Porutham -Apt ‘Arithmetic with Aesthetics’ in Kalpana Svaras
In this beautiful tribute to his grand uncle Lalgudi Jayaraman, Abhishek Raguram sings the song Tamadam Tagadaiya in the raga Mohana Kalyani composed by Lalgudi’s father Lalgudi Gopala Iyer. Then, at the end of the cascading waterfall of kalpana svaras and korvai (rhythmic pattern). emerges :
- this incredible, culminating pattern which matches the underlying melodic pattern of the eduppu (start of the line for which the svaras were sung)
And indeed, this ‘Porutham’ finale is most apt because this is such a signature aspect of Lalgudi’s bani(musical style and lineage).
Concept of Porutham
In percussion, Mannarkoil Balaji explains that “For a korvai to qualify for a Porutham it must have the first phrase of the song’s inherent rhythm as a Sollukattu(rhythmic syllables) for the korvai (rhythmic pattern). The same principle applies for kalpana svaras (on the spot improvisation of solfa notes) or chittasvaras (composed solfa notes in a song).
R Vedavalli shares this interesting example from one of Poochi Srinivasa Iyengar, 19th century composer’s renowned composition Saraguna Palimpa in raga Kedaragowla set to Tala Adi 2 kalai(each cycle 16 beats) :
“In this kriti (song), the end of the chittasvaram has a pair of similarly constructed patterns, which is the same as in the beginning of the kriti — resulting in a korvai of twos in the svaram and one from the sahityam — thus making it a korvai of threes.”[R Vedavalli, Sruti Magazine — A great lakshana vidwan]
Porutham Korvai, ‘dovetailing’ into start of the line of the song, Saraguna
Porutham, a key aspect of the Lalgudi Bani
Bangalore K Venkataram highlights “ He was the first in Carnatic music to bring into violin playing the feature of “poruthams”. Just as Palani Subramania Pillai incorporated novel features of poruthams in his mridangam play, Lalgudi has brought in these structural elegances so melodiously and established an ideal violin solo style.” — Lalitakala Tarangini souvenir dedicated to Lalgudi,page 46
Tiruchi Sankaran said “Lalgudi’s kanakku (rhythmic calculation) particularly in svara kalpana section always had a special feature which can be termed “porutham” meaning “appropriateness” or alignment and in that, he will always make a connection of the ending to the beginning phrase of the melodic line” — Lalitakala Tarangini souvenir dedicated to Lalgudi,page 23
In this lecdem, Saketharaman, first explains how Porutham is ‘Arithmetic with Aesthetics’ and also the dos and don’ts stipulated by his guru Lalgudi.
He also shares that Lalgudi used to emphasize focusing on ‘Music forever’ and not ‘Music for the hour’; that rhythmic gymnastics could be momentarily dazzling but easily forgotten whereas aesthetically pleasing music will be remembered for a long time. Saketharaman says :
‘In kalpana svaras, the usual practice used to be to end with the prior note or subsequent note of the starting syllable of the composition. And so, when singing svaras for Kanthamagu in Palintsu Kamakshi in Madyamavathi, ending in Ma or Ni since Kantha starts in Pa and it was G N Balasubramaniam(GNB) who used to end in different svaras and link back to the start of the line in innovative ways.
Inspired by GNB, Lalgudi explored this concept of Porutham improvisation further, combining the different svara endings with ‘kanakku’ or complex rhythmic patterns but ensuring it was always aligned with the melody — ‘Arithmetic with Aesthetics’.
First the don’ts since then the dos are everything else!
Specific examples
Senthil Andavan, Vadivelan example to end in Ni not Sa
an example of svara phrases to avoid for Janani Ninnu vina since they will change the meaning of the lyrics
Leveraging vadi/samvadi intervals, lower and upper halves of the octave, same svaras in lower and higher octaves and such svaras for the song Brovabarama in raga Bahudari.
Technical explanation of Porutham
Musicologist N Ramanathan says : “Porutham refers to a kind of makuṭam (literal meaning crown, in this context, the finale, an appropriate or fitting end to the complex body of final round of svaras) which is a cadence of short or long duration where the concluding portion of the chosen pattern and the commencing portion of the eḍuppu, melodically match (= porutham in Tamil) so much so, that the concluding bit of the makuṭam is merged with the commencing bit of the eḍuppu. In other words, if a pattern is repeated thrice, the third rendering is technically incomplete for it gets dovetailed with the eḍuppu.
The term ‘porutham’ is of a very recent coinage, not heard of, say, 100 years ago. But the feature itself is more than 200 years old and is seen even in Syama Sastri’s Todi Svarajati.
One thing about porutham is that, since the matching of the makuṭam ending and the eḍuppu is melodic, it is effective when rendered on instruments, In singing, the sahitya(lyrics) enunciation lessens the effect. But when rendered on instruments, an awareness is required on the part of the audience that the eḍuppu has taken over.
The porutham could be seen as the counterpart of Svarakṣhara(the underlying svara or solfa note of the melody matches the lyric’s syllables and can be discerned only when sung and is not noticeable in a song rendered on an instrument.)
Lalgudi Jayaraman’s designing of porutham is very imaginative. He sometimes varies the length of that portion of the eduppu which links the cadence with the refrain of the eduppu to create the porutham.” [1]
Highlights from Lalgudi Vijayalakshmi’s lecdem on Porutham
In this lecdem, Lalgudi Vijayalakshmi explains the concept and highlights multiple beautiful examples of Poruttam. And vocalist Akshay Padmanabhan also helps illustrate the patterns.
Porutham examples in Kalpana Svaras
- Bhama Mani (raga Madhyamavathi) — the inspiration that led to the exploration of this concept when GNB sang the unusual ending combination pa ni ma, bhama
- Makelara (raga Ravichandrika) — “not only a connecting phrase, also embellishes the bhavam(emotion)”
- Yeti Lochana(raga Kiranavali) — endings in Sa Pa aligning with the avarohanam(descent) of the raga
- Nee Bhakti (raga Jayamanohari) — more complex patterns “on the spot improvisation is a challenge, there is also an intellectual element to establish the raga, but aesthetics is also very important and in fact it is the highest priority”
- Bhooloka (raga Kambodhi) — korvai(rhythmic pattern) that “dovetails with the eduppu; and 12 aksharas(subunits) in the kaarvai(spacing) for syllable Bhoo is also incorporated into this korvai”
- Saravana Bhava (raga Madyamavathi) — korvai created by her elder brother Lalgudi G J R Krishnan that culminates with the same pattern as the underlying notes of Sa ra va na with subunits of 3 3 2 4 in the tala.
- Dancing notes for korvai in raga Khamas for song that is describing the dancing of Krishna
Porutham examples in Lalgudi’s compositions
- Svaram in Shanmukhapriya Varnam, — “deceptive pattern”, seems simple, but underlying rhythmic syllable patterns are very complex; and it is the aesthetics in the formation that makes it pleasing to hear even if the underlying complexity is not fully discerned
Mohana Kalyani Thillana — “dovetailing of a complex rhythmic pattern with the eduppu or start of the song; atheetha eduppu (start of the line is before the start of the tala cycle)”
- Chittasvaras for Durga Devi (raga Navarasa Kanada)
Additional Listening
