 from the Library of Congress in Washington, DC. Well, welcome. I'm Thea Austin, the public events coordinator for the American Folklife Center here at the library. And on behalf of the entire staff, I'd like to welcome you to this August homegrown concert for 2009. Coolidge, as you may know, has a very long history of presenting traditional and roots music. We've featured over the many years, Jilly Rollmorton was here in 1938, interviewed by Alan Lomax, who, when he was here, he played the piano and told a story. And those recordings were actually recently turned into CDs that won a Grammy a few years ago. We've also had players like Josh White, the Golden Gate Quartet, Mississippi John Hurt, Dolly Parton. And then, of course, the Bozart Trio and many classical musicians. So Coolidge has quite an august history. All of these concerts here have been recorded. They're in our permanent collections. And this concert today that you'll hear will also go into the permanent collections of the American Folklife Center. So future students and scholars can listen and learn from the artists that we're presenting. So this would be a good time to turn off your cell phones because in 100 years you might have researchers listening to your special ring if you don't. This concert will also go on our website as a webcast along with the program notes. So it will be there also accessible anywhere. You can get the World Wide Web. The Homegrown Series was designed to feature the very best in traditional music and dance from around the country. And we work collaboratively with the Millennium Stage at the Kennedy Center. These folks performed there last night at the Millennium Stage. And that's also on a webcast online. We also work with many talented and dedicated state folk arts coordinators and ethnomusicologists all over the country. And they help us identify and bring to DC representative and wonderful artists so that we can bring them to you. Today we're presenting South Indian Venomusic from Oregon. And to introduce the group and tell you a little bit more about the tradition, let me now bring on Mark Levy an ethnomusicologist at the University of Oregon. Hello, everyone. I'm Mark Levy from the University of Oregon School of Music. And there are very informative program notes that you can look at. But I'll just summarize a few points. You'll be seeing a presentation of classical music of South India. And when we talk about classical music in India, we're talking about traditions that developed in temples and courts over the period of several thousand years, usually through the patronage of elite social classes. Due to greater Islamic influence in the north, classical music in India gradually diverged into two separate traditions from about the 13th century on what we call Hindustani music in the north and Carnatic music in the south. So today is a presentation of Carnatic music. Although there are significant differences between these two traditions, they're both based on ideas related to compositions and improvisations and particular melodic frameworks called ragas and rhythmic cycles called talas. And as the concert proceeds, I'll be asking questions of the performers and we'll be explaining things and help you know what to listen for. Shri Vidya Chandramoli, who plays the plucked string instrument Veena, is a 10th generation performer in the Kairai Kudi tradition of Carnatic music. The Veena, a plucked string instrument of the Lute family, is associated with Saraswati, the Hindu goddess of learning and the arts who is often depicted seated on a swan or peacock playing this instrument. Perhaps you've seen pictures of that. Shri Vidya began learning Veena at the age of four from her mother Rajeshwadi Padmanampan. In addition to this traditional training, she received a master's degree in music from the University of Madras. She's also an experienced vocalist and visual artist. Shri Vidya has been living in Portland, Oregon since the late 1980s, where she teaches South Indian music in her home. She'll be accompanied on a double headed, barrel shaped drum Muradangam by Puvallur Shriji. Puvallur studied South Indian drumming with his father, P.A. Vankatharaman, and has performed and recorded with leading artists from both South and North Indian traditions, as well as Western performers such as Yehudi Menuhin, Mark O'Connor, John Bergamo and Glenn Valiz. He's currently a member of the faculty at the University of North Texas and has taught at the California Institute of the Arts and San Diego State University. Also preying on stage will be Shri Vidya's sons, Kapila and Sushruta. Both are advanced students of their mother and are continuing the family tradition of Vina playing. Today they will be playing an instrument called Tambura, a plucked stringed instrument that provides a constant drone against which the melody moves. So let's welcome our performers. Shri Vidya, perhaps you can tell us a little bit about what we just heard. Thank you, Mark. I wish to thank Library of Congress, making this possible. The first piece that we opened today is a melody set in the raga called Naate, in a cycle called Aditala, which is 8-bit