Rare Treats in Carnatic Music #10

After a brief hiatus (job change, new schedule etc. ete.), here is the tenth one in the series (click here for the ninth one).

This is actually a well known, charming and beautiful raga – but this still is rare and special (at least to me!) It should be fairly easy to identify I think. If you are on the right track, there is only one answer. If you are in the right neighborhood, there are only two possible answers! If did get it right,  and before you read the ensuing analysis below, give some thought into why you were able to identify it and not be misdirected. I would be interesting in knowing your reasoning and intuition.

So here it goes.

Note: I have “masked out” the refrain line of the kalpanaswaras out with a tampura sound  to not give things away (although I think the krithi is rare). I  know it is odd – hopefully it does not affect your listening pleasure and interfere with your thought process too much!

(Audio Courtesy: Sangeethapriya)

So, can you guess the  raga and the artist?

(answer below)

 

Rare treats in Carnatic Music – 2

Here is the second one in this series (click here for the first one). It is an alapana for a well known song, fairly common in concerts, but perhaps one for which alapana is rarely rendered (at least to me). Thus it is is special to me.

The musician should be obvious to most of the listeners as he is very well known. I also suspect many of you will be able to guess the raga. In any case, just enjoy an alapana!

(Download here)

(Answer below)

 

Rare treats in Carnatic Music – 1

A lot of popular ragas and compositions which feature regularly in carnatic music concerts. It is not uncommon to run into elaborate renditions of ragas like tODi, bhairavi, SankarabharaNam, kalyANi, kAmbhOji, kharaharapriya (“the big six”), as well as pantuvarali, pUrvikalyANi, mOhanam, madhyamAvati and many many others of similar stature. Even though some complain about the seeming monotony or repetition of the ragas, most Carnatic music aficionados never tire listening to the ragas and the compositions they are intimately familiar with and love!

However, there is also a special charm when musicians present new concepts. Many musicians of the current as well as previous generations have sought to go against the usual theme, and present rare ragas. For example, you find musicians like T.S. Kalyanaraman handle rare vivAdhi mELas with ease (as well as invent new ragas). In the recent generations, handling of rare ragas are much more common.  Although, there are  certainly exceptions to this, a big majority of these fall into ragas which are usually completely new to us in the sense we may not have heard renditions of them at all.  It does make them special.

However, even more special to me  are the times when a musician does something unique/different/new in a raga that is not exactly of the “completely new and rare” kind. It is most special to me when the raga is something that I like, and I want to hear artists try something elaborative in it, a want that is usually not satisfied. I have a few examples of these in my collection, and I thought I would share them here.

Here is the first one.  Try to guess the raga and the artist. Let me know what you think of this piece.

(Download here)

(Answer below)