Len Briggs
September, 12, 2012
World Music 3348
Dr. Kevin Salfen
TITLE OF KRITI—Pranamaamyaham
TEXT AND TRANSLATION OF KRITI
praNamAmyaham -
bilahari - tiSra tripuTa
P praNamAmyaham Sree
saraswateem
maNi noopurAdi vibhooshitam || I bow to Sri Saraswati adorned with
gem-studded anklets and other ornaments.
AP aNimAdi siddhi dAyineem
praNatArti bhanjanee niranjaneem || She is the bestower of mystical powers.(Anima
is power of tranforming into micro form). She dispels agony of devotees. She is
impassionate and serene.
C vara gAna kaLA
nipuNam
dara hAsayutam vANeem
sura vandya bhavya charaNAm
para vAsudEva krupA purNam || She is perfect in the art of music. She is
Vani with gentle smile. Devatas bow to her holy feet. She enjoys abundant grace
of supreme Vasudeva.
INFORMATION ABOUT KRITI
1.
Composer--Mysore Vasudevachar (1865-1961) The composer of this piece was born May 28,
1865 and passed away May 17, 1961 at the age of 96. He is said to be a direct disciple of Tyagaraja, and was a member of his shishya.
In his earlier years he also studied music under Patnam Subramania Iyer. He wrote more than 200 compositions, most in
praise of Lord Rama. Vasudevachar was a
renowned composer of Carnatic music.
2.
Raga-Gowlai
Tala-Adi
3.
Audio Recordings-Stalwarts - Vintage Recordings
of Masters - Mysore Vasudevachar(available on Amazon)…several recordings were
also found on smashhits.com website
4.
Video Recordings-YouTube: “01 Shankar Narayan
pranamamyaham srI Gowla Mysore vasudevAchArya”…this is the one I used as
reference in my blog, however, there seem to be at least 15 other videos
available on YouTube, some using flute, some saxophone, some a female soloist…
5.
Basic significance of the text--Sarasvati is the
goddess of knowledge, music, arts, and science. Devatas, or the equivalent of
guardian angels bow to her. Vasudeva, in Hindu history, was the father of
Krishna, part of the Yadu and Vrishni dynasties. In the 4th century
BC, as part an early religion called Bhagavatism, Vasudeva was worshipped as
the supreme deity.
6.
Structure of raga—the full name for this raga is
Mayamalavagowla. It has the same svaras both ascending and descending, that is,
S R1 G3 M1 P D1 N3 S( sa, ri, ga, ma, pa, dha, ni, sa). S, M, and P are the only constant notes, the
others being some form of oscillation. A
loose fepresentation of these notes on a keyboard would appear as below:
7.
Structure of tala—The Adi tala is the most
common, or one of the most common rhythm patterns used in kritis. Adi tala is a
cycle of eight beats. Normally each beat will consist of four pulses. Because
there is a spoken language of carnatic rhythm, we could say that Adi tala
consists of 8 x 4 = 32 words. The words shown in Bold occur on the beat.
Ta Ka Di Mi Ta Ka Ju No Ta Ka Di Mi Ta Ka
Ju No
Ta Ka Di Mi Ta Ka Ju No Ta Ka Di Mi Ta Ka
Ju No
If you recite this, keeping time by clapping,
you will be doing your first tala exercise. If you keep your clapping at the
same speed, but double the speed of reciting you will see that we still have
eight beats, but now 64 words.
Ta Ka Di Mi Ta Ka Ju No Ta Ka Di Mi Ta
Ka Ju No Ta Ka Di Mi Ta Ka Ju No Ta Ka Di Mi Ta Ka Ju No
Ta Ka
Di Mi Ta Ka Ju No Ta Ka Di Mi Ta Ka Ju No Ta Ka Di Mi Ta Ka Ju No Ta Ka Di Mi Ta
Ka Ju No
Thus you will be discovering second speed.
You can see how doubling again (Third Speed) would give 128 words, but still
eight beats.
The clapping gestures that correspond to
the eight beat tala are :
Clap
pinky clap ring
clap middle clap
wave clap wave
8.
Knowledge gained from listening to recording—It
was relatively easy to find the opening sa and hang on to it for reference,
because the oscillations were not too ornate and the dissonance was
minimal. The most common melodic pattern
seemed to be roughly pa ma pa ma gas a, or 5 4 5 4 3 1, followed by sa and low
pa sa sa. The violin was very discreet
and had few chances to play alone. I noticed
a “resting place” towards the end of the piece where the mridangum and soloist
played identical rhythm patterns, which the audience responded to with
applause. I found it difficult to follow the text and I wondered if
improvisational words or verses had been added for the performance.
9.
Watching the video recording—It seems to have
been filmed in a live television format with a live audience. The performers were already on stage, and
each had his own microphone, with the soloist taking the customary center spot.
The soloist would occasionally embellish certain flowery passages with hand
gestures. The instruments used were the
violin, kanjira, tanpura, and mridangam.
I estimated the adi tala being performed at third speed. It was a lively rendition.
10.
I chose
this kriti because the title intrigued me. When I saw “Pranamaamyaham” I
thought of the word “prana”, which I learned in a yoga class. Prana refers to
breathing and breath as the source of power and life. Even though “pranamaamyaham”
means something completely different, it piqued my curiosity. Also, when I
discovered the polished video performance on YouTube, I dove in to see how much
I could learn.
*For this entry in the Kriti Archive, the
sites for MS Word, PDF, Real Audio, MP3, and the Class Lesson would not pull
up, so I did not have access to those.
Here are the citations for the websites I
used:
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