Veena Recitals of Jayash and Manash

Veenavaadhini students Jayash and Manash learn veena and vocal over the Internet. They were in Chennai this summer for one-to-one classes. They, along with their brother Ashwin Ramanathan (a violin student of Shri HN Bhaskar), performed in various places in and around Chennai, notable among them being the one under the auspices of Fifty-Fifty Club on August 7, 2009. They also presented a musical ensemble in Mysore on August 14th at the Veena Seshanna Bhavan.

Their programmes were very well received by the live audience as well as the press. Vadapalani Times, Sakshi (Telugu Newspaper, called it "Vadyatraya Sunaadam Sumadhuram") and Star of Mysore carried favourable reports on these young performers. Given below are links to some of the press reports.

Click here for review in Vadapalani Times

Click here for review in Sakshi, Telugu Daily

Veenavaadhini Vadya Diwas

Young students of Veenavaadhini got together on August 9th to present an evening of instrumental music. Platform was made available for them to render the music taught to them on the veena, under public gaze. Contact mike was provided to the participants which definitely enhanced the sound brought out. All the participants did their best and captivated the audience with the variety presented. The programme started with three children, Harini, Dwaraknath and Aparna, whose hands could hardly cover the entire length of the veena dandi! Yet they impressed, rendering amongst them Gajananya Namaste (Varnam - Muthuswamy Dikshitar), Ninnukkori (Mohana Varnam), Mahaganapathe (Natanarayani-Dikshitar), Gurumurthe(Shankarabharanam-Dikhitar). This was followed by Banu Gopal's recital, a student senior in age, who played Thulasidala (Mayamalavagoulai-Thyagarajaswamy). She was full of enthusiasm and energy while pulling the strings.

It was then left to the students learning veena over skype, namely Radha Madhuri, and twin sisters Jayash and Manash Ramanathan, all from USA. Radha presented Brochevarevare (Sriranjani-Thyagarajaswamy) and Srichakraraja was played adroitly by the sisters. Music coming the Veena of these students was quite absorbing and we could see the confidence and maturity they have acquired.

Kum. Meenakshi, senior student of Veenavaadhini, was the last in the series to play veena. She took up Saveri varnam in two speeds and then Bhairavi raga deliniation. Dikshitar's Balagopala was played in true sampradaya style.

Violin players came in next, and those who participated were Kum Akshaya student of Smt Syamala Rajan and Sri Ashwin Ramanthan, a student of Sri HN Bhaskar. Kum Akshaya played Hamsadhwani varnam. Ashwin, elder brother of sisters Jayash and Manash, essayed a very pleasant Madhyamavathi raga alapana and followed it up with Ramakathasudha (Thyagarajaswamy).

The instrumental recitals were followed by an interesting and educative lecture-demonstration by Sri Jeyaraaj Krishnan and Smt Jaysri Jeyaraaj Krishnan, who also took the help of Sri S Sundar, a mridangam exponent to introduce the subject of "Listening to music" to enhance one's knowledge (kelvi gnanam). They elaborated on how listening is essential in the development of music knowledge both for the practitioner and the listening public. Laptop was used to bring out the taped music of the great vocalist Tanjavur Kalyanaraman, to drive the point home as to how the three moderators have benefited by such exposure. They recommended to the parents of the students present to arrange for a friendly music environment so that music occupies an important place for the wholesome development of an individual. The discussion brought out many questions of interest from the active audience and appropriate answers were made available to them. The programme was well attended and all in all it was a very fulfilling evening for all those present.

Reported by J Thyagarajan

Thai Pushyam Day

February 8, 2009 was Thai Pushyam and we at Veenavaadhini celebrated the event with a musical offering to Lord Muruga. The programme commenced with a group rendering of some of Muthuswamy Dikshitar's krithis, namely Sri Mahaganapathi (Gowlai), Srinathadi (Mayamalavagoulai), Balasubramanyam Bhajeham (Suruti), Manasaguruguha (Anandabhairavi). Since it was a Sunday, Suryamurthe Namosthuthe (Saurashtram) was also sung. The group rendering concluded with Brahmasri Ananthakrishna Iyer's composition "Valli Devasenapathe" in Kamas and the Mangala Krithi of Dikshitar "Sri Abhayamba". This was followed by Sangitanjali by Veenavaadhini students who enthralled the audience with various songs ranging from Sri Guruguha to Varasikhi Vahana to Darisittalavil Muktiperalam, etc.

