Quiz competition on carnatic music, followed by a vocal concert by Saketharaman, marked the 10th anniversary celebrations of Sri Guruguha Gana Saba, organised at Sri Raghavendra Mutt in Srirangam on Sunday.
About 100 questions on different aspects of Carnatic music and the great composers were posed to test the knowledge of the participants by the quiz master G.Girish of Agasthiar Publications.
At the end of each question, a brief on the ‘ragam' or the ‘kruthi’ or the ‘composer’ was presented to the participants with a view to improve their knowledge.
Audience were also given adequate opportunity to share their knowledge on music. An audio-round also formed part of the quiz competition. The questions were simple but thought-provoking. Winners and participants were given certificates.
Then followed the music concert by Saketharaman, who started with the piece Sri Ranganathude (Sowrashtram), by Ponniah Pillai. After a brief raga delineation, the Thyagaraja kruthi ‘Joodamu rare’ (Arabi) was rendered. Brindavana Saranga was the next raga chosen, in which, after an elaborate alapana, the evergreen piece of Muthuswami Dikshadar, ‘Sri Rangapoora vihara’ was rendered with bhakthi bhavam. Raja Gururajachar’s ‘Tunga teeravirajam’ in Salagabhairavi followed suit. Thodi was the main item of the concert.
The vocalist after an elaborate raga alapana, bringing out all the nuances of the raga, took up the kruthi ‘raju vedala’. The tani avartanam that followed gave enough opportunity to Vijayaraghavan (mridangam) and Rajaganesh (ganjira) to showcase their talent.
The artiste took up ‘dayamado ranga’, a Dasar piece, and ‘Mara vairi ramani’, a Nasikabooshani piece of Thyagarajar, and gave a memorable presentation. The able support extended by Tiruvanathapuram N.Sampath on the violin greatly enriched the concert.
