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Understanding a Raga through the interpretations of T Brinda and Dr S Ramanathan

Date: 25.12.2024 – Wednesday – 8.05 – 8.50 a.m.

Speaker : Sangita Kalanidhi Dr S Sowmya

Title : Understanding a Raga through the interpretations of T Brinda and Dr S Ramanathan

Abstract:

While Carnatic Music seems to have rigid definitions in terms of raga scales, in reality there is considerable scope for creativity. This is where the skill of the individual artiste comes into play in terms of exploring the contours as opposed to the mere scalar structure of a raga. In truth if we were to merely depend on the scale it is highly unlikely that we would have such a wealth of compositions – after all it is through the medium of the raga that our vaggeyakara-s
chose to express their lyrical output.

While we do have compositional and textual references on the evolution of the raga, it is with the arrival of recording technology that we are able to see how artistes of the last century handled ragas in their performances. And this is where we see startling and subtle individual differences in their raga handling – reflective of their respective gurus, the felicity of their voices and their formidable intellects. And yet, we realise that they were handling the same
ragas!

I propose to explore this through three ragas – Suruti, Saveri and Sahana as handled by Sangita Kalanidhi-s T Brinda and Dr S Ramanathan.