This musical presentation by students was followed by a grand Lecdem by Shri B Karthikeyan of Kolkata who had the audience at the edge of their seats with a spellbinding and educative lecture on the sthala Tiruvarur. He gave an elaborate account of the association of Tiruvarur with Muthuswamy Dikshitar and how so many of his compositions are extolling the deities enshrined in Tiruvarur. In fact some of his major group kritis like the Kamalamba Navavarana Krithis, Nilotpalamba Vibhakti Krithis and Thyagaraja vibhakti Kritis are all about the respective deities in Tiruvarur.

After this pleasant and enlightening musical evening, sakkarapongal and sundal prasadam was distributed.

DR KARL PAULNACK'S SPEECH

A friend, Rajani Arjun Shankar, forwarded the text of this speech to us a while back. It is a must read for every individual associated with Classical music in whatever capacity, be it student, teacher, performer, rasika, or all rolled into one. We wrote to Dr. Karl Paulnack to seek his permission for publishing the text of his speech on this blog, and he readily agreed. Thank you, Dr. Paulnack, since for some like us this is a reinforcement of their musical beliefs, and for the others it is an eye-opener of sorts. So, read on!

Dr. Paulnack's email to us:
Hello friends,

Many thanks for your kind words regarding the welcome speech of mine you've seen circulating. I am happy to have you reprint, post or forward the speech to anyone for whom it may be useful. Please use the text below, as many of the versions floating around the Internet have various inaccuracies. This is the cleanest, most accurate version below. Thanks again.

Warm regards,

Karl


This is an excerpt from a welcome address given to parents of incoming students at The Boston Conservatory on September 1, 2004, by Dr. Karl Paulnack, Director of the Music Division.

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One of my parents' deepest fears, I suspect, is that society would not properly value me as a musician, that I wouldn't be appreciated. I had very good grades in high school, I was good in science and math, and they imagined that as a doctor or a research chemist or an engineer, I might be more appreciated than I would be as a musician. I still remember my mother's remark when I announced my decision to apply to music school-she said, "you're wasting your SAT scores!" On some level, I think, my parents were not sure themselves what the value of music was, what its purpose was. And they loved music: they listened to classical music all the time. They just weren't really clear about its function. So let me talk about that a little bit, because we live in a society that puts music in the "arts and entertainment" section of the newspaper, and serious music, the kind your kids are about to engage in, has absolutely nothing whatsoever to do with entertainment, in fact it's the opposite of entertainment. Let me talk a little bit about music, and how it works.


One of the first cultures to articulate how music really works were the ancient Greeks. And this is going to fascinate you: the Greeks said that music and astronomy were two sides of the same coin. Astronomy was seen as the study of relationships between observable, permanent, external objects, and music was seen as the study of relationships between invisible, internal, hidden objects. Music has a way of finding the big, invisible moving pieces inside our hearts and souls and helping us figure out the position of things inside us. Let me give you some examples of how this works.


One of the most profound musical compositions of all time is the Quartet for the End of Time written by French composer Olivier Messiaen in 1940. Messiaen was 31 years old when France entered the war against Nazi Germany. He was captured by the Germans in June of 1940 and imprisoned in a prisoner-of-war camp.


He was fortunate to find a sympathetic prison guard who gave him paper and a place to compose, and fortunate to have musician colleagues in the camp, a cellist, a violinist, and a clarinetist. Messiaen wrote his quartet with these specific players in mind. It was performed in January 1941 for the prisoners and guards of the prison camp. Today it is one of the most famous masterworks in the repertoire.


Given what we have since learned about life in the Nazi camps, why would anyone in his right mind waste time and energy writing or playing music? There was barely enough energy on a good day to find food and water, to avoid a beating, to stay warm, to escape torture-why would anyone bother with music? And yet-even from the concentration camps, we have poetry, we have music, we have visual art; it wasn't just this one fanatic Messiaen; many, many people created art. Why? Well, in a place where people are only focused on survival, on the bare necessities, the obvious conclusion is that art must be, somehow, essential for life. The camps were without money, without hope, without commerce, without recreation, without basic respect, but they were not without art. Art is part of survival; art is part of the human spirit, an unquenchable expression of who we are. Art is one of the ways in which we say, "I am alive, and my life has meaning."


