Classical Indian Music

Menuhin, Narayanaswami, Menon & Raghu - Classical Indian Music

Performers:
K. S. Narayanaswami - veena
Narayana Menon - veena
Palghat Raghu - mridangam
In his "Introductory Speech", Yehudi Menuhin gives an overview of Indian classical music which he describes as "so utterly strange" in the liner notes. Menuhin also introduces the performances on side two of this LP. Menuhin, by the way, seems to be most known for his collaborations with Ravi Shankar especially on the West Meets East recordings.
Menuhin wrote the liner notes of this LP:
It is a sign of the times that along with the beautiful art books which reveal to our regimented urban dweller the dreams and achievements of civilisations far distant in time and space, it is also possible to count on an eager and enlightened public in the world of music, equally prepared to listen to aural constructions as fanciful, as exotic and as fascinating as the more tangible edifices in stone.
It has brought us of the Asian Music Circle in London great satisfaction during these years to bring to England, as well as to the great capitals of the Continent, the most distinguished musicians and dancers of India and other Asian countries, and to witness the growth in the public interest in the West since the end of the war, which opened up new worlds and left so many questions to be answered.
There are many that must forever remain unanswered, but the value and the interest in life is precisely to penetrate ever more deeply into mysteries, and away from all that seems too obvious and too certain. As a matter of fact it is a false illusion, as there is nothing, even the most well-known and favourite objects, which can be taken entirely for granted, and I for one feel that by refining our ear and our sense of perception, by listening to music so utterly strange, as the music on this record, we return to the works we know and love belonging to our own traditions with a refreshed interest and a capacity to react more sensitively and more intensely.


Tracklisting:

Side One

1. Introductory Speech {8:33}

2. Janani Mamava {20:17}

Side Two

1. Vara Narada {6:26}

2. Diwakara {10:13}

3. Sakhi Prana {5:22}

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Bhavalu Impressions: South Indian Instrumental Music

V.V. Subramaniam, Palghat Raghu and Sarota Balasubramaniam - Bhavalu Impressions: South Indian Instrumental Music

performers:

V.V. Subramaniam - violin

Palghat Raghu - mridangam

Sarota Balasubramaniam - tambura

K.V. Narayanaswamy - singer (only on Mridangam Solo)

From the liner notes:

The two instruments featured on this recording are indispensable members of almost every South Indian concert group. The violin, played in Indian style, and the barrel drum mridangam form the normal accompaniment for classical vocal music, South Indian flute, and often for the typical plucked stringed instrument, the vina. The drone instrument tambura provides an essential pitch reference point.

The mridangam is one of the most highly developed percussion instruments in the world, and early forms of it are found in Buddhist sculpture of the 2nd century B.C. The present South Indian mridangam is played on both ends with the bare hands. Each head is a composite of several layers of hide, and two kinds of tuning paste are used, making possible a great variety of controllable tonal inflections. The playing technique is difficult, and requires years to master.

The violin seems to have been introduced into South Indian classical music during the latter part of the 18th century, and as the public concert became a more and more important social phenomenon, it became increasingly popular as an accompanying instrument because of the strength of its tone. The player sits cross-legged, resting the instrument against foot and chest, thereby facilitating the sliding-finger technique necessary to produce the almost constant flow of gamakas, or ornaments, in which the music abounds. Recently, the violin has been heard more and more often as a solo instrument, sometimes with the accompaniment of a second violin. Like the other South Indian solo instruments - principally the vina, flute, and the reed pipe nagaswaram - it has no separate repertoire of compositions, but is used to play an instrumental version of the classical songs which form an extensive literature from the past four hundred years or so.

Tracklisting:

Side 1

1. Mridangam Solo {18:51}

Side 2

1. Kriti: Bhogindra Sayinam {3:40}

2. Kriti: Minakshi {13:40}

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