Carnatic Music in perfect Harmony

The below anecdote was sent to the sangeethapriya group by Sri. V.Aiyah

Your message kindled memories of yore days from the bottom of my heart.
I belong to Kallidaikurichi in Tirunelveli Dist. which patronised fine arts for a long time. As you mention, I had seen "Terukoothus" , "Villu Paattus", "Bommalattam" and the like also. Nawab Rajamanickam Pillai's troupe would camp in our village every year. But, CM was uppermost in patronage. We had good opportunities to listen to the stalwarts of those days at close quarters. Every marriage would have at least one concert and there were number of "Satir Kutcheries" ( Bharat Natyam!) and "Katha Kaalakshepams".

I would like to mention here an interesting fact.

One wealthy Muslim gentleman celebrated his son's wedding (Nikah) and he arranged two concerts. One was by Karukurichi Arunachalam (just, he had made his debut) and the next day, much to the delight of inhabitants of our village as well as nearby villages, it was the concert of GNB with Kumbakonam Rajamanickam Pillai on the fiddle and PMI on Mridungam! (If one desires to under the real character of a Raaga (Aashiptikam) without any adultration with 100% melody, one should listen to Kumbakonam Rajamanckam Pillai). The concert was held in front of the gentleman's house a few yards away from the main mosque of the village! The audience which included people from all communities listened to the whole concert with rapt attention.

I think that this is a unique occasion!

We should be thankful to those stalwarts who made CM immortal!

V.Aiyah

Incipient Confidence#2

Mahathi

Surfing across TV channels, is one of my morning rituals, for some music programs. Yesterday while doing so, I saw a pleasantly looking lady singing in Zee Thamizh. It was Mahathi (hope the spelling is correct). Mahathi was singing pandureethi koluvaiya rama. Believe me she sang the neravals with good creativity (manodharma). I have heard her long ago in some chat show, she sang the bhavapriya kriti sri kaanthanee of thyagaraja saying it’s one of her favourites. She actually sang that kriti well then too.

I was told that she has sung some film songs. I’m not advising just a caveat. Like Jesudas she might end up messing both. For me she comes across as someone with an identity crisis. My take is that she can be a most sought after Carnatic musician if she concentrates and practices Carnatic music. She is naturally talented, that’s what I feel.

Natural singing

For her, sangathis flow with élan. More importantly she has a good pitch/scale range. And she is also able to sing 2 octaves without any strain. She doesn’t show any strain in her face or make it look unpleasant. I was told that she is training under TNS. My only suggestion is to take the best from his music and reproduce in her voice and ease. One shouldn’t try to emulate him.

Mahathi should identify aspects that suit her best and perform. Another important point I want to quote here is that she has got the lyrics memorized and didn’t refer a book, small piece of paper or a laptop. This is very important because multi-tasking on stage doesn’t bring out the best music. You can even afford to sing the lyrics wrong but not the ragam!! And I feel that the performers are not respecting their profession. A professional should be well equipped with the necessary skills to excel.

I’m looking for more of Mahathi’s Carnatic concerts. With what I heard in the 15mts capsule and the talk show may not be the right samples to arrive at an inference. If any of you have recordings of her Carnatic music, pl. forward them to me. I would like to listen to more and write more!!!

Indian Archives - A perfect oxymoron

In my early teens (1978 to 1981) I used to play tennis at the Corporation Stadium (now called the Radhakrishnan Stadium) in Egmore. Mr. Robin Mansfred was our coach then. From Triplicane I’ll go by the PTC (now called MTC) bus. I’ll get down opp. the Egmore Railway Station at the doorstep of Buhari & Vega Vasantha bhavan restaurants. Walk my way to the stadium. While walking, on my left, I used to see a red colour building built similar to the Madras University Senate house in the Indo-Saracenic style with a enameled board saying the Archives Department. I used to pronounce it as Archi as in Archies + ves.

What does Archives mean!!???

I never bothered to check, in the dictionary nor with my parents or teachers, the meaning of the word Archives. And to my dismay I find till date most of we Indians never bothered to understand the word Archives and its importance.

