Welcome to a rhythmic frenzy, says S Gopala Krishnan (on his personal timeline today), and thanks a friend who sent a recent upload on youtube, a series of recordings of a breathtaking ‘Panchavadyam’, a Kerala percussion orchestra, led by Kariyannoor Narayanan Nampoothiri. And says: Let me write a few sentences for the friends who are not initiated into the listening of this art-form of a highly intricate rhythmic structure. Basically there are 5 ‘kaalams (time-scales) in panchavadhyam, pathi kalam, randam kalam, moonam kalam, eda kalam, ancham kalam, & after the completion, it is the thripada where all the artists shows their talent for innovation, ‘manodharma’. A good entry on the ‘wiki’ gives more details as: “Panchavadyam bases itself on the 7-beat thripuda (also spelt thriputa) thaalam (taal) but amusingly sticks to the pattern of the eight-beat chempata thaalam — at least until its last parts. Its pendulum beats in the first stage (pathikaalam) total 896, and halves itself with each stage, making it 448 in the second, 224 in the third, 112 in the fourth and 56 in the fifth. After this, panchavadyam has a relatively loose second half with as many stages, the pendulum beats of which would now scale down to 28, 14, 7, 3.5 (three-and-a-half) and 1. Here is a portion of the Kodunthirapully Panchavadyam 2014 lead by Kariyannoor Nararyanan Namboothiri ( Edakaalam Kalaasham). I would request use of a head-phone for getting into the real frenzy of this rhythmic orchestra (for instance, at 3.24 onwards, 6.10 onwards and 10.00 onwards). https://youtube/watch?v=6qcJQ9UG1IE&list=PLDrEauMtxbj6XLwwP5iPl5QogZiTM0bYJ&index=3 If you want to listen to this performance in full, you will have to see all four uploads in this channel. I am thanking @Jithesh Kunissery for presenting this on the youtube. Another interesting aspect of this video is the documentation of the way women spectators were encouraging the performers. Have a nice day, Gopalakrishnan
Posted on: Wed, 08 Oct 2014 01:12:51 +0000