Topic started by Rohan Krishnamurthy (@ pm533-02.dialip.mich.net) on Sun Apr 30 10:35:47 .
All times in EST +10:30 for IST.

Hello. I am a 12- year old mridangam player who learns from mridangam maestro Guruvayur Dorai. I have performed with artists like Padma Narayanaswmy, T.M.Krishna, Sangeetha Krishnamoorthy (in the Music Academy), Madurai Sunder, etc. My favorite are defintely Guruvayur Dorai, Umayalapuram Sivaraman, Palghat Mani Iyer, Pazhani Subramanium Pillai, C.S.Murghabhoopathy, Trichy Snakaran, Karikudi Mani, Thank You. Anwyay, I would like to know who your favorite mridangists are and why.

Responses:

• Old responses
  
• From: Rohan Krishnamurthy (@ pm534-21.dialip.mich.net) on: Fri May 19 15:17:48 EDT 2000
  
  Dear Begada,
  I must agree with you that Murghabhoopathy was a really great artist. Though I have never heard him live, or even heard too many recordings of his, I can still live up to the statement. His special technique for the thoppi side, seperating the fingers and playing, was very enjoyable.
  
  
• From: suhas (@ 203.197.54.127) on: Sat May 20 09:22:52 EDT 2000
  
  
  HI Rohan and Nick
  
  I hear statements like His Toppi is very good.can you guys explian the meaning of this term.
  
  
  Thanks a lot in advance
  
  
• From: nick (@ host.sumitomomarine.co.uk) on: Mon May 22 13:09:24 EDT 2000
  
  I don't think that mridangam makers/repairers in India can economically be expected to engage in research & development. The commission has to come from thise who can afford to commision the experiments.
  Mridangams do change with time: just look at the shape of very old ones, it is different to modern ones.
  Maybe there is nothing wrong with the black as a design principle: how long it lasts seems to be related to the care and expertese with which it is applied. I think that experiments have been done using synthetic materials for heads and body (didn't Sivaraman do this??).
  Sometimes the traditional materials are the best!
  
  
• From: nick (@ host.sumitomomarine.co.uk) on: Mon May 22 13:10:25 EDT 2000
  
  >>His special technique for the thoppi side, seperating the fingers
  
  ?? I'm being thick here but I don't understand
  
  
• From: nick (@ host.sumitomomarine.co.uk) on: Thu May 25 08:57:56 EDT 2000
  
  suhas....
  Sorry, no-one tried to answer you! Thopi is the name of left-hand side, so this simply refers to left-hand technique, quality of sound, gumaka etc.
  
  
• From: Nadopasaka (@ ahppp15.buffnet.net) on: Fri May 26 10:49:44 EDT 2000
  
  Bheri ( a kind of drum ?? ) is referred in the MD krities e.g. vina-bheri venu vadya (Abheri), bheri-vinavenuvadane in UcchistaGanapatau(KRkriya), bheri-maddala-vina-vadana in Sadasraye(Chamaram) and murali-bheri-vadyadi priyakaram in Hariharaputram(Vasanta).
  
  What exactly is bheri and maddala ? Also is there any bell-ringing accompaniment known for CM ?
  
  
• From: nick (@ host.sumitomomarine.co.uk) on: Wed May 31 06:51:52 EDT 2000
  
  maddala... could be the drum used to accompany katakali? The two-ended one that looks a little like a large mridangam but sounds like a cross between mridangam and thavil. Like tavil, the right hand uses rice-flour (or clay?) rings on the fingers to give an even sharper sound on a tightly streched skin.
  
  
• From: Nadopasaka (@ adppp11.buffnet.net) on: Wed May 31 11:56:15 EDT 2000
  
  Thank you, Nick. The raaga word Ghanta means Bell but the bell sound is not discernible in older krities. Such sounds may appear in modern quasi-CM orchestras which use synthesizers.
  
  
• From: Ravi Kiran (@ 210.214.123.122) on: Wed May 31 15:37:15 EDT 2000
  
  nado:
  there is an interesting anecdote regarding the raga ghanta. this was told by TRS in a lec-dem.
  trs and ramnad krishnan once went to a lec in music academy where smt muktha was demonstrating this raga. they could not recognize this raga but later were told it was ghanta. they felt that it was a raga that needed to be mastered, so they returned to their respectice home towns and decided to get a hang of this ghanta raga.
  after 6 months, when trs and rk met at a function, trs told rk that he was unable to do anything with ghanta - for which rk said:
  "ghantale onnume illeyA, dhanyaasiya thappaa padinaa adhudhaan ghantaa"
  to which trs replied:
  "appudiya? appo, naan ippovarekum dhanyaasienu nenechu padinadhu ghantaadhaano??"
  
