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ARUNA CHANDARAJU
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Sanjay Subrahmanyan believes that listening takes a musician closer to perfection. In fact, he believes, it is a crucial step towards building one's manodharma
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PHOTO: SHIV KUMAR PUSHPAKAR
THE PERFECT BLEND Sanjay Subrahmanyan: `Mere display of intellectual prowess without an unraveling of aesthetic beauty reduces the performance to pure gymnastics'
While manodharma is synonymous with spontaneity, it takes tremendous hard work to attain that capability for spontaneity. There's much unseen perspiration behind that onstage inspiration. On talking to Sanjay Subrahmanyan, you are reminded of Einstein's famed description of genius as 99 percent perspiration and inspiration as one percent.
For Sanjay, the first step towards good manodharma is acquiring a vast knowledge base. Build a database of a large repertoire of compositions, raagas and thala-systems; and familiarity with the unique styles of all stalwarts since "the foundation of any creative expression is knowledge". This opinion was reinforced, he says, when he saw a few notebooks of Mali which N. Ramani showed him. The books contained extensive jottings with notations. This, Mali had painstakingly gathered and stored for reference — Carnatic compositions and their handling by different experts, Hindustani ragas heard from Hindustani-musicians, progression of notes in Vedic recitations, etc. Even a genius like Mali, celebrated for his impromptu improvisation, made such elaborate preparations!
His advice
Sanjay advocates extensive listening for good manodharma since it contributes to conscious and unconscious learning. He himself attended about 50-60 live concerts a year, during his formative years! Here, he makes a distinction between a music-lover and a student. Generally, music-lovers confine their listening to their favourite few — it's a luxury they can afford. However, the student can't afford to have preferences and must listen to a wide a variety of musicians as possible, irrespective of whether he likes them or not. . By restricted listening, a student limits his opportunities, and so Sanjay, believes the one must have a catholic outlook.
Yet, while learning from greats, a student should be vigilant, since admiration can easily descend into imitation, destroying individuality. And so, even his manodharma sounds as predictable as the kriti! Sanjay adds that this is one risk inherent in the concept of Baani or gharana.
Also, he emphasises, that in manodharma, cleverness is not creativity. "I learnt this when my guru Calcutta Krishnamurthy once asked me to sing Madhyamavati raaga. I tried to impress him by attempting all kinds of jugglery with sangathis. Guruji then sang one beautiful, truly imaginative phrase and asked me: "Did you sing even one line like this?" That set me thinking and led to the realisation that being clever or smart is not being creative. There is an intrinsic beauty, an aesthetic of the raga that needs to be maintained or taken care of." Musicians should be aware of this responsibility. Mere display of intellectual prowess without an unravelling of aesthetic beauty reduces the performance to pure gymnastics, a circus-act.
For Sanjay, the greatest challenge in Carnatic music, especially manodharma, is letting your creativity soar while remaining within its strict boundaries and rigid rules. One must honour those traditions yet be able to break free. A free spirit and independent mind capable of breaking shackles make for great manodharma. To him, the naadaswaram artist who plays pure sound in an open atmosphere best exemplifies this free-spirit.
Sanjay himself is known for constantly attempting to push those boundaries. And why not? he asks. "While researching ragas, I discovered all of them evolved over time. We have 100 to 150 years of musical notation available. Studying them, you realise ragas have a natural way of evolving over time with some features being accentuated, some eschewed. So the swaroopa of a raga is distinctly different today, from what it was 50 or 100 years ago. Begada is one example. Actually, ragas like Begada, Athana, Aahiri, etc., cannot be kept bound by within the scale. They have a natural flow which takes over. And so when you start elaborating the raga, after some point, the aarohana-avarohana become redundant. You find yourself journeying beyond that."
So, Sanjay concludes, classical music isn't as bound by grammar as it claims to be. He recalls Tiger Varadachar who'd sing Saveri as sampurna raaga and then challenge baffled listeners: "Can you say this is not Saveri?"
Give it everything
Go the extra mile, climb that difficult peak, advises Sanjay. For instance, when asked to learn a varnam in thrisram, the average student will soon give it up finding it too daunting. Also, others might dissuade him saying "Anyway, who sings varnams in thrisram these nowadays." However, the serious student must persevere till he can sing it flawlessly. Simply because, though thrisram varnam itself might never be used in a performance, mastery over it helps refine other things used in a performance — krithis and manodharma. Also, this attitude of dogged determination in cracking a tough job, builds an overall winner mindset in you.
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