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Thirukkural CD- 35 Kurals, Selected & Composed by Rangasami Parthasarathy Thirukural CD by Rangasami Parthasarathy The CD is marketed by Bharat Records International Pvt.Ltd, 30 Conran Smith Road, Gopalapuram, Chennai, 600 086 and Oriental Records Inc., P.O.Box 387, Williston Park, New York 11596, USA and contains a selection of 35 couplets in music composed by Rangasami Parthasarathy. The singers include Dr.Seergazhi G. Siva Chidambaram, Deepan Chakravarthi, R.Krishnaraj with Dr.M. Balamurali Krishna as Guest Artist. Each selected couplet is sung ten times and hearing them in this fashhion is an effective way of memorising them. The Compact Disc package includes the text of the selected 35 Kurals in Tamil, English transliteration and English translation. Rangasami Parthasarathy writes in his introduction: "Thirukkural - Thiru meaning sacred or beautiful and Kural being anything short or brief, was written 2000 years ago by Thiruvalluvar. It is divided into three parts and 133 chapters, each chapter contains 10 couplets and each couplet is a taut 14 syllable two liner, offering advice or admonition. Thirukkural has remained a "LIVING SCRIPTURE" precisely because each two liner is worth savoring, pondering over and is certainly relevant to any society - yesterday's, today or tomorrow's. It is one of those rare works meaningful to any reader or listener whether that person is a ruler or the ruled, businessman or professional, employer or employed, housewife or student. We know for certain that the author Thiruvalluvar lived in what today is called "Chennai" a city in Tamilnadu, India. We also know that he lived in harmony with his wife Vasuki and was one of those rare great men who "practiced what they preached" . I have attempted to provide a " Taste of Thirukkural " by selecting 35 couplets and setting it to music. The task was awesome and the problem was not what to select but what to leave out. In the ultimate analysis the 35 selected are my personal favorites and in my opinion valid in the contemporary world to which we belong. You, the connoisseur of music will note that while the individual couplets are in different Ragas (modes) and in different pitch the "Swaras" (notes) are the same. This special innovation is my homage and tribute to the great sage THIRUVALLUVAR. I would feel recompensed if this effort kindles your desire to delve deeper into Thirukkural." |
International Tamil Language Foundation CD The Chicago based International Tamil Language Foundation ( ITLF) has produced a 2-volume (CD), 2.5 hours long, of the music of Thirukkural - Kaamathuppaal. The 25 chapters of Kaamathuppaal are set to 25 different ragas by composer Pukazhenthi (K. V. Mahadevan group), and sung by S. P. Balasubramaniam & Chithra. The songs are set as a musical drama of love that Valluvar picturised more than two-thousand years ago. The essence of the ten kurals of each chapter is contained in each song (lyrics by late Kavignar Pu. Aa. Muthukkrishnan). The music was digitally recorded in Chennai and produced in USA, as one of the projects of ITLF. It is available in a 2-CD set with two booklets, (i) entire lyrics in Tamil (20 pages), and (ii) An article "Tamil Isai", by Vi. Pa. Kaa. Sundaram (32 pages). A few selected songs may be previewed at the International Tamil Language Foundation website at http://www.kural.org The music CD is the result of years of work by a dedicated (ITLF) team (ITLF)by Mr. Alagappa Rammohan (Director, ITF). The CDs may be purchased (US $25 + $5 shipping) by sending a request to . |