  
  
• From: Nadopasaka (@ aappp43.buffnet.net) on: Wed May 31 17:52:29 EDT 2000
  
  Thats a good one, RaviKiran :-))) :-))). I understand Punnagavarali is also related to these two.
  
  
• From: Ramaprasad (@ 204.154.176.49) on: Wed May 31 18:28:25 EDT 2000
  
  Ghanta has phrases of Bhairavi also, in addition
  to PunnagavaraLi and Dhanyasi
  
  -Ramaprasad K V
  
  
• From: Nadopasaka (@ aeppp22.buffnet.net) on: Wed May 31 20:28:34 EDT 2000
  
  Maybe Lakshman can clarify how these m8 and m20 janyas are often confused ? Is Dhanyasi from m8 or m20 ?
  
  It may be difficult to find a Dhanyasi kriti in Jhampa tala though ?
  
  
• From: Ramaprasad (@ 204.154.176.49) on: Wed May 31 21:10:59 EDT 2000
  
  dhanyAsi is from 8th mEla, no cause for confusion
  since it uses R1 G2 combination; Also dhanyAsi
  has the dIrgha kampita gandhAra of tODi.
  
  There can be some confusion about rAgas like
  hindOLa which are subset of both mELa 8 and 20.
  If you go by the first occurence rule, then it
  has to be 8. If you go by similarity, (or lack
  of similarity- in this case to the kampita
  gAndhAra) it is 20.
  
  Ghanta, having both R1,R2 and being a chAyAlaga
  (mixed) may be a good bet for both 8 and 20 I guess !
  
  -Ramaprasad K V
  
  
• From: Nadopasaka (@ aippp9.buffnet.net) on: Wed May 31 21:45:07 EDT 2000
  
  KVR, In addition to Dhanyasi, I am hard put to find Jhampa tala krities in Todi other than MunnuRavana and Dachukovalena by Tyg. If R1 is bhashaanga in Ghanta then it should appear only sparingly. What is the specification for the gandhara of Ghanta ?
  
  
• From: Lakshman (@ hse-kitchener-ppp78762.sympatico.ca) on: Wed May 31 22:11:56 EDT 2000
  
  Nadopasaka:
  There are at least 20 kritis in Dhanyasi that use Jhampa tala. One of them is Veru tunai by Papanasham Shivan.
  Re: Dhanyasi-confusion- this seems to have been cleared up by KVR.
  
  
• From: Nadopasaka (@ aappp12.buffnet.net) on: Thu Jun 1 00:52:46 EDT 2000
  
  Thanks Lakshman. Does PapanashamS also have Jhampa tala krities in Todi ? Just a note there appear to be only three krities by HMB (out of 400 odd ) in Jhampa tala, one of which is SuddhaLalita ?
  
  
• From: Lakshman (@ ppp7870.on.bellglobal.com) on: Thu Jun 1 08:16:17 EDT 2000
  
  Nado:
  Shivan has no kritis in Todi set to Jhampa tala.
  
  
• From: Nadopasaka (@ adppp41.buffnet.net) on: Thu Jun 1 13:48:13 EDT 2000
  
  I read somewhere that the MD student Tambiappa, for whom the Navagraha krities were constructed ( at least , based on one historical version ) was also called SuddhaMaddala Tambiappa. This SuddhaMaddala instrument reference appears a few times in the MD krities e.g. chandrashekhara- margahindola and shri Tyagarajasya - rudrapriya. Maybe he provided percussion accompaniment to MD.
  
  
• From: suhas (@ 203.197.54.47) on: Fri Jun 2 14:21:02 EDT 2000
  
  
  
  Hi folks
  
  Is Mridangam playing to Thirrupagh a special challenge.I read in RMIC that these Arunagirinathir songs are set to special time meters or Chandam meters.
  How are these different from normal Taals
  
  
• From: nick (@ host.sumitomomarine.co.uk) on: Mon Jun 5 07:12:53 EDT 2000
  
  Thirrupughal... Even pronouncing it is a
  challenge! I think that it is only possible
  to accompany if you know it.
  
