Music enthusiasts, young learners, performers and even laymen who are interested to know about the sangathis of Carnatic music can now have a workbook to note down those numerous variations and also interpret them.
Sangita Lipi, the first-ever Carnatic notation workbook by K N Shashikiran is going to be an important musical tool for generations to come. The book was released last week by Pappu Venugopal Rao and S A K Durga received the first copy.
The workbook aims to revive the art of notation writing. A notation is a way of documenting songs for posterity. It helps in analysing how ragas and compositions have evolved over the years and how they vary from one school of music to another. Besides, many songs contain numerous sangathis which one may forget over time. This book that has all the compositions one has learnt, all notated in a systematic manner, is the best way to remember. Vocalist Sowmya said, “This is an interesting way of learning music and it’s not just for students, but also for listeners, who can make note of the notations. This is just the tip of the iceberg; hope he (Shashikiran) will come with many more volumes.”
Vocalist Shashikiran said, “This is a prescriptive notation format. The descriptive format will come out soon.” Published by the College for World Music and Dance, Australia, the book is priced at Rs 250.
On the occasion, Jayalakshmi Sekhar’s Audio CD, Kritis of Annamayya, was also released by Cleveland V V Sundaram and Pappu Venugopal Rao received the first copy.
The event began with a thematic concert of Annamayya Kritis that was performed by Jayalakshmi Sekhar on the veena. The book release was followed by a grand Mahashivarathri special concert by the Carnatica Brothers, K N Shashikiran and P Ganesh.
Book facts
Sangita Lipi contains notation templates for all the commonly used talas – Adi (1 kalai, 2 kalai and tisra nadai), Rupaka, Misra Chapu, Khanda Chapu and the Suladi Sapta talas.
Each song has a label, where the name of the song, the composer, the raga and its scale, the tala, the date and the pitch can be written. The notation template is easy to understand and use; there are distinct markings at the end of each count, tala-component and tala- cycle, making the art of notation-writing an easy and enjoyable exercise.
The book also contains detailed explanations about notation, the various symbols used and how to notate.
There is also a guide to six language scripts that can be used to notate - Devanagari, Tamil, Telugu, Kannada, Malayalam and English.
The book also explains the various talas, the popular gamakas and the notation symbols used for them. There is a list of popular varnams and kritis, which can be used for reference.
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