After many years, I performed a Mini Carnatic Vocal Concert as a part of Saveca’s Diwali festival. For the past five years, most of my musical performing has been singing for dance – something that is slowly becoming second nature to me. Considering I only had a real week of practicing after my trip to Colombia, and I didn’t have time to get any feedback from my teachers or my musical seniors prior to the concert, I was pretty happy with the way it turned out. Over the past 5 years I have come a long way, but I still have a long way to go. I’m looking forward to the journey.
Note: I wasn’t able to download all the pieces, including my main raagam, but I hope you enjoy this excerpt.
A few years ago, my mami introduced me to a set of CD’s titled “Sacred Chants”. The CD’s are comprised of simple bhajans & shlokas, rendered by a group of woman singing in beautiful harmony, accompanied by modern instruments. The music really takes you to a different place. This song, titled Krishnashtakam is a shloka about Krishna. My rendition doesn’t have instruments, though I did use a second layer to add in some harmony. I had actually recorded this over two years ago, using my old lenovo laptop & mike, back when I was in University. It was a very nice discovery :)
Krishnashtakam Lyrics
Vasu deva sutham devam
Kamsaanura mardhanam
Devaki paramaa nandham
Krishnam vandhe jagathgurum
Yesterday, Saint Thyagaraja would have turned 245 years old. Thyagaraja composed 1000’s of Kritis, and each year we still honour his contribution to Carnatic Music at our annual Thyagaraja festival.
I drew this using lead pencil on card paper that we got in bulk at Chapters. :P Clearly, I was not introduced to the excitement of cool arts products yet.
This past summer I sang for a Bharathanatyam Arangetram, a ‘graduation’ solo performance of a classical Indian dancer who has been training for many years. What originally was a daunting task has now become a summer staple. I have been learning Carnatic music for nearly 15 years, and Bharathanatyam for over 10, so singing for dance was a natural next step.
The first clip is a Ganesh Song that I sang to kick off the performance. The song Sri Mahaganapathim Bhaje Hum is in raagam Ataana.
The second song is a Bengali Song Nrityero Tale Tale, which was chosen specifically for the Bengali Student. This is a beautiful Rabindra Sangeet, which was definitely my pride and joy of the concert. It was my first Rabindra Sangeet, my first song in Bengali, and my ‘source’ was a YouTube Video. I had to listen to each word very carefully, and enlist some Bengali family friends to help me with my diction.
The next is an excerpt of two other songs that I sang.
I have already signed up for an Arangetram next summer, so there will be more to come :)
A few months ago, I attended a Bombay Jayashri kacheri (concert) at a Kannada temple, and LOVED “Raagi Thandhira” in Revati Raagam. I promptly learnt the song using YouTube, and though I probably don’t do justice to it, I still enjoy singing it.
The composer Purandaradasa starts with the simple meaning of the word Raagi (grain), asking for grain. He then plays on the world raagi to delve into a deeper meaning, basically asking to attain “moksha”
One of my huge music obsessions is “light” carnatic music. This includes songs in raagams such as Kapi, Desh, or Hamir Kalyani, and a wide variety of carnatic fusion music.
During the height of my ‘obsession’ last summer, I discovered “Anil Srinivasan” through the Sikkil Gurucharan Website. I listened to “Sarvam” on the Gurucharan home page and wanted more. I turned to deezer.com, where I found two full albums of Sikkil Gurucharan and Anil Srinivasan, which I have listened to on repeat many times. I also found Anil Srinivasan’s Gallery on his own website. Unfortunately, I haven’t been able to find any of the CDs in the Canadian stores, or I would definitely purchase them.
When it comes to light and soothing carnatic music, this is possibly the best that I have ever heard.
I used my lenovo mike and audacity to record “Ksheerabdhi” onto my computer, and on a new track, I added my own voice in. I used the “noise removal” effect to clean up the sound a little bit. It was a one shot recording, so it’s not even near perfect, but I loved singing with the piano!
So here it is, a “collaboration” with Anil Srinivasan, featuring singers Subiksha Rangarajan, and me!
Lyrics
ksheerabdi kanyakaku sree maha lakshmikini
neerajaalayakunu neeraajanam
Neerajanam means “benediction” or an invocation of divine blessing.
This song goes through all of the qualities of the goddess Lakshmi, and seeks blessings from the one with lotus like eyes, dark flowing hair, soft hands, and a pleasant voice.
