Rajna Swaminathan - Part 2

For Good Measure, by Ensemble for These Times (E4TT)
Episode 166: Rajna Swaminathan - Part 2

In this week’s episode, we talk to Rajna Swaminathan about the mrudangam, from various spellings to how the percussion instrument it’s made. If you enjoyed today’s conversation and want to know more about Rajna Swaminathan, check her out here: https://www.rajnaswaminathan.com/. This episode was originally recorded in January 2024.

This podcast is made possible in part by a grant from the California Arts Council and generous donors, like you. Want to support For Good Measure and E4TT? Make a tax-deductible donation or sign up for our newsletter, and subscribe to the podcast!

Intro music: “Trifolium” by Gabriela Ortiz, performed by E4TT (Ilana Blumberg, violin; Abigail Monroe, cello; Margaret Halbig, piano),  as part of “Below the Surface: Music by Women Composers,” January 29, 2022
Outro music: “Lake Turkana” by Marcus Norris, performed by E4TT (Margaret Halbig, piano), as part of “Alchemy,” October 15, 2021

Transcription courtesy of Otter.ai.
Buzzsprout: https://www.buzzsprout.com/1903729/episodes/17565235

Producer, Host, and E4TT co-founder: Nanette McGuinness
Co-producer and Audio Engineer: Stephanie M. Neumann
Podcast Cover Art: Brennan Stokes

Chapters

• 0:22 In this week's episode, we continue our conversation with Rajna Swaminathan, who we spoke to in January 2024.
• 0:30 You're a classical composer, you're a pianist, you're a vocalist, and you're a mrudangam artist... for our audience members who don't know that instrument, could you tell us about it?... I noticed it's spelled a number of ways...
• 2:10 Can you tell us about the tradition it comes from, and about the instrument, how it works, and so forth.

Transcript

Nanette McGuinness  00:00

[INTRO MUSIC] Welcome to For Good Measure, an interview series celebrating diverse composers and other creative artists, sponsored by a grant from the California Arts Council. I'm Nanette McGuinness, Artistic Executive Director of Ensemble for These Times. In this week's episode, we continue our conversation with Rajna Swaminathan, who we spoke to in January 2024. [INTRO MUSIC ENDS]

Nanette McGuinness  00:30

You're a classical composer, you're a pianist, you're a vocalist, and you're a mrudangam artist. Now first, did I pronounce that right?

Rajna Swaminathan  00:38

Mrudangam, yeah

Nanette McGuinness  00:38

Mrudangam, okay. So, first, for our audience members who don't know that instrument, could you tell us about it and what tradition it comes from? Also, I noticed it's spelled a number of ways, and I'm assuming that has to do with transcription practices or transliteration practices I should say. Is there an official version, or does it just really vary?

Rajna Swaminathan  01:04

It varies. I think, you know, probably, if there is a more common way of spelling it is "m-r-i" and my teacher just spelled it "m-r-u" because it's actually the vowel is sort of between an "I" and a "U." It's "mrt." So you could kind of think of it as a "U," or you can think of it think of it as an "I," and actually in Tämer, which is the language I grew up speaking, like the, the kind of official way of writing, it is mirudhangam. So it's, it's, there's a "U" there, there's an "I" there. So it can, it can be either, but it's actually in Sanskrit, it means a clay body. Mrt is clay and "dangam" is body?

Nanette McGuinness  01:48

Okay. Yeah, it's almost a schwa sound the but it's got a little bit... I can... I can hear why he wanted to put a "U" instead of an "I." If, if I had to transliterate it, I think I would put it... or transcribe what I'm hearing. I think I would do that, also...

Rajna Swaminathan  02:03

Yeah.

Nanette McGuinness  02:04

...but, you know, the... the American schwa covers a lot of sins. [laughs]

Rajna Swaminathan  02:09

Yeah

Nanette McGuinness  02:09

Yeah. Can you tell us about the tradition it comes from, and about the instrument, how it works, and so forth.

