Chitravina N Ravikiran

Chitravina N Ravikiran at the Rudolstadt-Festival 2017

Chitravina N Ravikiran (born 1967) is a prodigious musician and prolific composer in the 20th and 21st centuries. His compositions number over 800 as seen in this comprehensive list, of which about 750 are Indian classical music and dance, the rest being creations for Western Classical Orchestras, Jazz, Rock and World music ensembles centered around his concept, Melharmony. The lyrics of several of his traditional compositions are available online.

A number of audios & videos of his compositions rendered by a wide array of artists are available in the You Tube Channel, "Chitravina N Ravikiran, Genius at Work".

Early start

In 1969, two-year-old Chitravina N Ravikiran became the world’s youngest performer and in the process was bestowed with the blessing of sitar maestro Pandit Ravi Shankar’s words, “If you don’t believe in God, just look at Ravikiran.” ^[1] Ravikiran's first attempt at new creations was also around this age of 2 when he discovered musical scales that had not been used before such as the Indian raga, Choodamani (named after his mother).^[2] He has subsequently discovered ragas like Snehapriya, Keshavapriya, Shivanandini, Andhakarini, Shivamanohari, Mohini, Garudapriya and Katyayini.^[3]

Musical Forms

Ravikiran's composition traverse through almost every prominent musical form in Carnatic music and dance and also cover creations for Symphonies, Quartets, Quintets, Jazz and World music. He has handled various traditional forms like kriti, varnam, javali, tillana and padam and also composed what he refers to as Shirup-pugazh - meter-based lyric-centric Tiruppugazh style songs inspired by 15th Century poet Arunagirinathar.^[4] In addition to employing North Indian music forms like bhajans and folk forms like chindu, Ravikiran has also innovated a form called swarakrti. He is also a rare example of a composer to have used five languages - Sanskrit, Telugu, Kannada, Tamil and Hindi.^[5] Most of his compositions include the signature phrase (mudra), Ravi-Shashi and a few rare ones sport the word, Ravikiran.^[6] He has also composed practice forms for students such as geetams.^[7] The lyrics for a few of his compositions can be found online.^[8] Besides, he has scored music for documentaries and short films.^[9]

Unique Creations

Ravikiran was also the first prominent musician to have created pieces in each of the 35-talas (seven basic talas multiplied by the five metres).^[10] He is also credited with a unique 72-mela ragamalika geetam, a 13-part piece, which covers all the 72 principal ragas of Carnatic music in just 7 minutes. His other interesting works include a 5-language composition, Shree rama pattabhishekame, the Dasha-Ranjani Tillana featuring 10 ragas whose names end with the word Ranjani and the Pancha-Raga-Tala-Jati malika tillana which traverses 5 talas and ragas.

He is one of the first to compose varnams in different pulse rates such as the Hamsanandi Varnam, Engum nirai in Adi - Khanda Gati (5 units per beat), Hamsanadam Varnam, Satyasandhudu in Adi - Tishra Gati (6 units per beat), Abheri Varnam Santoshamuga in Mishra Chapu (7 units per cycle) and Todi Varnam Ninne dalachi tapamu jesitini in Sankeerna Chapu (9 units per cycle). His other singular creations are what he refers to as Schematic Svarakshara compositions (where each line begins with words some of whose syllables match the solfa notes) like Sadaramutonu (Shankarabharanam), Sarigadamma (Keeravani) and Sada sadayudai (Hindolam). In terms of themes, Ravikiran has also composed songs based on significant hymns like mrtyunjaya mantra - Tryambakam yajamahe (Deepakam), Anjaneya shloka, Buddhir balam yasho dhairyam - Anjaneya palayashumam (Shahana), Uttama manavare (Begada) highlighting the qualities of ideal students, Shalai muraihalai (Kapi) that spotlights on the importance of following road rules and Varuna priyane (Varunapriya) which prays for benevolent (and not destructive) rain.

Ravikiran has also explored diverse themes in his tillanas which encompass both devotional and romantic approaches. Inspired by Arunagirinathar's Tiruppugazh cretions, Ravikiran has composed a select number of similar meter-centric pieces that he himself modestly refers to as Shirup-puhazh.

