revathi and hemavathi
narayanan sundararajan
i have always been particularly fascinated by these two ragas. can someone
please list some songs on these two ragams and also tell me some cassettes
on which it is there, i would be very much obliged
bye
narayan
G.Shankar
>bye
>narayan
Hemavati : The most popular piece is "sri kaantimatim".
It's been rendered by a whole lot of people.
"Semmangudi over the decades" is a double cassette
which has a lovely rendition of this krithi
by the maestro.
There's a CD recording of a ragam-thanam-pallavi in
Hemavati by L.Subramaniam.
Revati : There's a jaavali in Revati which is played often.
U.Srinivas has played this piece in a cassette
( brought out by sangeeta).
It's one his earliest recordings. So it
might take some doing to get hold of this recording.
If I'm not mistaken there's an Annamacharya krithi
in Revati sung by M.S.
Also you MUST listen to any rendition of Raag
Bairagi in Hindustani. It sounds just like Revati.
-shankar
Shalini Venkataraman
: i have always been particularly fascinated by these two ragas. can someone
: bye
: narayan
YEAH...revathi is indeed a beautiful ragam..check out maharajapuram
santhanam's BHO SHAMBHO SHIVA SHAMBHO SVAYAMBHO...
V. Chandramouli
Yes, I agree. I love it too. Btw, what is the origin of this raagam? If you
assign P, N2, S, R1 as the four notes used in vedic chants then, Revathi has
all 4 plus one more (M) to make it "formally" a raagam.
Now, a related question is: why must we have at least 5 notes for a valid
raagam? As many of you might be aware, Balamurali has come up with his own
raagam that has only 4 notes (I am forgetting the name). Could someone post the
notes and the name of this raagam ? Can't we have a raagam which has the above 4
notes ?
Of course, all this speculation is based on the premise that the vedic chant
can be assigned these four notes. Perhaps one could argue that it is the
corresponding intervals that are important. So if we have four points
corresponding to the three intervals and arbitrarily assign any of them as S,
we get a different set of notes. So, I guess, vedic chants has nothing to do
with Revathi (thus probably answering my own question :-)
Oops. I have been meandering a while now. Let me stop here before I get carried
away :-)
--Chandramouli
ps: If 5 notes were a "must", how did Balamurali get away with it ? Could it
be argued thus: We know a raaga is more than just the notes in the aarohnam-av..
Since Balamurali came up with the scale AND showed how to create a
meaningful composition in it, the new scale can be legitimately called a raagam.
L Ramakrishnan
Date: 4 Oct 1994 18:48:58 GMT
>i have always been particularly fascinated by these two
tell me >some cassettes on which it is there, i would be very
much
>obliged
_Recommended listening in hEmAvatI_
T N Seshagopalan has rendered an attractive pallavI
in hEmAvatI that used to be relayed often on the
AIR Mds Sunday evening RTP program. Maybe someone
out there has a recording.
<<ninnE nammiti - nIvE gati - nIraja-daLa-nayana
rAma - shrI-rAma - sItA-rAma>>
in mishra gati Adi tAla.
He even recasts it in tishra gati, which seems quite
difficult to do with a mishra gati default setting.
L Ramakrishnan
Krishna Kunchithapadam
vcha...@dip.eecs.umich.edu (V. Chandramouli) writes:
:
: Now, a related question is: why must we have at least 5 notes for a valid
: raagam that has only 4 notes (I am forgetting the name). Could someone post the
: notes and the name of this raagam ? Can't we have a raagam which has the above 4
: notes ?
: ps: If 5 notes were a "must", how did Balamurali get away with it ? Could it
: be argued thus: We know a raaga is more than just the notes in the aarohnam-av..
: Since Balamurali came up with the scale AND showed how to create a
: meaningful composition in it, the new scale can be legitimately called a raagam.
Balamuralikrishna has composed kritis in 3 ragas that have only 4
notes. The names (and the janaka mela ragas), scales and
representative compositions in these ragas are:
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
lavangi (kanakangi) s r1 m1 d1 s+ s+ d1 m1 r1 s omkaaraa kaarini
mahathi (hari kambhoji) s g3 p n2 s+ s+ n2 p g3 s mahaneeya madhura murthe
sumukham (dhatuvardhani) s r3 m2 n3 s+ s+ n3 m2 r3 s mahaneeya namasulive
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
According to Balamurali, Lavangi is based on Vedic chants, Mahati
is based on its close cousins Kalavati (or Valaji) and Nartaki.
BMK also has compositions in ragas that have only 3 notes each.
They are:
-------------------------------------------------------------------
sarvasri (kanakangi) s m1 p s+ s+ p m1 s uma sutam namaami
omkari (saalagam) s m2 p s+ s+ p m2 s ---
-------------------------------------------------------------------
The statement that "ragas ``must'' have a minimum of 5 notes" is
not true. "yaH ra~jayathe saH rAgaH asthe" (that which pleases
is a raga). The above ragas clearly demonstrate the superb
flexibility of the concept of `raga' in the hands of a skilled
performer and an accomplished musician like Balamurali. The 5-
note principle is useful in the sense that it is difficult to
compose in and perform ragas with fewer notes, but not impossible
or improper.
