The morning academic sessions and lec-dems are not any more fringe events of the 'season'. Music enthusiasts who love to know more of what they listen to during the season attend these sessions in large number.
It was a heavy subject - Dual Panchalinga kritis of Dikshitar, on Dec. 18 at Sri Parthasarathy Swami Sabha. Violinist R. K. Sriramkumar who has studied the kritis of Muthuswami Dikshitar in detail presented the lec-dem. About 300 people sat through the session. The lec-dem sessions begin early at 8.30 a.m. here.
Accompanied by Amrita Murali on the violin and K. Arun Prakash on the mridangam, Sriramkumar delved deep into the compositions he took up for the day. There are the Panchabhoota Sthala kritis and another set of Panchalinga kritis on the lingas inside the Tiruvarur Thyagaraja temple, Sriramkumar said distinguishing the two sets of compositions.
"Being Arudra Darshanam today, it is very special to begin with the kriti on Akasha lingam at Chidambaram," he said and explained the lyrical beauty of the kriti Ananda Natana prakasam in Kedaram and sang it too.
He took up the Saranga raga kriti Arunachalanatham on the Agni linga of Tiruvannamalai and shared with the listeners how thoughtfully Dikshitar has penned the lyrics with the word 'smarami', since agni / surya is 'namaskara priya'.
The kriti on jala linga of Tiruvanaikka, 'Jambupate' in Yamuna kalyani, the raga known as 'Yamuna' in Dikshitar school is full of elements relating to water. The kshetram is referred to as samajatavi, meaning the forest of elephants, which inTamil is Thiru Anai kaa, he explained.
He then moved on to the Tiruvarur Panchalinga kritis beginning with Sadachaleswaram in Bhupalam. He wondered the connection with Dikshitar of Kambhoji raga and Khanda jati Ata tala while talking about the Kambhoji raga kriti, Sri Vanmikalingam chintaye.
Sriramkumar had to wind up at this stage as the next concert was lined up at the sabha. The curious audience wanted to know the other three panchalinga kritis. Hatakeswara in Bilahari, Anandeswarena in Ananda Bhairavi and Siddiswaraya in Nilambari, he informed.
The sabha secretary M. Krishnamurthy said that the response to the lec-dems make them think of a separate festival of such sessions. The lec-dem on Swarajatis by the Bangalore based musician Neela Ramgopal held on the previous day and the one on Dikshitar compositions by Neyveli Santhanagopalan also ran houseful, he said.
It was a heavy subject - Dual Panchalinga kritis of Dikshitar, on Dec. 18 at Sri Parthasarathy Swami Sabha. Violinist R. K. Sriramkumar who has studied the kritis of Muthuswami Dikshitar in detail presented the lec-dem. About 300 people sat through the session. The lec-dem sessions begin early at 8.30 a.m. here.
"Being Arudra Darshanam today, it is very special to begin with the kriti on Akasha lingam at Chidambaram," he said and explained the lyrical beauty of the kriti Ananda Natana prakasam in Kedaram and sang it too.
He took up the Saranga raga kriti Arunachalanatham on the Agni linga of Tiruvannamalai and shared with the listeners how thoughtfully Dikshitar has penned the lyrics with the word 'smarami', since agni / surya is 'namaskara priya'.
The kriti on jala linga of Tiruvanaikka, 'Jambupate' in Yamuna kalyani, the raga known as 'Yamuna' in Dikshitar school is full of elements relating to water. The kshetram is referred to as samajatavi, meaning the forest of elephants, which inTamil is Thiru Anai kaa, he explained.
He then moved on to the Tiruvarur Panchalinga kritis beginning with Sadachaleswaram in Bhupalam. He wondered the connection with Dikshitar of Kambhoji raga and Khanda jati Ata tala while talking about the Kambhoji raga kriti, Sri Vanmikalingam chintaye.
Sriramkumar had to wind up at this stage as the next concert was lined up at the sabha. The curious audience wanted to know the other three panchalinga kritis. Hatakeswara in Bilahari, Anandeswarena in Ananda Bhairavi and Siddiswaraya in Nilambari, he informed.
The sabha secretary M. Krishnamurthy said that the response to the lec-dems make them think of a separate festival of such sessions. The lec-dem on Swarajatis by the Bangalore based musician Neela Ramgopal held on the previous day and the one on Dikshitar compositions by Neyveli Santhanagopalan also ran houseful, he said.
Enjoyed the illuminating talk by Sri R.K.Sriramkumar very much.
ReplyDeleteThe program was over ambitious in terms of time- as he could not do justice to allt he kritis he planned to present.There is so much content for each of the Dikshitar kritis, and he is such a scholarly musician, he could do these over several days!
Nithya Balaji (humble student of late Smt.Vidya Sankar)