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 2nd 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.
