Of concerts, critics and compositions
P.S.KRISHNAMURTHI
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A renowned critic who is no more, trends among musicians discerning listener... so runs the train of thought on the season.
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Kalidasa celebrates the festive arrival of the Rains in his immortal ``Rtu Samhara," comparing the rains to a royal procession with peacocks, banners and pageantry. The Margazhi Festival Season in Chennai prompts such a thought. Year after year, for many years now, people have experienced it; its magnetic charm drags them; more and more from the country and world over flock to Chennai; hundreds plan for and fantasise about it.
It has become a two-month event generating hectic activity. Culture is seen in all its forms at its best, in bristling vigour — music, dance, theatre, not to mention associated ones like cuisine, writing, commerce, sponsorships, advertisements, publicity — as if Goddess Saraswati herself descends upon the city for that period.
Passion for literature
Think of Carnatic music and associated writing, and you have to muse over the late K.S.Mahadevan, critic with not only a passion for music but also for literature and writing, with all its nuances. Mahadevan comes of a musical family; his sister Sundari used to play the veena with erudition, skill and grace; one of his sons is a connoisseur like him; another an established mridangam player, and his daughter, an accomplished singer.
Mahadevan himself, for that matter, possessed a versatile voice, which complemented his perception of quality music. Some time in the 1940s my mother once complimented Mahadevan on an excellent neraval he was humming, and was told that the source of that was Sri Ramalinga Bhagavatar, brother of the legendary Sri Vedanta Bhagavatar of Kallidaikurichi, sometime president of the Music Academy.
A few years later, after Sri Ramalinga Bhagavatar had been persuaded to camp at our house until the family picked up a sizeable number of kritis from him, Flute Mali dropped in at our residence in Calcutta. Hearing my mother sing `Entarani' (to the violin accompaniment of my sister), which she had heard Mahadevan hum earlier, Mali wished to know where she had learnt that... a few months later.
`Entarani' made its appearance in a concert of Mali's. Ever since it became a favourite with him and his audience in several concerts.
Mahadevan was simple and a pragmatist. As a music critic he etched out a class for himself. Knowledgeable, discerning and polite, he was experienced in listening to generations of singers for over 80 years, "Avoid being cutting are hurting. Make a positive contribution, if you can" was his motto.
He had a clear idea of where criticism would intrude into his sensibility.
Recalling the festival concerts of the past two or three decades, the discerning listener cannot miss the heartening evidence of the trend of rising virtuosity among performing musicians, who appear to have a staggering mastery over rhythm. Complex patterns of manodharma swaras have sprouted all round.
Ragam, Tanam, Pallavi has staged a welcome comeback, with trikalam, tisra nadai, et al, rendered with facile confidence... One would however have welcomed a matching effort in stressing neraval, raga alapana; kriti rendering still continues to be at the backseat, getting crowded out by the ubiquitous kalpanaswara marathons and finding marginal place in an item.
Songs of renowned composers are mere facilitators for the singer, serving as apt springboards for leaping into endless bursts of kalpanaswaras at some impressive point of the sahityam. So taken up are we with the dazzle of demonstrating control over talam that too often a concert leaves the listener, not enthralled, but perplexed, with the impression of having witnessed a wrestling bout!
Elevating compositions
I would love to come by more manifestations of an honest desire to plumb the depths of inspiring compositions of inspired composers that can elevate not only the singer — as nadabrahman will do — but also the listeners with him.
Reaching into oneself and reaching out to the audience are commendable efforts at enhancing a concert, but reaching into the heart of the composer in his soulful creation gives handsome rewards...
The singer should turn his research in this direction, bidding a temporary good-bye to gymnastics. Carnatic music after all is rooted in bhakti. Demonstration of vidwat does indeed give a dash of glamour and excitement, but needs to be contained.
Ignore kritis, the essence of bhakti, and you have nothing left!
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