Govind Balasubramaniam comments : Yet another well-researched article. Thank you!! I was just wondering why Charumathi Ramachandran was not mentioned in the body of the paper (she being a contemporary pallavi exponent). Nice to find her name among the references at least. Look forward to more.
Lakshmi Viswanathan comments : A good bit of research on your part. If you need to further substantiate on Pallavis which current musicians like Charumathi ramachandran have painstakingly composed and elaborated please let us know. Today singers even in so called senior category are unable to sing pallavis.... forget pallavis, they cannot sing neraval and swaras... and they are popular artists. The crux of the matter is gurukula vasam.... these current singers can learn all their songs from tapes... but not he technique of pallavis, and neraval swaras.
V. N. Muthukumar And M. V. Ramana comments : We have received a few comments on our article "Unusual Pallavi themes", in addition to the two above. We would like to clarify that our article was in no way concerned with the ability of individual pallavi specialists (which we readily acknowledge) or the complexity of specific pallavis.
The article only dealt with the theme of the pallavi. Therefore, to offer an example, a very intelligently composed pallavi in Narayanagaula raga and in Sankeerna Dhruva tala, khanda nadai with a tricky eduppu would not qualify for mention here, if the lyrics of the pallavi were "mal maruganai ninai maname, diname". The structural complexity of pallavis is a different topic and outside the scope of this article. Even more so is the ability of individual performers to elaborate these.
Pirashanna comments : can anyone please tell me where i can get recordings of palani subramaniam pillai. please!!! thankyou
Arun Sitaraman comments : Great article Senthil and Ramana! I enjoyed listening to these rare gems. Vidwan Sri Tiger Varadhachariar's "Katharikkai" innovation was remarkable! I personally witnessed such an impromptu Pallavi by Vidwan P.S. Narayaswami ("Pichai") in Delaware in 1983, where he sang in praise of his host Dr. P. Rajagopalan (ex-President of CMANA), much to his host's discomfort -- everyone not only enjoyed the Pallavi but also the artist's mischievousness (very characteristic of him).
Rajan Anantharaman comments : Excellent well researched article!! Keep up the good work. Hope to see more from you two energetic authors. Some other pallavis & RTP's are (i) Semmangudi in Madras Music Academy (1966?/67?)the pallavi sounds like " YeraNa sami..." in Kambodi(ji) and is as with Semmangudi, nearly perfect and probably illustrates Tiger's claim?(ii) Madurai Mani Iyer's " Oon darisanam taralaahado Nata-raja" in Kalyani(iii) there are also non-vocal ones for ex.by Lalgudi-Ramani & by Mali.
S. Rajkumar comments : Can someone give me the lyrics for the song "Cumma cumma (Atana)" by Ghanam Krishna Iyer.
Muthukumar comments : The article "Unusual Pallavi Themes" was an interesting read.I wanted to add one interesting pallavi that my guru Sri T.R.Subramanyam [TRS] sang at the Music Academy in the early 70's.[I shd mention that i have only heard abt it].The pallavi,a swarakshara pallavi goes like this : Ma ni da - Ni da ni - sa r vamum - ma davan - seyaleyaam...
The pallavi is in Adi Talam with eduppu on the little finger samam and the arudi falls on the word sa of sarvamum....
M.Lalitha.Sathish Kumar comments : REALLY A GREAT ARTICLE ON PALLAVI.I HEARD A PALLAVI CONCERT (EXCLUSIVELY)GIVEN BY SRI.DR.M.BALAMURALI KRISHNA.WHEN I WAS DOING MY PG IN CLASSICAL MUSIC WE OUGHT TO PRESENT A CONCERT IN WHICH PALLAVI SHOULD TAKE THE MAJOR ROLE.I HOPE ALL YOU KNOW ABOUT THESE PANCHA NADA PALLAVI AND CHATHUSHTHALA PALLAVI.THIS CHATHUSTHALA PALLAVI WILL HAVE 4 THALAMS 1.YEKA THALAM2.ROOPAKA3.KHANDA JATHI CHAAPU4.MISRA CHAPU.IT'S REALLY AN INTERESTING PALLAVI WHICH WE COMPOSED DURING OUR DESSERTATION.
I remember a pallavi sung by Nityasree in Coimbatore in a concert held under the aegis of Vasanta Memorial Trust. The raaga was Shankarabharanam. It went like "Paasamodu thandidavom nesa karangal, vasantam veesidave "
Pallavi comments : i wish to learn karnatic music.
I am residing at Canada.I heard "Sirandha Engalathu NattaiKurinji" RTP Bits, rendered by Shri.KVN & Rudrapradhabam Bros.Excellent.
If possible, Can you please forward the full song ( by KVN & Rudrapradhapam Bros) to my email id : gsv_idea@yahoo.com.
Have a great day thanks in adv SabarivasanGanesan
Shaan Murali comments : We are unable to hear any of the music - is there anyway you could download them & add them - it keeps asking for username & password. The article is so interesting - would really like to hear the music to go with it. Regds, shaan
