Sangita Kalanidhi 2025

[shankarank]

Some my comments is not in response to your posting. But to the content of the lecture itself. Apologies if that was not clear.

So much narrative is being built on this one book, almost in accusatory tone against previous generation of musicians, not by RKSK , but by few others! Hence thought I should respond!

[sam]

I came across this nice article from sangeetham.com., on sankarabharanam.
I was wondering if composers prior to ShyamaSaastry had used this ragam. Could not get that info.
SS seems to have been a pioneer. with 3 classics.
Thyaagaraaja has given us 29 kruthis.
MD has given 8 kruthis. And ofcourse nottuswara saahithyams.

shankarabharanam.pdf
Sivakumar.orgQuoting article from sangeetham.com

Very detailed article. Will be of interest to
@shankarank sir.
---
It is a lengthy article. Here is an excerpt only.
--
As usual with great ragas, the Tiruvarur Trinity has produced masterpieces in this raga too.
Shyama Sastri's sarOjadaLa nEtri and the rare dEvi mina nEtri, the former in madhyamakAla and the latter in caukakAla provide ample testimony to the inimitable craftsmanship of this great composer. ....

Versatility marks the eternal quality of the compositions of Tyagaraja. shankarAbharaNam is no different. The bard has gifted the world with about 20 songs, all different in melodic structure and individuality, each outlining a different aspect of the rAga. The very popular enduku pEddhala, the philosophically advaitic and musically sublime manasu svAdhInamai, the cauka kAla masterpiece Emi nEramu, the evergreen swararAga sudhA rasa which expounds the great purpose of music,bhakti bhikshamiyyavE wherein the bard pleads to Rama to grant him devotion as alms and
budhirAdu, wherein the saint moans the silly and stupid ways of the world and mariyAda gAdurA -
all these kritis have only shankarAbharaNAm in common, but, what the poetry speaks of, the music underlying each of the pieces conveys in tone and with ultimate perfection, thereby rendering each of those compositions unique in raga bhAva. Who else but the Sage of Tiruvaiyyaru could achieve such excellence in the world of tonal art? With the infinite musical
possibilities of shankarAbharaNam, is it any wonder that the great Tyagaraja has coaxed the raga to yield all kinds of rasas? His other compositions include eduTa nilicitE, endukI calamu, ramA
ramaNa and many others. He has also composed a number of divyanAma kIrtanas in shankarAbharaNam, of which the brisk ones like gatamOhA srita pAla and varalIlagAna lOla are akin to the western notes.
-
Muttuswami Dikshitar's popular akshayalinga vibhO has the same dhAtu as Tyagaraja's manasu swAdhInami in the pallavi. If the prosodic beauty in the anupallavi blends perfectly and is stunningly beautiful musically, it is due in no small measure to the great scope that the rAga possesses as to the limitless creativity of Dikshitar. His dakshiNAmUrtE in jhampa tALa is another
masterpiece that testifies to his genius and wherein the music itself reveals in subliminal tone, the truth of Silence as exemplified by Lord Dakshinamurti Himself. Such is the soulful quality of the song. girijaya ajaya and sadAshivam upAsmahE bring out the highly creative Dikshitar. In these
two songs, he has explored certain rare combinations spanning the three octaves. All said and done, his navAvaraNA kriti in shankarAbharaNam is a class by itself. What better way to invoke the Goddess than to just sing the pallavi lines of this masterpiece? The elevating quality of the
riShabha of shankarAbharaNAm is utilized to create the effect and the presence of the Shrine itself. Dikshitar's nOTTuswara songs, numbering around 40 are all based on shankarAbharaNam and correspond to western tunes.

[shankarank]

That was an article by Sanjay himself. I have read it in the original site.

From that article in pdf:

Unlike kalyANi, niShAda is generally treated as a
passing note here, but its role is more significant as an anusvara, rather than as a whole svara. It
is common to hear ShaDja varjya and pancama varjya prayOgas both in the ascent and descent
of kalyANi, which is the prati madhyama counterpart of shankarAbharaNam.

Classic semi tone suppression in action! Reason, Muddu Venkatamakhin rejected Kalyani as an import from North! That semitone could not be suppressed , hence they use Varjya prayagas in KalyANi to provide ranjakatvam.

A semitone dominant kalyANi can be heard only from Dr. BMK or his followers. With light music ears, we all went gaga over it.

An azhuttam kalyANi will almost use varALi madyamam with M2 becoming a passing note again.

Instead of meandering with an assortment of facts, we should get to the philosophy or essence of the matter.

bEgaDa became classified under SankarabharaNam, precisely because of semitone distance handling by eschewing N2 on ascent and stretching it upwards on descent. There is no HarikAmbodhi - azhuduvadiyal in bEgaDa where the D2-N2 is in trisangu state in nowhere land in HarikAmbodhi.

One chaya svara N3 alpa prayoga, clinches the deal in favor of SankarAbharaNam.

It is not the phrase or gamaka that needs tracked. It is reasonance stupid, when it comes to rAgAs.

