At the two-day National Conference held recently at the Infosys Hall, Mudhra had organised hour-long lec-dems. Dr. S.A.K. Durga, who was the co-chairperson along with Dr.Sriram Parasuram, delivered the keynote address.
Dr. R. S. Jayalakshmi spoke on varnams and their significance, while Seetha Rajan covered kritis in Carnatic Music. Dr. Sriram Parasuram talked of the greatness of Hindustani and Carnatic. “Never pit one against the other, or call one greater than the other,” he underlined. Rhythm and their classifications, was the topic Tiruchi Sankaran talked on.
In concerts, manodharma unfolds in the form of alapana, niraval, and kalpanaswaras. These were dwelt upon at length by O.S. Thiagarajan (OST), Suguna Purushothaman and T. S. Sathyavathi.
“Each aspect of Carnatic Music is an ocean by itself,” said OST. OST was ably supported on the violin by V.Sanjeev.
Said Suguna Purushothaman: “My Guru Musiri should be remembered now and here, for making me understand the real meaning of the word niraval.” The lyrics belong to the composers and “we are adding our imagination to them. But nothing in niraval singing should seem ordinary,” she cautioned.
For T. S. Sathyavathi, who talked of kalpanaswaras, kalpana became the key word. “Imagination should rule. Do not worry about closing,” she stressed repeatedly taking a liberal stand on this contentious issue. “Swaras should be sung felicitously and with ease. Mugging up cannot be tolerated.”
Each session culminated in comments from the chairpersons. Dr. Radha Bhaskar (co-chairperson) was the coordinator of the event.
COMMENT The lec-dems presented at a recent conference on music had veterans throwing light on salient features of classical singing.
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