Hi

Could you tell me the difference between a varnam and krithi apart from the mudra on the krithi.. Both seem have the pallavi, anupallavi and charanam..

-venki

-- sam venki (ttya_ttyb@yahoo.com), September 10, 2001

Answers

Hi, In krithis , the lyrics are just words and there may be a chittai swaram along with pallavi, anupallavi and charanam. in varnams, each word has an associated swara. In keerthanams, its not so. Regds Poornima

-- Poornima R (poori_0414@yahoo.com), September 18, 2001.

Hi Venki:

Firstly, in a varnam, you sing the pallavi and anupallavi only once in the beginning with no 2nd or 3rd sangathi. Where as in a krithi, you can embellish and improvise the pallavi and anupallvai as many times as possible.

Secondly, in varnam, you have the mukhthayi swarams after the anupallavi, whereas, in a krithi, you have chittai swarams sung after the anupallavi and charanam.

Bye

Srivathsan

-- V.Srivathsan (tyagasri@rediffmail.com), September 24, 2001.

A varnam can be thought of a beginning keerthana except with 5 or 6 particular swaram patterns in a ragam to orient you with that particular ragam. Yes they do have all three parts as in a keerthana, but in a varnam, there are specific swaram patterns such as in the mukthavari swarams right after the pallavi and the various chitta swarams after the pallavi. For instance, take the abogi varnam, evvari bodhana, that song has all three parts yes, but after the pallavi, there is a swara pattern that begins with "RGMG,MRGSRGS" and after "maruba" theres 5 swara pattenrs. This helps students learn the ragam well and orient them with the swarasthanam. Concerts always begin with a varnam, usualy its an adhi tala one because thats the easiest and it is considered a "warm up". . a keerthanas do not necessarily have these swaram patterns to follow, isntead of those u can do niravel (the traversal of one line in different swaram patterns), kalpana swarams or even raga alapana. Thats the difference.

-- abogi (prush15@hotmail.com), March 09, 2002.

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