Last update: 20 May, 2020
Let me make it clear at the beginning, these are not facts, but is the result of a fun exercise. Do not take it as a serious analysis. What I have done here to take the list of compositions and rAgAs from https://shankarkrish.blog/carnatic-vocal/m-d-ramanathan/ and do some basic processing in excel to generate some trends.
- Note that these are based on a very small subset of MDR concerts
- Concerts analysed may not be spread across his career, so the data may be biased to some periods
- Many concerts are incomplete in the above page, and some have been clubbed
- The page does not list all the items in a given concert
- I may have made some small mistakes here and there while editing/managing the text as well!
We may get different set of numbers if data from all his concerts are compiled and analysed, but, that will be a herculean effort. Though this analysis may not be very accurate, it give us some ideas about MDR’s choices. So, here is the result of a lazy number crunching effort… Enjoy!
Which were some of MDR’s favourite rAgAs?
kApi, hamsadhwani and kedAram are in the top 10, but I think they managed this mostly due to their prominence in the tukDa and/or initial shorter items in the concerts. The rAgAs which are prominent across (and especially in the middle – main/sub-main/RTP – part) are:
- kalyANi
- toDi
- rItigowla
- pUrvikalyANi
- bhairavi
- yadukulakamboji
- srI
Each of these ragas shine in MDR’s hands and suit very well for his style of singing!
Which were some of MDR’s favourite krutis?
“vAtapi gaNapatim“, “ninnu vinAga” & “endarO mahAnubhAvulu” appears at the top, along with his own kApi kruti “nandagOpa” (due to its regularity in his tukDa section)! The list has a mix of “heavy” krutis and his own krutis.
Which were some of MDR’s favourite ragas for varNams?
kalyANi (mostly aTa tALa varNam) is the clear winner here, followed by bhairavi (mostly viribONi I think) 🙂
Which were some of MDR’s favourite ragas for RTPs?
It is interesting to note that bhairavi (from the “big five”) is missing in the RTP list! Otherwise, the it appears that “big five” are the winners here 🙂
Which were some of MDR’s favourite ragas for tillAnas?
His own kApi tillAna seems to be the favourite, followed by the pUrya (pUrvi) one by Tirugokarnam Vaidyanatha Iyer.