Wednesday, August 03, 2005

NAGUMOMU GANALENI

My favourite carnatic krithi is "Nagumomu Ganaleni" (Ragam: Abheri) composed by Saint Thyagaraja.

When I like a song, I try and listen to as many different people singing it as possible. Every singer has their own style, and I thoroughly enjoy individual interpretations of the same song. In carnatic music, it is more common for different singers to sing the same song, than in film music.

I have listened to the Nagumomus of Musiri Subramaniam Iyer, Balamuralikrishna, Maharajapuram Santhanam, Bombay Sisters, Priya Sisters, Unnikrishnan, and Yesudas, besides others.

Susheela RamanToday, I discovered this version by Susheela Raman, and am totally besotted with the way she has interpreted Nagumomu in Jazz! The lyrics may have been ripped apart, but the melancholy feel of the song has been retained. If I had understood classical Telugu very well, I might have felt bad (like I do when Udit Narayan sings in Thamizh).

But more than her vocals, it is the mindblowing orchestration (lovvvve the soft strumming guitar intro, complemented by the caressing tabla) that has me playing this song in a Winamp loop for the past 3 hours!!!

LISTEN TO:   Traditional versions   |   Susheela Raman's version

38 comments:

Adaengappa !! said...

Amazing contrasts !!
Soothing music Worth listening to..!!

ioiio said...

There are good ones in the sample section in her website.. I liked a quite a few

Vinesh said...

@Adengappa & Ioiio: Glad you liked it :-)

Narayanan Venkitu said...

Vinesh,
You are wonderful my friend...thanks to Adengappa I found you via your 'ID card'.

Tomorrow at work its going to be Nagumomu ( I love this song.!)

Priya said...

a good looking guy with a penchant for classical music.. thts definetly hard to find .. ur full of surprises vinesh.. :)
..p..

Anonymous said...

Aiyyo vinesh-you know so much of music-I am a zero.

Anonymous said...

Contemporary CM at its best. Very very interesting, indeed! Thanks.

Vinesh said...

@Narayanan Venkitu: That's so cool we're on the same wavelength! Happy to see you here everyday :-)

@Priya: Thank you Priya.. you are certainly good with compliments :-)

Vinesh said...

@Vasanthi: I'm sure you listen to music, don't you? If not classical, atleast some other genre?

@Aishwarya: Glad you enjoyed it...:-)

Hey, I'm actually surprised that there have been no negative comments so far. Maybe it's only the purists who will hate Susheela Raman?

Anonymous said...

well i think its horrible. she has ripped the song apart...

Vinesh said...

I spoke too soon...LOL!

monu said...

me zero in music...will try improving my knowledge with this one
:)

krishna said...

dude...

uve got an awesome musical taste..

havent yet listened 2 susheela raman's version of this song..but man , Shri Musiri sub iyer is the greatest renderer of this amazing krithi..

I believe that any carnatic music krithi will be best rendered if rendered with devotion (depending upon the context)..and the musical symphony will be added as a gift to appreciate the true devotion..

Unlike other forms of music, carnatic music has this unique aspect of invoking Bhakthi and i believe that the person rendering the krithi should take advantage of this wonderful aspect.

Vijay Ramamurthi said...

I heard the song, cudnt take it. Me being a die-hard fan of yesudas, and this being one song of his that I listen to daily. I just cudnt take it. St.Thyagarajar ketturundhar he wud have ran away some where, even I felt like that, so just turned it off.

Vinesh said...

@Monu: This is a fantastic song Monu, just right if you want to start off on carnatic music appreciation..

@Krishna: Agree your comments buddy! :-) <<carnatic music has this unique aspect of invoking Bhakthi and i believe that the person rendering the krithi should take advantage of this wonderful aspect>>

This is the reason I stopped learning carnatic music..

@Vijay: I am a big fan of Yesudas' film numbers. Some of his songs are the ultimate. However, a lot of people I know are not too fond of his carnatic renditions 'cos his Telugu diction is not proper. But as I said, I don't feel the meaning of the lyrics when I hear Nagumomu....only the feeling the music conveys...and I do like some sangathis sung by Yesudas in this song...

Anonymous said...

Hi Vinesh, the music is really "minblowing". I loved listening to it.Have a nice evening.

v_tel001 said...

Hi Vinesh

Check out this version from the movie Flavors
(13th song in the list)

Anonymous said...

Chanced upon your blog from some other blog and I am glad I did. Impressed by your casual style. Something very cute and cool in the way you write. ID COD topped it all. Good luck and keep writing

Phoenix said...

