sarvalaghu vs. kanakku in kalpanaswaras

[arunk]

Blogging after a long time. An attempt to understand the rhythmic wonders in kalpanaswaras - http://sunson.wordpress.com/2010/07/29/ ... ic-part-1/

Apologies for any mistakes, I would appreciate if those are pointed out.

Arun

[Nick H]

I'm a duffer at maths, so what I look for first and foremost is music!

Of course, if everybody was like me, then the artist's great effort at calculation would be a great waste, but in this rather intellectual music community, they may rest assured that that is not the case.

Even when I am able to recognise patterns, I still think that, without melody, they would be nothing but maths. the extent to which melody triumphs does vary. I heard a supreme example by Amrutha Venkatesh a few weeks ago, where even the half-cycle koripu turns where full of tune and originality.

Even if we are not aware of the numbers, kanakku still has its effects on us. The reducing gap at the beginning of a series of misra koripu turns is exiting, even if we have no idea that the patterns being sung/played are sevens, which against an eight beat cycle means one pause in the cycle, half a pause in the half cycle, 1/4 in the quarter and so on.

Even as an innumerate dunce I can appreciate that music is maths, and that maths can be music. Making maths music is the skill of the musician.

[vasanthakokilam]

Arun, good blog post. Another way of summarizing your post is, if the singer's kalpanaswaram makes you go haywire in your thala keeping it is kanakku, otherwise it is sarva laghu!! You pretty much said the same thing, I think. And your pictures and audio and video demos are awesome, especially the video demo. That is really one of a kind, a path breaking attempt. Watch out, do a few more of these, you are in the running for the title of sangeetha kala acharya of rasikas.org!!

Your discovery of the uniformity of kandam patterns in what sounds like complex kanakku is very interesting. So there is an underlying method and symmetry even if the breaks do not fall on thala boundary.

p.s. this is not to confuse matters or against the useful information in your blog post but an issue of terminology.
The term sarva laghu as used colloquially is as you wrote but the technical definition is that it should have all short swaras.
In poetic meter, laghu is a one unit item as opposed to guru which is a two unit thing. With 'sarva' meaning "all, sarvalaghu in that context, literally means "all one unit items".
In the SSI pattern, it is followed for the most part, majority of the swaras are single swaras without any kArvai.
I do not know in this strict definition, if zero is included. Meaning, if you have pauses here and there, whether that would still strictly be sarvalaghu in this technical sense?

But I do like your generalization of the technical definition to say 'if the swara lengths are 1, 2 or 4, we feel comfortable with the rhythm and hence it is easy. If we recast sarvalaghu as sarva ilagu ( all easy ), then it fits that definition as well ( taking liberties with the word ilagu )

[Nick H]

if the singer's kalpanaswaram makes you go haywire in your thala keeping it is kanakku

Brilliant! Exactly the same test applies to the mridangam.

Arun, I forgot to say that I am looking forward to the next blog entry

[cmlover]

Thx Vk
for simplifying and explaining (and modifying ) the terminology. Let us pursue this slowly and step-by-step as Arun adds to his blog.
Finally we may get to understand the 'dreaded' kaNakku!

[arunk]

- that indeed is the case for me vk.

And yes now I see the term sarva-laghu does have a specific meaning and while it has a broader use today, there is still a correlation. Thanks for the kind words on video demo. One of the reasons I hesitated for a while in starting to write this entry is that I could not find an effective way of communicating the complex underlying pattern in any kanakku swaras in a convincing way. Now I have a way of integrating audio into my notation editor (as i had done in some entries) but that isnt any proof as you can adjust the time indices to make it seem like it is in sync with any audio :tmi: ! So while it may have still perhaps sufficed, I wasnt thrilled. I thought I could recreate the pattern in MIDI (in Garageband) and overlay with audio and screen-capture Garageband playing the notes - it is sort of like what is shown but it wasnt still "clear enough" as zoom wasnt enough (Side bar: I found that this pattern *truly rocks* when you try it with some rock instruments - perhaps I will post that in a tangential post!).

Anyway thankfully I found that the new version of Audacity supported labels in a way that seemed the best approach.

And yes there is pattern behind it that is uniform and I believe that is why it is actually easy for us to relate to "subconsciously". Only when you try to map it in terms of the 4-set catusra gati i.e. while putting talam do we get all out of whack. If you just think of it as a 5-based pattern, without keeping tala, it is more easily discernible. Of course from a performer standpoint the 4-based tala counting is still important as you got to know when to end.

Nick - now I dont know if that next post will meet your expectations (but the music part - I am sure will)

Arun

[arunk]

Here is Part 2: http://sunson.wordpress.com/2010/08/21/ ... ic-part-2/ - focusing on the genius of Shri. Tanjore Kalyanaraman.

Comments as always are greatly appreciated.

Thanks
Arun

[Nick H]

That's splendid!

But is this kanakku ---or sarvalaghu with nadai changes?

I too am always astonished at the skill of the accompanists at keeping up with sort of thing. It's nice to hear that people with a lot more experience than I have also still find it impressive!

[arunk]

Thanks Nick. It is "kanakku" in the sense that to most of us "something complicated is happening" - but yes when we look closely within each gati, a sarvalaghu is maintained for most part.

Arun

[vasanthakokilam]

Excellent Arun. Another well done article with all the mediums put to great use. It is a ready reference to refer people who want to learn about these things. Thanks.

