Music Composer Mahesh Mahadev Creates A New Raga ‘Thyagaraja Mangalam’ In Honour Of T. M. Thyagarajan And Mangalam Shankar
Bengaluru-based Indian classical and movie music composer Mahesh Mahadev has been pushing boundaries along with his increasing repertoire. After creating greater than 45 ragas in Carnatic and Hindustani classical music, he has now give you one other new raga, ‘Thyagaraja Mangalam’, to honour musicologists T.M. Thyagarajan and Mangalam Shankar. The music video, launched as a part of the Guru Purnima Celebration Series 2021, had a number of compositions set to this new raga, and rendered by Singapore-based playback singer and classical vocalist Priyadarshini.
Explaining the explanation behind selecting the title ‘Thyagaraja Mangalam,’ Mahesh says he thought it becoming to create a raga title that mixed the names of two legendary musicians. “T.M. Thyagarajan was a celebrated vocalist, musicologist and composer, and Mangalam Shankar, an eminent disciple of TMT who followed his baani, has carved a niche for herself.”
The new raga is a janya of Gowri Manohari, the twenty third Melakarta, and is an Audava Sampoorna raga. Mahesh’s Virutham is the primary identified composition in it. “I have included the structure of the raga while composing the Virutham — the arohanam S G₂ M₁ P N₃ S and avarohanam S N₃ D₂ P M₁ G₂ R₂ S are explicitly embedded in it. I have composed varnam and kritis in this raga, which will be released later,” says Mahesh, whose different creations are additionally set to be launched quickly.
New Releases
Mahesh included his latest creation, Raga Srirangapriya, in his newest album Kandenu Sri Ranganathana, and the composition was sung by the late S.P. Balasubrahmanyam. His different innovations embody Raga Bhimsen, named after Pt. Bhimsen Joshi, and an experimental work the place he has composed a fancy tune with modal shift of tonic (graha bedham) in odd time signature, in Kiravani raga, which then strikes on to a uncommon mixture of ragas. Sung by Priyadarshini, this composition can also be slated to be launched quickly.
Speaking about Mahesh and their collaborations , Priyadarshini, a scholar of Mangalam Shankar, says, “As a composer, Mahesh demonstrates his thoughts and ideas about the tune and the melody of the raga to help us understand the melodic sequence. After that, improvisation with the lyrics takes place. Since the melody, tune and placement are all fixed by the composer, all we need do is understand the tune and render it with right expression and voice modulation. The complete process takes place in a few hours.”
Mahesh’s upcoming tasks embody a Tamil film Maaligai and a Kannada one, Jhansi IPS, the place he’s the affiliate music composer and lyricist.
Priyadarshini, who started her playback singing in 2004 with Tamil movie Kadhal Dot com, feels there’s all the time scope for brand new ragas they usually in flip open up horizons for brand new compositions. Mahesh says, “I’m looking forward to exploring more ragas, rare or otherwise, and composing a lot more.”
