SNA's Workshop on Niraval Singing
Sruti|April 2017

Sangeet Natak Akademi has been promoting and helping cherish Indian culture and values for over six decades. As part of a large number of programmes all over India to promote Indian culture and undertake the dissemination of specialised knowledge in the performing arts, SNA offered a programme at the Bharatiya Vidya Bhavan, Mylapore in Chennai, on a very niche area in Carnatic music— niraval singing. The resource person was Sangita Kalanidhi R. Vedavalli, who is known for her impeccable style of niraval singing.

Sumathi Krishnan
SNA's Workshop on Niraval Singing

A group of about thirty students, many senior teachers, rasikas and a few organisers of music attended the proceedings.

The workshop began with an introduction to the event arranged by Sangeet Natak Akademi and the artist R. Vedavalli and her musical journey. The programme was spread over two days, 11 and 12 February, in four sessions of two hours each. The first day was devoted to understanding the fundamentals of niraval and the second day focussed on the difference between kriti niraval and niraval in a pallavi as also intricacies of niraval singing.

The advantage of learning from a senior guru like Vedavalli is that the student is not confined by narrow boundaries. She spoke about the importance of understanding languages particularly for niraval as the same line is repeated many times and if there is a wrong word or incorrect pronunciation, it will get repeated as many times. She was against institutional learning of arts as direct communication between the teacher and the taught is important.

She spoke about concentration and focus without which success in any area is impossible. She also mentioned that our music is bhakti oriented. It revolved round temples about 150 years ago before the advent of sabhas. Nagaswara vidwans would go along with the procession of the deity (utsava moorti) and play elaborate alapana. In instruments however, niraval would sound just like swara exercises as words are not rendered. Niraval is thus an area of manodharma that is best suited for vocal music. Veena vidwan Karaikudi Sambasiva Iyer would sing the line as he played it on the instrument.

Vedavalli elaborated on the four areas of manodharma.

This story is from the April 2017 edition of Sruti.

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This story is from the April 2017 edition of Sruti.

Start your 7-day Magzter GOLD free trial to access thousands of curated premium stories, and 8,500+ magazines and newspapers.