Prince Rama Varma-VARA LEELA GANA LOLA

ALBUM : THE LANGUAGE OF MUSIC

Vara leela gana lola (Sanskrit) -
Western Nottuswaram
Tyagaraja
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tyaga...

Many of the great masters of Indian Classical music, like Sri Tyagaraja, Sri Muthuswami Dikshitar and Maharaja Swathi Thirunal lived at the same period of history, when India was ruled by the British. Some of these composers indulged in putting lyrics in Sanskrit, for some of the charming and attractive Western melodies that they heard. These were usually based on the Western Major Scale and do not follow any Indian classical Ragam strictly. Some notes are close to the King of Ragams Shankarabharanam, but do not employ the oscillations or ornamentation that characterizes Shankarabharanam. These compositions are usually called Western Nottuswarams. Though Sri Muthuswami Dikshitar has composed the maximum number of Western Nottuswarams, the few that Sri Tyagaraja composed, have a charm of their own.
Vara Leela Gana Lola witnesses the brilliant mind of Sri Tyagaraja at its best, where one syllable gets repeated throughout each of the stanzas, right from LA in the opening stanza to an unexpected syllable like KSHA later on.
Adults and children alike are attracted to Prince Rama Varma's rendition of this song, where the beauty of the lyrics get highlighted by the stunning clarity of Varma Ji's enunciation.
One can witness Varma Ji's voice go from soft to hard in an instant when he sings a phrase like "Mridu Bhaashana" (soft spoken) to
"Ripu Bheeshana" (menacing to His enemies).
This also understandably, happens to be one of the most often requested compositions in Varma Ji's concerts.