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Like many other forms of art, Carnatic music can be appreciated at two levels - emotional or intellectual. It has generally been observed that the majority, at least in the initial stages, go by 'what it does to their heart'. But gradually they seek to understand more at the intellectual level in order to enjoy the music better. However if you acquire a lot of knowledge, there is a danger of your ceasing to enjoy the music. It is said that a prominent industrialist from Chennai was once travelling with M.Balamuralikrishna. The industrialist who liked Carnatic Music very much, asked Balamuralikrishna about what he had to do to increase his gyanam (knowledge) so that he can appreciate the music better. Balamuralikrishna replied, "You are better off this way! Otherwise you will tend to be more critical and will stop enjoying the music!" I am still in the stage where Carnatic music appeals more to my heart than my head and I hope I remain that way as long as I live. In December 2004, my wife and I attended over 40 concerts in addition to a few dance programmes. In fact I had taken leave for a week so that mundane things like office did not interfere with the higher things in life like music. People ask me what do I get by attending Carnatic music concerts. My answer is I get mental and spiritual satisfaction, peace of mind and entertainment. I have attended a number of concerts and in almost every concert, I have found a few magical moments of performance which cannot describe what happens. The musician sings for himself/herself or to God so to speak, and we, the audience become irrelevant. This article which covers the kutcheris and dances that I attended in this season is about those magical musical moments when I felt deeply moved.
Tanam singing which has a beautiful rhythmic pattern is rarely sung by musicians nowadays. In the large number of concerts that I have attended in the last two years, I have heard Tanam singing only a few times. Perhaps it is difficult or the musicians prefer Tillana to Tanam. Tanam sung by Priya sisters (Kartik Fine Arts-2nd December) was part of their main piece which was in the second most popular �Priya�, viz., Shanmukhapriya. (In the list of compositions that I have, Kharaharapriya leads with 341 compositions with 247 in Shanmukhapriya). It was very melodious to hear and I felt transported to a different plane.
Khamas is a popular ragam and is famous for the composition of Mayuram Vishvanatha Shastri �jayati jayati Bharata mata� which was rendered by Semmangudi Srinivasa Iyer on India�s Independence Day on August 15, 1947 over All India Radio. One of the earliest available pieces of composed music in Khamas is the Tamil Padam by Seerkazhi Muthu Thandavar (17th century), �Teruvil varano ennai satre tirumbi parano�. Vijay Siva (Kartik Fine Arts-3rd December) chose �Marubari talalenura ora na sami� by Dharmapuri Subbaraya Iyer. Vijay Siva is a singer who sings with emotion and was able to transport me to heaven during this song.
The very name Anandabhairavi conjures up a picture of bliss and divinity. This beautiful ragam has been a medium for many melodies. Tracing its roots from folk music it has evolved into its present state just by the sustained usage and handling of innumerable musicians. An old Ragam, especially suited for singing Slokams, lullabies, marriage songs and folk tunes. Though Mathrubhoothayya, who lived during the pre-trinity days had already popularized Anandabhairavi through his beautiful composition- �Ni Mathi Challaga Nanu Brochute�, Ananda Bhairavi as it is rendered now can be said to be the contribution of Shyama Sastri. Anandabhairavi typifies Carnatic Music in its essence and brings forth the grandeur and beauty of the gamaka system. A combination of Anandabhairavi and O.S.Tyagarajan (Kalakruthi-3rd December) is a sure recipe for happiness. Add in the bhakti of Bhadrachala Ramdas in his krithi �Ramabhadra ra ra shri ramachandra rara� and the result is pure bliss.