  (I probably spelt it wrong as well. I know that
  it is one of thos Tamil words that is sometimes
  spelt [transliterated] with a z in it which is
  particularly baffling to us non-tamil speakers.
  
  (Yes, yes, I know I should learn).
  
  
• From: Janani Srinivasan (@ d4179.dialup.cornell.edu) on: Sat Aug 5 12:16:24
  
  Here is what I consider to be one of the most erudite and scintillating articles on Palghat Raghu which appeared in the
  Deccan Herald a couple of years ago.The writer is N.Manu Chakravarthy.A professor of English at Bangalore's
  NMKRV college,he has closely followed Palghat Raghu all through his brilliant career.Mr.Chakravarthy ,incidentally
  ,also has the distinction of being one of the foremost cultural critics in Karnataka.A collection of his articles and
  interviews entitled 'CONVERSATIONS AND CULTURAL REFLECTIONS'has been brought out by the BR
  PUBLISHING CORPORATION in collaboration with NMKRV college.Here is the piece reproduced in its entirety
  with the author's permission.:
  __________________________________________________
  FROM RAW SOUND TO STRUCTURED PATTERNS
  -On Palghat Raghu
  
  
  Eliot's comment that "Expression is altered only by a man of genius", far from being a tribute to the individual, is actually a
  vital insight into the nature of a serious and profound relationship between an artist and his medium.
  A rigorous analysis attempting to highlight the significant aspects of an art form will inevitably have to underline several
  phases as crucial junctures when the genius of a single individual transformed its entire conception and structure. Such an
  endeavor does not merely draw attention to the genius of an outstanding artist, but, quite appropriately, offers new
  perspectives that question outmoded conceptions, and more importantly, generate fresh ideas by which new modes of
  understanding come into being.
  It was Palghat Mani Iyer who brought about such a tremendous transformation in Karnatic music. The amazing genius of
  Mani Iyer pushed the Mridangam to the foreground, offering laya as a great structural dimension, not just as a
  time-marking measure, with patterns as significant as those of the main performer. The Mridangam at the hands of Mani
  Iyer, was not an instrument that would just mark time through the Jatis, but an indispensable ally that enhanced the
  beauty of the fabric of the main piece and, at the same time, a challenge that, if accepted would carry the main performer
  to extraordinary heights that he could never have reached on his own.
  This only meant that it became impossible to dissociate the main performer and his music from the mridangam and its
  structures. After Mani Iyer it was not just the position of the mridangam and the aspirations of the main performer that
  had changed, but also the expectations of the listener-at least the sensitive one- who began to demand a high
  combination of raga and laya. It would not be wrong to say that Mani Iyer's greatest achievement was in the perfect
  fusion he brought about between raga and laya on the concert platform that mridangists earlier had not been able to. The
  change was, essentially, creative and not theoretical, its value greater in imaginative than in intellectual terms.
  The second phase of this transformation is equally noteworthy. If Mani Iyer unleashed new structures forcefully, and at
  times wildly, it was Palghat Raghu's genius that ordered, shaped and beautified them.
  It was through Raghu that the imaginative and creative aspects of Mani Iyer's vision became crystallized into highly
  contemplative, deeply thought out and very finely chiseled images. Mani Iyer's profusion of ideas, uncontrollable and
  raging at times, had to necessarily evolve further in terms of acquiring balance, restraint and architectural order and
  beauty.
  The mridangam gained all these through Palghat Raghu who furthered -both on intellectual and aesthetic planes-the
  dimensions opened up by his great teacher. The mridangam in Karnatic music thus further entrenched his position. The
  great master's vision gained a new dimension, as it needed to, through his greatest disciple.
  The manner in which Palghat Raghu achieved this is revealing. Raghu introduced into Mani Iyer's massive and expansive
  structures, at times rhetorical and merely dazzling, little strokes that etched the sound more deeply and closely,
  eliminating strokes that were superfluous and even out of place.
  A close study of Mani Iyer and Raghu would certainly establish the fact that Raghu's "texts" are more intricately knit,
  highly sophisticated in texture and weave a pattern where the selection of strokes is strictly determined by principles of
  structural order and cohesion. Mani Iyer's bani, however, drew more from the power of the sound than from a notion of
  structural unity.