In September of 2001 I was a resident of Manhattan. On the morning of September 12, 2001 I reached a new understanding of my art and its relationship to the world. I sat down at the piano that morning at 10 AM to practice as was my daily routine; I did it by force of habit, without thinking about it. I lifted the cover on the keyboard, and opened my music, and put my hands on the keys and took my hands off the keys. And I sat there and thought, does this even matter? Isn't this completely irrelevant? Playing the piano right now, given what happened in this city yesterday, seems silly, absurd, irreverent, pointless. Why am I here? What place has a musician in this moment in time? Who needs a piano player right now? I was completely lost.


And then I, along with the rest of New York, went through the journey of getting through that week. I did not play the piano that day, and in fact I contemplated briefly whether I would ever want to play the piano again. And then I observed how we got through the day.


At least in my neighborhood, we didn't shoot hoops or play Scrabble. We didn't play cards to pass the time, we didn't watch TV, we didn't shop, we most certainly did not go to the mall. The first organized activity that I saw in New York, on the very evening of September 11th, was singing. People sang. People sang around fire houses, people sang "We Shall Overcome". Lots of people sang America the Beautiful. The first organized public event that I remember was the Brahms Requiem, later that week, at Lincoln Center, with the New York Philharmonic. The first organized public expression of grief, our first communal response to that historic event, was a concert. That was the beginning of a sense that life might go on. The US Military secured the airspace, but recovery was led by the arts, and by music in particular, that very night.


From these two experiences, I have come to understand that music is not part of "arts and entertainment" as the newspaper section would have us believe. It's not a luxury, a lavish thing that we fund from leftovers of our budgets, not a plaything or an amusement or a pass time. Music is a basic need of human survival. Music is one of the ways we make sense of our lives, one of the ways in which we express feelings when we have no words, a way for us to understand things with our hearts when we can't with our minds.


Some of you may know Samuel Barber's heart wrenchingly beautiful piece Adagio for Strings. If you don't know it by that name, then some of you may know it as the background music which accompanied the Oliver Stone movie Platoon, a film about the Vietnam War. If you know that piece of music either way, you know it has the ability to crack your heart open like a walnut; it can make you cry over sadness you didn't know you had. Music can slip beneath our conscious reality to get at what's really going on inside us the way a good therapist does.


Very few of you have ever been to a wedding where there was absolutely no music. There might have been only a little music, there might have been some really bad music, but with few exceptions there is some music. And something very predictable happens at weddings-people get all pent up with all kinds of emotions, and then there's some musical moment where the action of the wedding stops and someone sings or plays the flute or something. And even if the music is lame, even if the quality isn't good, predictably 30 or 40 percent of the people who are going to cry at a wedding cry a couple of moments after the music starts. Why? The Greeks. Music allows us to move around those big invisible pieces of ourselves and rearrange our insides so that we can express what we feel even when we can't talk about it. Can you imagine watching Indiana Jones or Superman or Star Wars with the dialogue but no music? What is it about the music swelling up at just the right moment in ET so that all the softies in the audience start crying at exactly the same moment? I guarantee you if you showed the movie with the music stripped out, it wouldn't happen that way. The Greeks. Music is the understanding of the relationship between invisible internal objects.


I'll give you one more example, the story of the most important concert of my life. I must tell you I have played a little less than a thousand concerts in my life so far. I have played in places that I thought were important. I like playing in Carnegie Hall; I enjoyed playing in Paris; it made me very happy to please the critics in St. Petersburg. I have played for people I thought were important; music critics of major newspapers, foreign heads of state. The most important concert of my entire life took place in a nursing home in a small Midwestern town a few years ago.


I was playing with a very dear friend of mine who is a violinist. We began, as we often do, with Aaron Copland's Sonata, which was written during World War II and dedicated to a young friend of Copland's, a young pilot who was shot down during the war. Now we often talk to our audiences about the pieces we are going to play rather than providing them with written program notes. But in this case, because we began the concert with this piece, we decided to talk about the piece later in the program and to just come out and play the music without explanation.


