effect in this
regard. Her technique is much different from Balachander's too, though she
has great regard for him. Jayanthy uses more Balachander-like techniques
for some phrases which cannot be produced otherwise. That is part of the
charm that Jayanthy's playing holds. Her music is a combination of the
long musical legacy of the Lalgudi family, her aunt's pAThAntaram, and the
power of Balachander's instrumental technique.
>
> L Ramakrishnan
> Zoology, UT Austin
>
Vidyasankar
Srini Pichumani
>
>S. Balachander, in order to produce notes an octave or
>higher, by pulling, resorted to lowering the pitch of
>the Veena to somewhere between C# and D, with much
>thicker strings.
Balachander mentioned this and other changes he had made to
his veena in a lec-dem at the Indian Fine Arts Society (Dec86).
Metal pegs to fix the strings at the yALi end, a broader
stem than normal, and some change in the tuning of the
last/fourth string (I don't remember exactly what he said;
from anumandra panchama to mandra Sa maybe, just like the 3rd
string tuning itself) were the key modifications he mentioned.
He did not mention any specifics about his contact mike and
amplification methods - something that he always used to the
hilt.
The lec-dem itself, on gamakas, was quite brilliant and full
of his characteristic bluff. After mentioning dismissively
that those who were interested in 10 or 15 or umpteen gamakas
could go ahead and read the tomes on music, he plunged straight
into Todi following Kalidasa's dictum concerning the primacy
of practice ("prayoga pradhAnam hi ...").
He played the Todi scale, played a simple Western
melody based on that scale - it may have been a song of
St.Hildegaard now that I think about it - and said menacingly
to the 99% S.Indian audience "don't say that EVEN plain notes
sound good! plain notes ARE good !!!". Then he played it
a-la-Hindustani and finally, he rendered it in grand Carnatic
style explaining the varied gamakas and the shades of svaras.
While demonstrating the gamakas as they occur in Todi and
various other rAgas, he talked extensively about the lateral
deflection techniques, "finger-splitting", rAgas difficult to
play on the veena in his reckoning, etc.
>This is what leads me to doubt the oft-made comment that
>Carnatic music has never had an independent instrumental
>style. Dhanammal's playing style is more instrumental than
>"gayaki".
Your doubt is well-founded. This comment is more an
off-the-cuff remark - or a deeply held belief, fervent wish
of people who are primarily into vocal music - than one born
of clear perception.
My guess is that this comment has gained increased
currency in the last 4 or 5 decades due to the towering
presence of Mali, Balachander, and Lalgudi and their respective
styles. Probably they themselves would be content with fans just
appreciating the gayaki-ang they wrought while yet retaining
the instrument's individuality.
It also has to do with the fact that playing a kriti naturally
demands more "vocalization" of an instrumental style.
That nAgasvaram, veena, violin, flute, vocal have their
distinct identities is obvious and a historical fact.
The particular beauties, intonation specifics, peculiarities
and limitations, of each of these streams of music have been
understood and acknowledged by the practitioners and the
rasikas.
The clarity of musical phrasing on the veena may
be held as an ideal for the voice, the expansiveness,
modulations, twists&turns of classic nAgasvaram music may
be emulated by vocalists, the gamaka richness in veena and
vocal may be produced on the flute or violin, and the
continuity in vocal, flute may be a desirable for the vainika
- but, there is no mistaking the fact each one of these is
and should be on its own footing.
>Again by the testimony of S. Y. Krishnaswamy, the character
>of gamakas in Carnatic music has also changed subtly over
>this century. This is borne out if one listens to old
>recordings of Ariyakudi singing the Kanada Ata tala varnam.
>His ga is considerably less "andolified" than is usually done
>today - in fact it is almost flat at the swarasthana.
Some others who have confirmed this trend in their writings
and talks are T.L.Venkatarama Iyer, S.Rajam, SRJ ...
SRJ, in a demonstration of Shankarabharanam, sang a few
phrases with the R held fairly flat and said that he had
heard old-timers like Maharajapurma Visvanatha Iyer
render it so; he criticized the modern trend of intoning the
R in this rAga with a fairly large and wavy gamaka for quick
effect, saying that it was not always appropriate to do so.
-Srini.