From: raj@cs.bu.edu (Rajagopalan)
Newsgroups: rec.music.indian.classical
Subject: Re: RTP
Keywords: thanam, pallavi, carnatic
Date: 21 Dec 92 20:36:33 GMT
Reply-To: raj@cs.bu.edu
Followup-To: <Bz9qnC.Gt5.1@cs.cmu.edu>
Organization: Boston University Computer Science Department

In article <Bz9qnC.Gt5.1@cs.cmu.edu>, pjn+@cs.cmu.edu (P J Narayanan) writes:
>There are several styles of thAnam singing,
>like thuragagathi (I am sure of the thuraga part, what is the second
>half of the name?) which means "like a galloping horse."

	this reminds me of a concert by madurai g.s. mani more than a decade 
ago. he sang a thanam style that i had not heard before - it was mainly in the 
lower register around the tonic "sa" and in the manthra sthayi with short and 
extremely rapid phrases. i remember trying to emulate that speed at home and 
failing miserably. g.s. mani announced after the thanam that this was the 
"mandukathanam" style (literally "frog"thanam). i am extremely curious about the 
"thuraga" style and other styles of thanam that might exist. if anyone knows or 
knows where i could find information about this kindly let me know. 
interestingly, in the ten years since i heard manduka thanam, PJN's article is 
the first mention of styles of singing thanam. almost always, all we get to hear 
by way of thanam is plain "vanilla" style thanam singing, as if to get over with 
it and proceed with the pallavi - something even our maestros are frequently 
culpable of. i think there is more to thanam than what meets the ear - i am sure 
there are guidelines for singing misram (sevens) and khandam (fives) phrases but 
i am innocent about them. perhaps, the veena players and other knowledgeable 
netters can shed some light on the structure of thanam.

>Another important aspect of the pallavi is the "padagarbham" or the
>"aruthi". The pallavi sAhitayam and rhythm will be structured to have
>a major yathi or break at a major kriya of the thAlam. 

this requirement is not met by all pallavi singers. i have heard semmangudi 
srinivasier sing a pallavi in misra chapu. the talam is too short for an 
appropriate aruthi and in any case the singing does not show an aruthi at all. 
there is a purvangam and uttarangam though. what he does is sing the pallavi 
line in two cycles of the misra chapu talam. if you wish you can take the samam 
(beginning) of the second cycle as your aruthi but i think the rules of pallavi 
singing state that the pallavi line in regular speed should last one avarthanam 
(cycle) only. please correct me if i am wrong.

>The classic anulomam is
>the act of singing the sahityam at the same speed, but keeping the
>thAlam at twice the speed. 

i have read in books about anulomam. i have never come across of any one doing 
this. it would be very interesting to listen to this. i also have never heard 
pratilomam which keeps the aruthi constant that PJN refers to. does any one know 
of exponents of anulomam or this form of pratilomam?  

>A satisfying RTP is one which contains most of what is described
>above. A large number of RTPs performed today, however, is merely
>ragam-thanam-niraval plus (this is the most *populist* part)
>ragamalika swarams, sadly.

true. but there are scholars (like t.r. subramanian, for example) who opine that 
the basic part of pallavi is the niraval. they believe that pratilomam is just 
acrobatics. personally i would like best pallavi singing wherein the artist 
sings niraval at all the steps of the pratiloma. today we see artists just 
singing pratiloma as if to get rid of it. i wish people would spend more cycles 
in, say tisram, doing real niraval rather than repeat a very plain version of 
the melodic line the mandatory three times. it should also be possible to modify 
the basic melodic line so that it is possible to do niraval even at very high 
speed - after all what sounds good in slow speed rarely sounds good in high 
speed and vice versa. any pallavi netexperts out there?

happy holidays,
raj
Newsgroups: rec.music.indian.classical