Midway through the piece, an elderly man seated in a wheelchair near the front of the concert hall began to weep. This man, whom I later met, was clearly a soldier-even in his 70's, it was clear from his buzz-cut hair, square jaw and general demeanor that he had spent a good deal of his life in the military. I thought it a little bit odd that someone would be moved to tears by that particular movement of that particular piece, but it wasn't the first time I've heard crying in a concert and we went on with the concert and finished the piece.


When we came out to play the next piece on the program, we decided to talk about both the first and second pieces, and we described the circumstances in which the Copland was written and mentioned its dedication to a downed pilot. The man in the front of the audience became so disturbed that he had to leave the auditorium. I honestly figured that we would not see him again, but he did come backstage afterwards, tears and all, to explain himself.


What he told us was this: "During World War II, I was a pilot, and I was in an aerial combat situation where one of my team's planes was hit. I watched my friend bail out, and watched his parachute open, but the Japanese planes which had engaged us returned and machine gunned across the parachute cords so as to separate the parachute from the pilot, and I watched my friend drop away into the ocean, realizing that he was lost. I have not thought about this for many years, but during that first piece of music you played, this memory returned to me so vividly that it was as though I was reliving it. I didn't understand why this was happening, why now, but then when you came out to explain that this piece of music was written to commemorate a lost pilot, it was a little more than I could handle. How does the music do that? How did it find those feelings and those memories in me?"


Remember the Greeks: music is the study of invisible relationships between internal objects. The concert in the nursing home was the most important work I have ever done. For me to play for this old soldier and help him connect, somehow, with Aaron Copland, and to connect their memories of their lost friends, to help him remember and mourn his friend, this is my work. This is why music matters.


What follows is part of the talk I will give to this year's freshman class when I welcome them a few days from now. The responsibility I will charge your sons and daughters with is this:


"If we were a medical school, and you were here as a med student practicing appendectomies, you'd take your work very seriously because you would imagine that some night at two AM someone is going to waltz into your emergency room and you're going to have to save their life. Well, my friends, someday at 8 PM someone is going to walk into your concert hall and bring you a mind that is confused, a heart that is overwhelmed, a soul that is weary. Whether they go out whole again will depend partly on how well you do your craft.


You're not here to become an entertainer, and you don't have to sell yourself. The truth is you don't have anything to sell; being a musician isn't about dispensing a product, like selling used cars. I'm not an entertainer; I'm a lot closer to a paramedic, a firefighter, a rescue worker. You're here to become a sort of therapist for the human soul, a spiritual version of a chiropractor, physical therapist, someone who works with our insides to see if they get things to line up, to see if we can come into harmony with ourselves and be healthy and happy and well.


Frankly, ladies and gentlemen, I expect you not only to master music; I expect you to save the planet. If there is a future wave of wellness on this planet, of harmony, of peace, of an end to war, of mutual understanding, of equality, of fairness, I don't expect it will come from a government, a military force or a corporation. I no longer even expect it to come from the religions of the world, which together seem to have brought us as much war as they have peace. If there is a future of peace for humankind, if there is to be an understanding of how these invisible, internal things should fit together, I expect it will come from the artists, because that's what we do. As in the Nazi camps and the evening of 9/11, the artists are the ones who might be able to help us with our internal, invisible lives."

RELEVANCE OF RAGAM-THANAM-PALLAVI IN CONCERTS

RELEVANCE OF RAGAM TANAM PALLAVI IN TODAY’S CONCERTS

Ragam Tanam Pallavi is an important part of a concert in the realm of Carnatic Music.

It is regarded as the “piece-de- resistance” as it provides the ideal platform for a performer to exhibit his/her “vidwat” in terms of improvisation.
To draw a parallel it can be compared to writing an essay in English where the writer needs proficiency in Grammar and Language, besides being Imaginative in his approach. Essay writing also tests the ability of a person to weave a synchronous thread of continuity. In other words, the “story telling” capability of a person comes to the fore. Similarly, when singing a RTP the performer needs to have a strong grasp of “Raga Lakshana”, “Laya” and vivid imagination – strictly within the realms of the accepted grammar. This restriction makes performing a RTP challenging as well as exciting.

