HIGH NOTES
Mohanam, magic and Mozart
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Salzburg is special to all music lovers as the birthplace of Mozart. Carnatic musician Aruna Sairam , who performed at this year’s SommerSzene, on how classical music truly crosses all barriers.
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Musical homage: Aruna Sairam before her concert at SommerSzene.
All over the world, classical music – whether Indian or Western – showcases a range of human emotions while staying within a certain structure. Its magic lies in its ability to present stories with different themes while scaling the heigh
ts of human aesthetic endeavour. This was brought home to me this year when I performed at the Sommerszene at Salzburg earlier this month.
Salzburg, of course, holds a special place in the hearts of all music lovers, as the birthplace of Mozart. Mozart’s influence and mastery over the classical form is preserved and propagated through the efforts of the Mozarteum University. Salzburg celebrates Mozart emphatically, and one can feel music in the air in almost every nook and corner.
Uncanny similarity
As a Carnatic musician, the similarity with Tiruvaiyaru is uncanny. The annual festival at the birthplace of musician-saint Tyagaraja commands the same respect, awe and reverence that I see in Salzburg. Performing at the Tyagaraja aradhana in Tiruvaiyaru was a childhood dream come true and I experienced a sense of déjÀ vu when I took the stage at Salzburg: the same inexplicable thrill at being chosen to perform at such a sacred venue. I couldn’t help marvelling at yet another similarity: the Western classical music also features a trinity of composers. The Western counterparts of Tyagaraja, Muthuswami Dikshitar and Syama Sastri are Bach, Beethoven and Mozart. Each is revered for a distinct compositional style that continues to be the hallmark of performances celebrating their prolific work. For instance, Bach is renowned for his mastery of tonal variations and structure, while Beethoven’s works symbolise the ultimate merger of structure with poignant emotion. Indeed, some of his later works are considered to be the beginning of the “Romantic” period in Western music.
Of course the major difference between Indian and Western classical music is that the latter does not highlight improvisation as a major component of performance. But the audience at Salzburg, though more familiar with the western classical music, seemed to be delighted at the traditional Carnatic concert. Their response to traditional kritis as well as a detailed ragam, tanam and pallavi exposition was overwhelming. Ragam typically allows the listener to absorb the various facets and moods of the raga and its inherent bhava (or emotion), carrying the listener along the creative contours of a set of notes. The tanam is a semi-rhythmic, semi-melodic play on notes, while the pallavi is a composed section that allows an exposition of lyric, mood and rhythm, testing the artist’s creativity and mastery over both technique and form. The audience at the Theatre Republic absorbed this exposition in silent reverence and proved yet again that music is indeed universal, sans frontiers or structural familiarity.
Significant venue
The Theatre Republic was an impressive venue and significantly, to me at least, was just around the corner from Mozart’s Geburthaus, the house in which the genius was born. Visiting the museum before the concert and singing “O Rangasayee” as my tribute to his greatness is a moment that will be etched in memory forever.
The fact that there is so much more to be discovered in our search for musical inspiration fills me with joy. The fact that a wealth of classical music was created in geographically distinct parts of the world at the same time as in India (mid-18th to mid-19th centuries) fills me with a sense of wonder. I think the discovery of similarities between different classical styles is an endeavour worth undertaking. For now, I shall cherish the memory of Salzburg and continue to relive my tryst with the city that produced Mozart.
Festive Notes
Beginning in the late 1960s as a platform for local artists, the SommerSzene developed as a counterpoint to the Salzburg Festival. It began by featuring contemporary theatre and music and is now an internationally acclaimed 14-day festival that focuses on contemporary dance, theatre, music, films and visual arts.
Source: http://www.salzburg.info/en/
AS TOLD TO R. KRITHIKA
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