Raaga alapana for a kriti??

[srikrishna]

Can raaga alapana be tailored to a kriti so that audience has an inkling of the kriti to be played? If this is not the case, there seems to be a disconnect between the raaga alapana and kriti unlike the neraval and kalpana swaram. Am I right?

Thanks for any clarification in advance.

[Radhika-Rajnarayan]

Indeed, traditional purists opine that the raga alapana has to be suited to the kriti that follows. To provide a very simple example, the kriti 'Sujana Jeevana' in the raga Khamas, (Tyagaraja) does not use the kakali nishadam - so the raga alapana should ideally be sans this note. On the other hand, the kriti 'Brochevarevaru ra' by Mysore Vasudevachariar does use the kakali nishadam, so it should be used in the alalpana. If this guideline is followed, the appeal of the kriti is enhanced.
There are many other examples.
Note that I use the words 'ideally' and 'guideline' - these are not hard and fast rules.

[samskrutilaya]

am in compliance with radhika. as is the case for raga's like poorvikalyani with the prayogam p d p s and gmds. and it also depends on whose composition is being sung. if this is taken as a guideline, then it is best to check the prayogams used in the kriti to make sure we follow the track or the composers guideline of the arohana or the avarohana.
but on the non-conservationists side, using the swarams which otherwise not there, is justified as long u bring bhava in your renditions. that's what SSI said " to choose between grammar and ethichs VS bhava" is entirely an individuals choice.

[thenpaanan]

am in compliance with radhika. as is the case for raga's like poorvikalyani with the prayogam p d p s and gmds. and it also depends on whose composition is being sung. if this is taken as a guideline, then it is best to check the prayogams used in the kriti to make sure we follow the track or the composers guideline of the arohana or the avarohana.
but on the non-conservationists side, using the swarams which otherwise not there, is justified as long u bring bhava in your renditions. that's what SSI said " to choose between grammar and ethichs VS bhava" is entirely an individuals choice.

But these are the easy cases! The real question is this: would you or should you try and sing a different kind of todi alapana depending on whether you are going to sing (for example) kaddanuvAriki or kOtinadulu or kamaLambikE? In each case the treatment of tODi is subtly different in ways that do not admit to easy characterization. My guess is that some overwhelming fraction of the alapanas are fixed in the sense that the singer has a more or less fixed notion of todi which is sung no matter what kriti is sung. It is quite possible that some performers actually vary their alapana according to the kriti but I am not educated enough to discern that -- if so I'd be glad to be educated.

-Then Paanan

[arasi]

Thenpaanan,
I have no idea either. However, there are times when I think: well, all the preamble was a mapping for this kruti (sometimes with such predictability that it does not please me a great deal). At other times, a good AlApanA which blossoms into a kruti which contains the matter of what the AlApanA was trying to indicate is very pleasing and makes sense to me. Still, an AlApanA which is followed by an unexpected kruti (something personal here?) can either please you (dependent on the imaginative handling of the rAgA by the artiste) or does not impress you because they are two disparate things with no connection at all.
Which brings me to the violin reply. They vary too. violinist's inspired but staying close to the vocalist's exposition is the best. However brilliant, if he strays away from it, it is not that pleasing. The worst is what seems like a violinist's utter disregard for what he had heard and to boot, his following it up with a stale template of a reply
Just a response from a single rasikA who is not schooled in the rules or in the unwritten rules of concert giving. Would be nice if performers on the forum can tell us about it...Prashant might do that, getting it from the authority. Surya, Ravikiran and others if they are not busy. If only NSG has the time!

[vasanthakokilam]

Let me narrate one limited aspect of this with an example, from a rasika perspective. If someone is going to start the song at the higher sthyai as in Ososi or kanrin kuralai kettu, then I would think it will be appropriate to start the alapana for Mukhari at the higher sthayi and end it in the neighborhood of the starting swara. In a similar fashion, Thyagaraja has composed Sahana krithis that begins at every swara of the scale. That shapes the aesthetics/rasa of the song to some extent. One simple reason may be is that the pallavi line is repeated so many times and is constantly in relationship to other parts of the song either as a prefix or a postfix. It will make sense to structure the alapana along similar aesthetic lines of the song that follows and so I would think for T's sahana krithis, the alapana can be structured differently for his various compositions.

