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New attempt: Anil Srinivasan and Sikkil Gurucharan.

“We are not rebels,” Anil Srinivasan, classical pianist, began with a disclaimer. Anil and Carnatic vocalist Sikkil Gurucharan gave a lecture demonstration at the Alliance Francaise on how they developed a new format involving Carnatic vocal and the piano for their album ‘Madirakshi.’

Anil said that they decoded the music at two levels — structural and emotive. In the first, within each piece they derived a structure that conveyed the message of that piece the best.

“Take the Kamba Ramayanam verse ‘Ponnin oli,’ for example. It describes the delicate walk of Sita as she makes her way to the wedding hall. So my piano playing is muted in this piece as befits the gentle steps of Sita,” said Anil.

Emotional Level: “It is the emotion of every song that we’ve tried to capture,” said Anil. When they had to decide the talam for the padam ‘Payyada’ (Nadanamakriya), however, they were in a fix. What talam could they use to bring out the lament of the nayaki for her nayaka? And then they wondered, does a lament have tempo? And who cries to a talam?

This is a piece that is traditionally sung in tisra triputa talam. Gurucharan described how he found it very difficult to sing ‘Payyada’ without focus on the talam. Now where does percussion fit in this format? B.S.Purushotaman, kanjira player, explained that in this format a percussionist cannot indulge in intricate patterns as in a regular concert. He can only give subtle tonal variations to enrich the feel of the compositions. There have to be of necessity many silent interludes.

Comparing this format with a regular Carnatic music concert format may be like comparing apples and oranges, but such a comparison becomes necessary because of the constant refrain of Anil that here bhavam is the focus. This writer has heard the same ‘Enneramum’ sung by KVN and the same ‘Asai mukham’ sung by Semmangudi with more bhavam in the regular concert format than was evident that evening. If bhavam is the raison d’etre for this format, then it must be pointed out that there is a great deal of it in a regular Carnatic concert, and there is no need to invent a format to bring out the emotion behind a song. A slow paced rendering is fine, but not so slow that the music becomes a drag, as it did in the madirakshi format. When all is said and done, trying to merge the piano and Carnatic vocal seemed to lead to an uneasy alliance, however sincere the attempt may be.

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