RAAG aur GEET #2
KEDAR S NAPHADE
This is the second posting in a new series on this newsgroup - RAAG aur GEET. This series is an offshoot of RJGK-19 which was titled "Indian Classical music in Films". It is inspired by a couple of requests to post an explanation of the relationship between the song and raag for the songs in the quiz.
In this series I pick up a song based on classical music, give the basic structure of the raag, and provide some notation of the film song to demonstrate the likeness between the raag and the geet. I shall start off with songs from both the versions of the quiz and may be move on later to other songs ... shall try to do this as regularly as possible at about two songs per week .. unless it gets flamed off or becomes extinct due to poor response.
Please point out any corrections in the information provided ..
The song for today is from the film Guddi. I am not sure who the singer is
.. I always thought it was Lata, but in some of the answers I recieved for the
quiz, the singer mentioned was Vani Jayram or Usha Mangeshkar...
Geet : Hum ko man ki shakti denaa
Raag : Kedar
Aaroha : S m, m P, P D P P S" (Legend at the bottom)
Avaroha : S" D P, M P D P m, R S
Some renditions of Kedar also use the Komal (flat) Nishaad (Ni).. in which case the avaroha can be written as :
Avaroha : S" D P, M P D n D P, M P D P m, R S
I am not sure, but perhaps this version is also called Chandni Kedar
Typical Phrases in the Raag (chalan) :
S m, m P, M P D P m, S R S. P P S" , S" R" S" D P , M P D P m, R S
In my opinion, just the phrase : S m, m P : is enough to establish Kedar.
Partial Notation of the Geet with some typical phrases underlined:
Hum ko man ki sha kti de naa mana vijay ka re e.n
S S m mG P P P P P P P P P DPm PD
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
doo sa ro.n ke jai se pe he le khud ko jay kare e.n
S" S" S" SN R"S"D D D DP P P P P PPS" D m R S
Usage of the komal Nishaad :
jhhooTa se ba che rahe.n sach kaa dum bhha re e.n
P P P P Dn D P P P P P P DPm PD
~~~~~~~~~~
So may be I should have called this chandni kedar ....?
The controversy :
Sharp readers amongst you may have noticed that though the notes G and
N are not present in the aaroha and avaroha of the raag, they are present in
the song. I believe the usage of these notes is somewhat a controversy.
Firstly, these notes are always used (if at all) only fleetingly. the G is
just slightly touched in the phrase S m , m P and the N is again slightly
touched in the phrase S"R"S" D P. I dont think that these notes are
officially in the aaroha/avaroha of the raag. Some think that their inclusion
is makes the rendition of the raag somewhat "cheap" .. others think that it
makes the rendition more beautiful, but in a cheap way...I do not have any
cassettes of classical renditions raag Kedar to present evidence, but I think
that besides the most careful singers, a touch of these notes creeps into most
renditions of Kedar.
Arguments/Corrections/Flames welcome :-)
Regards,
Kedar Naphade
LEGEND : Upper case : Teevra (sharp) notes Lower case : Komal (flat)notes
" : upper octave ' : lower ovtave
_______________________________________________________________________________
All problems of existence are essentially problems of harmonium.
Rajan Parrikar
ks...@Lehigh.EDU (KEDAR S NAPHADE) writes:
> Please point out any corrections in the information provided ..
> The song for today is from the film Guddi. I am not sure who the singer is
>.. I always thought it was Lata, but in some of the answers I recieved for the
>quiz, the singer mentioned was Vani Jayram or Usha Mangeshkar...
It is Vani Jairam.
> Geet : Hum ko man ki shakti denaa
> Raag : Kedar
> Aaroha : S m, m P, P D P P S" (Legend at the bottom)
> Avaroha : S" D P, M P D P m, R S
> Some renditions of Kedar also use the Komal (flat) Nishaad (Ni).. in which case the avaroha can be written as :
> Avaroha : S" D P, M P D n D P, M P D P m, R S
> I am not sure, but perhaps this version is also called Chandni Kedar
Chandni Kedar means different things to different people. There are
versions of C-Kedar that do not use the komal nishad at all. I don't
want to digress and discuss C-Kedar, so will just mention that komal
nishad is very much a part of the regular, standard Kedar (that some
people omit it altogether is another matter).
> Typical Phrases in the Raag (chalan) :
> S m, m P, M P D P m, S R S. P P S" , S" R" S" D P , M P D P m, R S
> In my opinion, just the phrase : S m, m P : is enough to establish Kedar.
Well, Raga Bahar, for instance, also can start out that way (until the
komal gandhaar comes in). I would say that the meend "M P D>>>M" is what
gives Kedar its signature.
> So may be I should have called this chandni kedar ....?
See above.
> The controversy :
> Sharp readers amongst you may have noticed that though the notes G and
>N are not present in the aaroha and avaroha of the raag, they are present in
>the song. I believe the usage of these notes is somewhat a controversy.
G and N have been in usage in Kedar for many decades now and as far as I
know, there has been no controversy. (In fact, one point of difference
between Chandni Kedar and Kedar is the omission of G in the former).
In many other varieties of Kedar, the G is avoided but in Kedar it adds
to the beauty of the Raga. Some people like Jasraj even intone it
explicitly in their sargam. The N is also clearly used although its
implementation may depend on the idiosyncrasies of the singer and his
gharanic background.
>Firstly, these notes are always used (if at all) only fleetingly. the G is
>just slightly touched in the phrase S m , m P and the N is again slightly
>touched in the phrase S"R"S" D P. I dont think that these notes are
>officially in the aaroha/avaroha of the raag. Some think that their inclusion
>is makes the rendition of the raag somewhat "cheap" .. others think that it
>makes the rendition more beautiful, but in a cheap way...I do not have any
I belong to the mob who thinks the use of G and N is quintessential to
Raga Kedar. Bas!
Rajan Parrikar
==============
email: parr...@mimicad.colorado.edu
Ambrish Sundaram
The song Humko Man Ki Shakti Dena, from Guddi, was not sung by Vani Jayram. Vani
sang the immortal Bole Re Papiharaa, for which, if I am not mistaken, she was
given the best female playback singer in the National Awards (or was it the
Filmfare Award ?!?!). Kedar's RJGK mentioned Vani Jayram as having gone almost
unemployed after Lata threatened not to sing for any other music director who
would use the voice of Vani. Though this rumour was rejected outright by a
netter, I think there definitely was some truth in it. Of course, Vani never
became unemployed, but she barely got any offers from Bombay film directors
after this, and she went back to the South, where to this day, she lends her
melodious voice for songs in Kannada, Tamil, Telugu, and Malayalam films. The
south regained what it had lost to Bombay for a short while.
Vani also has some private albums to her credit, where she has exhibited her
repertoire with excellent renderings of Meera Bhajans, other devotional songs,
and Carnatic Classical.
Ambrish - asun...@eccdb1.pms.ford.com
KEDAR S NAPHADE
>I belong to the mob who thinks the use of G and N is quintessential to
>Raga Kedar. Bas!
It will be interesting to see what Pt. Bhatkhande's books say about this
..... do they mention the notes G and N in the aaroha aand avaroha of Kedar ?
(Obviously I have a personal interest in this :-)
- Kedar