Comments on: The intoxicatingly beautiful vocal music of south India

The intoxicatingly beautiful vocal music of south India

flapjax at midnite — Sat, 15 Mar 2008 07:39:35 -0800

Queens of Carnatic singing: Nithyasree Mahadevan: 1, 2 and 3. Sudha Ragunathan: 1, 2, 3 and 4. And the legend of the legends, M.S. Subbulakshmi, in her film appearances from decades past: 1, 2 and 3, and as an elder stateswoman of Carnatic vocal artistry: 1, 2, 3 and 4.

By: Faze

Faze — Sat, 15 Mar 2008 07:57:41 -0800

Flap -- thanks for introducing me to this wonderful singing. Nithyasree Mahadevan is the pip.

By: DenOfSizer

DenOfSizer — Sat, 15 Mar 2008 08:15:00 -0800

Beautiful stuff. I would love to see the failed attempts at the staff notation to which the wiki article referred. I can't even tell what time sig the first youTube link is in.

By: kozad

kozad — Sat, 15 Mar 2008 08:19:37 -0800

Thanks. I've really only heard male Carnatic singers. These are awesome videos.

By: owhydididoit

owhydididoit — Sat, 15 Mar 2008 08:56:10 -0800

Wow. Never heard this stuff before and it's amazing. Thanks!

By: flapjax at midnite

flapjax at midnite — Sat, 15 Mar 2008 08:56:35 -0800

There's plenty of Carnatic and lots of other Indian music for your listening pleasure at musicindiaonline. For example, here's their page on Sudha Ragunathan.

By: billtron

billtron — Sat, 15 Mar 2008 11:28:42 -0800

flapjax, do you have a job? just kidding. thanks for being one of my youtubefilters.

By: Herodios

Herodios — Sat, 15 Mar 2008 11:37:42 -0800

Wonderful stuff, Flapjax. Back in the late 70s and early 80s I used to do sound and recording for the St. Thyagaraja . Music Festival and really fell in love with Carnatic music. I can't sing it, but I did learn to count it out and to play the mridangam a bit. The traditional ensemble usually consists of the singer, violin, mridangam (two-headed drum) and either tamboura or a sruti box. The music would go on all day and into the next. I think it's a week long now. Headliners, nearly always in their 60s or 70s, performed compositions that might last an hour or more, depending on the singer's improvisational inspiration. There would also be a long long drum solo in each piece. The people were always cool and the food wasn't too shabby either! -

By: languagehat

languagehat — Sat, 15 Mar 2008 12:55:16 -0800

Nithyasree Mahadevan is incredible. Thanks for expanding my horizons once again, flapjax!

By: UbuRoivas

UbuRoivas — Sat, 15 Mar 2008 17:41:58 -0800

Not Carnatic, but I quite like Neela Bhagwat (YT) - through her Songs of Kabir* - the ecumenical Poet-Saint whose devotional songs she started singing after the Ayodhya riots. * (trans: Rabindranath Tagore, so you know it's gotta be good!)

By: scarabic

scarabic — Sat, 15 Mar 2008 17:47:48 -0800

Surprising that she can sing like that sitting down!

By: dhruva

dhruva — Sat, 15 Mar 2008 18:05:58 -0800

A gentle introduction to carnatic classical music. Part 1, 2, 3, 4

By: facetious

facetious — Sat, 15 Mar 2008 18:09:40 -0800

Subbalakshmi's voice gave me chills. Amazing post.

By: Wolof

Wolof — Mon, 17 Mar 2008 13:53:44 -0800

Beautiful.

By: mysticalfairy

mysticalfairy — Fri, 28 Mar 2008 18:48:06 -0800

A.R. Rahman does some really beautiful electronica with carnatic vocals every now and then and I love it. Ephemeral mists does some similar work. That style fuses really well with electronics for some reason.