Editorial

At the outset, we would like to thank you for the generous contributions to the victims of the recent earthquake in Gujarat. 

Carnatica is entering its sixth month of existence and we are happy to inform you that our hit rate reached record heights during the last month. We attribute it to the interest generated by the vast and hot coverage of the season, where we came up with over 60 reviews (both music and dance), averaging at least 4 reviews per day. These reviews also spanned different venues and artistes - popular stars to the relatively unknown ones - with no repetitions in the latter.

The New Year has not actually resulted in a post-season fatigue among the Carnatica team members but has infused in us a new level of determination and vigour to work harder. The Carnatica Archival Centre sponsored a dance festival in early January along with Natyaarpana. On 31st January 2001, we had our usual Raganubhava session at the Raga Sudha Hall, Chennai, the raga featured being Yadukulakambhoji. (You'll get the details of this in our CAC newsletter). On 9th February 2001, we shall pay our tributes to the visionary-missionary, Rangaramanuja Ayyangar whose Centenary Year this is. Rangaramanuja Ayyangar, the musician-musicologist revolutionized the art of notation in Carnatic music and has come out with huge compilations of the compositions of great masters. On 10th February 2001, we shall have our second session of Sahityanubhava, featuring the Panchabhootalinga kshetra kritis of Muthuswami Dikshitar. The first session held in November 2000, on the Pancharatna kritis of Tyagaraja was a huge success. Both the programmes mentioned above shall be held in our usual venue, Raga Sudha Hall, Luz Avenue, Chennai.

We have also been entering into tie-ups with various individuals, institutions and companies in order to give you better service. Prominent among them is the Learn-by-choice course which was already a major feature of our Cyber Vidyalaya. But what's new is that you can now learn select masterpieces in the Semmangudi bani from his premier disciple, Sri V Subramanyam. We have also joined hands with Gayana Samaja of Bangalore in organising our popular Raganubhava and other thematic music sessions on a bi-monthly basis. The first such session will be on 2nd and 3rd March 2001 and will feature a Raganubhava session as also a programme on the contribution of Haridasas. The other tie-up is with a prominent Europe-based World Music Company, Budda Records, which will ensure the two way process of popularising traditional world music in India and Indian music world wide.

All the above is part of our offline activities. But what is happening online? Well, it's time to tell you that the whole portal is soon going to wear a new look. We have already begun the massive task, for, with the database running to several hundred pages, this is not an overnight job. The first two sections, namely, Sangeetanubhava and Galaxy of Composers are already online with the new look. We welcome your feedback on this too in the form of posts in our Rasika Centre or emails, which may be addressed to carnatica@carnatica.com. Simultaneously, we are also expanding our audio database which you will soon be able to access.

Seeking your best wishes and support as always,

Kiranavali Vidyasankar,
Editor, Carnatica.