Family digs out rare raga for lockdown experiment

Well-known Carnatic music guru Vasantha Kannan has composed a thillana, a brisk piece that highlights rhythmic complexity, in a rare raga called Kadyutha Ganthi.

Accompanied by daughter Calcutta K Srividya and son Mohan, she has sung and played the violin for the composition. A video of the three performing is up on YouTube. In an interview with Showtime, Vasantha and Srividya talk about what went into the project.

When did you compose the thillana, and how did you record it?

Srividya: It all started with the song Sadaa, which my brother Mohan had composed for the Marathi movie Shala (2011). He had sung the male version and I had sung the female version and my mother had played the violin for both. This song went on to win a video music award that year. Recently, during the lockdown, Mohan and I were trying out improvisations on this song. Sadaa is in raga Shekara Chandrika and we wanted to use the grahabheda technique to shift between ragas. By interpreting the da (sixth note) of Shekara Chandrika as sa (keynote), we moved to the raga Kadyutha Ganthi. It was fascinating and was playing in our mother’s mind, and she composed this thillana in just two days.

Recording was a challenge at the peak of the lockdown and it had to be done at home with our Zoom recorders. And we had to wait till the city went to sleep to avoid any external sounds! So it was all late night hours of recording for me and my mother here in Chennai and for Mohan in Mumbai.

Tell us a little more about Vasantha Kannan’s experimentations.

Srividya: Because of the rare nature of this raga, and since there is no known classical composition prior to this one, Amma has included the structure of the raga in the lyrics. Once the thillana was composed, Amma, Mohan and I had several conversations on how to present it. Mohan came up with this idea of Amma and me singing and also playing the violin. And he played the guitar and brought in the harmonies, so integral to Western music but not prevalent in Carnatic music. While we debated many ideas, we were particular that the purity of the classical composition be kept intact.

Do you have plans to perform this live in its present form, with two violins and a guitar?

Srividya: The thillana is usually performed towards the end of a concert. In a live classical concert, we present it with the violin and the mridangam. Of course, we are really looking forward to all three of us getting together again after the pandemic and presenting an unplugged version of this thillana.

What’s coming up next?

Vasantha Kannan: Definitely more collaborations with my daughter and son, featuring both their compositions. ‘Padiduvomay,’ one of my compositions in the new raga that I call Sunadam, is in the plan. My daughter is coming out with a video series on raga explorations.

Structure of raga Kadyutha Ganthi

Tell us a little about raga Kadyutha Ganthi, its origins and history. It resembles the Hindustani raga Jog and the Carnatic raga Nattai. How is it different from the two?

Vasantha Kannan: Kadyutha Ganthi is derived from Ragavardhini, the 32nd raga in the melakarta scheme in Carnatic music. The arohana and avarohana are S R3 G3 M1 P N2 S – S N2 P M1 G3 R3 S. It is a rare raga and there is no known classical piece in it prior to my thillana. It is close to the Hindustani raga Jog. However, the nuances are different. Jog goes like this: S G3 M1 P N2 S—S N2 P M1 G3 M1 G2 S. With Nattai, the similarity is only in the first few notes in the ascent… The nishada (seventh note) in Nattai is different and it goes S R3 G3 M1 P N3 S – S N3 P M1 G3 M1 R3 S. Even though the ri (second note) is the same in both ragas, the treatment differs – in Kadyutha Ganthi, it is softer than the one in Nattai, where the treatment is more ‘aggressive’.