Graha bedham, Harmony, Avadhaana pallavi

On 6th January, 2023, we were blessed to attend a Carnatic vocal concert by Kanchana sisters (Vidushi Shriranjani and Vidushi Shruthiranjani) accompanied by Vidwan Mathur Srinidhi on violin, Vidwan B C Manjunath on the mridangam, and Vidwan Sunaad Anoor on the kanjira. The concert was arranged by Anubhooti on their 10th anniversary of promoting Indian arts and music at MES College auditorium, in Malleshwaram.

A Carnatic music concert on a Friday evening is indeed a unique gift in the non-season / non-festival times. Thank God for this Friday - thank the artistes for a wonderful evening they gave us all.

The sisters began the concert with a brief AlApanai of brndAvana sArangA followed by a short shlOkam. They then presented a varnam composed in this rAgam by their father Vid. Kanchana Subbarathnam, and lyrics by their mother and guru Vid. Rohini Subbarathnam, set to Adi tALam. The second song for the day was Swathi Tirunal kriti dEva dEva kalayAmi tE in the rAgam mAyAmALavagowLa. After a very brief AlApanai in AHiri, Kanchana sisters took up a very elaborate and vilambit rendition of the 9th navAvarna kriti of Muthuswami Dikshitar, shrI kamalAmba jayati. This was rendered in unhurried manner, sticking to their patantaram and the really moved the audience. They nearly got a standing ovation for this song - such was the appreciation.

Another brief AlApanai in nAgasvarAvaLi was followed by shrI shankara guruvaram, a composition of Maha Vaidyanatha Iyer set to rUpaka tALam. The exposition of manOdharma of the sisters, one could say, started with this and audience were left ecstatic in this and all subsequent songs. After couple of rounds of kalpana swarams, Vid Shruthiranjani switched to Hamsadhvani using graha bedham of nAgasvarAvaLi, ably supported by Vidwan Srinidhi on violin. Shriranjani continued to sing swarams in nAgasvarAvaLi on her turn and Shruthiranjani sang Hamsadhvani for rest of the kalpana swarams. And the final joint rendition was in same swara sthanas, but different swarams of S G M P D S (nAgasvarAvaLi) and S R G P N S (Hamsadhvani). The adherence to shruthi and sadhana were obvious during the perfect rendition.

Latangi was taken as a main rAgam for exploration. A thorough dilineation was done, though I think plans had been shortened a bit due to the sound system problems before the concert started (more on that in the end). The song marivEre dikkevvaru composed by Patnam Subramanya Iyer was sung with full verve and ably supported by Vidwan Srinidhi as well as the percussionists. The sound system was indeed quite balanced in spite of initial troubles, which made it a wonderful concert.

A rAgam tAnam pallavi was taken up immediately - an intervening faster song may have been skipped, I guess. Shruthiranjani began with the first cycle of AlApanai in mOHanam, which was followed by violinist Vidwan Srinidhi's AlApanai. On her turn Shriranjani continued with a short shlOkam first, and then lead on to the tAnam cycle. After regular tAnam portions by each artiste, the sisters sang the final portion of the tAnam in Harmony mode. Though I was not able to figure out the technical basis of this harmony, i.e., whether Shruthiranjani was singing lower octave (Sa-sa), or whether it was a Sa-Pa or Sa-Ma correlation, the perfect rendition sticking to absolutely matching shruthi was simply delectable.

The sisters then announced that they will be singing an avadhaana pallavi (pallavi that needs focus / attention), which they are well known for. On the right hand they played out Adi tALam in 2-kalai, while with same tempo, they tapped out rUpaka tALam (1-kalai) followed by jhampa tALam (1-kalai). As one can see from the image here, for illustration purpose, the 16 aksharas in Adi tALam and the 6 (catusra rUpakam) + 10 (misra jhampa) aksharas coincide. Well, that was not enough variation, for this particular pallavi, which was the well known line "rA rA rAjIva lOcana rAmA; nannu brOcutaku".

The eduppu was atIta in the Adi tALam (1/2 beat before samam), while it was the anudrutham in the left hand, in the jhampa tALam. The ardi coincided at the drutam of Adi tALam on the right, while it was the laghu of jhampa tALam on left. Once again, the illustration may help readers understand the technicality. The writer is simply able to parrot out these details as they were clearly explained by the Kanchana sisters. The images to add confusion is probably useful, so that each of you can have your own Ahaa moments when clarity emerges out of my obfuscation attempts.

The sisters showed their vidwat in this aspect by covering trikAlam while putting the dual tALams, as well as kalpana swarams in the same. They also sang kalpana swarams in rAgamAlikA, namely, gAgEyabhUshani (by Shriranjani), ranjani (by Shruthiranjani), bhUpALam (by Srinidhi) and maduvanti (by Shriranjani), follwed by Shruthiranjani covering the rAgams in reverse order too. Once again the concentration and dedication to ensure the shruthi alignment as well as kanakkus of the swarams were perfect, which made it a treat for the ears. Not to be outdone, Vidwans Manjunath and Sanaad, showed their prowess in playing the laya vinyAsam in both the tALa combinations. This was also very much appreciated by another stalwart who was present in the audience, mridanga Vidwan Arjun Kumar. At the end of the avadhaana pallavi we wondered how it could have been even better if only they had been able to start on time.

Followed by the announcements and words of appreciation from organizers, the team completed the concert by singing niri niri gamagarisa in pUrvi, composed by Subbarama Bhagavatar, and Purandaradasa's bhAghyadha lakshmi bArammA, in madhyamAvati. Innovations and manOdharma while sticking to the traditional Carnatic music were to the fore. With this concert, we learnt that we don't have to try things outside the ocean of Carnatic music, in order to show novelty or differences from the norm. Kudos to them and would love to attend more concerts from these artistes.

Regarding the sound system, there were some issues with microphone, then the speaker, then the monitor speaker, followed by feedback noises, etc. This took almost 25 minutes to set right, which luckily did not leave any blemish in minds of the artistes or the audience, as soon as the concert started. It is likely that audience was unfortunate to have had a shorter treat of this excellent team, as they may have trimmed a song and shortened a bit of the AlApanais / kalpana swarams.