“Tap into your fearless creativity”, an afternoon with Dr S Sowmya by Hari Iyer
What began as an introduction to certain nuances in the Purvikalyani raga on Day 1, totally expounded into a full-blown discussion on manodharmam aspects on Day 2.
The day’s session took off from yesterday’s introduction to one of the Uttama Vageyakaara Mysore Vasudevacharya’s majestic pieces in ragam Purvikalyani and we were introduced to the Anu Pallavi. Dr Sowmya took each of us students through the four sangathis in this part of the kriti. The composer’s greatness only became more and more evident with each progression in the complexity of the swaras accompanying the Sahityam. Dr Sowmya also stressed on the significance of roles of Nishadham and Madhyama notes that act as a bridge in this composition.
Like in the first session, we also got to explore the meaning of the bhava-laden sahityam where Dr Sowmya exposed many a literary geniuses including a Swaraaksharam at the beginning of the first line- ‘dharaNijA mAnasAmbOruha bhAskara’.
After the delegates had perfected the sangathis, we proceeded to one of the most interesting parts of the session, where Dr Sowmya took us through the manodharma aspects of concert presentation and how we could perfect it. It was evident that she could sense the trepidation among the delegates here and right from the beginning, she put all the participants at ease by sharing numerous tips for both practise as well as performance:
- How to approach the manodharma aspects of music — the raga alapana, kalpana swarams, neraval practice using restrictive note practice to build familiarity between the notes
- How to avoid the feeling of repetition between these three forms
- How to distinctly bring out the beauty of each form while maintaining its individuality. eg. during Neraval singing one should attempt to highlight the completeness of the Sahityam
- Following unsaid rules which each artist must follow- eg. To avoid introducing alapana phrases during kalpana swara rendition
According to Ranjani Dhananjay, a fellow delegate, “There were so many wonderful nuggets of advice on techniques and methods of practice. The ones that resonated with me were the analogy of landing and take off for briggaas and the restricted practice for swaram ideas.”
Throughout the session, Dr Sowmya’s efforts to make this art form consumable and accessible to aspiring young musicians was really gratifying. “It is though this undaunted approach that one can break one’s own barriers, especially in the case of manodharma where you need to tap into your fearless creativity,” she said.
The writer is a Carnatic musician and a business analyst