[sam]

I understand that both sankarabharanam and kalyani are parent scales in govindacharya mk scheme. Sankarabharanam uses m1 and kalyani uses m2.
..so even without all these technicalities, a listener can easily differentiate the two.
Typical sankarabaranam is sarojadhaLa Nethri.
https://youtu.be/zi_K-aAkRGk?si=FHc2Zvx_WuEZo9du

Typical kalyaNi is
Watch "Kalyani Raga Alapana by MS Subbulakshmi" on YouTube
Nidhi Chala Sukama MS Subbulakshmi

https://youtu.be/v3Nfs4BB398?si=VGbF2FDr-_vv_84F.
.
https://youtube.com/watch?v=X6H873OVcNg&feature=shared

[sam]

"MS Amma and her music -
A Tribute by
R K Shriramkumar & team".

https://youtu.be/Yg6qOAGBiDw?si=Z_q9rUO1KtJbVrkm.
..
A most wonderful and heartfelt tribute to MS Amma and her music by Shri R K Shriramkumar, Amritha Murali, Bharathi Ramasubban and Aishwarya Vidhya Raghunath. .

This enlightening session recorded in Sep 2020 covers the incredible expanse of MS Amma's Music with keen observations and deep insights.

As R K Shriramkumar wrote
" Smt M S Subbulakshmi’s presence, contribution and impact in society and the musical arena of our country in particular, stands unparalleled. The realm of Carnatic music has seen many a great musician. However, with the advent of Amma, as she was addressed, with reverential fondness, it crowned itself with a glory of becoming global. Amma dedicated her life and soul to the cause of preserving, propagating and promoting this beautiful art form in all its splendor. Having grown up with Amma’s music all my life, to have been associated with her, to have been fortunate to learn so much from her, to have shared many a concert platform with her and to have been a beneficiary of her unconditional affection and care – words miserably fail to express the feeling of gratitude, happiness and honour as I recount these golden memories"
Sangeethapriya.org has more than 100 concerts of Smt M S Subbulakshmi


Highlights :
00:00:00​ Introduction
00:02:35​ Om Namah Pranavarthaya
00:04:12​ Insights - Practice Methodology and Akaara Practice (multiple speeds)
00:18:06​ Anecdotes - Learning from Smt Siddheswari Devi
00:20:19​ Insights - Approach to compositional forms
00:23:56​ Viribhoni Varnam (second speed) and insights
00:30:15​ Insights - Expanse of MS Repertoire
00:36:21​ O Ranga Sayee Anupallavi Sangatis and insights
00:40:59​ Dharini Sangatis and insights
00:44:57​ Ninnuvina (Navarasa Kanada) and insights
00:51:09​ Vandinam Muralum Solai (78 rpm record) and insights
00:54:44​ Anecdote - First song that Shri RKS learnt from MS Amma and insights
00:58:45​ Akshyalinga Vibho and insights
01:06:11​ Padam - Kuvalayakshiro excerpt and insights
01:12:15​ Excerpt - Raga Kalyani and insights
01:25:53​ Excerpt - Raga Simhendramadhyamam and insights
01:35:17​ Excerpt - Raga Begada and insights
01:45:12​ Neraval (Kalyani) and insights
01:48:04​ Neraval(Pushpalatika) and insights
01:51:57​ Pallavi Neraval and insights
01:58:57​ Kalpana Svaras and insights
02:02:51​ Ragamalika Kalpana Svaras for Pallavi and insights
02:04:34​ Tanam and insights
02:06:10​ Bhajan and insights
02:09:44​ Anecdote and Learning Prabhuji (home recording)
02:12:25​ Anecdote and Raga Peelu (home recording)
02:15:00​ Dhava Vibho excerpt and insights
02:17:31​ Viruttam
Additional listening :
Sangeethapriya.org has more than 100 concerts of Smt M S Subbulakshmi

[sam]

Some excerpts from the transcript.
...when i hear amma's music because her music makes you go beyond all the the so-called technical uh appreciations and it it lands you in an experience in a blissful experience where i think it is just uh bliss all over and words really fail to describe this kind of bliss i have experienced this multiple times and i've been very fortunate to uh have been with her and to have shade uh stage with her to have to learn from her that is one of the biggest blessings in my life and i cherish that all my life.
.
the purpose of carnatic music i believe is just not in the technical aspects of it it is just not that it of course that is very important that is a very important uh part of the music but the core of the of carnatic music especially lies the fact that it transcends all this and leaves the listener in into a into a state of bliss and she did not sacrifice any of these elements in her kachiri she in her music was complete with all these aspects yet it transcended all these elements
.

[Nick H]

When I first met Sri RKSK (maybe 2005ish)...

Probably he was already Vedavalli-amma's regular violinist, but I had no idea at all about his history, and that he had been MS-amma's accompanist. That he had reached such heights some years previously.

I enjoyed his playing so much (sorry, I don't remember other details of the concert) that I spoke to him afterwards, saying, "I want to hear your solo concert." With complete sincerity, he replied, "I don't think I am ready for that yet." Thinking back about that, I'm sure that he must have been completely confident about the simple fact of playing alone for 2 hours, or 20 hours. There must have been some level of accomplishment that he felt he had not yet achieved.

I have seen, met and listened to him many times since (including, of course, a number of solo concerts). He continues to be not only one of my most favourite musicians, but also one of the nicest people I know.

In partnership with Naada Inbam and Ragasudha Hall there has been a Vedavalli-school concert on my birthday, for last several years. Since Amma herself no longer had the health to perform, it has mostly been given by Sumithra Vasudev. A few years back, she accepted the idea/challenge to perform a concert with neraval for every song, and we have kept that format since.

The most recent one was last week, and I was honoured by RKSK's presence on the stage (with Ganapathyraman, mridangam) Please see the video, not only for Sumithra's amazing music, but for SK-2025-RKSK's wonderful contribution:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-2kX_95jbPQ&t=16s

I love Ganapathyraman's playing too. By next day, I had confirmed all three to play on July 4 2026!