Sunday, August 14, 2011
Sunday, December 20, 2009
Saturday, August 15, 2009
Remembering Smt. Rajeshwari Padmanabhan
The Yajnavalkya Smriti mentions:
“Veena vadhana tathvangna sruti, jathi, visartha talanjaaprayasena moksha margam niyachathi”
(”The one who is well versed in veena, one who has the knowledge of srutis and one who is adept in tala, attains salvation without doubt.”)
Well it is exactly one year since Smt. Rajeshwari Padmanabhan, the veena maestro and my Guru, passed away. It had been a day filled with listening to her veena pieces. While the day went by, I felt a celebration of music.
Yes, I would like to remember her as a great maestro, a warm motherly figure and someone whose talent was not commercialized. She was a musician of par excellence.
Nostalgic memories of her classes rushed back to my thoughts. While playing one of the pieces – Vinayaka in Hamsadvani, a surge of emotions overwhelmed me and I found myself crying for a while. Then composing myself, I decided that her life should be celebrated in her remembrance. I found this short video of her taking classes by Raghunath Manet on youtube.
Sunday, August 9, 2009
Heartsong
Tuesday, July 28, 2009
DANCING NOTES
Another beautiful Ghazal by the one and only Hariharan Ji……..
And then to listen to this beautiful rendition of “Krishna nee begane baro” of this great vocalist, Hariharan, you can literally see the notes dancing.
MUSIC - FOOD FOR THE SOUL
I was listening to a Ghazal by Hariharan -‘JHOOM LE’ a beautiful ghazal from the Ghazal Album Kaash. Hariharan’s soulful music never fails to amaze me. I am not so familiar with Ghazals , but this one surely makes me feel the peace and tranquility.
Musical notes dance if we can watch them. Some go to watch a dance to watch the movements in the dance. I consider the notes – swaras of music themselves performing a dance. They twist and turn and slide and glide.
Swaras themselves are so expressive that each note has its own bhava, its own distinctive character and grace. It also depends on the performer, who will be able to bring out the best of the notes. Be it a vocalist or instrumentalist. If we can watch the fluid movements of these notes, we will truly understand the meaning of dance itself!
What wonder to be mesmerized by music and her greatest gift, her musicians! What astounding creators they are! They create such emotions in a person. Good music fills you up completely but at the same time leaves you with a longing for more.
Music – Food for the Soul……
Monday, July 27, 2009
DANCE
Many people have many explanations about what dance is. The most remarkable explanation that I have ever heard was from my Teacher, Prem Rawat. These are not his exact words but this is what he meant.
True dance takes place when the heart is filled with such joy that it cannot contain itself and the body starts to move to the rhythm of the joy.
When the heart dances out of joy, the body starts to move and Real Dance happens. Otherwise everything else is just another form of exercise or movement of the limbs and body.
We would have found ourselves at some time in our lives, to have got up to dance when we felt real heartfelt joy. I have done that sometimes when I listened to some exceptionally beautiful music which invoked a joy and jubilation in my heart that all I could do was dance to its rhythm.