Hamsa Nada

My other SoundCloud Channel: http://www.soundcloud.com/hamsanandi

This is my composition in a somewhat rare raga called Jyoti. I composed it a while ago, but finally I made this recording now!

This is a varNa in rAga Rageshri that I composed in Jan 2013. - played on the flute by Vijay Venkatesh Kannan, better known as @IndianMusicFan (http://www.aboutindianmusic.com)

Rageshri is a hindustani rAga, that has made it's way to Karnataka sangeetha in 20th century. LGJ's tillAna in Rageshri is a gem, if you haven't listened to yet, I insist you must! I am not aware of the any other varnas in this raga though.

For the sahitya, I chose lines from a popular devaranama of Purandara Dasa, and used a charana line of my own, to fit the mood of the composition.

Here are the lines for the sahitya of this Varna: 

ನೀರೆ ನೀಕರೆತಾರೆ ಸುಂದರನ ಸುಕುಮಾರ ಶರೀರನ

ವರದ ಪುರಂದರ ವಿಠಲ ರಾಯನ ನೀ ಬೇಗನೆ ||

ಗೆಳತಿ ಇನಿಯನಿನ್ನೂ ಬಾರನೇ! ನಾ ಕಾದಿರಲು! ||

Bindumalini:

This is a piece I composed sometime in June 2011 - played on the flute by Vijay Venkatesh Kannan, better known as Indian Music Fan (www.aboutindianmusic.com)

Bindumalini is a minor raga, that came to light due to Tyagaraja's composition "enta muddo", and has gained popularity in the last few decades due to the epic renditions of the composition by stalwarts such as N.Ramani, Lalgudi Jayaraman and Mandolin Srinivas.

In my opinion the contours of Bindumalini resemble the hindustani raga Ahir Bhairav much more closely  than the nominal equivalent raga Chakravaka.

Graha Bheda: A Beginner's Guide

This is from a few years ago - when I introduced the concept of Graha Bheda (modal shift), and it's usage in south Indian classical music to a curious bunch of young (and old) music students. 

This is my composition in Raga Sarasangi, set to mishra chapu tALa.

I find that in general, the asmpurna counterparts of mELa rAga gives a more wholesome feel for a mELa rAga, and it is quite true in the case of Sarasangi. This composition is very much inspired (what else!) by Muttuswamy Dikshitar's composition set in the rAga Sourasena - Sourasenesham Valleesham.

Sung by Vijay Venkatesh Kannan (http://about.me/vijay.kannan), who is better known as IndianMusicFan on Twitter. His website is http://www.aboutindianmusic.com/ where you can listen to more of his tracks.

Ragasudharasa:

Here is my translation of Tyagaraja's composition in Raga Andolika - Ragasudharasa, sung by Sri Ragavan Manaian, at a thematic concert in Fremont, CA in 2010, on the occasion of Kannada Rajyotsava.

Original Sahitya:

Pallavi: rāga sudhā rasa pānamu jēsi rañjillavē ō manasā

Anupallavi: yāga yōga tyāga bhōga phalamosaṅgē (rāga)

Charanam: sadāśiva mayamagu nādōṅkāra swara vidulu jīvanmuktulani tyāgarāju teliyu (rāga)

Here is my translation in Kannada:

ರಾಗ ಸುಧಾರಸವನ್ನೇ ಸವಿಯುತ ನಲಿಯುತಲಿರು ಓ ಮನವೇ! ||ರಾಗ ಸುಧಾರಸ||

ಯಾಗ ಯೋಗ ತ್ಯಾಗ ಭೋಗಗಳ ಫಲವೀವ || ರಾಗ ಸುಧಾರಸ ||

A composition in raaga Madhuvanti -

This is a varna composed in Sep 2011. The words of this varna are in Kannada, and is inspired from Leelashuka's shloka from Krishna Karnamrta that starts with the words "lOkAnunmudayan".  The charaNa line has the rAgamudre.

