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Anthology of 'Kritis'
CORE OF KARNATIC MUSIC: A. D. Madhavan; Music
Zone, P.B. No. 125, 430/XVII, N.H. Bye Pass Road, Aluva-1, Kerala.
Rs. 650.
THE AUTHOR, has brought out this anthology of
popular Carnatic music Kritis of great composers with their
meanings, to enable listeners to appreciate not only the songs, but
also the emotions of the composers.
Of the 404 songs that find place in this
publication — 118 are of Thyagaraja, 75 of Muthuswami Dikshithar, 31
of Shyama Shastri, 39 of Swati Tirunal, 23 of Purandaradasa, 23 of
Annamacharya, 19 of Papanasam Sivan and 72 more compositions of
Uthukadu Venkatasubbaiyer, Mysore <243>Vasudevacharya,
Sadasiva Brahmendrar, Narayana Theertha, Kanaka Dasa, Muthaiah
Bhagavathar, Arunagirinathar, Subramania Bharathi, K. C. Kesava
Pillai, Iraiamman Thambi, Kutti Kunju Thangachi, Narasingh Mehta, G.
N. Balasubramaniam, Lalitadasar, Balamurali Krishna, Neelakanta
Sivan, Pallavi Gopala Iyer, Arunachala Kavirayar, Patnam Subramania
Iyer, Bhadrachala Ramdas, Ilango Adigal, Paramacharya Chandrashekara
Saraswathi of Kanchi, N. S. Chidambaram, Mayuram Viswanatha Sastri,
Jayachamaraja Wodeyar and Suddhananda Bharathi.
The compilation of the songs in several languages
such as Telugu, Sanskrit, Tamil, Kannada and Malayalam, arranged
alphabetically, makes it user friendly and facilitates instant
access to any composition.
The names of the Raga, Tala, composer, language and
the Raga's ascending and descending scales are clearly indicated.
Group Kritis like Tyagaraja's Pancharathna, Dikshithar's Abhayamba,
Kamalamba, Navagraha and Ramavibhakthi, and the Navarathri songs of
Swati Tirunal are some of the musical gems included.
The text of each song is given in Devanagari,
English and Malayalam, and its gist in English and Malayalam. The
transliteration scheme is crystal clear.
An anthology of this kind with so many kritis in
numerous Ragas by 33 composers is perhaps the one of its kind, and
all credit to the compiler for his monumental labour of love.
The small flies in the ointment are quite a few
sahitya lapses in some of the Tamil songs. Some of the instances
are, "Kantanaal" by N. S. Chidambaram should read "Kandanaal", in
the Madhyamavathi song "Saravanabhava", it should be "Maal
Marugane", not "Maal Muruhane", the error in "Enna Thavam Seidanai",
is "Uralil Ketti", but it is "Uralil Katti".
The index indicates that Uthukadu Kavi's "Alai
Paayudhe" is in raga Kannada, but it is Kaanada that is entirely
different from Kannada.
The numbering of the pages goes awry at the end,
and Arunachala Kavi's "Yaro Ivar Yaro" in Bhairavi, although
mentioned in the contents, does not find a place in the mainstream
of the book.
However, for an effort of this magnitude, these
slips may be condoned, but care must be taken that they do not occur
in future publications.
SULOCHANA PATTABHI RAMAN
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