Materials
oral tradition
ICH Materials 498
Audios
(2)-
A iTukutuku ni tawavanua mai na soko ni Kaunitoni, kei na kalou vu ko Lutunasobasoba(A Story of Early Settlement of the Fiji Islands by the iTaukei Ancestral God, Lutunasobasoba, on His Vessel, the Ka
This is ChapterⅠ of a story read by Saimoni Vatu from an old colonial Fijian news publication, Na Mata . The whole story was published in a series that spanned two years from September 1892 to December 1893 and was later republished as a series in 1932. The transcribed oral tradition retells of a migration that goes all the way to Lake Taganyika (in presentday Tanzania), including place names and the connection to Fiji. The story highlights the voyage of the iTaukei patriarch, Lutunasobasoba , on his vessel, the Kaunitoni . One interesting part of the story was the loss of a stone chest containing the tools of trade and the book of languages as they journeyed to Nakauvadra.
Fiji -
Rāga vāgadīśvarī: ālāpana and a kirtana in ādi tāḷa, “paramātmudu veligē”
1. The second track has performances of two rāgas, one immediately following the other. In Telugu, the title means, “Know that the supreme soul shines everywhere.” Oral tradition has it that Tyagarāja composed and sang this song shortly before his death, when he had formally be come a saṃnyāsi, one who renounces the world, and that this gives the song its sublime beauty. Rāga nīlāmbarī: ālāpana precedes a kirtana in ādi tāḷa, ambā nīlāmbarī, translated from Telugu as “Mother, blue sky, Ocean of joy” by Tañjāvūr Ponnayya Pillai (1804-1864). Ponnayya Pillai and his three brothers, all students of Muttusvāmi Dīkṣitar (1775-1835), were renowned composers, naṭṭuvanārs (dance masters), and performing musicians. Dīkṣitar’s compositions represent a somewhat different tradition within Karṇāṭak music from his contemporary, Tyagarāja Nīlāmbarī. This music has its roots in ancient Tamil music where paṇ mēkarāgakkuriñci, known from the tēvāram songs of the seventh and eighth century CE, corresponds to this rāga. It is quite different from the Hindustāni rāga of the same name. 2. Rāga jayantasena: kirtana in ādi tāḷa, “vinatāsuta vāhana śrī ramana” (Telugu, Śrī Ramaṇa, with Vinatā’s son Garuḍa for your mount) by Tyagarāja. Jayantasena is a rare rāga known principally through this one kirtana. The ensemble plays the kirtana, “Vinatāsuta vāhana śrī ramana” without melodic improvisation to the fade-out. The tavil, however, plays inventively in the spaces created in the performance.
India 1986