Raga Vachaspati - a composition
Rajan P. Parrikar
Namashkar.
Some time back, in private conversation, I was asked about Carnatic
rAgas that have in recent times made their way into the Hindustani praNAli.
This post shall mark the beginining of an irregular series dealing with
such rAgas. I shall restrict myself to the relatively uncommon ones
(Hamsadhwani is, for instance, an example of the common type).
In this piece, we will present a beautiful composition on Shri krishna
in the 64th melakartA flagship rAga, Vachaspati. The rAga has been popular
for sometime now primarily with the Hindustani instrumentalists but
not too many vocal compositions are to be found. The nominal scale
employed is: S R G m P D n. We invite recommendations from Carnatic
afficionados for what they think are their representative recordings
in Vachaspati.
The composition below is fairly easy to work through. The nuance and
embellishment and improvisation around the basic skeletal piece takes
a little musical maturity. But I believe the essence of the bandish is
easily gotten with the notation below and a some practice. That Indian
music, like many other aspects Indian tradition, is most effectively
transmitted and imbibed through the oral medium is so obvious to even
those with a rudimentary acquaintance with anything Indian, that only
an ignorant, illiterate twit will see the need to present it as a revelation.
Every Indian child who has learnt the shlokas or heard of the adventures
of Shri Rama and Arjuna, or learnt the traditonal songs at the feet of
his/her mother/grandmother knows this. The strengths of the oral tradition
are obvious to all. So are its drawbacks as we have seen: Hare Krishna-type
clods (Harry ball, Praaaboo!), whose only prior experience to dropping
out of school has been in dropping acid, can be reduced to the dungheap
of addleheaded restaurant-grade performers, condemned to blowing noisy wind
into a pipe even after taking lessons for 30 years. By the way, I should
point out that this claim about only India having an oral tradition is a
piece of cockadoodle. America has its own too. Their president, no less,
has recently shown himself to be very well schooled in the "oral tradition."
Feedback to: parr...@colorado.edu
Warm regards,
r
*****
Raga: Vachaspati
Tala: Teental (brisk)
kara murali banmAla gale' (kara = hand)
kunDalan chhabi ati nyAri hai
mor mukuTa pitAmbara shobhe'
Shyam murata ati pyAri hai
Key:
(1) All shuddha notes in caps (M=shuddha madhyam, m=tivra madhyam)
(2) The " and ' following a note denotes its tAr-saptak and mandra-
saptak affiliation, respectively.
(3) The grace note is enclosed in parenthesis of the type () and it
operates on the note immediately following it.
Asthaie:
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16
Pm Gm PD Pm GR
ka....ra...... mu....ra
S - S S S (R)N' R R (R)G - - P (P)m m m P
li.... ba...na...mA........la ga...le.......... kun.........Da....la....na
<-smooth-> <---------smooth--------->
D D D (n)S" nD S"n DP nD P - -
chha.bi a....ti nyA.......ri..... hai.........
Antara:
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16
(P)m P P
mo....ra mu
S" S" S" -(R")n - S" R" S" - S" - - G" G" m"
ku...Ta pi........tAm.......ba...ra sho........bhe.......... Shya..ma mu
R" G" S" R" n - S" - nD S"n DP
ra...ta a....ti nyA.......ri.... hai..........
Nikhil Rao
'ParAthapara parameshvara, a composition of PApanAsam Shivan, is an
example of a krithi in VAchaspati, M. S. Subbulakshmi, has an HMV
recording.
Arunkumar Sridharan
Hi:
Other representative compositions in Vaachaspati are:
Saharsrakara Mandite - Muthiah Bhagavatar - Adi
Paahi Jagadjanani Santatam - Maharaja Swati Tirunaal - Adi
Ennaadu Nee Kripa - Patnam Subrahmanya Iyer - Adi
Kandajoodumee - Saint Thyaagaraaja - Adi
--
Arun