Who are the singers that can draw capacity crowds? Opinions may vary but the list would definitely include Yesudas, Aruna Sayeeram, Nityashree, Sudha Raghunathan, Bombay Jayasree, Unnikrishnan and Sanjay Subramanian. Sanjay�s concert (Kartik Fine Arts - 4th December) in front of a capacity crowd was his best I have heard. People comment about the unnecessary body movements of Sanjay. But I am all for it because whenever he shakes his body, glorious music seems to fall out of it. Though there were a number of magical moments during the concert, I am selecting his rendition of Subbarama Iyer�s �Ettanai sonnalum teriyadavarudan� in Saveri. The adage goes in Thanjavur district that the banks of the Kaveri and melody of Saveri make one equally ecstatic. Muthuswami Dikshitar justifies this by saying �Kaveri thatasthitham, Saveri raganutam� while praying to Lord Ganapati in the krithi �karikalabha mukham� In this ragam.
When Sanjay sang, I could feel the beauty of Saveri ragam and why it is compared with a beautiful river. Sanjay Subramanian�s singing reminded me of the immortal lines of Lord Tennyson-
I come from haunts of coot and hern,
I make a sudden sally,
And sparkle out among the fern,
To bicker down a valley.
For men may come and men may go,
But I go on for ever.
I am sure Saveri ragam and Sanjay�s music will go on for ever.
I have never been very fond of dance, which is really surprising. With the same Carnatic music and with the added appeal to the eyes, dance ought to be enjoyed by all music listeners. But even when young and going to great lengths to watch �two-legged non-flying birds� with friends, I rarely went to dance performances. And I now know I am old as the music appeals to me much more than the dancer. Though I am still not very fond of solo dancing, I have added dance dramas to my list of �must-attend� after seeing Navagraha Ula (Kartik Fine Arts � 5th December). This multi-media grand spectacle was riveting in its entire 150 minutes. Before starting the dance performance, the geographical and the puranic aspects of each of the nine planets was projected on the screen. The dance which followed was awesome. With 82 girls of all ages taking part it was the grandest show I have seen. As a boy I had come away from the theatre tremendously impressed after seeing Spartacus and Ten Commandments. But they were mere shadows before this show. Thank you, Krishnakumari and Abhinaya Natyalaya for a wonderful experience. The scene depicting moon-god moving in his chariot was a magical moment as it was a delight to the eyes as well as ears.
When we see the dominance of lady vocalists in Carnatic music, we can see the changes have come about in 60 years or so thanks to M.S.Subbalakshmi, D.K.Pattammal, M.L.Vasanthakumari and many other lady singers. Balasaraswati was the first female singer in the 40s to perform a concert on stage. Since then there has been a tremendous change. But while there are a large number of women instrumentalists in violin, veena etc., mridangam and ghatam are still dominated by men. Kamakshi Bai who was the first known woman mridangam player has perhaps not been to inspire women as Balasaraswati has been able to. Maybe the next 50 years will bring more women percussionists to the fore. But with the advantage of naturally sweet voices, women singers are now overtaking men. This introduction is for the concert on 8th December, which was a working day, we reached Narada Gana Sabha Main Hall a good 20 minutes before start and were pleasantly surprised to see that the hall was already nearly full and people with VIP tickets were the only ones coming in. We overheard one of the organisers saying,"I don't know where from such a crowd comes for Aruna".
Yes, it was Aruna Sayeeram's (Kartik Fine Arts � 8th December) day out. She has an interesting pedigree- student of 'Sangeeta Kalanidhi' Brinda who was heir to the celebrated Veena Dhanamal style of singing and having lived in Bombay, a meeting point of Hindustani and Carnatic music, Aruna has developed her own style.She has been able to combine the fantastic rhythmical and melodic precision of Carnatic music with the balance and the aesthetics of Hindustani music and is a top crowd-puller. She did not disappoint us and there were many magical moments in her concert. But the one that I am choosing to write about is the abhang. Aruna and abhang are as famous and as inseparable as December and Carnatic music. As soon as she started 'Rajasa Sukumara' it was clear that her bhakti for Panduranga Vittala would pour out. Sometimes she tends to overdo it and the piece ends up as a bhajan. But not that day. It ended at the right time and I was so involved that for a few seconds I forgot to clap and was brought back to the world only by the clapping of the audience.