cycle. You heard me sing along with my instrument. I sang in a language called Sanskrit. This particular composition extols the goddess of learning, which Mark spoke about at the beginning of the program. Saraswati, you might have heard the word Saraswati towards the end of the composition, where I paused, singing the line. Saraswati, sadhitehe shikannuta guunajale, Saraswati. It extols Saraswati, who sports the Vina in her hands. The book, Pustaka, in her hands, and describes the beauty in her face, the goddess of learning, with such a illumination. So this is a composition composed by Polir Durasamy Engar, an ancient composition, which my family tradition treasures very much. It's a beloved composition of the tradition. Thank you. Could you just say a few words about the Vina in terms of how it's put together and how it's played? The instrument itself is made out of jackwood, which is a tropical tree. All the South Indian instruments are made of jackwood. The mirthangam is made of jackwood. The tambora that you see are all made of jackwood. Nowadays, we have also started using red cedar in place of jack. This particular instrument, the age of the wood is about 70 years. Vina is a 24-freted instrument with brass frets that you see that are fixed on top of beeswax. This is something that we replace depending on how often we use the instrument and how much it is used in concerts. So the building of the wax fret happens once in two years or every year. In Portland, Oregon, we are fortunate to be able to do that every year for some instruments due to the heavy use and also the learning process that all the students go through in building the frets for the instrument. It is a seven-stringed instrument with a fine tuning on the right side and the major tuning on the left side. There are two resonators. One is called the kudam. The other is a lap rest, which is a secondary resonator. And you have a dragon head on one side, which is symbolic of fertility in Eastern culture and warding of evil spirits. So this is how the instrument is usually constructed. Sometimes instead of a dragon face, you might also see a lotus or a peacock face. And if the dragon is facing upward the other way, it is used by spiritually uplifted person. So you can see I'm not so much spiritually uplifted yet. So my dragon face is down. I will let Shreeji also talk a little bit about his percussion instrument. The strings are tuned to, today we have D-sharp and five below D-sharp. Since the instrument is heavily pulled and slided, the tuning is often a little bit off. So the performers have the freedom to stop anywhere in between and retune themselves. And the drones that you see behind are the ones that are constant like a white screen. And they will be constantly playing the drone on which the melody is projected. So without the drone, we are basically free. But with the drone, they envelope us. And we are completely in their world to play the melody. So sometimes the drones suggest what raga you could play. So the concept that you're hearing today is completely unplanned, not discussed. We still do not know what is going to come next. But the drone suggests maybe we should try this. Maybe we should change. So it gives us a mood to form what we want to do. This drum is called the brittangam, brittangam, which means brittangam means a drum made out of, britt is like the clay. So initially a long time when they were making the drum of the clay. And since it's not really that durable, they switched to the jackal. And from the tuning, I will start because this drum is tuned, and that's what suggests it's an ancient drum because I use a rock and a stone to tune the drum. And there are like 16 pairs. And if you tune that, so it's the same thing. The Indian instruments are very moody. So you have to keep tuning them quite often. So you'll find that there's a disturbance. But they go out of tune quick. There is a high light, it goes up, and it's up. So I do have many different drums for each and every pitch. So the first question they asked me when they called me for a concert, is what is your pitch? And then how much you pay? And that is as important as that, this pitch thing. And basically, if I open it up, you can see just like a jack wood barrel shape. And it is hollow inside. And this is my primary here, which we call the Wallon Ballet or the right here. So that's where all the most of the strokes are made. The left side is my base here. And this one, you don't get to see much because it does not look that pretty. And so we hide it. It gives a base tone. Though it's a small head, it has the base tone because I apply this cream of wheat. I make a paste of cream of wheat. I apply that there in the center, so it gives the base tone. And since the cream of wheat is a little wet, you know, it gives more of a resonant tone to that. And in the traditional style, this will be tied with the water buffalo skin. I mean, in flexes, they're just great. So I'm not putting a wedding night on here, which works fine, so. So that's the construction. And this one, it just looks tight enough I put this one. And normally, you know, I can tighten it up and take