Hey it was really very different...After getting used to generally a fast redentions of this lyrics....a slow serene redention was a nice change....

Is there more of her stuff online?

Vinesh said...

Anonymous: Thank you :-)Glad you enjoyed it!

Niha: Glad you dropped in. Thanx for ur nice words.

Vinesh said...

v_tel001: Thank you for leading me to that song buddy! Cool in its own way. Somehow, I think I like this song so much, however it is sung :-)

Phoenix: Glad you enjoyed it. YOu can find all her released songs on her website (link given in the post, under the section MUSIC.

Grey Vampire: Oh! Maybe you've been exposed to the wrong sources buddy. I think it an extremely sweet language!:-)

Anonymous said...

amazing song...I like it too though my personal favorite is M.S's bhaja govindam. The susheela raman version is nice...and as you had mentioned, the guitar intro is amazing.

On a lighter note, glad that you didnt mention deva's version of nagumo in 'arunachalam' :-)

M.

Anonymous said...

Hey Vinesh-you caught me wrong. I listen to all music-classical, hindustani,ghazal, western-everything under the sun.I love music. I only meant that I cannot recognize ragas and I am not trained in music. I do sing a lot though-and people say that I have an acceptable voice.

Anonymous said...

dude,
listen to the version from the OST of the movie 'Flavors'... I started enjoying this song after listening to that version.

Sneha Acharya said...

mmm I have some interest in Jazz .. and found this one quiet interesting ... nice search ... pls keep posting such new thngs on ur site.

anaa ,, cudn;t understand only one thng why is the guitar suffers so badly :( .. tht was the only only thng tht makes the song lil bit bad.

Vinesh said...

@Manoj: Deva's Nagumomu....LOLOL...but seriously..his was the first Nagumo I listened to (this was much before I developed an appetite for carnatic music) and I used to think it was one of his better numbers..

@Vasanthi: Wow, that's wonderful. Please add a song from you as well (to the list of your children singing ID COD) and send it over pls :-)

Vinesh said...

@Anand MS: I got to listen to it da, thanks to v_tel001 :-) It's cool in its own way.

@Kary: Do let me know if you liked it buddy Kary :-)

@Sneha Acharya: Glad u liked it. Will surely post lots of such stuff..

What do you mean the guitar suffers? You mean audio quality?

v_tel001 said...

హాఇ వినేశ్
నా బ్లాగ్ చూడడానికి ధన్యవాదం. మీ #article# కి లింక్‌ ఇచ్చాను. నాకు కూడ #flavors# లో #version# చాలా ఇశ్టం. (naa blog choodadaniki dhanyavaadam. mee article ki link ichanu. naaku kuda flavors lo version chaala ishtam)

Vinesh said...

@ V_tel001: Ayyo, I can only speak/understand Telugu. Don't know how to read/write :-(

Paavai said...

Thanks vinesh. The rendition was superb. Compared to the other ones, in this song her pronounciation is less anglicized and probably that has made a difference.

Vinesh said...

@Paavai: I too felt the same Paavai...liked it better than the other songs :-)

.:: ROSH ::. said...

I am dead against people killin authentic carnatic songs, but this one kinda redefined my views.
First it felt like its a 'drunk' version of the song, but then its gettin on to me and OMG! I cant stop the song its on continous playyyyy here :))
TY for telling us abt her, would'nt have known otherwise.

Anonymous said...

Another nagumo version found here
from the malayalam film Chitram.


http://www.musicindiaonline.com/music/malayalam/s/movie_name.7674/

What do u think?

Anonymous said...

Best regards from NY! Ways to ask a boy to a dance

Unknown said...

yesudas sang this song wonderfully. carnatic music is all about experimenting wht legends have created . Here yesudas made sure tht he never go out of the frame of this raaga n just increased the tempo of this song a bit. this shows his depth of knowledge in carnatic music and his courage to experiment such a famous thyajaraja krithanam in different style. when u hear dis song for the first time u might feel bit odd but later u can feel the beauty of dis song.i don't think any of our favourite carnatic singers tried dis style. yesudas is a legend.

madhura lalasa said...

I could listen to either of the versions, when I tried to click the links.
Please help me.

Nice to read your blog

madhura lalasa said...

My dear sir,
Please allow me to have the pleasure of listening to both the versions of this classical composition.
Not able to log on to the links.
Please help

arvind said...

Exactly, listening to Susheela Raman's verion of Nagumomo gives a sort of spiritual joy.I don't understand the language but it has got 'something' which keeps the song in my player playing for a whole day.
Try 'O Rama' too...that is awesome too...