Manodharma: Lecture - Demonstrations by Sri Aleppy Venkatesan

By Sudarshan Narasimhan

Sri Aleppy Venkatesan conducted a lecture demonstration on Manodharma sangeetha with a focus on neraval and swaram singing on 7th and 8th February this year. He started humbly by saying that his sharing is from his own experiences and should not override what the gurus of SIFAS have taught their students for the past years and months. The demonstration shed light on many aspects and considerations to be taken into, when attempting neravals and swarams.

Firstly he emphasized the importance that musicians must give to music, above all else as compared to poets and bhajan artistes to whom, the lyrics are of paramount importance. This is not to say that musicians do not have to heed the lyrics of the compositions they sing, but rather the lyrical value of the compositions should not take precedence over the musical aspect of the krithis, since that would make carnatic musicians no different from bhajan artistes and poets. 

He started off the concept of neraval by asking a question which was simple, but of paramount importance. That is why is neraval sung? What is the purpose? The question is indeed a very just one, since to me the idea of an artiste singing a neraval just to show that, he/she can sing a neraval in that line, is largely unappealing. And the answer to the question, was a short one but which was packed with information: “The purpose of neraval is to enhance the aesthetic beauty of the composition”. From that I gathered that a neraval cannot just be an independent part of a composition but rather should serve to enhance the overall beauty of the rendition. Thus the neraval should be sung bearing the aesthetic nature of the krithi in mind and not as a display of technical skill that the line can be used to perform a neraval. Bearing the aesthetics of krithis in mind, he also questioned whether neraval should be sung for krithis which are so beautiful that just singing the krithi well, does justice and almost any attempts at a neraval falls short of enhancing the beauty of the krithi. One shining example of such a krithi is Shyama Shastri’s Swarajathi’s in Yadukula Kambodhi, which is a personification of the ragam itself. In addition to krithis, he also emphasized the choice of ragams in which neraval should be rendered. He advised against rendering neravals in ragams such as Ahiri and Neelambari since their raga lakshanam and beauty comes from their long sweeping phrases which would make it unsuitable for rendering neravals especially in the 2^nd kaalam. Such information is indeed very beneficial to students of carnatic music who are attempting neravals as they need to understand the context which makes a neraval have the greatest impact upon the audience before attempting to sing neravals and not just blindly choose a line.

With regards to swarams, he gave a very good piece of advice for beginning students when he talked about fixing a finishing phrase and always ending the swarams with that finishing phrase. As with neravals, he discouraged the use of employing too much mathematical acrobatics especially at the expense of aesthetics which I found, was becoming an increasingly common trend nowadays. Note again, that this does not mean, mathematical virtuosity should not be exhibited, but rather it should not be the focus of singing swarams especially when it comes at the expense of the aesthetics of the ragam and becomes more of a technical showcase.

After breaking for lunch, the topic of discussion for the afternoon was that of concert planning. His Guru, Sangeetha Kalanidhi Sri Ariyakudi Ramanuja Iyengar, is almost synonymous with the concept of concert planning since his hallmark as a performer was his uncanny ability to eschew even the briefest moments of boredom in his concerts. Sri Aleppy Venkatesan explored and crystallized many of the ideas at great length as to what exactly made Ariyakudi’s concerts refreshing from start to end.  He highlighted the importance to start off the concert with a piece that the audience were very familiar with and this is the artistes attempt to reach out to the audience. For this reason most of Ariyakudi’s concerts began with very well known pieces such as Ninnukori, Era Napai, and Nera Nammithi which delighted the audiences since it was a piece they could easily appreciate. This also served the purpose of warming up the artistes voice for more elaborate renditions later on in the concert. 

This was usually followed by renditions of a couple of smaller krithis which served to set the concert tempo ticking. Care must be taken to ensure there is sufficient varieties in thalam, composer as well as kaala pramanam and even the language of krithis. By now the mood of the concert has been established, and it sets the platform for a nice slow chowka kaala krithi or a fairly elaborate alapana as the sub-main of the concert. 

Many other interesting ideas came forth in the planning of concerts, the most notable being the vanishing of the “gaayaka” style of Thodi in preference of the “nayana” style. The “gaayaka” style of Thodi is sung while imbibing the most traditional aspects of Thodi which is the oscillating of the Gandhara and Nishadas and the avoidance of singing these notes plainly for any significant duration. His own opinion was that this Thodi is the genuine Thodi since it was in the works of the trinity who are the ultimate authority for Carnatic Music. While he leaned towards this Thodi as a personal preference, he was not absolutist in that he did not condemn the Naayana Thodi (Thodi played by Nadaswaram artistes, starting from T.N Rajarathnam Pillai, which involves more varjai phrases and plain handling of notes for extended durations) but rather thought that since the krithis of the trinities were so steeped in the “Gaayaka” style of Thodi, it is only appropriate that alapanas should lean more towards the Gaayaka style of singing Thodi. He felt the “Naayana” Thodi could well be sung in RTPs where the singer was free to explore the ragam with lesser restrictions. It was heartening to note that while he may have had a personal preference for how Thodi should be sung, he was open to accepting other ways of singing Thodi and incorporating it into the concert platform. 

Overall it was a very fruitful discussion, with moderate and open views which are rarer amongst senior musicians who may be more devoted in championing their own style of music. Throughout the discussion, I was awed by his vast knowledge of music and his extensive repertoire which he used as examples to demonstrate his points. 

Sudharshan is an alumnus of SIFAS. He has received the titles of 'Sangeetha Visharad' as well as 'Vadhya Visharad' from the academy and performs regularly as a soloist and accompanist.