  The advance made by Raghu over Mani Iyer is remarkable and it must be acknowledged unequivocally, has been
  possible only because of Mani Iyer's astounding supporting base.
  An important aspect of Raghu's genius that must be mentioned is that one discovers in it the vision to integrate Mani
  Iyer's breath taking sweep with the gentler but deeper touches of Palani Subramaniam Pillai which issue out a resonance
  and subtlety that establish a perfect concord between power and restraint. The most outstanding "texts" of Raghu
  interthread Mani Iyer and Palani Subramania Pillai to create a combination that a man of lesser genius would never be
  able to dream of, let alone produce.
  It is only an intensive study of Raghu's playing during the neraval , the kalpana swaras and the rendering of the anuloma,
  viloma and pratiloma of the pallavi that would bring all these to light.
  The other great measure of Raghu's genius is the thani avarthanam which is an outstanding representation of all the
  shades of feeling and thought of the main piece. Raghu's thani avarthanams are, essentially, perfect objective correlatives
  of those images produced by the main performer.
  All these are possible only because Raghu produces swaras and not lifeless jathis on the instrument that measure upto,
  and on occasion even go beyond, the patterns of the main artiste.
  It is again only a deep study that helps one comprehend the truth that Raghu does not accompany passively, but literally
  moves with the artiste at the center in great unison, creating patterns of great tonal variety, effecting the subtle shifts
  between the left hand side and the right, projecting a mosaic that is a perfect whole unifying a variety of combinations of
  richness and depth, punctuated throughout by wonderful variations, in the nadai.
  Serious listeners of Karnatic music, who are conversant with the nuances introduced by the great mridangam players,
  would not hesitate to state that it achieves its greatness only through performers who blend the fine aspects of laya with
  their conception of the raga. It is an imperative in Karnatic music to unfold the range and depth of a raga not just through
  the rendering of alapana but, more importantly, in discovering its infinite possibilities in the combinations created through
  the neraval, the swaras and of course, in the rendering of the pallavi.
  The form of Karnatic music, so different from Hindusthani music in organization and movement, where the role of the
  percussionist is essentially secondary in nature makes it virtually impossible for one to create a great piece without
  depending heavily on the laya scheme.
  When the Sruti Foundation launched the Ragam Tanam Pallavi series some years age, K.V.Narayanaswamy, in the
  inaugural concert, was paired with Raghu.KVN took up a piece in Todi with a take-off point that was quite complex. In
  the course of his delineation, at the momentous part, KVN could not reach the sama correctly even after three or four
  attempts.
  The rendering thereafter gained substance and solidity only when Raghu took over and guided KVN-a fact KVN himself
  acknowledged later on elsewhere. The magnificent manner in which laya operated throughout the rendering was a great
  tribute to Raghu and a clear demonstration of the value of laya in Karnatic music.
  A couple of months ago, at a chamber concert, T.K.Govinda Rao went through a similar experience while singing a kriti-
  and it was the mridangam that eventually balanced him out. Govinda Rao acknowledged this debt to Raghu at the end of
  the concert. These are not isolated incidents that draw attention to themselves, but on the contrary, support the position
  that as far as the scheme of Karnatic music is concerned, laya is the determining base.
  Karnatic music is perhaps at its lowest point now. The greatest indication of this is the fact that even big names prefer
  mridangam players who churn out convenient inane sarvalaghu patterns that have neither substance nor meaning. The
  presence of a great artiste like Raghu, however, assures us that all is not hopelessly lost and gone forever. It is only in
  bringing the soul of laya back to the center that we can restore the vibrant vitality of Karnatic music. It must be
  recognized by those who still care for Karnatic music that they cannot talk of its greatness if it sacrifices its most vital
  component-laya.
  The future of Karnatic music is in a very big sense, wholly dependent on what the present does with the genius of men
  like Palghat Mani Iyer,Palani Subramania Pillai and Palghat Raghu.
  __________________________________________________
  
  
• From: balakrishnan (@ adsl-64-175-243-13.dsl.sntc01.pacbell.net) on: Thu Jun 19 16:28:58
  
  this is reg upendran . he had his earlier trg from thanjavur rajam iyer a veteren mirudangist in those days.
  
  

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