it, so it's not a necessary piece. So, and as far as the light, the most important thing about birthing is constructing the phrase like ta, ti, dum. Dum. Now, it's like alphabet. And you make a word, ki-ta-ta-ka, ta-ka-tuna. And then you make like a sentence, ta-na-ta-dina-ta-dina-ta-dina-ta-dina-ta-dina-ta-dina-ta-dina-ta-dina. It's a language, I have learned this language, so I don't really care about what my hand plays, but I think everything in terms of the language, when I hear the song, I respond to that. And so that is the nature of this instrument. Though it is a primarily a time-keeping instrument, we have the liberty to play in unison a lot of times with the vocalist or the instrument player, because she keeps the time sequence in her mind. She's not relaying on me. So I have more freedom in this kind of play, whatever you want. Thank you so much. Perhaps you could say a few words about what you'll be playing next, the next piece. The next is a small composition by the Agaraja in the Raga called Chitranjani, nada tanamanishan, where the sound, which is called as nada in Sanskrit, is extolled as the primal source. And the seven notes that come out of this basic sound is what is extolled in this composition. So I think we're getting a sense of the way Indian music is put together is basically a very strong focus on melody, in this case provided by the voice and Vina, rhythm on the drum and drone on the timbre. So there's really no harmony in a Western sense. It's melody, rhythm and drone. So the melody of a particular piece is always based on something called a Raga. And the rhythm is based on something called a tala. I wonder if we could briefly give people more of an understanding of what these terms mean. I mean, it would take hours, but what's a Raga? Paul, something a Raga. It is not just group of notes, but there are certain personalities attached, some characteristics attached to each and every note, how they are embellished and what role they take in the entire scale. That makes it a Raga. Raga is something that colors your mind. So when you add the embellishments to the plain notes, for example, the composition that I just now played has a very restricted range. That is the range of this particular Raga. And when the embellishment is given, it assumes a certain personality and it is also given by the text. The meaning of the text that adds more color to the entire composition. For example, it is based on a Raga called Karaharapriya. It's a plain scale. We call it Karaharapriya. But if I add embellishments to Karaharapriya, comes a Karaharapriya Raga because of the embellishments and the personality that it gives. Thank you. There's a lot more to that story, but that's a good start. So Indian music is a combination of the melodic aspect, Raga, and the rhythmic aspect, Tala. Puvla, maybe you can give us more of an idea of what Tala is. I think everything is perceived as a quarter note piece. So, for example, we don't have a Tala, which would be like a 7, 16, or 7, 8, but everything would be like the lower definition of the always before. So, if the 7, 8, we call them a 3 and the F4. So it's all like a, it's basically standardized. And to keep Tala of use different hand gestures, like you can see people keeping Tala. And so they are like in groupings. One beat would be like a clap. Two beat is a clap on the way. A four is like a clap followed by the finger counts. If you need three, only two fingers, five, four fingers, so on and so forth. And with this, you make like a compound structure. This Tala we played is like a, in the standard, it's an 8-4, but it's a compound time signature of 4-4, 2-4, 2-4, which makes it 8-4. So the 4-4 is displayed like 1, 2, 3-4, a 2-4 and another 2-4. So that is how the Tala's are constructed. And then we play on top of them like many different phrases which suits with the soft, which are like taught like more like phrases to us and then we play the match with the soft books. And it's more about the brief explanation of Tala. Thank you. Tell us a little bit about the next piece you'll be doing. So far you heard us talk about what a Raga is and compositions in South Indian music are. We will embark on some improvisation called Raga La Pana followed by Thanam, which is a pulsating rhythm and followed with a composition. At the end of the composition, Shriji will be playing a solo on the drum. I'm still evolving as to what composition I should pick, but as the improvisation rolls on, we will figure out what it leads me into which composition I want to take. I will let you know. This was a Raga called Panto Rali with a scale. And the composition is a Thyagraja composition, Aparama Bhakti, set to three beat cycle called Rupa Katalan. Since we are running out of time, I would like to choose a smaller composition and let Shriji explore on the rhythmic aspects of the composition. I played a little Raga La Pana followed by a pulsating Thanam, which is typical of the instrument Veena. The words that are used in singing or playing the Thanam or Anantam Thanam, which means joy is the form of Thanam. This has been a presentation of the Library of Congress. Visit us at loc.gov.