Syama Sastry decoded

Lalitha Chandrasekhar’s scholarly lecture-demonstration on the life and works of Syama Sastry marked the vardhanti of the vaggeyakara.

Syama

An informative and analytical lecture-demonstration by senior vocalist Pisipati V Lalitha Chandrasekhar on the life and works of Syama Sastry marked his vardhanti observance at Kalabharati Visakhapatnam. Lalitha detailed various aspects of Syama Sastry’s life and works and his predominant place in the firmament of Carnatic music. Soft spoken Lalitha underscored each of her observations with relevant and apt accounts of its times and later day works of eminence on this subject. The merit of her elucidation lay in the fact that it remained a thorough analytical presentation of Syama Sastry’s musical craft which does not find enough emphasis in regular music classes. However, nowhere did her presentation sound didactic or pedantic. Unlike usual lecture-demonstrations where a few chosen compositions of the composer of the session get rendered with a sprinkle of biographical snippets, she chose to present an array of compositions detailing the background of its origin and its significance; explaining intricate and varied dimensions of musical and lyrical technicalities involved in the compositions of Syama Sastry.

She also made fleeting references to biographical details of Shyama Sastry, and proceeded to focus on the inimitable craft of ingenuity in his works. In this endeavour, she rendered chosen pieces in different ways, some in parts, some just pallavis and some other to full extent.

She commenced with the composition ‘

Janani natha jana paalini ’ in raga Saveri, with an accent on the swarajathis of Shyama Sastry and elaborated the intricacies involved in swarajathi of Bhairavi raga and raga Yedukula Kambhoji. She delineated the different tala patterns or structures of cadence in Syama Sastry’s compositions at length particularly the cycle of misra chaapu and its reverse order or viloma chaapu and charms of other cycles of talas or rhythm in his works that lend a distinct touch to his compositions. She presented different krithis to represent varied techniques involved in the compositions. Her choice included ‘

Ninuvina ’ in Purvikalyani varnam in raga Sourashtra, ‘

Devi neepada ’ in raga Kambhoji, ‘

Sankari Sankuru’ in Saveri, ‘

Birana varalichi’ in Kalyani, ‘

Kaamakshi naato’ in raga Begada, ‘

Parakela’ in Kedaragoula, ‘

Sarojadalanetri’ in Sankarabharanam, a composition in Anandabhairavi with Nedunuri’s chittaswaram and ‘

Parvathi ninu’ in raga Kalagada etc.

H Ramcharan on violin, Dhanwada Dharmarao on mridangam and G Venkatesh on morsing lent competent support. Thyagaraja Aaradhana Trust hosted the event.