Music Matters
Contest and kudos
Indian Fine Arts presents the Best Lec-dem Award every year to make the segment an interesting part of the music season.
"Top musicians take part in lec-dems these days. Competition will yield better quality, we thought," says N. Ramachandran of Indian Fine Arts.
This year's award was given to Bombay Sisters C. Saroja and C. Lalitha, for their session on Ghanaraga Pancharatnas of Tyagaraja. "Apart from our guru T.K. Govinda Rao and several books of musicologists that helped us in the attempt, we are indebted to advocate and music connoisseur,
Vaidyanatha Krishnan, whose profound knowledge of Tyagaraja helped us learn some lesser-known aspects of the subject," said Lalitha.
On decibels
When Professor T.R. Subramaniam spoke on the importance of sahitya in music in his lec-dem, he pointed out the significance of pronunciation, intonation, the sruti scale one chooses, and the decibel level to be adopted by musicians.
What with blaring speakers turning sound into noise these days, the message was relevant indeed!
However, decades ago when there were no mikes, the professor said, it was a treat to listen to S.G. Kittappa sing viruttams such as "Kodaiyile Ilaipaarum," in an amazing four-and-a-half `kattai' sruti.
"It was a range that reached even outside huge halls where people gathered to listen to him," he said.
Jarring
During Sankari Krishnan's afternoon concert at the Parthasarathy Swami Sabha, the floor in the adjoining area was being cleaned.
As if the noise emanating from the broomsticks scouring the floor was not enough, loud oral instructions followed. Repeated requests from rasikas to the managers of the hall fell on deaf ears.
(Contributed by Ranjani Govind and Lakshmi Venkatraman.)
Baby connoisseur
Want to know about the youngest rasika in town? Six-month-old Subrahmanyam has attended 21 concerts this Season. "On December 2, my son was rather irritable and nothing would pacify him. We took him to Raga Sudha Hall in Mylapore for a concert, and were surprised that he was quiet for almost two hours," said Karthik, the little one's father. "And it was the same story every evening. We would take him to a sabha, and he wouldsit or cuddle up in our arms, wide-eyed through the concert." "I'm now worried," says mother Rupa. "Where do I take him after the season?" Music is perhaps in his genes as the toddler belongs to a family of musicians.
Raagamalika
SrutiLaya Innovations (24616760) has released Raagamalika, a compact disc of songs rendered by Sudha Harikrishnan. The album contains Sanskrit, Telugu, Tamil and Hindi compositions. N. Kannan has taken care of the orchestration. Sudha is a disciple of Karaikkudi S. Subramanian, Director, Brhaddhvani. Sudha has a special interest in the spiritual aspects such as meditation and application of musical principles for therapeutic effect.
(Contributed by Ranjani Govind)
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