For those who believe in sentiments like being born in a blessed land (punniya bhoomi), born in a place or staying amongst the illuminati, you may then consider me blessed. Yes I was born and raised in thiruvallikeni (triplicane).

• One of the oldest settlements of Madras
• the illustrious Hindu High School was started
• where Bharathiar stayed during his last years
• where U.Ve. Swaminatha Iyer lived
• where the great GNB lived
• where Satyamurthi lived
• where Vai. Mu.Kodainayaki lived
• where Srinivasa Ramanujam lived
• the list is endless

You will be thinking why I have mentioned a list above. The reason is very simple you’ll find no traces of the above expect the ruined building of The Hindu High School (reminds me of the short story ‘leave no traces’ in the book Quiver full of arrows by Jeffrey Archer).

By now you should have started thinking about the meaning and importance of Archiving. Yes Archiving is the quintessence of life in the West. More importantly the Westerners market their archived materials well and make money to maintain the value. We lack the social responsibility. Let’s stop blaming the government machinery. What have we done as responsible citizens of the country? We have been thoroughly ruthless in defacing the monuments, destroying the materials, demeaning the contents, what not.

I can hear you all say – so you are one of those folks who emerge to advise the en masse. Sorry am not here to advise or lead you by example. I’m no Buddha, Jesus or Vivekananda. Am just an ordinary mortal but with an eye & ear for detail, if I could say so!!

Ok, let me tell you my listening experiences

My father despite his economic constrains started recording Carnatic music concerts (both vocal & instrumental) since 1965 and passed on the baton to me in 1978. With the limited financial and equipment resources, we recorded some of the finest concerts of the likes of Madurai Somu, Dr. S. Ramanathan, MDR, Mali, Balachandar, DKJ, Kalyanaraman, TRS, Balamuralikrishna etc.

And my regular attendance to these concerts connected me to a few like-minded teens (then) like Tharak, Sanjay, Madhu and some names I have forgotten now. Myself and Tharak used to pool in money to buy a cassette tape to record the concert. We never had the wherewithal then to buy tapes in bulk.

Those recordings were done using some mono recorders, I had a Panasonic 1857, Tharak had a Grundig etc. We used to buy prerecorded cassettes of any genre in the discount sale and copy the concerts we recorded in these prerecorded tapes. Sanjay inherited some recordings done by parents and grandparents.

We used to listen to one Madurai Mani Iyer concert with Lalgudi & Palani often. MMI’s rendition of kaana kan koodi vendum in khamboji in this concert and Palani accompaniment used to entrance us every time we listen to it. Sanjay also gave me couple of Ramnad Krishnan concerts which I treasure even today.

My first blush with a serious collector

Sri. C V Narasimhan, father of Bombay Balaji, mrudangist was an avid collector of Carnatic music. Sri.CVN was the secretary of a sabha in Bombay and also in Cochin. Sri.CVN had an enviable collection of spool recorders/tapes, cassette tapes. Infact he was the one who introduced me to Sri. T. K. Rangachari’s music. Sr. CVN gave me a concert of Sri. TKR with Sri. Chalakudy & Palghat Sri. Raghu organized by him in Cochin. It’s one of the finest concerts I have heard. I met Sri. Raghu at their home in Krishnapuri, Chennai 28. I vividly remember Sri. Raghu instructing (!!) me to listen to lot of Sri.TKR to enhance my knowledge of Carnatic music.

Unfortunately, before I could take his entire collection Sri. CVN passed away and I also lost touch with Balaji. Tharak told me that Balaji is somewhere in the Middle East. I'm keen in re-connecting and share my collection to him.

I can hear you all ask – What have you done?

As mentioned earlier, the recordings I did and some got from Sanjay, Tharak was passed on to likeminded people. And slowly we got connected with some other collectors as well. But to our dismay, they declined to share their collection with us. What they had were all priceless music by the stalwarts of pre1960s. We were desperate to have them. This urge rather humiliation made us think.

Tharak, myself and few others decided to go on a goose hunt. And saw some light. Incidentally Tharak’s father knew Sri. Tanjore S. Kalyanaraman too well. Tharak used to go to Sri.SKR’s home and nag him to copy his concerts. And Sri.SKR was very magnanimous. He gave few concerts of his. And our collection started bloating.

