In continuing with descripitions of my pieces completely out of order, I will now discuss the Thillana. A Thillana is usually the concluding piece in a Bharatanatyam recital, as well as in carnatic music concerts. It involves mostly nritta, or straight up rhythmic dance. Given that it's the end of the show, it's a real killer.
Fortunately for me, I quite like my Thillana. It is in ragam Dhanasri - ragams are kind of like 'keys' in western music, as best I can tell - which is a really cool ragam. To hear a weird version of what it sounds like, view below (my orchestra will NOT be featuring a saxophonist or a morsing player).
Unlike most thillanas, which only have one line, mine has 3! Originally, this meant I was totally dying by the end of the 15 minute piece. We have since shaved it down, so it's a lot shorter, but it still has 3 different lines.
While most of the dance is just 'dancing' (ie: no miming), there is a single verse at the end describing LordKrishna Padmanabha (a mistake I made in the first draft of my program), who is one of the lesser-celebrated incarnations of Lord Vishnu. He has a subpar wikipedia page, so all I can tell you about him is what I know from my thillana, which is that 1) He is an incarnation of Vishnu, 2) He is playful, and 3) He removes ones troubles. Frankly, I feel I can be forgiven for mixing him up with Krishna.
The line at the end of the Thillana, and all of them have one, always strikes my as a strange artistic choice. You're going along, perfectly logically, dancing your exhausted little heart out, and then BAM! storytime. The only western equivalent I can think of are the kind of music video that will suddenly cut from a song into some out of nowhere story that you never saw coming. A classic example, perhaps a little dated for you young folks, is Puff Daddy, Ma$e, and the disembodied posthumous voice if Biggy Smalls' Been Around the World, where we we go from perfectly coherent ballin' about the Middle East to... salsa dancing with Jennifer Lopez.
Huh?
The Thillana definitely does a better job of this genre in that it doesn't involve Ma$e. And hey, who doesn't want to hear a story about the gods? If you didn't, surely you would have left by now.
T minus 6 days!
Fortunately for me, I quite like my Thillana. It is in ragam Dhanasri - ragams are kind of like 'keys' in western music, as best I can tell - which is a really cool ragam. To hear a weird version of what it sounds like, view below (my orchestra will NOT be featuring a saxophonist or a morsing player).
Unlike most thillanas, which only have one line, mine has 3! Originally, this meant I was totally dying by the end of the 15 minute piece. We have since shaved it down, so it's a lot shorter, but it still has 3 different lines.
While most of the dance is just 'dancing' (ie: no miming), there is a single verse at the end describing Lord
The line at the end of the Thillana, and all of them have one, always strikes my as a strange artistic choice. You're going along, perfectly logically, dancing your exhausted little heart out, and then BAM! storytime. The only western equivalent I can think of are the kind of music video that will suddenly cut from a song into some out of nowhere story that you never saw coming. A classic example, perhaps a little dated for you young folks, is Puff Daddy, Ma$e, and the disembodied posthumous voice if Biggy Smalls' Been Around the World, where we we go from perfectly coherent ballin' about the Middle East to... salsa dancing with Jennifer Lopez.
Huh?
The Thillana definitely does a better job of this genre in that it doesn't involve Ma$e. And hey, who doesn't want to hear a story about the gods? If you didn't, surely you would have left by now.
T minus 6 days!
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