What determines true merit?
SVK
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Issue The moorings of Carnatic music and the impulses of today's artistes work at cross-purposes.
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Nobel Laureate Amartya Sen, in a recent address to the Tata Institute of Fundamental Research on "Science argument and scepticism," made the pertinent point in his conclusion that "scepticism is exactly what we have to generate before any kind of new understanding can take root." This is most relevant in the present day music scene. We have to generate robust scepticism before mediocrity is allowed to hijack real quality.
In which direction and dimension is music moving and what artistic fashions determine recognition of merit? The glory of an earlier era may be removed in time for many in the field today, but they have to recognise that the past has relevance and meaning at present when quality is at a crossroads.
Carnatic music is not certainly interested in its glorious past.
Forgettable
Many concerts heard today are forgettable. The significant feature noticeable is young musicians are supplanted by still younger entrants. Some youngsters are talented, no doubt, but do not go beyond a point. Indiscriminate awards, titles, TV interviews, participation in functions other than music-related and celebrity status on sheer popularity are all clear indications of music's deterioration.
In the unhindered rush to the top, standards have become fragile. Many are insensitive to the aesthetics of Carnatic music. They are ill at ease with the demanding features of classicism. Today's problem is confusion of ideologies fuelled by vested interests and influence peddling.
The moorings of Carnatic music and the impulses of today's artistes work at cross-purposes. Is there any indication of getting back to the roots? The decline in quality can be traced to the tendency to flatter the trivialities of a performer's technique.
Music organisations and musicians themselves take pride on the greatness and uniqueness of Carnatic music on every occasion, but do very little to preserve and protect it. To the dismay of many genuine music lovers their belief that the values on which the Carnatic music edifice rested are indestructible, are gradually crumbling. The superficial genre is fast eroding its foundation. The sort of environment in which it throve is quickly disappearing making music weak to be toppled with ease. Real well-wishers will have to go extra distance to protect it before its complete effacement. The rigidity of some old sabhas with preferences for quality musicians is giving way to a relaxed approach to keep themselves afloat.
Young artistes, talented, cannot be catapulted in a hurry and expected to flourish for long. They easily win awards and titles from one sabha after another, but not greatly prized. Such a gesture to them seems to be promotion before their time. Talent has to be backed by discriminatory support for the ranking ladder is highly slippery. No musician can afford to isolate himself from the contemporary competitiveness. Every one of them has to put to himself the question, "Will my music be remembered after a decade?" How many youngsters put faith in the value of sadhaka that confirms mastery in basic skills? The way kutcheris are presented it looks like asking the veterans of old in mockery: "Why ten or fifteen years of sweat, toil and tears have you spent. See how we do it in a year or two."
If a musician desires to please the rasikas, it looks as if he has to frame his concert in style, more than music's inherent content. Diversity of technique is unfolding, but the essence of refinement has eluded. Archanas-avarshanas and laya are ritualistic; the core is the inspirational potential of lakshya gnana. What is very prominent is, inflated egos of artists are constantly at battle in the music circuit. Flamboyance and glamorisation... as concert objectives exemplify the vanity of musicianship. Many compromises are resorted to survive in the rat race.
Communicative skills have taken new shapes pushing to the background loftiness of expression. The mark of our times is liberalism and resistance to imposed tradition. Many vidwans, unmindful of the emotional feelings of the sahityas get lost in intellectual self-indulgence.
At the heart of musicians is the conflict between the still small voice proclaiming the nobility of Carnatic music, (when they speak at public functions), and the lures of the existing career environment. The American scene seems to guarantee the career prospects of our musicians.
It boils down to one thing. Commercialism holds music in its grips. Traditionalism denounces. It is only scepticism that can get at the Truth.
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