Unit 2 : Rachana Lakshanas

Gita

Gitas are the simplest of melodies. The term Gita literally means a ‘song’ but in music it signifies a particular type of composition.

• The music of the gita is a simple melodic extension of the raga in which it is composed.

• Its tempo is uniform

• it is a continuous composition without the sections, pallavi, anupallavi, and charana.

• The gita is sung without repetition from beginning to end

• Some gitas have 2 sections and some 3. Some gitas are concluded by repeating a portion of the opening part.

• The raga svarupa is well brought out in every gita

• for each note of the dhatu there is usually a syllable in the sahitya

what is the theme of the sahitya of a gita?

it is praise of God. Gitas in praise of musical luminaries and Acharyas also exist

What languages are gitas usually written in?

Sanskrit, bhandira, and Kannada

Formerly what language was used for the sahitya of musical compositions?

Sahityam was originally used, but later on bhandira was used. And after that composiiton were written extensively in vernaculars (common dialect) and the bhandira basha feel into disuse.

Visvesvara

He has written that students should learn the gitas after a course in the preliminary svara exercises and alankaras. And these gitas are all in the sapta talas and their varieties.

Two main varieties of gitas

1) Samanya gita (Lakshya Gita) (ordinary)

2) Lakshana Gita

Samanya Gita

Samanya Gita is the ordinary gita and is also called by other names such as Sadharana gita, Lakshya gita, and Sanchari gita.

Definition of Ganakrama

Order of Singing a Geetha

Different categories of Sadharana Geetha

1. Pillari Geetha (geethas written in praise of God like Vignesvara, Mahesara, Mahavishnu, etc.)

   Ex: Sri Gananadha in Malahari Ragam

2. Ghana Raga Gita (geethas written in Gana Ragas like Nata, Gowla, Arabi, Sri Ragam, Varaali)

   Ex: Re Re Sri Rama in Arabi Ragam

3. Rakthi Raga Gita (geethas set to Rakthi ragas like Mohana and Kalyani)

   Ex: Vara veena in Mohana Ragam

4. Ragamalika Gita (in one geetha where more than one raga is used, it’s called Ragamalika Geeta. This type of Geetha is not in use today.

Notable composers who wrote geethas

Purandara Dasa, Paidala Gurumurthy Sastry, Govindhacharya, and Venkata Makhi.

Lakshana Gita

• These gitas generally consist of 3 sections: sutra khanda, upanga khanda, and bhashanga khanda.

• In sutra khanda, the initial syllables of the sahityas of the avartas give the clue to the kinds of svaras taken by the mela

  • For example, the initial syllables of the 1st section of the lakshana gita in Mayamalavagaula raga are: ra, gu, ma, pa, dha nu. And from this one is able to infer that the Suddha Rishabha, antara gandhara, suddha madhyama, suddha dhaivata, and kakali nishada (besides sa and pa) are the notes taken by this raga.

• In a Lakshana geetham, the sahityam will describe the lakshna of the ragam in which the geetha is set to

• Lakshna geethams describe the arohana and avarohana of the ragam.

• Lakshana geethams describe whether the ragam is a melakartha ragam or janya (derived) ragam.

Prominent composers of Lakshana gitas

• Govinda dikshitar

• Venkatamakhi

• Paidala Gurumurti Sastri

• Govindacharya

Svara Pallavi

Svara Pallavi is a kind of composition which has only the Dhathu part (Svaras) with no Sahitya.

• they are learnt after learning Geethas and before Varnas.

• usually svarapallavis are set to Madyama Kalam (medium tempo)

• and set to adi or Chapu talas

• consists of pallavi, anupallavi, ad charanas

• svarapallavis usually have 4 to 8 charanams

• the compositional structure of a SvaraPallavi is the same as that of SvaraJathi - the only difference is, a svarajathi has the Mati part (sahityam) but Svarapallavi lacks the Sahitya part.

Ganakrama (order of singing) a Svara Pallavi

First, Pallavi is sung

Then, Charanas

At the end of each charana, the pallavi is repeated

notable composers who wrote Svara Pallavis

• Sivanandam

• Vadivelu

• Swathi Thirunal

• Veena Krishnamachari