It is interesting to see the evolution of this aspect of performance in today’s context. To do proper justice to a RTP it may not be out of place to allot at least one hour for the same in a concert. In the days gone by it was quite regular for a performer to allocate even 2 hours to RTP if not more.
The accepted practice has been to:
• Sing / Play the Ragam in three stages;
• Sing / Play an elaborate Taanam;
• Engage oneself in a detailed neraval exercise; and
• Do a “Thri-kalam” of the Pallavi Passage;
o Many established performers like the inimitable Alathur Brothers would only chose a 4-kalai Pallavi or an 8-kalai Pallavi which would mean that “Anulomam and Prathilomam” would inevitably follow.
• This would then be followed by “kalpanaswarams” in Raga maligai.

In this context it would be most appropriate to mention Sangeetha Acharya Vidwan Shri Chengelput Ranganthan Sir. His neraval singing is a benchmark in itself! 4-kalai and 8 kalai pallavis are like child’s play for him! We only wonder how his Guru Maha Vidwan Shri Alathur Venakatesa Iyer would have performed!

Today – the “accepted practice” is under scrutiny. We find RTPs rendered in 15-20 min. 4-kalai and 8-kalai pallavis have become a rarity. The reasons perhaps are not far to seek:
• How do you do justice to a Pallavi when the concert duration is only for 2 hrs or less?
• Is there a danger of losing Rasika Interest if the performer indulges in a detailed RTP exercise?
• Does it also point to a rather embarrassing question, namely the ability to perform, for instance, an 1/4 eduppu 2-kalai or 1/8 eduppu “4-kalai” or “8-kalai” Pallavi?
• Should a detailed Pallavi be performed only if the concert is touted as a “4 hr” concert or a “Pallavi concert”?
This is a topic that does not have straightforward answers. This is open to discussion.

In this context, we are going to reproduce an excerpt of what the great vidwan late Shri S.Balachander had to say in this regard. Vidwan Shri S. Balachander never minced words. He was very forthright in his opinions and he had the mastery (read Vidwat) to back his words. So, here it goes – Ladies and Gentlemen - please tighten your seat belts:

Excerpts from the foreword written by the late Veena S. Balachander (in 1971) to "Icai-ulakil Maka Vaittiyanata Civan' by V.S. Gomathisankara Iyer

“How sad is the level of Pallavi-singing these days! For this deplorable condition prevailing today, I totally and unreservedly blame only most of those prominent musicians of "YESTERDAY". Except for 'Mudikondan' Venkatrama Iyer, G.N.B., and Alathur Brothers and a very few more, the majority of the others took no care, interest or efforts in learning, striving and maintaining the proper 'Laya-personified' and Thaala-interwoven' intelligent ...intricate...involving, intellectual...inspiring and inimitable PALLAVI-singing. They thought it wise not to take any risk! They were just satisfied traversing the "safe-sure-successful" path. "Success' mainly depended in not achieving the 'impossible', but only in as much maintaining all that was 'possible'. That is why we had (and suffered from) a surfeit of "Aadhi-thaalam Mukkal-eduppu PARIMALA RANGAPATHAY"... & "Aadhi-thaalam Sundu Viral Sama-eduppu THILLAI EESANAI" PALLAVIS! How so pathetically easy! How so shamefully simple and elementary! WHO CARES!? One just made "mountains out of mole-hills" with no substance but with lots of Pretence! Effortless Success was assured! And the fame won was Safeguarded! Just imagine as to what would have tragically happened if the same, very same (course of utter safety) was also adopted by those of the still previous eras...like 'Mahaa" Vaidhyanatha Iyer himself for instance, or 'Poochi' Srinivasa Iyengar or "Namakkal' Narasimha Iyengar, or...(the list seems endless).

