11/30/2023: Musical Exploration - South Indian Music, Part 2
Characteristics of Classical Music CulturesLast season, David Schonfeld presented an Introduction to the Classical Music of South India. David didn't even get through the "teaser" videos he had assembled by way of overview, but these elicited an eager and interested response from the large audience. Many people requested a return engagement. In this follow-up talk, David will go into more detail about melodic organization (raga), metric cycles (tala), compositional forms, improvisational structures, performance conventions, instrumental and vocal training, history, esthetics, and demographics. He will illustrate his points profusely with selected YouTube clips and will also demonstrate on the vina.
Note that today's event will take place in the church's Fellowship Hall.
You may wish to read David's Introduction to Part 1, from September 29, 2022. At that session he showed excerpts from the following videos, to evoke reactions and questions:
Common Talas
Saroja dala/സരോജ ദള /sopanam movie song/Yesudas/Jayaraj/ - YouTube
Nikhila paapa nivaranaika-Chembai, Chowdiah and Palakkad Mani in Vaani(1943) - YouTube
Svaralankara - 9th Annual Music Festival 2018 - Carnatic Vocal duet byRanjani & Gayathri - YouTube
T Brinda & Vegavahini Vijayaraghavan at University of Washington, Seattle, 1969 - YouTube
Mysuru Asthana Sangeetothsava - Karnatic Flute by Heramba & Hemantha - YouTube
Mallari - Nagaswaram Thirumeignanam T P N Ramanathan Pandamangalam G Yuvaraj - YouTube
Post-Presentation Materials
Many attendees requested that David post his documentation and suggest links for further exploration. Here are some document download links:
Characteristics of Classical Music Cultures
Distinctive Features of Carnatic Music Compared to Western Classical Music
Excellent contemporary artists, for whom good-quality video exists:
Learn Ragas with Charulatha Mani - YouTube
There are countless videos and audio recordings now available on YouTube. You can access them by entering search phrases such as "carnatic concert video", "carnatic audio", "carnatic vocal", "carnatic violin", "carnatic flute", etc.