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Music lessons on air
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An introduction to Carnatic music over the radio in rural schools of Karnataka generates great interest RANJANI GOVIND
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MUSICAL CONCEPTS R.V. Raghavendra, managing trustee, Ananya Cultural Academy
“Only at a young and impressionable age will one find it easier to grasp the fine gradation in music for learning. Listening can be done at any age. But educating oneself to delve into the nuances is best as one steadily blooms,” is the premise with which R.V. Raghavendra, managing trustee, Ananya Cultural Academy, flagged off a 21-episode ‘Haadu Hakki’ carnatic-music-initiation radio programme for rural schools.
The broadcast (which has just concluded) was part of All India Radio’s educational initiative extended to the countryside with a specific afternoon slot that was made into a compulsory Carnatic music class. “We had 18 episodes of acclimatising, teaching and exploratory sessions covering the districts of Chitradurga, Shimoga, Udupi and Davangere with three additional interactive airings that became a runaway hit with potential rural students asking for more,” says a satisfied Raghavendra. Passion to take the art across to the interior parts of Karnataka is one thing, but what about the financial implications of this rural initiative? “I went to the India Foundation for Arts (IFA) asking them to extend their support to bring in some improved additional pages in Ananya’s 10-year-old music magazine Abhivyakthi. After a few deliberations and discussions, it was IFA’s idea of a radio programme for the rural kids that sparked a momentous beginning, what with the educational department of AIR readily accepting the idea! The costs of the production and broadcast were borne by IFA. The sincerity of the whole exercise even made them release the funds much before we dabbled in any paper work too,” recalls Raghavendra.
The IFA is an independent, nationwide philanthropy, dedicated to strengthening the arts in India. Established as a public trust in 1993, IFA is headquartered in Bangalore with a mission to enrich the practice, knowledge, public access to, and experience of the arts in India, by providing strategic support for innovative projects.
‘Haadu Hakki’ with scripts and teaching concepts devised by Raghavendra, was recorded in a studio funded by IFA in Bangalore, and reached more than 50 villages and towns. “We went about it cautiously as we wanted rural kids to understand the art with our defined strands that elucidated the performing art in a lucid fashion,” he says.
The highly structured episodes had introductory talks by U.R. Anantamurthy, Shyamala Bhave, R.K. Srikantan, Sukanya Prabhakar and Nagachandrika on why music is essential for a human soul. From nature that gives us music from the birds and streams to even the movement of trains and taps, music is engrained in our lives, the sessions elaborated. The frequencies of shruti were brought out using comparisons with the cuckoo, and a host of birds, and the velocity of the breezy desert winds. From nature it was the basics of raga, film music comparisons, tala and composers and their ankitanama. Music instruments were explained and then came the heavier sessions with music classes — from basic lessons to simple kritis — taught by musicologist Satyavathy taking over the mike.
“If Bijapur, Gulbarga and Chitradurga are dry and devoid of water and music, what came about as a bare truth is that music has no barriers, and the areas just throng for attention and activities. Innumerable interactive calls from Chellakere, Turuvekere and Hiriyur followed. ‘I have a poem, can you tune this in Kalyani raga for me madam,’ was one of the poignant responses,” says Raghavendra.
The entire broadcast will be converted into 10 CD’s and given to interested schools along with written matter to back the explanations. If 600 schools are waiting for the recorded versions, the interest to broadcast a new set is also not going to be a dream for AIR. However, talks of re-broadcast by Jnanavani, the FM station of IGNOU, Bangalore, is underway.
Apart from conducting weekly concerts by veteran and upcoming musicians, Ananya has set up Sangraha, an archive which houses 3,000 music and dance books classified and catalogued. Around 10,000 hours of live recordings of yesteryear and present day musicians and paintings too are part of the archives. Taking music to rural areas in the form of raga initiation programmes is the institution’s forte.
Ananya is bringing about a gigantic collection of a Kannada translation of the precious ‘Sangeetha Sampradaaya Pradarshini, originally written by Subbarama Dikshitar, and now translated by the septuagenarian musicologist Ananda Rama Udupa. Call 98440 05069 for details.
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Friday Review
Bangalore
Chennai and Tamil Nadu
Delhi
Hyderabad
Thiruvananthapuram
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