Most of those of 'YESTERDAY' who, day in and day out..year in and year out, spoke volumes about the musical-glories of the past, of their Masters, of their Paramparas, of their ancient styles and hereditary assets, never exerted even their little-finger in the aspect of "PALLAVI singing". I can excuse their incompetence in this regard if need be. But, i have never tolerated and never forgive them for their wanton (and highly motivated) insolence in heartlessly discouraging even those few other (not yet prominent and not so successful) musicians, who, fervently wishing to preserve the 'sathya'-laya-oriented style of singing PALLAVIS as done in the good old days, were genuinely spending hours and hours in fruitful - truthful study, research, practice and pursuit. These sincere but not so popular musicians were told and advised that such 'intricate' & 'involved' Pallavi singing was out-moded and out-dated and out of style and out of the reach of listeners!THOSE VERY SAME VIDWANS who time and again insisted that THEY WERE PRESERVING ALL THE ANCIENT, TRADITIONAL, HEREDITARY AND SAMPRADAYA-BOUND "MUSICAL HERITAGE".If only they had the open goodness to admit that certain of these ancient Pallavis were only out of _ THEIR - reach and far - from - THEIR - grasp and if only they had had the graciousness to faithfully encourage those others who were attempting laya-oriented truly 'Sampradaya - PALLAVIS', then, today this sorry state of affairs could have been totally avoided. Even maintaining a rhythmic-tempo of "Sarvalaghu-suddham" had to be considered as a great formidable (and at times 'unsurmountable'!) task by certain Vidwans of yesterday.And thanks to them, as already quoted, the present 'upto-date' Pallavi-singing brought into popular vogue by them is nothing different from a most-simple and most-elementary and most-bland "Arai-eduppu' Pallavi as in the first line of the song "Brovabharama" .. or, even that of a "sama-eduppu" Pallavi as in the first line of the song "Daarini Telusukonti"!!! One should truly be ashamed to call them (under the grossly misused title of) PALLAVI singing.

(stuff deleted)

Before being conferred the Title of "Mahaa", Sri Vaidhyanatha Sivan, on that occasion, chose to sing the raagam, "CHAKRAVAAKAM". The mere rendering of the raaga-aalaapana itself made the entire Sadas start wondering as to "What" Ragam it was!!! They had never heard it before! They could not 'identify' it! ........ (stuff deleted) This incident happened more than one hundred years ago. And...even TODAY... inspite of the passing of years, ragas like even Vakulaabharanam, Kokilapriya, Hemavathi, Bhavapriya, Gamanasrama, Dharmavathi, Natabhairavi, Shadvidamaargini, Sarasangi etc, etc. are YET TO BE MADE POPULAR AND EASILY IDENTIFIABLE BY WE MUSICIANS, TO THE AUDIENCE AT LARGE!!! (Leave alone ragas like Naaganandini, Navaneetam, Maanavathi, Dhaatuvardhini, Roopavathi, Jankaaradhwani, Raghupriya, Kosalam, Soolini, Chitraambhari, Kantaamani, Saalagam, Naasika Bhooshani, etc etc etc) Again, who is to be blamed for this sorry state of affairs? I personally can and shall blame only those who, all these years kept on singing REPEATEDLY (as per their self-imposed SAFE MEASURE) ragas like Kalyaani, Kaambhoji, Sankarabharanam, Bhairavi, Thodi, Keeravani, Karaharapriya, Shanmughapriya ... and I am afraid the list ends here...full-stop!”

We have taken this excerpt from what was reproduced by “Ramana”. Ramana - thank you very much for bringing this piece to light.

Disclaimer: This is not intended to be a finger pointing exercise. If it can bring people together for a meaningful discussion, it is something that would be followed with a lot of interest.

Veenavaadhini Students Performances

On the 27th and 28th of December, 2008, the Gayatri Fine Arts, Rohini, New Delhi, organized a Talent Promotion Concert Series. On the 28th was a solo Veenai recital by Veena Venkatramani. The songs played were Kedaragowlai varnam, Vathapi Ganapathim, Shobillu Saptaswara, Ananda Amritavarshini, Mamavatu Shree Saraswati, Devi Neeye Tunai, Desh Thillana, English Note and Vaishanava Janato.

ON January 1, 2009, Kamakshi and Meenakshi sang a vocal concert at the Kalikamba Temple in Parrys, Chennai. The songlist comprised mostly of those in praise of Devi, including a rare composition of Muthaiah Bhagavathar, "Kalarathri Swarupini" in the raga Urmika.