waning art of konnakol

Topic started by Balakrishnan (@ adsl-64-175-241-41.dsl.sntc01.pacbell.net) on Sat Jan 22 17:34:12 EST 2005.


Konnakol is slowly turning to be an endangered species...

FTUWDK, Konnakol is quite a practical art involving rendering jathis and talas orally using the syllables meant for percussion.

Manargudi Packriya Pillai was one of the renowned artists in this field. At present, Trichy Thayumanavan is quite popular. Are there any other known artists ?

I imagine only vocalists and instrumentalists of standing could fathom having this type of accompaniment (since the vocal rendering does confuse the rendering of the sahitya by the artist). It also puts the bar high on the konnakol artists - they have to exercise abundant self control, choose the timing and regulate the volume appropriately.

Do the sabhas/academy have any programs to promote waning arts like konnakol ?

Also, Is it feasible to have an upa-vadhya like konnakol in hindustani style ? Just curious....

Dear Hubbers,

Konnakol is ofcourse dying.Only Bharathanatyam experts have been training it. As such none is actually used to such jathis which gives vocalists a firm foundation in Thalam. Some of Kalakshethra Students must be well versed in it. To my knowledge Indira rajan is one Dance Guru who trains people for Bharathanatyam-Konakkol. I would love to know if any one in Chennai will be interested to teach Konnakol for a group of youngsters. Do mail me on any related information. Thanks.

hello,
This is my first post in this forum. kindly pardon for any error in etiquettes. As Konnakol is the vocal art of the syllables played on Mridangam or other percussion instruments, it can never die... It will stay, till Mridangam stays. When Mridangam lessons are first started,even before the fingering is taught first the vocal rendition of the lesson(konnakol) is taught and only then the fingering is taught... Rather in all the percussion ensembles(Taalavadyas) these days Konnakol is a major component... Well about konnakol accompaniment for a normal concert is diffcult to comprehend though I am aware of the fact that it was present previously... Konnakol being a vocal technique might disturb the vocalist or the lead non-percussion, anyway innovations and experiments are always welcome... But Konnakol is an art which will not die as every Indian percssionist is well aware of it...

Few years back during a lecdem session by musicologist B.M. Sundaram in association with Haridwara mangalam Tavil vizard in academy, during discussion at the end, Chengalput Renganathan pointed out the intricacies of konnakol and explained the need to revive this, as it is dying down slowly. Besides he enthralled the audience with a non stop Konnakol jathis for about 3 minutes duly exhibiting his knolwedge and interest in that art. Though this has been well documented nothing has come out sofar.

coming late back to the hub...

There is a difference between konnakol as a means of learning in mridangam class and performance on stage. I rarely see youngsters make special effort to pronounce the fast passages properly and clearly. They think of it only as an aid to the memory, not a performance art in itself.

Similarly even with natavangam, it seems to me that there are few who can pronounce fast jathis beautifully.

I have only seen it used in accompaniment once. And on that occasion the mridangam vaar broke and the tension was gone: the mridangist had to do something until the end of the song.

It is true that it tends to live on in tala vadya kutcheries, and in fusion music, though I don;t much carre for the latter.

Recently I had a chance to enjoy T H Subash chandran's programme in a local channel. He is a trained Artiste in this field. His sollu kattu is in similar lines of a konna kol performer accompanying a musician. Has he ever performed in any concerts?