The lyrics of a few of his compositions as well as a comprehensive list of this compositions are available online.

Select Traditional compositions

Dance Compositions & Productions

Ravikiran's dance creations cover a variety of forms - ''pada varnams, shabdam, kavuttuvam, pushpanjali'' apart from ''padams, javalis'' and ''tillanas''. His dance collaborators and choreographers in operatic or other presentations include Pt Birju Maharaj, Prof C V Chandrashekar, Dr Vyjayantimala Bali, Dr Padma Subramaniam, Leela Samson, Adyar Lakshman, Guru Rhadha & Guru Savitry Jagannatha Rao. He has also created music for contemporary or short traditional dance productions such as:

• Cosmos
• Pushed to the Edge
• Illusion to Resolution
• Translation
• Panchali Shapatam
• Panchakriya

These were presented by dance companies in USA, Canada, Australia and India such as Natya Dance Theatre & Shirley Mordine Dance Company (Chicago), Kalasangam (UK), Sampradaya Dance Creations (Toronto), Bharatalaya Academy (Melbourne) and Kanopy Dance Company (Madison). Numerous other dance companies have presented Ravikiran's creations in New York, Detroit, Dallas, San Jose, Austin, San Antonio, Bradford (UK), Bangalore and other cities.

Operatic Creations

Ravikiran composed the Operatic dance creation, Lakshmi Prabhavam ^[11] in 1997 which was staged in USA and India as a music-dance production featuring about 30-35 musicians and dancers and presented again at the Cleveland Festival in 2018. He has composed a number of other operatic productions and also shared his perspectives on how to compose for such operas in various talks.^[12]

His other operas include:

• Savitri ^[13]
• Vinayaka Vaibhavam ^[14][15]
• Ramayana - Bala Kandam ^[16]
• Ramayana - Yuddha Kandam ^[16]
• Mahabharata - Karna Shapatam ^[17]
• Mahabharata - Geetopadesham
• Almighty Trinity ^[18]

Tunesmith

Ravikiran has also set to music almost 1500 verses, poems or compositions of other composers including his historic effort of setting music to 1330 tirukkural verses of ancient Tamil moralist poet, Tiruvalluvar in an unimaginable 16 hours (in Jan 2016)^[19] apart from divya prabandham verses of azhwars,^[20] select verses from Bhagavad Gita, verses from ancient Tamil sangam literature,^[21] compositions of Purandara Dasa, D V Gundappa and select contemporary composers.

Concepts and contributions

Considered as the Creator of Ragas,^[22] Ravikiran has substantially enriched the world of musical mathematics by composing hundreds of interesting (Ragam-Tanam) Pallavis ^[23] (of which nearly 90% are extempore).^[24][25] He has developed interesting concepts of Smart Finishes and Seamless korvais (mega cadences) applying mathematical pinciples that are sophisticated, yet elegant.

Melharmony & World Music

Ravikiran is celebrated as the creator of Melharmony ^[26] in world music. Melharmony is a unique approach to music that explores "Western style harmony but anchored on melodic progression". Several of these have been presented by professional Symphony Orchestras, Chamber Orchestras, String Orchestra, Quintets & Quartets and Jazz and Rock ensembles in various cities in USA such as Houston,^[27] Minneapolis, Chicago, Madison,^[28] Canada, Germany,^[29] Goetheanum Switzerland, London, Bradford, Manchester and other cities in UK, Switzerland and India.

Melharmony has introduced Indian (both Carnatic & Hindustani) ragas like Hamsadhwani, Nattai, Janaranjani, Hamsanadam, Malahari, Sahana, Manji, Anandabhairavi, Shanmukhapriya, Hemavati, Mohanam, Saraswati, Kapi, Umabharanam and Keeravani and Kambhodhi to international audiences as well artists. Apart from original works like the symphonic work Climatrix besides has embedded each of the 72 principal scales of Carnatic (72 mela kartas), Ravikiran has also arranged traditional works of master Indian composers like Purandara Dasa, Oottukkadu Venkata Kavi, Tyagaraja, Dikshitar and Arunagirinathar for these Orchestras.

Select Melharmonic Creations

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References