In order to better understand Sarasiruha I decided to look into the lyrics, which I found in the
book. The lyrics are very devotional and are phrases that I would expect to
hear in a song dedicated to worshipping a god. They are however a bit more
lyrical and poetic than what I am used to. There is a lot of imagery used to praise Saraswati. I also
noticed that this song is primarily focused on praising and describing. In Sarasiruha this is evident with lyrics like; ever merciful, feet as tender as sprouts, face as lovely as the autumn moon, and the only real plea that I read was “Save me who have taken refuge in you!”I also noticed an emphasis placed on praise in Devi Niye Tunai, which is a kriti that I am assuming can also be
used in concert just as Sarasiruha was used. It does include a “protect me” at the beginning
but most of the song is dedicated to how great Parvati is. I think it would be
interesting to know whether there are some songs primarily intended for praise
and they are included in the book because they are the most popular or if there are other classes of kriti used especially for pleas.
I was curious after looking at the lyrics and listening to Ms. Ranganayaki perform this on her veena what the kriti actually sounds like with lyrics because the book
makes a point of saying that most people listening to a concert know the lyrics
of the song and they know how the song goes. If I didn’t have the book as a
guide that informed me when the song began I’m not sure I would know because I
have never heard the song before. I decided to look up the kriti on youtube and
I found a few videos that demonstrated different things. There was one video of
these young women performing this song on stage and counting the tala which was
in 4+2+2 but they didn’t count their fingers, instead they tapped their palm on
their knee 4 times and for the 2 beats they put the back of their hand and then
their palm. After listening to the song it was pretty easy to identify the
melody in the recording especially the melody that accompanies the word “Sarasiruha”.
The girls were accompanied by a violin, flute, and drums. The flute was the
melodic accompaniment and would echo what the girls sang and sometimes played
the same melody they were singing.
I also found a video with two sisters that didn’t appear to
be in a concert environment. They had the drone in the background and that was
it. They counted the tala the same way. I enjoyed this video because I got to
hear what they were saying more clearly, and I got a better sense of the
melisma’s and ornamentation on certain words. They sang the song differently
than the other girls. It sounded like they added “Om ba” after the main melodic material or what sounds like the refrain or I was just
better able to hear theirs. I was also
able to identify that the refrain is sang slightly different depending on the
repeat. I thought it was very impressive that they sang all of the
ornamentations exactly the same way. They were completely in sync with the swaras and the holding out of certain notes. I enjoyed their performance. I could better understand
what Ms. Ranganayaki was doing to the kriti after hearing it sung clearly a few
times. I also feel like I got a better idea of the precision described in the book when it comes to learning kriti. It says that although there are slightly different versions students are expected to learn the kriti exactly how the guru teaches it.
I used: Worlds of Music: An Introduction to the Music of the World's Peoples
The big group of girls: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8pUbCzsxQ1s
The sisters: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gZG4KwcUnQY
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