Hazard of complacency
SVK
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Saketaraman's voice swayed between sudden vocal outbursts and fine-tuned fading during his concert for Laya Lavanya Fine Arts Foundation.
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The music season has thrown up some perspectives. Some youngsters were seen upgraded, obviously on the assumption that they have made the grade and on the hope that on their encouragement hinges the future of Carnatic music.
Two implications arise. This engenders a complacency on the part of the young musicians, that having gained the top slot, they can rest on their oars. Also, those who have given them such a push cannot downgrade them next year if they fail to live up to their expectations and give them an afternoon programme or no chance at all. They can get the same top status in other sabhas. The media do not lag behind in projecting their competence.
Another aspect has also to be taken into account. Some senior violinists and mridangam artistes play for the kutcheris of youngsters stirred by the altruistic motive that even as they had been encouraged by the veteran vocalists of yesteryear they should show the same gesture to youngsters today.
There is one vital difference between the two situations — the old and the new. Vocalists could certainly uplift the standard of young accompanists in those days, because the excellence of their musical and tala equipment was such as to show the way to violinists and mridangam artistes to improve themselves. Also, the styles of the vocalists varied.
Today can a top mridangist by accompanying the young suggest teach the latter a few things? For instance, the nuances of musical melody, the place of vocal modulation, the factors that contributes to depth and nourishment of kirtanas, raga alapana and so on.
This is essentially the field of vocalists. All the mridangam vidwan can do is to play enthusiastically to the way the youngster sings.
With such an accompanist, a young musician can at best improve computerised swara-singing adding vocal thrusts to sangatis in kirtanas.
The same is the case with a top violinist. Vocalists can gain excellence only by their own conscious efforts.
The seniors, whose number can be counted on the fingers, are complacent in another way. They are the mainstay for gate collection and their place in the festival season is assured. The complacency is also reflected in the number of performances they accept not minding how their voice would behave after two or three concerts. There is hardly any rest for their voice with the compulsion of singing almost every day, occasionally both in the morning and evening. That is how they serve concert standards.
Homage to Tyagaraja
Even as in the Tyagaraja Aradhana at Tiruvaiyaru, the listeners pay sincere homage to the saint, the gathering of old rasikas in the several sabhas today contribute to the continuance of Carnatic music.
For Laya Lavanya Fine Arts Foundation, S. Saketaraman showcased his improvement in kutcheri standards by his selection of songs and briskness of rendering them.
With his voice quite heavy but swaying between sudden vocal outbursts and fine-tuned fading, he could catch the attention of the listeners. Sound in his musical ideals, uniform tonal timbre can certainly heighten the level of his exposition. Here experience has much to say, if only he has the aim to scale higher levels.
`Chuta Murare' (Arabhi), `Manasuloni' (Hindolam), `Koluvaiyunnade' (Bhairavi) formed the core of the kutcheri. The Hindolam alapana was partly in Carnatic and partly in Hindustani mode. The violinist Akkarai Subhalakshmi took the hint to frame the alapana in the same pattern. Bhairavi was outlined by both in detail with classical pidis, quite above text-book methods.
The mridangist, Ammangudi Ramanarayanan, a disciple of Umayalpuram Sivaraman, was pleasing. His approach while accompanying kirtanas was of an expert and not one who was having his arangetram. There was precise fingering swiftness and appropriateness of solkattus for sangatis in songs. His tani with
T.V.Vasan (ghatam) with different gati formations was replete with percussive flashes. If only he could integrate melodic chapus there would be no need for Sivaraman to introduce him as his disciple. The chapus would speak for the guru.
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