These are all of course within the artistic merits, licenses and creativity of the performer and not to be bound by any strict rules.

Back to the mukhari example, Ranjani & Gayathri in one of their CDs, start the 'enraiku sivakrupai' song at 'Kanrin kuralai kettu' and the short alapana for that song starts at the higher sthayi.

[arasi]

Yes, VK, good thinking.
Sometimes, for dramatic effect or for injecting more life into the opening, a few songs are sung that way. Example: bAla kanaka maya cEla (anu pallavi) instead of ElA nI daya rAdu? (pallavi).

[cmlover]

The stalwarts indeed used to sing the aalaapana tailor-made for the krits. i.e., using the phrases that occur in the krits. Acccordingly it was usually possible to guess what kriti was coming easily as the aalaapanaa proceeds. The violinists too in their independant elaboration used to follow the pattern. MC is quite famous for doing so which is immensely enjoyed by the preformer as well as Rasikas. These were possible mostly in respect of the kritis of Trinity which are often heard. Of course for new and rare composition one is left clueless, but still the good artiste is obliged to reveal the raga bhava very clearly at the outset. It is a crime to mislead the accompanist and the Rasikas!

[arasi]

True! The very first phrase of the AlApanA revealing the rAgam--something which would speak of the vidvat of the performer.

[thanjavooran]

This subject was taken up by Sriram Kumar and Jayalakshmi in their workshop of manodharma and discussed briefly under the caption of Raga Alapana . I have listened several times, Madurai Somu singing a line of the kriti itself during dilineation of the Raga.

Thanjavooran

[arasi]

Yes, I have heard one or two modern day singers do that too. While it sounds novel and amusing in the middle of an AlApanA, I am not sure I would like it in every instance. Since you mention Somu, I assume that when someone with such rich imagination launches into an AlApana, anything can happen (and that is the fun part of it) and this is one such thing which can happen, I suppose. If every AlApanA contains the song line, it may start sounding mechanical and I may not like it, I think!

[semmu86]

I have listened several times, Madurai Somu singing a line of the kriti itself during dilineation of the Raga.

M.Chandrasekhar used to play and still plays a lot like that these days , sometimes even a shade of some popular film songs based on that raga he is dilineating , may find a place in his raga alapanas

[cmlover]

What is the difference between singing the melodic pattern of a phrase in the kriti (usually done) and singing the actual phrase in words during the aalaapana? In fact one with adequate skill (sanjay for example) can indeed perform a whole aalaapana using the words from the kriti nicely arranged which will be quite novel! Is there a rule that aalaapana should be only in akaara and taranaana only?

[arasi]

CML,
Won't it sound like a viruttam, though? That would be breaking the old concert format even further, particularly if this is done at the very start of a concert
I think a nice AlApanA makes us look forward to the ensuing song, prepares us to take in the bhAvam of the lines even better while neraval highlights the song's beauty.
But who knows? There could be takers among today's musicians to experiment with what you say

[cmlover]

You have a point
But TMK will give it a try
Just note that Viruttham does not necessarily embellish the phrases that occur in the kriti that follows. It is a stand alone!
I wonder whether anyone (?by mistake even) has sung a viruttham on a deity and followed-up with a kriti on another deity? That will belong to our thread on Hilarity

[arasi]

Though on realizing his mistake after singing the first line, he could mend it by ad libbing---anda mAman maruganE, guhanE, or mAmi, etc
I have of late heard kadamba (mixture) vituttams of gods . Goes with the times when--at least in temples abroad, there are many more gods than in an old temple--to please various groups of bhakthAs in the community!

[cmlover]

you mean
' Sappai kaTTu'

[arasi]

'sabai' yil kacEri kaLai 'kaTT'inAl sari!

[ksrimech]

Arasi - TVS, Sanjay have done the kadambam for sometime.