Haunting Arabhi

Rāga related discussions
bhakthim dehi
Posts: 539
Joined: 24 Feb 2014, 21:28

Re: Haunting Arabhi

Post by bhakthim dehi »

whereas the 15 type of gamikas like kampita, kurula etc can be seen in the earlier texts like Chaturdandiprakashika, I really dont know the source for these 10 gamakas (I guess you refer to the gamakas mentioned by Prof Sambamurthy). Few gamakas in the 10 list can also be seen in the 15 list. Majority of the books published in the last century followed only these 10. Nevertheless, they do not describe the gamakas as it is used now.

Not only kampita was used sparsely as you have mentioned, the deflection of a particular svara itself varies. Both the 15 and 10 list says kampita is to be used in its own position (svasthana); it cannot extend to its adjacent swarasthanam. Texts like Chaturdandiprakashika gives a variant of kampitam like andolam which can extend to the adjacent swarasthanam. But, the 10 list does not make any reference to this.

When we go by the definition, gamakam is movement of a note, how can we apply that to the application of swaram (s) in between the notes ? By the latter technique, two things happen :
1. space between the phrases get reduced and we always hear the melody; beauty of silence or pause is lost and
2. colour of an individual note becomes mute. We hear the phrase as a whole. We equally or even more commonly touch the tones above and below a svaram than its actual position itself. So, svarasthana is not touched , rather a svara range is. I feel we experience or denote this as minor positions or shruthi sthanas. I dont think this was recommended or used in the past. I feel Baroque versions can be enjoyed only if we fix these points in our mind.

Subbarama Deekshitar says about shruti sthanas too. He says these cannot be grasped easily like swarasthanas and can be heard in a composition due to an interaction between the phrases. what he means here is, say in a ragam, the position of ga in grs might not be the same as we hear it in sgrs. This can be applied in today's practise too. But this should not be confused with the gamakas (?) that we give in between the swaras and theerby not touching its sthana.

Gathering these points, I feel the notations for gamakam in Pradarshini will be much closer to the original tune. It is understandable that he should denote with a sign, representing a gamaka, only for a particular note; he need not fill in the spaces.

Also, when these spaces are filled with a gamakam (?), it is not uniform too. How can our art which tries to be scientific would have allowed this ?

Any thoughts in this regard is appreciated.

SrinathK
Posts: 2477
Joined: 13 Jan 2013, 16:10

Re: Haunting Arabhi

Post by SrinathK »

I don't know about SSP's idea of shrutis - we've done the whole discussion to exhaustion on numerous threads here, and at one point it becomes clear that a lot of people who used this term since antiquity had no idea what it really meant or how it was used - the actual mathematical and harmonic solution was not known for long beyond Bharata's time. They even mixed it up with more modern music concepts. And today's frequency analysis has shown that no one uses it anymore - we have the usual natural notes for plain kaarvais and then everything else is moving.

If there had to be a music based on shrutis, it would have to be instrument aided and totally devoid of anything but the basic ornamentation. Ragas would only be based on combinations of notes forming phrases. Gamaka would be like salt in solid food. Or only as patterns of notes. This concept must have carried over long after the concept of shrutis had reduced from 22 to 12 swarasthanas and gamakas had appeared. I really doubt whether Marga music ever used gamakas at all, the first mention of the word comes from dEsiya music. Marga probably used plain notes and absolute pitch in some form (moorchana and grama system).

It was dEsi music that made Sa as the tonic note. Such things have happened in music all over the world, not just in Indian music. Today's music is almost entirely dEsi.

Trouble is, music is not all left brained (or right pingala nADi) - there's also a right brain (or left iDa nADi) in it. Over time, Carnatic music has reached that point where swaras have begun to melt down into more liquid phrases, freezing only strategically or on extended notes

But I agree that in those days they looked at ragas and gamakas in a very different way from what we do now. There's enough of a difference to warrant a baroque music niche now.

Coming back to Arabhi, at least this hasn't really changed much at all between Thyagaraja and Dikshitar's shishya paramparas, or in the nature of the raga itself.
Last edited by SrinathK on 09 Feb 2019, 20:22, edited 1 time in total.

bhakthim dehi
Posts: 539
Joined: 24 Feb 2014, 21:28

Re: Haunting Arabhi

Post by bhakthim dehi »

Arabhi has not changed much excluding an occasional occurrence of DNS phrase.

SrinathK
Posts: 2477
Joined: 13 Jan 2013, 16:10

Re: Haunting Arabhi

Post by SrinathK »

A question, if you do have access to the archive of OVK's manuscripts, could we see if Dr. T R Aravindhan can get an "original tunes" rendition of OVK's compositions down the road?

bhakthim dehi
Posts: 539
Joined: 24 Feb 2014, 21:28

Re: Haunting Arabhi

Post by bhakthim dehi »

Mortals like us have no control over this. If OVK wishes his original tunes to come out, it will happen :)

ajaysimha
Posts: 831
Joined: 19 Apr 2018, 18:16

Re: Haunting Arabhi

Post by ajaysimha »

many of venkatakavi's manuscrips got lost / burnt due to ignorance on music and superstitious beliefs.
rest of which was available was copied to note book from manuscripts by needamangalam krishnamurthy bhagavathar.
the rest of the compositions have survived in oral traditions among bhagavathars students(which might have changed its originality).
the notations from bhagavathars book is available as
lyrics and notations
3 books titled Sri Krishna Ganam (vols 1 -3) and Navanarana Kirtanas
only lyrics
3 books titled Rasa Ganam (vols 1-3)

SrinathK
Posts: 2477
Joined: 13 Jan 2013, 16:10

Re: Haunting Arabhi

Post by SrinathK »


ajaysimha
Posts: 831
Joined: 19 Apr 2018, 18:16

Re: Haunting Arabhi

Post by ajaysimha »

Can anyone suggest songs in arabhi ragam that has more of the higher octave swaras/ sancharams

shankarank
Posts: 4043
Joined: 15 Jun 2009, 07:16

Re: Haunting Arabhi

Post by shankarank »

http://www.sangeethamshare.org/sunil/gu ... o/krithis/ - search by string : akhila

Here is youtube version : https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZKfwknHXiyA

- Smt. Ambujam vEdAntam - Guru of Sri Venkat Nagarajan??

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