ಗೋಕುಲವೆಲ್ಲಾ ಕೊಳಲಿನ ಇನಿದನಿಯಲಿ ತುಂಬಿದನೇ

ಆಕಳ ಮಂದೆಯ ಕಾಯುತ ಗೋಪಿಯರ ತಾನು ಗೆಲಿದನೆ

ಮಾತೇ ಮಧುವಂತಿದೇ! ಸಖೀ ! ಇವನ ||

The notation for the Varna can be found by clicking here

Played on the flute by IndianMusicFan. You can listen to more of his works at http://www.aboutindianmusic.com/

This is a Varna I composed  in October 2010.

Yaman is a Hindustani raaga, and you could consider this as a view of Yaman, from a southern eye :) 

The sahitya of this varNa is in Kannada, and loosely translated from a Samskrta verse from Bhartrhari - "KeyooraNi na bhUshayanti purusham" - that proclaims only good speech is the true ornament for man.

This was the first of my musical experiments!

Although I haven't made a note of the exact day I composed it but since I blogged about it in mid September 2009, I can surely say that this was sometime in September 2009. 

Played on the violin by violinist K R Satyaprakash.

This is a Varna I composed in November 2011. This is set in raagamalike - or a garland of ragas - Kalyani, Hameer Kalyani, Mohana Kalyani and Yaman Kalyani. 

The sahitya of the varNa is in Kannada language and the words are heavily inspired by ( and rearranged from) a pada of Purandara dAsa - that starts with the words tangALi vaSavallavE:

Here is the sAhitya of the Varna:

angaLadi beLadingaLu tumbide bangAra bhAra oDalige ||pallavi||

tangadirana kiraNa kandisitenna tangALiyali nA nilalArenE  ||anupallavi||

purandara viThala bAranEkE? ||charaNa||

ಅಂಗಳದಿ ಬೆಳದಿಂಗಳು ತುಂಬಿದೆ ಬಂಗಾರ ಭಾರ ಒಡಲಿಗೆ ||ಪಲ್ಲವಿ||

ತಂಗದಿರನ ಕಿರಣ ಕಂದಿಸಿತೆನ್ನ ತಂಗಾಳಿಯಲಿ ನಾ ನಿಲಲಾರೆನೇ  ||ಅನುಪಲ್ಲವಿ||

ಪುರಂದರ ವಿಠಲ ಬಾರನೇಕೆ? ||ಚರಣ||

(Rough translation: The moonlight  in the courtyard is scorching me. These ornaments are getting me heavy!I I just can’t stand this cool breeze!

Oh, why doesn’t he, Purandara Vithala, come?) 

Played by "Arvind", the IndianMusicFan at http://www.aboutindianmusic.com/

The notation of the Varna can be found in this link:

Here is my composition in raga Ranjani - set to Adi tala. Played by flautist Tejaswi Raghunath.

I composed this sometime in July 2010.

Tomorrow is 4th May, the day Tyagaraja was born in the year 1767AD in Tiruvarooru.

I’m glad to share a recording of a grand composition composition - but with a little change. The sAhitya of the composition is translated to Kannada, in such a way not to disturb the meter or the musical structure. The artist is Ragavan Manian, a disciple of Dr M Balamuralikrishna.  The recording is from a thematic concert in 2008 where all the compositions in Kannada. After all, how can a concert be complete without Tyagaraja? 

