December 2010-Lec dems

Three good lec dems which i attended (again i will provide the details later)

Shri.Vijay Siva on ragas Manjari, Devamruthavarshini, Devakriya

Missed the first 5 min- Vijay siva spoke very well on the evolution of these ragas and played the eka kritis that were composed in this raga. Post his presentation the discussion veered into the concept of tradition versus changes/modernization of these ragas/compositions which evoked a discussion around what is creativity and what is tradition which ended for want of time (and also the fact that it by itself is a separate topic)
I only felt while answering to some of the clarifications/questions that 1-2 senior artistes raised the response from Shri.Vijay Siva maight certainly not be called respectful. This may be unintentional but the manner in which he responded sounded so.

Smt R.S Jeyalakshmi on Begada

A very interesting and informative lec dem where Smt.Jeyalaksmi went into the history of Begada that had three possibly distinct swaroopams in arohanam(SGMPNNS, SGMPNDNS, SGRGMPDPS). She further demonstarted this with Geethams from SSP and other literature and dikshithar krithis. Her playing of begada, though in small measure, was a treat to the ear.
Again the end of this lec dem started off with a suggestion on considering Begada as the janya of of harikambhoji rather than sankarabharanam (by Shri Ravikiran) as he felt as an instrumentalist the Ni is kaisiki and not the unique Begada Ni and Ma not the "begada Ma", as being claimed. TM Krishna brought in a valid point stating that it would be good to consider a separate classification process for rakthi ragas like Sahana, Begada where many of the swaras exist with multiple gamakas and anuswaras and not in their exact form. The debate had to be stalled againg for want of time (and it was going no where :-)); however the good point taht came about is that the convenor Shri.Pappu Venugopal suggested that they could have a separate forum for discussion on this topic with the august scholars and musicians to arrive at an amicable decision