4 younger artistes demonstrated the artwork of singing Pallavi to totally different nadais and talas
For a lay concert-goer, the Ragam-Tanam-Pallavi section is intriguing. In contrast to different components of the efficiency, comparable to alapana, rendering songs and kalpanaswaras, a pallavi is likely to be obscure and recognize till it’s defined. In a vigorous jamming session in the course of the ‘Pallavi Darbar’, organised by Sri Parthasarathy Swami Sabha and Carnatica, singers Okay. Gayatri and Aishwarya Shankar together with Nishanth Chandran on the violin and Delhi Sairam on the mridangam revealed the strategies to grasp pallavi singing.
The occasion was devoted to one of many pallavi veterans, Suguna Purushothaman. Gayatri remembered how arduous work and follow enabled her guru to current even essentially the most advanced talas on stage with ease. With Nishanth and Sairam often accompanying her at concert events, Gayatri acknowledged that presenting a pallavi is a group effort, and that their contribution is essential.
The singers defined that although theoretically Pallavi is pada-laya-vinyasam, it’s the imaginative exploration of a significant line of sahityam, having a poorvangam (first half) and uttarangam (the second portion) with arudi karvai (the pause between them), and the sahityam falling exactly in ‘pada garbham’ (the half previous the arudi karvai). The duo then demonstrated a couple of sarali varisais with tala, off the beat. Sairam joined them as an instance the same method taught throughout early mridangam classes.
Varnams in several nadais
Gayatri mentioned and demonstrated learn how to sing varnams in numerous nadais, comparable to tisram, khandam, and sankeernam, by singing the Sahana varnam in numerous nadais. Alankarams in numerous nadais — tisra matyam and Adi in eight aksharams, khanda triputa and misra rupakam in 9 aksharams, and misra jhampa and chatusra matyam in 10 aksharams — can be practised. The group went on to current the Viribhoni varnam in Bhairavi, set to Adi tala misra nadai and Khanda ata talam in chatusra nadai demonstrating the test factors of 1/4, 1/2 and three/4 edams.
Aishwarya threw mild on how different varieties of sahityams comparable to shlokas, thillanas or Thiruppugazh are introduced as pallavis. She sang a couple of traces from Aditya Hrudayam shloka in Sankeerna jati triputa, ‘Erumayileri’, Thiruppugazh (Mohanam), and a tillana in Sankarabharanam in chatusra jhampa in misra and khanda nadais. To the query that which nadai the mridangam and violin comply with when the singer sings with two distinct nadais or talas in every hand, Sairam and Nishanth stated that they go together with just one tala because it sounds simpler on the ear.
Talking about anga talas, Gayatri defined sarvangam with 72 aksharam, demonstrated the tala and sang a Simhanandana pallavi ‘Narasimha nandanapriya’. She recalled composing pallavis in talas named after her guru with aksharams primarily based on the katapayadi sankhya (alpha-syllabic quantity system), in the course of the earlier editions of Pallavi Darbar pageant.
Gayatri gave a glimpse of marga tala, a set of 5 talas that type the primary of the 108 talas, and Aishwarya demonstrated the pallavi ‘Panchamukha panchanadheesha’ in Purvikalyani starting with the tala Shatpitaputrikam, adopted by the opposite 4 talas, all of which have numerous beats divisible by 4, to point out how the identical sahityam could be seamlessly tailored to totally different talas.
Talking about tani avartanam for pallavis, Sairam stated that the 128-beat Simhanandana tala could also be remembered as eight avartanams of Adi talam (in two kalais), and that the kakapadam is a touch to the top. In Navasandhi tala (a set of 9 talas ), Gayatri sang a pallavi line in Mattabharanam tala with 32 aksharas to point out how the sahityam could also be rendered in a number of talas on the similar eduppu. The duo spoke about pallavis in 35 talas, and Aishwarya famous that the Sharabhanandana tala pallavi by Suguna Purushothaman finds a spot with notation in Thinniyam Venkatrama Iyer’s guide Pallavi Ratnamala, and exhibited a pallavi in sankeerna matyam from the guide.
Remembering the guru
Gayatri recalled Suguna Purushothaman and senior musician Suguna Varadachari, singing and presenting pallavis in several talas on the stage collectively. Impressed by one such live performance, Gayatri and Aishwarya introduced a Ragam-Tanam-Pallavi in Kamboji composed by Suguna Purushothaman set to tisra triputa in khanda nadai (4 counts off the beat) and tisra rupakam in misra nadai (laghu on the beat).
The pallavi ‘Isaiyum layamum inaindhaal idhayam inikkume, inbam perugume’ replete with neraval, kalpanaswaras and trikalam, featured a ragamalika portion as effectively, and a tani avartanam. The vocalists divided the 35 aksharams of the talas into 20 + 15 and vice versa for various nadais and got here up with an thought for the ragamalika portion, selecting Natabhairavi, Mayamalavagowla, and Shulini, that are melakarta ragas numbered 20, 15, and 35 respectively.
Whereas Nishanth remarked on how shortly the talas and nadais within the mridangam modified, Sairam defined how he approached the 2 talas and the touchdown place.
Total, the programme was a commendable effort by the 4 artistes, who demonstrated, what occurs on stage when singing intricate pallavis.
The Chennai-based critic writes on Carnatic music.