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Book Review
All about mridangam
H. RAMAKRISHNAN
MRDANGAM — The King of Percussions: T. V. Gopalakrishnan; Vision Musica Private Ltd., 29, Rajagopalan 2nd Street, Valmiki Nagar, Chennai-600041. Rs. 395.
Rhythm (Layam) is the father of music. There is no music, especially Carnatic music without Layam. And, mridangam is the main percussion instrument of Carnatic concerts. It occupies a pre-eminent place in the firmament of global percussion and is rightly known as the “king of percussions.” No other percussion instrument has such unique and varied acoustic properties, structure, tonality and performing capability. It is interesting to note that its present form
is very close to the one that existed about 3000 years ago!
Exhaustive
With mridangam came the evolution of the South Indian tala system, perhaps the most complex percussive rhythmic system of any form of classical music. Mridangam is a percussion instrument with Sruthi. The earliest traceable mridangam artiste who lived in Tamil Nadu is Hirogi Rao (1762-1840). It was during Narayanaswami Appa’s time that mridangam artists were accorded importance. Earlier, they used to sit behind the main artistes. And, who other than the great mridangam maestro T.V.G. can write an authentic and exhaustive book on this instrument? He is a versatile, multitalented genius – leading Carnatic vocalist, Hindustani vocalist, accomplished mridangam artiste and teacher. Living with the mridangam for over six decades has enabled him to bring out a work of this magnitude. The book covers everything about mridangam from the period of Bharatha’s Natya Sastra to the present day. This is a very large book for which the primary conclusion should be stated at the outset. It is the most penetrating examination ever done of all aspects of mridangam and of the Tala system. It contains valuable information not found in other mridangam studies. These could have been gathered during his long years of concert experience, and from his interactions with great performers and scholars.
The book comprises three parts. The first one deals with the origin and evolution of mridangam, its stature and role, percussion accompaniment, Tani avartanam, mridangam in modern musical contexts, the ideal performer, acoustical aspects of the instrument, and making of mridangam with pictorial descriptions. The second section has biographies of 11 great mridangam maestros, their photos, a chapter on TVG and mridangam and references. The third part deals with major talas, Tala dasapranas, illustrated playing techniques and lessons. The book comes with a bonus. Yes, a VCD “Learn the art of mridangam-Bountiful Beats”, an informal, but, highly instructive and informative lecture demonstration by TVG.
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