On Singing for Joy!

Annamacharya Aradhana was started 3 years ago by a small yet passionate group of music lovers among the Telugu community in the Cleveland area to celebrate the life and works of the great poet, composer Tallapaka Annamacharya. The event has achieved great success in bringing together teachers, students and music enthusiasts alike, to extol the beauty and devotion in the compositions through music and dance performances.

An ardent devotee of Lord Venkateswara of Tirupati Annamacharya (also known as Annamayya) successfully composed more than 32,000 Sankirtanas in a style that is impossible to replicate! Only 14,000 of these Sankirtanas are available at present. He was credited to have come up with Pallavi and Charanam division of a song. Annamayya considered his compositions as floral offerings to God. In the Saptagiri Sankirtanas, he praises Venkateswara, the Saptagiri vasa or the Lord that resides within the 7 hills, in verses that describe his love for Venkata Chalapathi, praise for his ishtadaivam’s Mahima leading to a total surrender or Saranaagathi at the divine lord’s feet. "Rasanam Lakshanam Bhajanam" , meaning the act by which we feel closer to either our true self (atman), or to God (Ishvara) couldn’t be expressed more eloquently than in the unique style of spoken feeling that perfectly blends love, admiration, devotion and ultimate union with the paramatma!


by Sravanthi Vallampati

It's funny how my friends think I can sing....
Preface: My exercise in understanding and singing Annamayya's divine compositions.

It's funny how my friends think I can sing
funnier even, they compliment and say 'wow'!
Not my teachers, mind you! They only lament,
often stopping shy of shedding a painful tear,
or think me a child and chide in casual company;
The stern stare, furrowing frown and deep sigh
only too legit, at my rendition poor, notes off-key!


As time passes by and my day warrants hours 4 more,
I often wonder why I long to go back to sing that song
of delight with utter glee, (notes off-key notwithstanding),
to lift myself up, above my own hesitant expectation;


It's not so much the song but the choir I love, I recall now,
the enmeshed feelings of fun, food and some learning,
(of course!) as music fills the air and I learn a thing or two
from my funny friends in the choir that think I can sing.
And yes, to those enduring souls that try to instil in me,
some love for that song of yesterday, I am thankful to you
for making me wish I could sing again!


It's funny how my friends think I can sing
funnier even, they compliment and say 'wow',
if ever you wondered why I love them so,
stop right there, you now know!