While many (including me) may not see a dire need for such translations, for many people who don’t understand the lyrics of a composition, this might be the first step in appreciating the music of Tyagaraja and turn Tyagarajaphiles, just like me :-)

If you are interested in the words, here it is:

ಪಲ್ಲವಿ: 

ಮೇರು ಸಮಾನ ಧೀರ ಕೊಡುಗೈ ರಘು ವೀರನ ನೋಡುವ ಬಾರಾ! ಮಹಾ || ಮೇರು ಸಮಾನ ಧೀರ ||

ಅನುಪಲ್ಲವಿ:

ತಿರುಳಿನ ಸಾರವೇ ವೈಯಾರದ ನಡೆಯಲಿ ಮುಗಿಲ ಕಾಂತಿಯಾಂತು ಠೀವಿಲಿ ಬರುವ ||ಮೇರು ಸಮಾನ ಧೀರ||

ಚರಣ:

ಕಲಕಲ ಮುಂಗುರುಳು ಸೊಗಸಿನ ತಿಲಕವು ಹೊಳೆಯುವ ಗಲ್ಲವು ಮುದ್ದಿನ ಮೊಗವು! ಕೊ- ರಳಲಿ ಮೆರುಗುವ ಬಂಗಾರದೊಡವೆಗಳು ತುಳಿವ ಕೇಡಿಗರನು! ತ್ಯಾಗರಾಜ ಮಣಿದ ಆ ||ಮೇರು ಸಮಾನ ಧೀರ||

(To play the audio, please click on the youtu.be link at the end of this post)

Tomorrow is 4th May, the day Tyagaraja was born in the year 1767AD in Tiruvarooru.

I'm glad to share a recording of a grand composition composition - but with a little change. The sAhitya of the composition is translated to Kannada, in such a way not to disturb the meter or the musical structure. The artist is Ragavan Manian, a disciple of Dr M Balamuralikrishna.  The recording is from a thematic concert in 2008 where all the compositions in Kannada. After all, how can a concert be complete without Tyagaraja? 

While many may (including me) may not see a dire need for such translations, for many people who don't understand the lyrics of a composition, this might be the first step in appreciating the music of Tyagaraja and turn Tyagarajaphiles, just like me :-)

If you are interested in the words, here it is:

ಪಲ್ಲವಿ: 

ಮೇರು ಸಮಾನ ಧೀರ ಕೊಡುಗೈ ರಘು ವೀರನ ನೋಡುವ ಬಾರಾ! ಮಹಾ || ಮೇರು ಸಮಾನ ಧೀರ ||

ಅನುಪಲ್ಲವಿ:

ತಿರುಳಿನ ಸಾರವೇ ವೈಯಾರದ ನಡೆಯಲಿ ಮುಗಿಲ ಕಾಂತಿಯಾಂತು ಠೀವಿಲಿ ಬರುವ ||ಮೇರು ಸಮಾನ ಧೀರ||

ಚರಣ:

This is my composition in Raga Saamantha, played on the flute by IndianMusicFan (www.aboutindianmusic.com). I composed this around April 20th, 2012. The notation for this composition lives here.

Samantha is a raga with quite a bit of history. Copper plates from Tirupati temple record a large number of compositions of Annamayya in this raga (15th century AD). However, since musical tastes keep changing this raga seems to have lost some popularity in the centuries following Annamayya. Muttuswamy Dikshita (18th century AD)  has composed two kritis in this raga while other prominent composers have not handled this raga.

Here are YouTube links for the compositions of MuttuSwamy Dikshita:

Vishwanathena, played on the Veena by Smt Kalpakam Swaminathan

Pranatarthiharaaya, sung by Sri Balaji Sankar 

I've been a Blogger and Wordpress user for a few years. So when I wanted to check out Tumblr, I thought it would be a good idea to do a different kind of blog - an audio blog, where every post would have an audio recording. I decided on the name "Hamsa Nada", same name as my Kannada Blog. It is the name of a beautiful raga of Karnataka sangeetha, and what else could be more suitable than the name of a raga for an audio blog? 

For my very first post here, I'd like to share my own composition in raga Kamavardhini. This raga was better known by the name Ramakriya before 19th century (that explains the bit about why the track is named so). The raga is known by the name Pantuvarali in some parts of south India - although it is a bit of misnomer.

In the Hindustani music, the raga is known by the name Pooriya Dhanashri. But what's in a name?  As Shakespeare would have said,  "A beautiful raga, by any other name is still a beautiful raga", Right?