Varnams are milestones in the world of music/dance. Since this is a dance-based blog I will concentrate on dance based varnams. Varnams are of different types and have different purposes. The two popular types of varnam are Taana Varnam and Pada varnam. The Tana varnams are usually used in music training/concerts and consists more of the akaaram based singing/playing. "Pada" means verse, so true to its name pada varnam have a lot of verses (even for places where, in Tana varnams, you only have swaras). Almost all varnam pieces in dance training are pada varnams because tana varnams are mostly to prove the prowess of one's singing rather than on nritta or abhinaya. Therefore for the rest of this post, whenever I say Varnam, I mean pada varnam.
The structure of a varnam with the nattuvangam is as follows. The blue color shows verses and green color shows swaras or simply musical notes (as in sa ri ga ma or some such combo :) ) The nattuvangam is in red.
For illustrative purposes I have shown the corresponding parts of nee indha mayam (in purple italics). Please refer to the previous blogpost for actual lyrics.
-------------- Begin Purvangam (usually in 1st speed or sometimes in chowkam) -------------------
While this is taking a specific varnam for illustrative purposes, the structure for varnams remain more or less the same.
Couple of things to note
1. Both nattuvangam (such as theermanams) and swaras (such as chittaswara or mukthayiswara) comprise of purely footwork.
2. All verses with actual lyrics comprise of abhinaya. For the main verses (Pallavi, Anupallavi and Charanam) they are often repeated multiple times. The dancer usually uses these repititions to either a. show variations in abhinaya or b. use abhinaya to show drama/story. For ex, eventhough the lines themselves may not directly refer to it, the dancer may show stories of krishna or rama during the lines. Such elaborations are called "sanchari"s. Sanchari literally means to roam around. These are called sanchari because they go in a roundabout way to express the meaning by enacting stories rather than do the abhinaya of the actual words.
Remember that these sancharis are creative outlets for the dancer to depict their facial expressions of emotions just as the intricate theermanams are their outlets for footwork.
I may do a followup post on just Dhanyasi varnam to explain a little more about the raga/tala structure of the same.
The structure of a varnam with the nattuvangam is as follows. The blue color shows verses and green color shows swaras or simply musical notes (as in sa ri ga ma or some such combo :) ) The nattuvangam is in red.
For illustrative purposes I have shown the corresponding parts of nee indha mayam (in purple italics). Please refer to the previous blogpost for actual lyrics.
-------------- Begin Purvangam (usually in 1st speed or sometimes in chowkam) -------------------
First Line Intro
Theermanam I
Arudi (Walk back)
Pallavi - Nee indha maayam seidhal nyayam dhana dhayanidhiye
Arudi (Hit back)
Theermanam II
Arudi (Walk back)
Anupallavi - paayum maaran ambinale....
Arudi (Hit back)
Theermanam III
Arudi (Hit back)*
Mukthayiswaram (only musical notes) Ni Dha pa Ma ga ri..
Arudi (Walk back)
Mukthayiswara sahityam (verse for the same tune as #3) (Nee allal thuNai illai...)
Arudi (Walk back) and Pose¨
------------- End Purvangam (Purvangam == first half) -----------------------------
============ Begin Uttarangam =====================
Charanam (usually sung in 2nd speed) (Ayar kula deepame...) Intro
Theermanam IV
Charanam Sanchari
Theermanam IV
Arudi (Walk back)
Charanam Sanchari
Arudi (Hit back)
Chittaswaram #1 (Sa pa ni ma)
Arudi (Walk back)
Chittaswara sahityam #1 (svAmi ni kan pAr...)
Arudi (Hit back)
Chittaswaram #2 (Sa ri sa ni ri sa dha)
Arudi (Walk back)
Chittaswara sahityam #2 (Sarasadala ...)
Arudi (Hit back)
Chittaswaram #3 (Sa ri sa ni sa...)
Arudi (Walk back)
Chittaswara sahityam #3 (tarunamidu...)
Arudi (Hit back)
Chittaswaram #4 (Sa sa ga ri sa ni ri sa...)
Arudi (Walk back)
Chittaswara sahityam #4 (Paaraai...)
Arudi (Walk back)¨
.... some varnams have more than 4 chittaswarams and some have lesser than 4.
============= End Uttarangam (Uttarangam == latter part) ================
* - You hit back because the next line is Mukthayiswaram which is also foot work. So you prefix the footwork with the hitting back
¨ - You walk back because the next line is Charanam and therefor abhinaya. You prefix the abhinaya with the more graceful walk (rather than hit).
While this is taking a specific varnam for illustrative purposes, the structure for varnams remain more or less the same.
Couple of things to note
1. Both nattuvangam (such as theermanams) and swaras (such as chittaswara or mukthayiswara) comprise of purely footwork.
2. All verses with actual lyrics comprise of abhinaya. For the main verses (Pallavi, Anupallavi and Charanam) they are often repeated multiple times. The dancer usually uses these repititions to either a. show variations in abhinaya or b. use abhinaya to show drama/story. For ex, eventhough the lines themselves may not directly refer to it, the dancer may show stories of krishna or rama during the lines. Such elaborations are called "sanchari"s. Sanchari literally means to roam around. These are called sanchari because they go in a roundabout way to express the meaning by enacting stories rather than do the abhinaya of the actual words.
Remember that these sancharis are creative outlets for the dancer to depict their facial expressions of emotions just as the intricate theermanams are their outlets for footwork.
I may do a followup post on just Dhanyasi varnam to explain a little more about the raga/tala structure of the same.
