Worshiping the Moon

After listening to several of the kriti found on the Kriti Archive website (http://www.shivkumar.org/music/index.html), I decided to study “Chandram Bhaja”.  Some sources I came across gave the kriti the title “Chandram Bhaja Manasa”.  In my search for information about this kriti, I found that Muthuswami Dikshitar, one of the members of the group refered to as the Trinity of Carnatic Music, wrote this kriti.  He is known as one of the greatest composers of Carnatic music. I discovered a nice website which provides information about different composers of Carnatic music, including Dikshitar (http://www.carnatica.net/composer/index.html ).   

Dikshitar lived from 1775 to 1835 in the Tanjavur district of South India.  He was from a family of well-known musicians.  Most of his compositions are in Sanskrit, and some are in multiple languages.  These are called Manipravala.

Dikshitar composed multiple sets of kriti. “Chandram Bhaja” is included in the set Navagraha Kritis which are all written in order to give praise to a particular deity, each representative of a particular planet.  “Chandram Bhaja”, is written for the deity of the moon. I found a helpful like which breaks down the kriti particularly well for those not familiar with South Indian music.  It also gives brief descriptions of other parts which make up the main piece including the raga and tala used, as well as a translation of the text.  http://www.shivkumar.org/music/chandrambhaja.pdf (This was also included on the kriti archive website).  This document also includes a chart which displays the South Indian solfege syllables fitting the kriti.  I also found the MP3 lesson file on the Kriti Archive website quite informative.  On this recording, a man talks about the tala and raga used, and translates the pallavi, anupallavi, and charanam a few words at a time, and explains the meaning behind the use of the words. Dikshitar paid great attention to detail in creating this text. 

The tala used is called Matya, which is not among the most common.  I discovered something interesting through this website http://www.shotham.org/s-indian-tala.php , which provides information about different tala.  Something interesting I learned from this website is that there are different variations of Matya.  The variation used with this kriti is called Chatusra.  This means that there are four beats followed by two beats followed by four more beats, per cycle.

The raga used with “Chandram Bhaja” is Asaveri.  I was able to find two recording of “Chandram Bhaja” as a whole piece.  The two are similar in the tempo (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LnPmOaKk48s) at which the music is played, but the second (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P3-l8cna9uU) recording is a bit faster. The second one is also nice because the musicians are shown in the video.  I was intrigued by the instrument the man in the back on the right side of the video is playing.  I searched for information about it and found that it is called a ghatam. 

 

It is essentially a water pot which is used as a percussion instrument in Indian music.  This instrumentalist controls the pitch by how close to his stomach he holds the ghatam, and by in which place he hits the ghatam with his hand.  I found a video on YouTube (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7AjJ_wwUV0Q) which displays a man playing an solo on the ghatam. It is really amazing to watch. I enjoyed seeing and hearing how different pitches are produced from a clay pot.

Another instrument used in performances of this piece is the veena. I am unsure of this, as I did not find a definitive answer, but a veena player may be called a vainika.  The Veena is a South Indian plucked instrument, similar to a guitar except that it is often placed horizontal in the instrumentalists lap.

“Chandram Bhaja” is a kriti of worship written in what the Western ear would call some sort of minor key.  This is interesting to me because the text of the kriti is positive.  Dikshitar wrote this to give praise. If I were to compose a song of praise, I would not think to do so in minor, as to my ear, minor tends to seem negative.  It is difficult to see, but in the second video recording I provided above, the vocalist can be seen making hand gestures along with the Mayta tala.  There are many vocal embellishments throughout the piece.  The pieces returns frequently to the sequence of syllables Ri Ma Pa Da. This pattern is commonly found in pieces which use the Matya raga.  It does move into a high register, but after several lines, returns to the original lower register. The movement from Sa to Ri, is found in the piece, and from the man giving the lesson via the MP3 file found on the Kriti Archive website, the particular ornamentation of Sa to Ri in this piece is a rare yet beautiful display.

Researching “Chandram Bhaja” also brought me to a website from which can be ordered a number of different CDs of South Indian music of different genres, as well as books, and clothes, and crafts (http://www.bagchee.com/).  I was quite tempted to purchase CDs from this site, as I have enjoyed listening to South Indian music, but alas, I am a poor college student.