New tune for a thillana

Carnatic musician Vasantha Kannan composes a thillana in the lesser-known Kadyutha Ganthi raga

Chennai-based Carnatic violinist, composer, and guru Vasantha Kannan recently released a thillana in the rare raga Kadyutha Ganthi. A video of the composition had her daughter Calcutta K. Srividya joining her on vocals as well as violin, and her son Mohan Kannan providing support on guitar and backing vocals. The video generated a lot of interest. Explaining why Kadyutha Ganthi has remained obscure, Vasantha says that given the vastness of the musical universe, it is almost impossible to have compositions in every raga. Sometimes, a raga that has previously not been explored becomes known through a composition and that becomes the catalyst for the raga’s popularity, which is then taken up by other composers as well. “Kadyutha Ganthi, a janya raga of Ragavardhini, does not seem to have been explored earlier for any classical composition — my thillana is the first known composition in this raga. With this in mind, I have included the structure of the raga as part of the lyrics in the charanam; and the arohanam and avarohanam are explicitly embedded in it. I have also tried to portray a holistic picture of the raga-bhava through various explorations in different parts of the thillana,” says Vasantha.