Lecture Demonstrations - December Music and Dance Season 2008

Hi again! This is a belated report on few of the Lec-dems during December 2008 season

Here is a word about Lec-dems in general. Except at Music Academy the Lec-dems at other Sabhas witness only scant crowd that too all 50+.

The resource persons delivering the lectures are stalwarts and they do extensive research before presenting them in the limited time allotted.

It is unfortunate that the youth, especially those in the music and dance circle, as students, do not encash the knowledge imparted and get benefited by them.

Our senior vidwans, musicologists and dance gurus have treasures with them which the younger generation should exploit for their real growth.

1. Telugu-The special status enjoyed by Telugu in Carnatic Music –
By Sri. T.R.Subrahmaniam - Indian Fine Arts Society at German Hall on 26.12.2008.

In British India, English language was regarded as a status symbol. In the same way Telugu language enjoyed the status symbol among composers of 16/17 century.
Tamilnad had great advantage in that illustrious people like Rama Mathiya, Annamacharya and Narayana Thirthar from Andhra Pradesh contributed a lot and made Telugu a status language.

The influence was so great that composers with their mother tongue other than Telugu composed only in Telugu during that era. Patnam Subramanya Iyer, Poochi Srinivasa Iyengar (Tamilians) , Mysore Vasudevachar (Kannadiga) preferred to compose in Telugu.

The King Krishna Devaraya, whose mother tongue was Tulu, did a kavya in Telugu by name ‘Amuktha Malyada’. In this he has the last line ‘Desa Bhashalandu Telugu Lessa’
meaning among the national languages Telugu is the best.

Sangeetha Sampradaya Pradarshini, which is considered as Bible in music circle was written in the year 1904, in Telugu by Subbarama Dikshithar, the grandson of Muthuswamy Dikshithar's family whose mother tongue was Tamil.

Finally, Saint Thyagaraja who was born and lived in Tamilnadu did his compositions in simple Telugu, which was his mother tongue. His disciples too composed only in Telugu, telling ‘Na guru ela chesaro ala chesanu’ meaning I did the way my guru did.
The beauty of Telugu lies in the fact that all nouns end in vowels like Ramudu ending with u. This gives very good scope in carnatic music to do neraval and is very pleasant to hear. Whereas in Tamil the vowels end in consonants, like in Raman, n is the ending and neraval with that is difficult. In Kannada the vowels are extended with aa at the endings, which will not sound very good and neraval with extended aa is again difficult.

Our great poet of Tamilnad Sri.Subrahmanya Bharathy hence rightly said ‘Sundara Telunginil Pattisaithu’ which means Telugu is very good to hear and people opt to sing in that language.

This trend slowly changed with Papanasam Sivan who made Tamil kirthanas with classical touch popular later.

2. Influence of Yoga in voice modulation by Sri T.Unnikrishnan – Sri Parthasarathy Swami Sabha at Vidya Bharathy on 28.12.08

Voice culture is the usage of right voice technique while singing. Yoga deals with breath control and hence the practice of Pranayama helps improve the tonal quality.

There are three registries in voice, head registry, chest registry and false registry. Head registry is for light singing and 90% modulation comes from chest registry. Breath voice (the false registry) is bad in classical music, but permitted in light singing. (In breathy voice 10% of breath is applied with singing which comes along with the song and it is a disqualified voice for classical music.) Classical singing requires majesty and hence, there chest registry is applied.

When we practice with akaram it is better to replace ‘a’ with ‘h’ and practice haharam. This will enable us to reach the lower shadjamam easily.
Initially sarali is to be practiced with haharam. H works in a tremendous way in voice production. When akaram is applied it presses the larynx in the vocal chord and the voice becomes artificial. It may reduce the range also later on. When the voice gets the position, then akaram can be applied.
The position of the head should be at normal level even while singing in tara sthayi. If lifted up the larynx gets pressed and enough air will not be supplied to the voice.
While practicing any swara it should be plain, in a tight string like pattern without vibrations. This will help, later in applying vibrations and landing smoothly in classical music.