Rajna Swaminathan  02:15

Sure, it's, you know, there's, there's a number of instruments, percussion instruments in India that are, I mean, I should say in South Asia, really, that are tuned to a kind of harmonic pitch, you know, including the tabla, which a lot of people are familiar with. But there's pakhawaj, there's a number of instruments, including some folk instruments in India, that also have a kind of similar construction. And so there's... to me, I see it as part of this larger percussion family, even though it does come from this very particular tradition in the way that I learned it, which is Carnatic music, which is the South Indian classical form of music. And you know, it's also used as an accompaniment for a dance in Bharatanatyam and other South Indian dance forms... Kuchipudithere's, it's used in that context as well. And it's, you know, this double headed, barrel shaped drum where one side is tuned. It's got these. It's mostly made of cow hide and some goat hide. There's kind of two layers on the higher end of it, that's tunable, and then the low end we tune, traditionally, tune with this kind of cream of wheat paste, although a lot of people have switched that out for something more convenient. In fact...

Nanette McGuinness  03:36

[laughs]

Rajna Swaminathan  03:36

...some have adapted the instrument to be built from out of metal with these nuts and bolts. But I'm kind of, I keep, I keep playing the traditional kind of version of it with with the leather straps and using the cream of wheat paste. There's something about the ritual of it that is sort of a way of, kind of priming yourself before a performance that I enjoy. So you have to mix the cream of wheat. It's like a semolina powder with water, and it makes this paste. And you tune the lower end of the drum with water throughout the performance, so it keeps it malleable. But it's, you know, this, keeping this very base sound going.

Nanette McGuinness  03:37

Interesting.

Rajna Swaminathan  03:38

Yeah.

Nanette McGuinness  03:40

I grew up eating cream of wheat. [laughs]

Rajna Swaminathan  04:09

[laughs] Well, I joke about it a lot, because there's a lot of food on the instrument, even on the right side, the higher end, I should say, is what we call a black patch, which is a kind of circular patch that you see, and it's made out of a lot of people think it's just stone or something, and that's what it looks like. But it's actually made out of cooked rice that's made into a paste, and they mix it with this iron, manganese ore powder, which like a black powder. And then they apply this paste in concentric circles. And after every couple of layers, they let it dry in the sun, the artisans who make this and so it's it's made out of rice. So they. Rice is cream of wheat. [laughs]

Nanette McGuinness  05:01

[laughs] A foody instrument!

Rajna Swaminathan  05:05

yeah.

Nanette McGuinness  05:05

Okay. Now the the next thing is, do you ever have problems with ants?

Rajna Swaminathan  05:10

I haven't. I haven't. I mean, I usually store the drum layers, but I haven't. Actually, it's funny, I have more of a problem with, like, people's pets sometimes come and they like...

Nanette McGuinness  05:11

They want to lick the...?! [laughing]

Rajna Swaminathan  05:23

Yeah, they're very curious about it, I think the smells. So I've had dogs. I've had, like, cats coming up to it and being very curious, and have [laughs] to keep it away from them more than anything else. Yeah, I haven't, actually haven't had a problem with ants yet.

Nanette McGuinness  05:42

I grew up in Houston. I live in the Bay Area. Ants are endemic. And you know...

Rajna Swaminathan  05:46

Right

Nanette McGuinness  05:47

...the first thing that comes to mind is, oh, no, there's a trail going to the instrument. [laughs]

Rajna Swaminathan  05:51

Well, one thing we remove the we remove the cream of wheat every time it's not permanently on there. And I think the rice, because it's so, it's, it's so mixed in with the iron manganese...

Nanette McGuinness  06:04

That acts as a... the iron manganese, yeah.

Rajna Swaminathan  06:07

They're probably not even going to sense there's any rice in there. So [laughs] that was a good question. Yeah. [laughs]

Nanette McGuinness  06:13

[OUTRO MUSIC] Thank you for listening to For Good Measure and a special thank you to our guest, Rajna Swaminathan, for joining us today. If you enjoyed this episode, please subscribe to our podcast by clicking on the subscribe button and support us by sharing it with your friends, posting about it on social media, and leaving us a rating and a review. To learn more about E4TT, our concert season online and in the Bay Area, or to make a tax-deductible donation, please visit us at www.e4tt.org. This podcast is made possible in part by a grant from the California Arts Council and generous donors like you. For Good Measure is produced by Nanette McGuinness and Ensemble for These Times, and design by Brennan Stokes, with special thanks to co-producer and audio engineer Stephanie M. Neumann. Remember to keep supporting equity in the arts and tune in next week "for good measure." [OUTRO MUSIC ENDS]