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MUSIC SCAN

So sang Omar Khayyam, getting ready for the unrestrained revelries of the spring season in ancient Persia.

That was a totally different culture from ours in 21st-century Madras-alias-Chennai, where it is in the cold winter month of Maargazhi that our classical music and dance overflow and provide rich nourishment for our cultural and spiritual roots.

It has more or less become an irresistible habit with us to think of the mind-boggling dimensions of the winter music season as a ‘tsunami,’ ever since we had learnt that Japanese word a few years ago when we encountered an unprecedented tidal wave on the East Coast.

But that’s not a proper analogy, because a tsunami leaves a horrendous scene of destruction behind when it subsides, but the Maargazhi season in Madras enriches and fertilises the Carnatic soil in which our cultural life is so deeply rooted.

In the two preceding essays in this column (December 7 and 21) we had analysed the basic reasons why our massive celebrations in the winter music season here go on expanding relentlessly year after year and still retain their original spirit and character.

Apart from those aspects, an amazing thing about the voluminous winter festival is that the quality of the music which overflows is actually higher than that of the music which flows in a normal way throughout the rest of the year.

This isn’t as puzzling as it may sound, really. True, in the realm of art and culture — as in any other fields — quantity does often tend to dilute quality; but there are many exceptions to that rule. There are even contexts in which volume itself adds value to a work of art, as in the case of a great novel depicting a monumental theme.

We do often feel tempted to prove some point by citing an analogy. There’s a serious logical flaw in this approach, because we can also try to prove exactly the opposite idea by making some other comparison! But analogies are still always welcome because they can project such a graphic and interesting picture of the issue being discussed, and there’s no harm in looking for some without worrying about logic!

Why does anything on the earth weigh six times more than it would on the moon? We all know our basic physics and can easily answer that question. Because the earth’s mass is six times greater than the moon’s… etc.

What happens in the Maargazhi season in Madras is something like the whole body of Carnatic music being transposed from the moon to the earth, the colossal mass of the activity generating far greater gravitational forces — and the music gaining much greater weight in the process.

And there’s a perfectly logical explanation for this particular comparison. Since the occasion happens to be so special, all the musicians who perform in the festival are invariably anxious to make their very best efforts, whether they’re the most accomplished vidwans and vidushis or just promising young music students. And most of them do succeed in achieving great excellence, pleasing the public and the critics alike.

A vital question for consideration in this conext is: what makes it possible for the festival to be organised on such a massive scale?

An important factor has been the progressive proliferation of sabhas in the city during the past 50 years or so, the nature of which had been discussed last year in the essay, ‘An adventure called Hamsadhwani’ ( www.thehindu.com, Friday Review, archives, Chennai editition, Dec. 8, 2006). Also, many ad hoc organisations or groups surface during the winter season; making an important contribution even though remaining inactive during the rest of the year.

And none of the established or new institutions would be able to function effectively without the financial support of the rapidly emerging ranks of sponsors from the industrial and commercial sectors.

Two infinitely sad events in 2007 were the passing away in quick succession of the two towering pioneers in the Carnatic music world — R. Yagnaraman of Krishna Gana Sabha and R. Ramachandran of Hamsadhwani in Chennai. While YR had planted a magnificent garden on fertile soil in mid-20th century and cultivated it luxuriously for more than 50 years, RRC created a self-sufficient oasis in a desert towards the end of the century.

Each of them in his own unique way had made a tremendous contribution to the healthy growth and triumphant progress of Carnatic music in Madras-alias-Chennai — which in fact amounts to saying simply Carnatic music — and they will surely be missed by us all as long as we live.

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