Unnikrishnan is an accomplished cricketer and played for the Tamilnadu senior division league as a top order batsman and wicket keeper. One could see him use his cricketing skills to catch the requests thrown by the audience. In the entire season, I saw that he was the only artiste who responded to verbal requests and you can see why he vibes so much with the audience. As soon as his main piece in Shankarabharanam was over (Kartik Fine Arts � 11th December), the audience started throwing balls � sorry, requests for songs- at him. Among the two ragamalikas that he sang, one was Rajaji�s �kurai onrum illai� popularized by M.S.Subbalakshmi. This song has now become Unnikrishnan�s penultimate piece with Mangalam being the last. Some songs bring tears to the listener�s eyes and leave a lump in his/her heart. Whenever I hear the lines �kunrin mel kallaagi nirkinra varatha, kurai onrum illai maraimoorththi kannaa manivannaa malaiappaa Govinda Govinda�, this happens to me. And when somebody like Unnikrishnan sings the lines with feelings, the melody haunts you for a long time.
Sudha Raghunathan is one of the stars of today in Carnatic music. Though young, she is a veteran on the stage as she is singing from the age of nine and had accompanied her mentor, M.L.Vasanthakumari, from 1978. It used to be said that MLV stood for Melody, Laya (Rhythm) and Vidwat (musical Knowledge). Sudha has imbibed everything that MLV had and perhaps more. Ritigaula is a famous ragam and features in several Ragamalikas and even used as a main Ragam tanam Pallavi piece. In a lec-dem a few years ago, Dr.S.Ramanathan mentioned that Narayanagaula and Ritigaula were considered as 'parambarai sotthu' (ancestral property) of the Vinai kuppaiyer clan ! I am sure that anybody from that clan would have applauded the handling of Ritigaula by Sudha Raghunathan (Sri Parthasarathy Swami Sabha - 18th December 2004). She chose Ambujam Krishna�s �Guruvayoor appane appan�. When Sudha sang the concluding lines, �munnam yashodai maindanaai vandavan inru namakkirangi ingu ezhundaruli baalanaa yuvanaai paalikkum deivamaai paravasha nilai kaatum parama purushan� , everyone in the audience reached the �paravasa nilai� (entranced state) that she was singing about.
Subbudu, the famous critic wrote,"If I were left deserted on a lonely island, and if I were granted permission to hold three products that I liked very much, I would list the following in order of my preference:
An audio-visual cassette of singer Sudha Ragunathan;
Betel leaves and tobacco to chew on while I listen to the music
Poet Kannadasan's works.�
One could see why Sudha was on the top of Subbudu�s list.
T.M.Krishna is an youngster, yet a doyen among Carnatic musicians as he started giving concerts from the age of 12. He belongs to a family of music lovers with his grand uncle T.T.Krishnamachari having been a founder of the Madras Music Academy. He has an unique style and maintains very high standards in his selection of songs and the mode of singing. His concert (Sri Parthasarathy Swami Sabha- 19th December 2004) was a revelation. Since I am still in the process of learning the nuances of Carnatic music, I was surprised when Tani Avarthanam was played for Syama Sastri�s �O jagadamba nanu amba nivu javamuna�. But after this composition, he started an elaborate alapana in Kalyani, which was the main composition. My more knowledgable neighbour clarified that Tani Avarthanam need not necessarily be played for the main composition. Kalyani is easily one of the most popular ragams in Carnatic music. It is also popular in Hindustani music in the form of the evergreen Yaman (Yaman That). Kalyani is a major ragam and is capable of being used in practically any kind of composition. From the common gitam taught to beginners of Carnatic music- �kamalajatala� to complicated krithis, ragam-tanam-pallavis, padams and javalis, Kalyani occupies a special place in modern Carnatic music. G.N.Balasubramaniam had virtually made Tyagaraja�s �Vasudevayani vedalina yitau variku ni ganare� his own. In fact it was such a popular composition of GNB that GNB's royalties in 1940 out of one disc (LP record) featuring Vaasudevayani (in Kalyani) were Rs 10,000/-, at a rate of half anna for one rupee (which was 16 annas). Krishna chose �Kana kidaithidumo� for his main piece and was brilliant. The kalpanaswaram that he rendered in Sahana, Kedaram and Manirangu was out of this world.
