The Hindu : Tamil Nadu / Chennai News : Book traces the evolution of Carnatic music

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Saturday, Feb 11, 2006

Tamil Nadu

Tamil Nadu - Chennai

Book traces the evolution of Carnatic music

Staff Reporter

History of an art by the people, of the people and for the people

COLLECTOR'S CHOICE: N. Murali, president, The Music Academy, (left), receives the first copy of the book, `From the Tanjore Court to The Madras Music Academy-A Social History of Music in South India,' by Lakshmi Subramanian, from V.V. Srivatsa, musicologist in Chennai on Friday. — PHOTO: S. R. RAGHUNATHAN

Chennai: Musicologist V.V. Srivatsa on Friday released a book titled `From the Tanjore Court to The Madras Music Academy - A Social History of Music in South India,' by Lakshmi Subramanian.

N. Murali, Music Academy president, received the first copy.

Prof. Srivatsa said the Tanjore court as the starting point of the book was apt.

The rulers of Tanjore were not just patrons of art, but were scholars themselves. Serfoji was the one who codified and implemented the notations of Carnatic music.

Music patronage travelled to erstwhile Travancore, Mysore and Udaiyarpalayam. Much later, music became something by the people, of the people and for the people, when cultural establishments came into being.

`Cultural custodianship'

The author pointed out the transformation and said that the Madras Music Academy was conferred with the "cultural custodianship."

The author showed that the format of music had been conditioned by the taste of listeners, Mr. Srivatsa said. Concerts used to last four to five hours at the turn of the 20th century. Today, it is not more than two-and-a-half hours. This led to a change in values and a situation where some organisation had to monitor decline in musical values. This, Ms. Subramanian says, was the raison d'etre of The Music Academy.

The author also dwelt on the emergence of the Tamil Isai movement.

`Remarkable account'

Mr. Murali said the book was a remarkable account of the transformation and evolution of Carnatic music. The author stopped with a cut-off date in the 70s, after which there was a lot of corporate sponsorship for music programmes. Though it had helped artists, it was yet to be seen whether there was over commercialisation on the line of sports, he said. Too many sabhas had mushroomed over the years and were in the rat race, organising a deluge of concerts during the season, he said. Commending the author and the Oxford University Press for the book, Mr. Murali said the Music Academy was happy to be associated with the book. He commended it as a welcome addition for lovers of music and archives.Venugopal Bhaskaran, regional manager, Oxford University Press, spoke. The programme was followed by a concert by Vijayalakshmi Subramanian, accompanied by B.U. Ganesh Prasad on the violin, Cherthala Ananthakrishnan on the mridangam and Madipakkam Murali on ghatam.

Printer friendly page
Send this article to Friends by E-Mail