Telugu Janapada Geetalu - Modern Audio Recordings #1
PALANA
The following is an account on some of the recent Audio Casettes on Telugu
Folk Songs sung by various singers. Some are very Janapada and some are
semi-janapada. Irrespective of their Janapada strength
(concentration/content), it is nice to know that (1) there are still some
producers interested to release those, (2) some singers love to sing them, and
(3) a good number of music directors still like to undertake such missions.
(1) One such tape is "gOpAla kRshNuDu" - recorded by Sangeetha of Madras.
Music - Vinjamuri Seeta Devi.
Singers - S. Janaki & Vijayalakshmi Sarma
Orchestra - A.A. Raj.
VAK Rangarao' statement (as follows below) was printed on the paper insert
of the casette box:
"The arts of India have always been inspired by the thought of Krishna.
Sculpture, literature, the performing arts have made themselves immortal
by trying to contain him within their expansive horizons. Here, famous
folk-loriet Vinjamuri Seeta Devi draws ten folk songs from the heart of
Andhra ethos. Lulling him to sleep (1), waking him up (2), seeing him
through his morning ritual (3), the blessedness of decorating him (4),
noting his naughtiness (5), marvelling at Krishna's ten incarnations (6),
the gopi's half proud, mock-annoyed complaints (7), his delicious teasing
(8), the abandon of his milk-and-curd looting (9), are but a prelude to
the wonder at Yasoda's divine child, the mighty atom that holds the
universe, the one and the only God, KRISHNA."
-----V A K Ranga Rao
Rangarao encapsulated everything in one paragraph in a nice style and
ornamental words. The team did a fantastic job in putting these folk songs
in an audio form. Janaki sang them very well with her natural vocal
melodious vibrations. (1) kastUri ranga ranga, even though a song which
runs 4-5 printed pages long, was sung by jAnaki in bits and pieces. The
orchestra by AA Raj was above average. Recording was ok. The other songs
in this cassette are : (2) bangAru cembutO, (3) rAmakRshNAnanda rArA, (4)
kRshNa harE, (5) malle pUla hAram, (6) O yaSOda, (7) vinTunnAnu, (8) pO pO
pO celi, (9) uTla pAla, (10) enta cakkani tanayuDE.
A side track - The leaflet of the cassette declares that the songs were
collected by Vijamuri Seeta Devi which is a bit too much. These songs have
been sung all over Andhra (and in many Telugu households in the world). I
heard my grandmother singing this kastUri ranga for more than an hour -
the entire song. This kastUri ranga song is called the "lAli pATa" (SrI
kRshNa jananam pATa). sAtAnAs usually sing this song. sAtAnAs are another
set of Andhras (a vaishNavaite community) known for their folk-song
singing. Gollapudi Viraswami of Rajahmundry published a book entitled
strIla pATalu which contains 48 songs and this kastUri ranga occupies more
than 4 printed pages.
This tape is ok. Orchestra was given more emphasis in this recording.
Some songs have a fast beat - If you are a true folk song lover, you may
not like the tunes (rather orchestra) of some the songs in this audio.
Any way, musicologists and folk-music researchers like Vinjamuri Seeta
Devi, are trying hard to keep these alive.
BTW, this Gopalakrushnudu tape was released by Sangeetha in 1992.
It costs Rs30/- or a bit more now. It is an addition to your valuable
collection of Telugu Songs. Some times you may get them at the Pittsburgh
SV Temple.
---more later
regards
-----------pAlana
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Disclaimer: Opinions above are mine only.
_____________________________________________________________________________
Sreenivas Paruchuri
Just saw your message on Sangita's tape visualised by VAK. Nice! I have
two disks from 1930s with this song sung by same person (my records are in
poor condition to identify the names on the disk lable. Interesting part is
that the first version (both running for 3+3 min) is in 'classical' style
and the 2nd is in 'rustic' telugu. Ofcourse both are set to raaga:
"aanandabhairavi". I will try to transcribe the texts of both the versions
listening to audio tonight. You may compare both the versions with the
printed texts.
Thanks!
Sreenu