We then got connected to some people who had spool tapes. We then bought a spool player and transferred them to cassette tapes. Slowly our financial condition improved to buy more tapes and collection also increased. Tharak then bought a Marantz double tape recorder for making copies of the concerts we get from other collectors. Tharak then spent a fortune in 1980s to set up a good listening environ. We went to test Onkyo and the impulsive buyer in Tharak brought it home. We used to have long listening sessions at his home.

OMG, am crippled!! Yes this Tharak fellow suddenly disappeared from my vicinity. No clue about his whereabouts. So I used to go to the concerts with my father and my neighbor Raja, who is about 4 years younger to me. Raja was learning guitar under Ravikiran (yes chitravina ravikiran). Raja was recommended to Ravikiran by Sri. M.O. Srinivasan a great connoisseur of music particularly bhajans. MOS had an organization called Dasanjali and was teaching bhajans, abhangs etc to children. MOS passed away and Raja shifted from Ravikiran to Dr. S. Ramanathan who was staying in our area, Triplicane.

I have to mention the great experience I used to have. I have had the privilege of travelling in the local bus sitting beside Dr. S. Ramanathan. We used to go to Sastri Hall together for concerts. Dr.SR was one of the finest human being I have come across till date. Absolutely down to earth. I realized his value only during the 1990s when people started talking about his vidwath. He never showed his persona to anyone around. He used to interact freely with us as if he is our classmate. A perfect practice of ‘sowseelyam’.

My cassette collection started growing leaps & bounds. My small apartment couldn’t take on more. Just then I got the first blush at a PC. And the 1^st Creative SoundBlaster card burnt my pocket by Rs.22,000/- in 1998. I started digitizing the tapes to wav format. The cost of a blank CD was (hold your breath) Rs.35. Brands like TDK and HP were only available.

Next to music, technology always entices me till date. When I got connected to the internet,

I was totally flabbergasted. Here again I have to mention my first experience - the power of the internet.And oh again it’s with Sanjay and another friend. In the later 1997 the internet was used only for Emails and ICNET was the company offering the inevitable link. Sanjay called my office one day morning and said that he is coming in the next 30 minutes. He rushed into our office asked me and my colleague to leave immediately. We never knew for what. Sanjay just said, we are going to have a whole new experience. We went to Rosy Towers on Nungambakkam High Road. Sanjay dint have the patience to wait for the elevator, literally jumped over the stairs and reached the 4^th floor. The name board read Microsense. They were the distributors for VSNL’s internet connection and a demo was happening there.

Sanjay had fixed an appointment with them for the demo. We went into a small room, the executive asked us to close the room. We had only 2 chairs, Sanjay and that executive were on the chair, my friend and I stood behind them. They were obviously in front of a PC. That executive then started explaining about the power of Internet. I still remember the 1^st word I searched over the internet – its tyre manufacturers. You know why I searched for rubber manufacturers, I wanted to see MRF’s name in the search results!! So mean of me right!!!

Back to my music collection. With the help of the Soundblaster card, I started digitizing the tapes I had. And the bait I had for other collectors was the CD with the digitized music. Today my digitized collection is confined to a box of size 2” x 4” x 6”. Yes this is the physical size of my 1TB external hard drive.

Fortunately last Sunday the New Indian Express carried an article.

The benefit of the above article about archiving has literally opened the eyes of many. Calls keep pouring to my mobile, I don’t know how they managed to get my number. Those who call me after congratulating me for the effort without fail offer their collection for digitization.

My objective of recording and digitizing is to transfer this finest art form for the future generations. I am afraid if we fail to do it now, Carnatic music will face the same problem what neem, turmeric, basmati are facing now in the international patent arena.

But what hurts me most is the attitude of most of the Carnatic music performers of today. They have all imposed an embargo. Literal policing is happening in concerts of some performers. The sleuths of the performers check the audience for possession of recording gadgets and take them away. If only the recordings of yesteryears artistes are not available how could have the present day performers learnt some of the kritis, ragams.