As a deeply interested fan of Carnatic music, I am thrilled by the invasion of youngsters, that too NRIs. A singer who seems destined for higher things in life (though I can�t imagine any thing being higher than the ability to move people by your singing) is Shankar Ramani. This NRI engineer reminds one so much of Maharajapuram Santhanam in his style of singing. He is unruffled by anything and is engrossed in his singing which deeply affects the audience. Among the songs he chose on 22nd December 2004 (Kartik Fine Arts- Bharatiya Vidya Bhavan Mini Hall) was Arunachala Kaviraayar�s �Ramanukku mannan mudi tarittale nanmai�. In Hindolam. The basic character of this ragam is ranjakatva (appeal). This along with four other ragams namely, Mohanam, Shuddha dhanyasi, Shuddha saveri and Madhyamavati, constitute the Ranjaka Panchakam. The wonderful combination of a beautiful ragam, a beautiful composition and the beautiful singing transported me to a different world.
After Shankar Ramani�s concert, we went to Srinivasa temple in Mylapore being Vaikunta Ekadasi day. After the darshan of the Lord, it was time for another elevating experience in the form of a special Divya Prabhandham concert by T.N.Seshagopalan (Sri Parthasarathy Swami Sabha � 22nd December 2004) It was a concert that all Tamil enthusiasts would have approved, as the three hours were entirely devoted to Azhwars who composed in beautiful Tamil. The mood was set in the beginning with �Pallandu pallandu pallayirattandu� in Gambiranattai. TNS took us skillfully through a number of beautiful pasurams in many ragams. But what stuck to me was �Manathilor thooymai illai� in Sama. Sama is a very beautiful and melodious ragam and touches the heart. It is also known as Shyama, but this spelling is rarely used. The Tyagaraja kriti in Telugu 'Shantamulekha Sowkhymuledu' is a slow moving, majestic composition, where Sama sounds very reposeful and one can feel its soothing effect. �Manasa Sancharare� of Sadasiva Brahmendra and 'Varuvaro' of Gopalakrishna Bharati are two famous compositions in Sama. In 'Varuvaro', one can feel the yearnings of the Shiva Bhakta to see his beloved Nataraja, the dancing God of Chidambaram. 'Anna Purne Visalakshi' and 'Guruguhaya' by Muthusvami Dikshitar are also famous. �Kanamum maravade nenje� by Ambujam Krishna is also sung often. �Manathilor thooymai illai� sung by TNS was haunting and the immortal lines of Wordsworth in Solitary Reaper came to my mind.
�The music in my heart I bore,
Long after it was heard no more.�
There was a somber mood in the hall as it was just two days after the terrible loss of lives and property in the Tsunami. Gayatri Venkataraghavan (Sri Parthasarathy Swami Sabha � 28th December 2004) who like M.S.Subbalakshmi sings with feelings dedicated the moving composition of Papanasam Sivan �Andavane unai nambinen adimaikkadimaiyan� in Shanmukhapriya to the tsunami victims. Everyone in the audience was moved by the rendition. But more was to follow. When a listener requested GNB to sing Kharaharapriya, he was reported to have said, � Semmangudi has improvised so much in Kharaharapriya that nothing is left for others to sing in that Ragam�. But Gayatri showed that she could handle Tyagaraja�s �Rama niyeda prema prema rahitulaku namaruchi� in Kharaharapriya very well and there was magic in the air.
I attended 22 concerts in December 2003 and 42 in December 2004. And like the ad-line of pepsi, my heart wants more. Maybe next year I�ll hit a century.
S.Parthasarathy
January 2005
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