Articles related to Tyagaraja Aradhana

[RR]

Couple of articles from today's 'The Hindu'.

Images of stunning grace
http://www.hindu.com/fr/2005/01/28/stories/2005012800310300.htm

How the saint worshipped Rama
http://www.hindu.com/fr/2005/01/28/stories/2005012800320300.htm
(has a pic of the idol of Saint Tyagaraja at the Tiruvaiyaru temple)

[RR]

"WHAT WAS the first kriti composed by Tyagaraja? Which episode of the Ramayana did Tyagaraja touch upon in his composition "Srirama Padama" in raga Amrita Vahini?" The Multimedia Quiz at the four-day Tyagaraja Aradhana celebrations organised by Carnatica (run by S. Sowmya and Shashikiran) at the Narada Gana Sabha recently had several in the audience bubbling with enthusiasm to tackle these interesting questions.......

http://www.hindu.com/fr/2005/02/04/stories/2005020402410400.htm

[Sudhaama]

Thyagaraja-Keerthanaas

Dear Musical-Friends,

Why Thyagaraja Keerthanaas are the...... most popular .... in TAMIL-NADU ....?

... even though they are mostly in Telugu excepting some in Sanskrit ....

... such that either most of the Singers' choice as well as the Most of the ardent Rasika's choice too ...

... is the Thyagaraja-Keerthanaas... even though majority of them do not know Telugu nor know the meaning ....

... Telugu ... an alien Language... although the Neighbour... for Tamilians?

Please put forth your Views..... I will answer this INTERESTING Question after hearing your Views.

[viggop]

Tamil people like to enjoy carnatic music.

They like keerthanas in Tamil,Sanskrit,Telugu,Malayalam,Kannada,Marathi abhangs,Hindi Bhajans etc
:-)

[RR]

Sudhaama,
Our own Bharathi has said 'sundara theluginil paattisaththu', right? :) It's a sweet language, but I think the carnatic purists are taking it too far by saying like only the trinity's compositions (well essentially) should be sung and others like tamil compositions are not worthy..

[viggop]

RR
In concerts these days, people sing songs from all languages.How well they bring forth the raaga's beauty is what is important,in my humble opinion.

[RR]

vig,
I see what you mean, but IMO saahitya is also important. By knowing the meaning, I can appreciate the music several orders more. Will be good if artists can help rasikas enjoy more in this aspect.
It's also sad to note some stalwarts emphasize the raga but butcher the sahitya sometimes: e.g.

Manasuloni maa...
rmumamulu thelusukko..

[viggop]

RR
The pronunciations sometimes go haywire when you sing in other languages.Even some top artistes have trouble bringing in the proper pronunciation to words.

If I like a song very much,i try to find out the word for word meaning of it.Lot of sites in the Net which give you this.But,sometimes, I enjoy songs just like that even if I dont understand anything!!!
Carnatic music has that power,doesn't it?

[rshankar]

Hi,
I have been following this thread with interest. I am a madrasi (but am not really comfortable speaking tamizh - if I were to be totally honest, I would have to claim English as my mother tongue, since the it is the language of my dreams!). However, moving all over India with my parents and then on my own, I have become comfortable with Telugu, Kannada, Malayalam, Hindi and Punjabi. And I learnt sansksit in school, and can follow contexual meanings reasonably well. I grew up in a house where there was some carnAtic music on all the time, and it really did not make much difference to me, one way or another, until I heard MS Subbulaxmi sing 'nArayaNa divya nAmam' of P. Sivam. Once I was able to follow the words and their meanings, I felt goosebumps all over, and having baited me successfully, she just reeled me in. I have been a lifelong rasika of carnAtic music since then! But the words make a world of difference. I just cannot appreciate just the musicality of the song being rendered (which is probably why I can't really appreciate hindustAni vocal concerts), if the words are not split and enunciated appropriately. I cannot appreciate a song even if it is very musical, if the words sound like 'appalAm, vadAm porithEn' (I got that from an excerpt of one of Subbudu's reviews!). I hate it when 'appA! rAma bhakti yentO gopparA' becomes 'abarAma bkakti..'! For years, I thought that splitting 'pArvatiparamEshwaram' as pArvatipa + ramEshwaram sucked, but recently, I discovered that pArvatipa = pArvati patI (shivA) and ramEshwaram of course refers to vishNU. But despite my limitations with tamizh (I can't read or write in the language), it still remains the language that most appeals to me: for example when MS sings 'pUraNan, thirumagaL maNavALan, pArkadalil aravaNai thuyil varadhan, punidha garuda vAhanan, mArajanakan, karuNAlayan, anbar thunbam agala mangaLam aruLvAn' my heart sings along and soars to unimaginable heights! My one pet peeve is that madrAsi singers do not pronounce Hindi or sanskrit words appropriately. One example is 'brahma' is often pronounced 'BHrahma', while 'BhAgya' becomes 'bAgya'! While MS was great with this, of the current singers, I think that Gayatri Girish's pronunciation is the best in all languages (and maybe, just maybe, Kendriya Vidyalaya, her/my alma mater, can take some credit for this!).
Ravi