Yoga is for general health, wherein the mechanism is very easy with respect to Pranayama, meaning control and organized movement of breath. The spoken voice and tonal quality in singing gets improved by regularly practicing yoga (pranayama)

Three types of pranayamas can be practiced for 1 to 1.5 hours daily as a special exercise for the improvement of voice.
The vocal chord is a delicate instrument and hence any exercise/yoga is to be done under the supervision of a guru.

Kapalapathi: Imagine a lamp is kept in front. From nabhi pressing the billow apply force and try to put off the lamp. Repeat this for a specific number of counts. This clears the lungs.
Nadi Shodana: This is alternate breathing. There are two nadis; one is Ida, the left (female) and the other Pingala, the right (male). Inhale with your left nostrils, retain that counting upto 6, and then exhale counting 12 from right nostril. Now inhale through right, retain till 6 counts and exhale through left counting 6. Repeat this until there is balance in the exhaling. The effect of this is the mind will be steady with no stress. Both nostrils will be cleared without block enabling the music to flow out smoothly.
Bhastika: This is abrupt blowing of air throw nostrils and repeated fastly. This clears nasal passage and sinus. The area around the nose is purified and the resonating system is kept activated. Anyone can practice without nasal sound or with 10% nasal or with 50% nasal. With ‘OM’ also this can be practiced. The voice starts from vocal chord passes through various resonating system and comes out with sweetness and melody.

For improvement of voice one sarali a day repeated, will be enough. The next day the next sarali to be practiced.
For a steady pitch one should practice from lower panchamam to the higher panchamam. If 5 is the normal pitch one should start from 4.5, go to 5, then to 5.5.
This way one can sing confidently at the 5 pitch.

3. Role of Varnam in Voice Training by Smt. Sumathi Krishnan – Sri Parthasarathy Swami Sabha at Vidya Bharathy on 30.12.08.

We get to know different patterns from singing varnams like the following: 1. Hamsadwani varnam Pagavari, 2.Kanada varnam ‘Nera nammithinaiah’- anupallavi‘maruni kanna sri’and 3. Suruti varnam ‘entha premathone’- the swarams ‘panthamela jesevu e vela’
These give different patterns and modulations. The regular practice trains the voice in these aspects.
In certain ragas the pattern is woven around one swaram like in Goula varnam ‘chelimi kori vachi’ is around Rishabam which is the prime note. Similarly in the Saveri varnam ‘sogasuga’ again rishabam is the important note, close to Shadjam, which has got not only range but combination of swaras too.
In Pallavi Gopala Iyer’s ata thala varnam ‘intha chalamu’ the karvai gets shifted from ‘pa’ to ‘dha’ and also to ‘sa’. Here ‘pa dha dha sa’, ‘sa pa dha dha sa’ ‘pa dhaa dha sa’are beautifully chiseled.
To get good range, it should be practiced from lower pa to higher pa wherein numerous combinations can be achieved.
Varnam Patterns work very beautifully on voice training and also lead to manodarma singing. These patterns when practiced with akaras will be good for voice training

Some varnams like ‘Swami’ in Hamsadwani and Kannada ragas give knowledge about swarasthanas and varjyaprayoham in ragas.

Varnams are combinations of Jhanta varisai and Dhattu varisai, so very useful for voice training.
There are two types of varnams, namely Pada varnam and Thana varnam. Pada varnams are mainly meant for dance performances, whileThana varnams improve the voice texture and pattern.

Shanmukhapriya Thana varnam is produced here as video clip (the image quality is not very good) which can be enjoyed as to how the practice of varnam helps in singing RTP.

Finally madam Sumathy concluded her lecture by a verse in Sanskrit which said ‘have unexhausted control over the voice which does not tire easily, explore mature and correct phrases of ragas and learn from great learned guru’.

Madam Sumathy with her clear and authentic voice demonstrated every single aspect, with the singing of that particular segment of the varnam.

I once again reiterate that these lectures are made available free by Sabhas during December season but it is not reaching the target audience who will carry forward these treasures.

I have given only a small piece of the lectures in the perspective of a rasika and not as a singer or student of music.

I wish one and all a very happy Ugadi.