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Stalwarts all: Padma Murthy

The morning lecture-demonstration sessions of the conference session of the Music Academy had an auspicious beginning with a rendition of Nauka Charitram songs of Tyagaraja by the students of the music department of the Madras University.

At the suggestion of this year’s Sangita Kalanidhi elect, Vidwan Palghat Raghu, each day is dedicated to the memory of yester year stalwarts who could not be felicitated during their life time by the Academy.

The first day was dedicated to the memory of the violin maestro R.K.Venkatarama Sastry, whose centenary is being celebrated this year.

The first lecture demonstration on ‘Rare compositions of Mysore Vasudevacharya’ was presented by Padma Murthy, formerly Head of the Department of Music at Mysore University and a member of the Advisory Committee of the Music Academy.

Vasudevacharya composed mostly in Telugu, a few in Sanskrit and only one in Kannada. About 140 of his compositions have been published with notations provided by him and the second volume with the rest of his compositions is being published. There are many in rare ragas and talas like “Daasarathe pahimam” in Bilahari, trisra triputa, “Mahatmule” in Rishabhapriya, “Ninne Saranantinayya” in Dhenuka, etc. His compositions flow with bhava and lyrical beauty and are embedded with dhatu swara prayogas, chitta swaras and sangatis.

Padma presented six of his kritis — in Vasanta, Purivi Kalyani, Pushpalatika, Simhendramadhyamam, Sankarabharanam and Subhapantu Varali and a varnam in Nalinakanti, a Javali in Kaanada and a Tillana in Charukesi.

Vasudevacharya composed the Sankarabharanam ‘nannu brochutakevarunnaru’ in response to a challenge by the Mysore Maharaja to compose a lyric on the lines of the western band tune played on the last day of the Dasara procession. The Charukesi Tillana was composed by him when he was at Kalakshetra.

The lecture demonstration was almost like a performance with very little spoken about Vasudevacharya, or the lyrical structure or the musical nuances of his compositions. V.V.Srivatsa, T.K.Govinda Rao and the president of the morning sessions, Vidwan Palghat Raghu offered supplements to the lecture and compliments to the singer.

The second day was dedicated to the memory of one of the foremost percussionists of his times, Thanjavur Vaidyanatha Iyer (1896-1948).

The morning sessions began with rendering of Annamacharya compositions by T.V.Meenalochani, a descendent of the saint composer and her group.

Vinayachandran and his group

J. Venkataraman presented an intricate lecture demonstration on ‘Nadai Pallavi.’ The raga chosen was Nalinakanti and the pallavi was structured in Trisra triputa, Misra nadai (14 syllables per countx7) having 98 syllables. The first half (poorvangam) had a 56 syllable rhythmic structure and the second half (uttarangam) 42 syllables and in itsorganisation units of 4 syllabic extension, 3, 7, 5 and 9 figured.

Venkataraman gave a very elaborate mathematical explanation at every step and demonstrated the pallavi with all possible permutations and combinations in the swara singing session. He was ably assisted by Pradeep Kumar with vocal support, T. Rukmini on the voilin and R. Ramesh on the mridangam. The whole exercise no doubt made a very interesting presentation reflecting the extraordinary creativity, mastery of rhythm and technical craftsmanship of Venkataraman. But somewhere along the line one feels it comprised more of gymnastics and less aesthetics.

Vidushi R. Vedavalli and vidwan T.V.Gopalakrishnan offered compliments on the extraordinary technical mastery of Venkataraman in the presentation of Pallavi. Palghat Raghu stressed the predominant place of laya in the Carnatic music and how pallavi singing reflects this feature.

The sessions on the third day were dedicated to Turaiyur Rajagopala Sharma, composer, musician and musicologist who enriched the fields of both music and dance with his many contributions.

Photos: V. Ganesan.

J. Venkatraman.

Nadananda Sangeeta Vidyalaya presented compositions of Arunachala kavi in the very first slot in the morning where devotional songs are presented.

Natanabhushanam Nanthencode Vinayachandran presented a lecture demonstration on ‘Kerala Natanam.’

In his introduction to the lecture demonstration, V.P.Dhananjayan said Kerala Natanam conceptualised by Guru Gopinath is an amalgamation of Kathakali, Bharatanatyam and Mohiniyattom. It is Kathakali sans the aharya. Guru Gopinath’s centenary is being celebrated this year and he commended The Music Academy for providing an opportunity to present Kerala Natanam a befitting memory to him.

First, three students demonstrated moola mudras, samyuta hastas and samana mudras most of which are from the Hasta Lakshana Deepika. Then there was a nritta, pure dance piece known as swaragati in their terminology. It was followed by panthaattam, a sequence from Ramayana depicting Sita Swayamvaram in raga tala malika.

Vinayachandran himself presented an ekaanka abhinaya showing the episode where Krishna gets killed by the arrow of a hunter.

The presentation concluded with a sloka, abhinayam, presenting the nava rasas and a Kalaasa nruttam which is equivalent to tillana in the dance parlance.

Natya Sastra speaks of numerous facial movements which are practised mainly in dance forms of Kerala. ‘Kerala Natanam’ adheres to all the salient features of the rich Kerala dance traditions and adopts some modernity to bring it closer to the changing aesthetic sensibilities of the connoisseurs. It was, as pointed out in the very introduction by Dhananjayan, mostly a performance not as much a lecture demonstration.

Vinayachandran was ably assisted by three of his disciples, Smriti, Meera and Sridevi in the demonstration and by singer Rajan Vilappil apart from a very efficient group of musicians on the violin, mridangam, chenda, and edakka.

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