A great bhairavi canvas - part IV

I am back after a long gap (and yes, there were some really strong excuses for the gap). Nevertheless, continuing from where I left the last time around, today's post is (what I imagine will be) the final installment of the bhairavi-canvas theme. tanayuni brOva is another lovely bhairavi kriti by tyAgarAjA, and this time, MDR wears a teacher's cap - something, I believe, he used to do quite often. MDR eschews sophisticated phrases and sangatis, and keeps it very simple, yet eminently enjoyable. For example, in the AlApana, he shows how even a plain phrase like sa pa sa pa ri, can be made to sound unmistakably full of bhairavi. As for the kriti itself, MDR is in his usual unhurried mood, keen on rendering with a clarity that is easy to learn from. Almost anyone (with even just half-a-decent pair of vocal chords) would hum some reasonable bhairavi after listening to this! There are dozens of examples of such teaching-style renditions, as I call them, in MDR's catalogue. After all, it is not for nothing that he is referred to as a musician's musician.

A great bhairavi canvas - part III

As we continue to explore MDR's bhairavi portfolio, we come upon MDR's rendition of upacAramu, a lovely little kriti by tyAgarAjA. In contrast to the amba kAmAkshi posted earlier, upacAramu, here, is really short - barely touching the four minute mark. MDR has this rare ability to treat the same rAgam (or even the same song) at different levels of granularity in different renditions. Today's post is a case in point. My personal all-time-favourite rendition of a bhairavi has always been (and will always remain) MDR's grand amba kAmAkshi, but upacAramu is an important element in MDR's diverse bhairavi canvas. His succinct treatment of bhairavi here, however, may be more "accessible" and much easier to "get" to the many who are uninitiated to MDR's brilliance-in-detail.