Right on the beat
Aruna Chandaraju
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The Percussive Arts Centre is not only training a number of bright youngsters, but is also constantly innovating on the basic concepts of laya and tala
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PHOTO: K. BHAGYA PRAKASH
CATCHIN' THEM EARLY V. Krishna with the young ones of the Percussive Arts Centre
At the Percussive Arts Centre (PAC), V. Krishna is patiently demonstrating aadi and roopaka thalas on the mridanga to computer professionals Raghavendra and Raghava. Beside him sits his son, Rahul Krishna. An upright mridanga placed next to Rahul towers above the seven-year-old. But the child has a quiet confidence and enthusiasm that belies his age. And a small mridanga too on which he goes about reproducing the rhythm his guru-father asks.
The rest of the time, he watches and listens, imbibing from his father (as the father himself did decades ago from his father) the secrets of laya and naada. Krishna's father was the late legendary Sangeeta Kala Rathna Bangalore Venkataram, who had the honour of accompanying virtually all the greatest musicians of his time.
Respected venture
Venkataram, also a great organiser, founded the PAC in 1981. PAC is today respected as a pioneering venture. This organisation's credentials are evident from its members, range of activities and the quality of their students. Maestro Doraiswamy Iyengar is its president and stalwarts such as A.V. Anand, Dandamudi Rammohan Rao, T.K. Govinda Rao, Prof. S. R. Janakiram and V. Kamalakar Rao and so on comprise its advisory council. The prime activity of this illustrious centre is teaching the art of percussion and disseminating knowledge of its finer aspects especially laya and tala. They hold annual thalavadyotshavas and seminars with top artists and musicologists participating, publish books, produce audio-cassettes and organise musical concerts. They also hold regular lecture-demonstrations on aspects of percussion. They give away awards annually, instituted in the name of past percussion greats such as Palghat Mani Iyer as a tribute to whom the Centre was actually founded, besides Palani Subramanya Pillai and H. Puttachar. In fact, this is the first music centre to commemorate the memory of that all-time great Palghat Mani, large photographs of whom look down benignly on the students in classrooms.
PAC boasts other distinctions. It was by this institute that geethu vaadya, the ancient stringed percussion instrument, was introduced in a percussion ensemble for the first time. Several temple and folk-stick instruments such as sammela, chande, chowdiki were introduced in addition to tabla tarang to provide melody besides rhythm. In fact, with a fresh and innovative approach to laya, PAC is constantly trying out new concepts and compositions.
The Centre also organised for the first time in Bangalore the International Mini-Drum Festival in collaboration with ICCR. The annual events where they showcase their students' talents are good indicators of how much young talent there is in this field and how systematically PAC is grooming it as a gift to the world of music.
In fact, these students are PAC's other great pride. One understands this pride when one watches eight-year-old C. Shashant, evidently a master in the making. He's been a student for barely a year, but the natural aesthetic sense and grip over laya are amazing. What you can't miss is the joy and the effortlessness that goes into his playing. Even Krishna says, as only a gracious guru can: "With him I am not a teacher, only a facilitator. He is too gifted to be taught or handled the normal way."
That leads us to talking about Venkataram himself would regard as the making for a good percussion artist? "Sheer hard work, knowledge of as many lyrics as possible and a well-honed sense of anticipation. Listening to other musicians preferably live but also recordings. This is because a percussion artist masters his art by first learning to play for the thala, then the song and finally for the main artist. Different artists have different styles of delineating the same composition and so you ought to have heard them over and over again to be able to accompany them effectively when the opportunity arises."
He says in conclusion: "Finally, you mustn't dominate or overshadow the main artist. It took someone of the calibre of Alathoor Brothers, for example, to withstand the onslaughts of a Palghat Mani. But how many such combinations can we see today? So, the mridanga player, even a dazzling one, has mostly to learn to restrain himself." Percussive Arts Centre is at 183, II Block, Jayanagar, Bangalore.
Phone: 26550452 or 9448463079.
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