It is no longer relevant or fashionable to argue about the
validity of 4-note ragas (3-note ragas are apparently "too much"
for many people to accept as yet). The famous song "adhisaya
raagam, aanandha raagam" in the film "apoorva raaga~gal" is based
on the raga Mahathi. Many concert performers use Mahathi as a
light raga in the latter half of their concerts, so it is getting
mainstream. Mahathi is also the oldest of the 3/4-note ragas
innovated by Balamurali, the others are substantially more recent
and will presumably become popular over time.
Recordings of all the above ragas (except Omkari) are available.
Balamurali also sang the Lavangi kriti as part of his concert at
the Nehru Anniversary celebrations in New Delhi in 1988. He has
regularly performed Mahathi, Lavangi, Sumukham and Sarvasri in
live concerts over the past few years. Listen to a recording and
decide for yourselves (after all, music appreciation is a
personal thing).
--Krishna
PS: The above ragas are not the only ones with 3 and 4 notes.
Lakshanas for many other ragas with fewer than 5 notes (either in
the arohana or avarohana) are known. There are also one or two
raga lakshanas with 4 notes both ways, but they are rare, in
fact, rare enough that we probably will never hear them in our
lifetimes.
Srini Pichumani
>is based on its close cousins Kalavati (or Valaji) and Nartaki.
>
>flexibility of the concept of `raga' in the hands of a skilled
>performer and an accomplished musician like Balamurali. The 5-
>note principle is useful in the sense that it is difficult to
>compose in and perform ragas with fewer notes, but not impossible
>or improper.
Balamurali is certainly brave enough to attempt both - I
mean the impossible and the improper :-) However, the
results are not necessarily satisfactory or pleasing ;
on the contrary, they seem to underscore the pitfalls
in such attempts. All the more so, since even a person
of Balamurali's genius and vocal talents comes up short.
For example, in his own rendition of Lavangi, recorded
very well on the Music Today cassette series, his negotiation
of the avarohi passages lack clarity/accuracy. The phrasing
sounds uneasy, and camouflaged just about enough to avoid a
charge of apasvaram.
Through a few standard maneuvers, Balamurali tries to generate
some melodic worth and achieves a limited measure of success -
this is certainly creditable - where there seems to be little
else to do than race up and down the octave and move onto
circus tricks.
-Srini.
Sriram Devanathan
In article <37gt24$c...@zip.eecs.umich.edu>, sr...@quip.eecs.umich.edu (Srini Pichumani) writes:
|> In article <37f1sm$p...@spool.cs.wisc.edu>, Krishna Kunchithapadam
|>
|> very well on the Music Today cassette series, his negotiation
|> of the avarohi passages lack clarity/accuracy. The phrasing
|> sounds uneasy, and camouflaged just about enough to avoid a
|> charge of apasvaram.
|>
But then again, as Krishna pointed out music appreciation is a personal
thing. As a crude example, if a painter has at his disposal only the
colors red and blue, he could still come up with some beautiful
(aesthetically pleasing) pictures. Now, why compare those to other
pictures that he could make if he had VIBGYOR?
I for one enjoy listening to 'OmkAra kArini' no less than any
other piece.
Sriram
V. Chandramouli
it one of Prof. Sambamoorthy's volumes ?) that a raaga must have more than
4 notes in at least an aarohanam or avarohanam.
A clarification about my earlier post on mela 15. I had used the word
"masquerade" (notice the double quote here) which apparently caused
consternation to a couple of people. Webster's defines masquerade as :
"to go about disguised" among the many other similar meanings. So typically when we say R we think of R1 and R2, which also correspond to the komal and shudha R of Hindustani music. Thus, when R2 acts as G1 in some ragas
like Manavati, I used the word "masqerade" (hence the double quote).
--Chandramouli
SUBU Ramasubramanian
|> <kri...@cs.wisc.edu> wrote:
|> >
|> >lavangi (kanakangi) s r1 m1 d1 s+ s+ d1 m1 r1 s omkaaraa kaarini
|> >
|> >According to Balamurali, Lavangi is based on Vedic chants, Mahati
|> >is based on its close cousins Kalavati (or Valaji) and Nartaki.
|> >
|> >is a raga). The above ragas clearly demonstrate the superb
|> >flexibility of the concept of `raga' in the hands of a skilled
|> >performer and an accomplished musician like Balamurali. The 5-
|> >note principle is useful in the sense that it is difficult to
|> >compose in and perform ragas with fewer notes, but not impossible
|> >or improper.
|>
|> Balamurali is certainly brave enough to attempt both - I
|> mean the impossible and the improper :-) However, the
|> results are not necessarily satisfactory or pleasing ;
|>
|>
Agreed 100%. I am not even sure if some of these ragas stick to
the scale suggested. I guess someone like Balamurali can get away
with anything. I had a chance to listen to his "smps - spms" ( don't
know what he calls it ). I got a feeling that there is a suggestion
of Ga3 and Ni3 in his slides. Once you start considering these
as ragas, I am sure someone can come up with "sps - sps" with
necessary slides thro' some other notes and call it a raga :)
Subu