Thanjavur S Kalyanaraman - Kshana Mathuna (audio)

Kshana Mathuna - Valachi
Jayadeva
Adi
Tuned in Valachi by Thanjavur S. Kalyanaraman

Vocal - Thanjavur S. Kalyanaraman
Violin - V.V. Subramaniam
Mridangam - Umayalpuram K. Sivaraman

Apologies to subscribers for not posting often enough. I'd been extremely busy for several months putting in ridiculous hours. Now that my project at work is actually complete, though, I have a bit more time again, and I can hopefully get back up and going again after I return from India.

I'd previously refrained from posting anything featuring SKR mainly because videos of him simply don't exist. Even the recently released documentary program on SKR featured only a single 5-second clip of actual video and was otherwise dominated by still images. Sadly, the man was not at all respected during his lifetime but for serious musicians, and so there simply aren't many engagements in which people cared enough for his performances to consider it worth recording on video. On top of which, many staunch traditionalists who didn't care for SKR's delving into rare ragas and unconventional phrases would regularly speak ill of him. He was eventually awarded the Kalaimamani after a very long career, but sadly passed the very day after it was announced, and like many true musicians' musicians, he is far more appreciated after his death. Regardless, being that I am one of those who has known him and that I have often evangelized his greatness, I feel compelled to provide at least some justification for my position. Among SKR's many explorations in music, he is a master of rendering vivadhi and dvi-madhyama ragas and explored them with a level of comfort that anyone else might otherwise have for a Kalyani or Hindolam. He is also the developer of numerous techniques to improve sruthi-suddham, later on regularly performing with 2 tamburas simultaneously. He also has a gift for brighas with such intense depth to them both in ragam and layam.

In this case, he has tuned an Ashtapathi with a uniquely Hindustani flair to it, as he has done for many others. Among my first knee-jerk reactions upon hearing this the first time was "you can do that with Valachi?" Beyond just the vocal gymnastics, there's simply no end to the extent in which you end up learning more and more about the raga for every pidi all the way from the kaarvai phrases to the lightning fast brighas. Even for all the apparent "flash" you could speak of, there's just so much more you can find if you listen more closely.

I've made efforts to try and clean up the audio to make it sound more clear, but there are limits to what could be done with limited tools. I have to admit that in my aim to bring out the vocals and pakhavadhyam while also reducing noise, the tambura sound is somewhat diminished due to a significant amount of low-frequency noise. I think this is hard to escape in cases like this.

Category:

Music

Tags:

• Carnatic
• Karnatic
• SKR
• Kalyanaraman
• Valachi
• Valaji
• Ashtapathi
• Jayadeva
• VVS
• UKS

[92Bremely]

Is this tthe kalyanaraman who maried Kulabhusany?

[ShootMyMonkey]

Yes, indeed it is. She was originally one of his students, as well.

I'm not used to seeing her name as "Kulabhusany" as opposed to simply "Bhushany" Kalyanaraman, but whatever. It at least seems that we're thinking of the same person, based on what I saw online.

[csk1953]

Haunting music. 

[rarunadri]

Fantastic. Pramada Valachi

[ssankara73]

Ahaaaa... Ahaaaa... One of the most brilliant pieces of Valachi that I have ever heard. Support from VVS and Umayalpuram makes this magical. Thank you so much - I have listened to this 3 times already and everytime a nuance comes to life.

Wow...

[moulirc]

great. Does anyone have an audio of another GNB shishya

and TSK's co singer (Someshwara ) Babu

[nkh369]

This is God's own music! TSK Pranaams to you!