( I have now switched to calling Akshara for the inner and Matra for the outer. Mainly because that seems to be a bit more predominant usage than the other way ).

In relation to the subject matter of Arun's post, we can try to do that with rhythmic syllables with some practice. The process of learning to do that is a lot of fun. Keep a metronome and start reciting for each beat of the kanda jathi triputa thala ( 9 beats ). (ta ) ( ta ka ) (ta ki ta ) ( ta ka dhi mi ) ( ta ka ta ki ta ) ( ta ki ta ta ki ta ) ( ta ki ta ta ka dhi mi ) ( ta ka dhi mi ta ka ju nu ) ( ta ka di mi ta ka ta ki ta ). Of course, it helps to practice each one separately but goal is to do it one avarthanam of the thala. It is a tongue twister, thala keeping twister and a few other twisters all rolled into one. For extra credit, go back from 9 to 1. Not that this is equivalent to what Sri. Kalyanaraman is doing since he has to execute this on the spot and with swaras, but doing it with rhythmic syllables will give us a better insight.

For starters, adjust the metronome beat interval to something you are comfortable reciting 9 syllables in one beat. And if all 9 variations are daunting, pick and choose a few that you are comfortable with.

If you happen to record your recital, please post.

[Nick H]

I have now switched to calling Akshara for the inner and Matra for the outer

Bother! Opposite what everyone I know off this site uses!

It is "kanakku" in the sense that to most of us "something complicated is happening"

Are we not agreed that kannakku is calculation?

Here, something difficult is happening, rather than something complicated. It is not that difficult to recognise or to understand, but I could not do it. Within the fives, the rhythms are fives, within the threes, the rhythms are threes, etc. It requires real laya, an absolute grasp on time, but it doesn't require much arithmetic.

What I would describe as kannakku, begins with stuff like 6*5+2=32, or (2*5+6)+(2*5+6)=32, progresses into the various kinds of yathi (like 2+3+4+5+6+7+5) and the different varieties of koraipu and ultimately, to the korvais, which may be short and simple, but which may also be very complex.

[Nick H]

Matra/Akshara.

Here is a quote from TVG, who is one of the few who try to make their book comprehensible, rather than a list of definitions to memorise and say, "I understand". Found and picked almost at random, but it makes the use of the words clear in the context:

Gathi is the manner in which the intervals between each akshara is counted or the numerical content of each akshara. So, in tisra it is 3, chatusra 4, etc. Tisra eka tala in Tisra gathi will therefore have 9 matras, ie 3 matras to each akshara...

.

[arunk]

Thanks vk. Like Nick I have also been exposed only to akshara outer and matra inner but I know Akellaji believes this is incorrect as per literature over time on rhythmic framework.

Nick. Yes there is no complex/non-intuitive math at play in this case. So techinically this isnt "kanakku" - but like I mentioned at the beginning of the post, that term loosely refers to any kind of complexity or non-intuitiveness (in terms of immediate perception) - gati switches from the common catusram to all these other odd-balls would be so (at least to me!).

In fact the whole idea of the post started with a very simple gati switch I heard from Sanjay (srivalli in naTabhairavi in an commercial charsur recording and hence I did not use it the post):

(6 aksharas)

SNDP MGRS (catusra)
SRG MPD (tisra)
NSSND ( tisra but last 1/3 in double-speed)
PMGRS (tisra double speed)
srivalli...

Now this does involve some math since the idea is to take 24 swaras or precisely a certain pattern of 24 swaras and divying it up in 6 aksharas using gati switches. But except for that one akshara, it can be mostly sarvalaghu style. But I would think that to most of the rasikas (i.e. without training in rhythmic aspects) this would be "complex" and even non-intuitive (until it is explained and then it becomes easy to grasp )!


But yes all those kuraippus with varying pause/offsets are a different animal. BTW, can someone give me pointers of kalpanawara examples with various kuraippus.

Arun

[sureshvv]

In fact the whole idea of the post started with a very simple gati switch I heard from Sanjay (srivalli in naTabhairavi in an commercial charsur recording and hence I did not use it the post):

(6 aksharas)

SNDP MGRS (catusra)
SRG MPD (tisra)
NSSND ( tisra but last 1/3 in double-speed)
PMGRS (tisra double speed)
srivalli...

Now this does involve some math since the idea is to take 21 swaras or precisely a certain pattern of 21 swaras and divying it up in 6 aksharas using gati switches. But except for that one akshara, it can be mostly sarvalaghu style. But I would think that to most of the rasikas (i.e. without training in rhythmic aspects) this would be "complex" and even non-intuitive (until it is explained and then it becomes easy to grasp )!

Arun

Arun... Where did you get 21? Not able to get past this hurdle

[arunk]

suresh,

oops! That should be 24 = sndpmgrs(8) + srgmpdns (8) + sndpmgrs(8) and not 21!! No wonder you couldnt get past it

Sorry for the confusion.

Arun

[arunk]

Here is another one which got me thinking about posting about gati switches. A beautiful pallavi in kharaharapriya sung by Sanjay with a delightful catusram-tisram combination. I love the way the tisram rolls off the tongue (although doing a neraval type gets to be limiting due to the tisram packing sylllables tightly).

unadu pAdam uRutunaiyena nambinEn .... sadA dayai puriyum SaravaNabhavaguhane (Kharaharapriya - Adi - 2-kalai)



Any dabblers who want to try this one line? If you do it, I will do it !

Arun