I request those of you who have good music, pl. digitize and share with as many people possible.

Double Sundae

Nice to be back, though not with a full update on my experiences during December 2008 in the sabhas.
But before I write about my December 2008 experiences, I wanted to share with you all my experiences on January 10, 2009 at Narada Gana Sabha. Rasika Ranjani Sabha - one of the oldest patrons of fine arts in Chennai are conducting a series of concerts. That day was the arudhra darisanam day.
Thanks to my friend Mr.Hariharan for prompting me to attend. He is a very strict disciplinarian when it comes to attending concerts - he will be in the hall much before the start of the concert, won't leave the hall in between, won't talk, et all. So I was very careful while listening to the concerts (yes 2). Infact couple of times when I wanted to tell him something, thanks to technology,I typed the message in my cell phone and showed it to him. A worth while way of listening and emulating too. I request you all to try it.
Coming back to the concerts. I actually went late to the first concert of Gayathri Venkataraghavan (GV) which started by 4pm. When I went in she was singing Hindolam ragam, she sang 'nambikettavar evar aiya'. I have heard this kriti very often sung by Sri. DKJ. I always felt there was a lot melodrama in his rendition, where the lyrics always prevailed over the ragam. But GV sang it brilliantly. I know her since 1988 when we were in YACM. Honestly I never thought she would come up to this level in the carnatic music arena. She was a very lovable friend, never had any cliched persona. And am happy that she is still the same. But what am writing about her performances are not because I know her, my views are as genuine as her music.
I had a feeling of listening to MLV in her last days despite her ill-health. What I mean by saying so is that I find a clear emergence of a distinct style of singing. She has an ingenious ability to produce good music. And she has understood that.
One important aspect I want to highlight here is the mutual appreciation and respect the artistes showed on stage that day. GV was thoroughly enjoying Charumathi's raga renditions and so was towards Manoj Siva on the mrudangam and Anirudh Athreya on the kanjira. They made a perfect combo!!
Coming to the music delivered by this team, it was harmonious in the true sense of the word. GV's singing is very ingenious and true. She never tries to imitate anyone. She only delivers what comes best to her. It was a real audio-visual treat for us that. What I mean is that the stage was very pleasant to the eyes too. None of them showed any strain, infact very warm towards the audience too.
Anirudh's smile was very infectious as much as his playing. A perfect pedigree he is. He showed a lot of respect for Manoj, as a upa-pakkavadhyam, understanding his position on stage. I want to compliment Manoj in particular. I also know him since 1986. He is a good musician not just a percussionist. I know he used to like TNR, Ramnad Krishnan's music a lot. The sensitivity in thier music has ingrained in Manoj too. The way he got involved in the music of the evening and the space he gave Anirudh should be commended. But the pinnacle stays in his way of setting the shruthi while the raga alapana by Charumathi was getting to a close. He shifted the mrudangam away from the mic and checked it showing perfect finnesse. Keep the good attitude going Manoj.
Charumathi Raghuraman, probably the youngest disciple of Prof. TN Krishnan. She is just too good for her age. Her playing shows that she is an ardent listener. I have seen her in 2004 (if am right) sitting beside me in a Sanjay's concert at Gurukulam at R A Puram, Chennai. She was present till the concert ended around 9.45 pm. She should have been in her teens then. I still remember the attention she showed in the concerts and I dont her as a violinst then. She is living up to the promise she showed 4 years ago. May this tribe flourish. Actually the violionists of this decade are too good in terms of their playing skills, music value. I should say violin as an instrument has matured over the years.
GV sang a brilliant Kedaram ragam and as expected sang the immortal dikshithar composition 'aanandha natana prakaasam'. And the swara patterns she sang were very impressive and spontaneous. The slow tempo rendition of kedaram was succeeded by the brisk bhavapriya kriti 'sri kanthane yadabalaathi'. She made the audience sit up in this song. The kharaharapriya ragam and the very rarely sung thyagaraja kriti 'koori sevimpa raare' was a real treat. A soothing desh and ragamalika with sama, ranjani finished the concert. I had to mention the thani avarthanam played by Manoj and Anirudh. I was very soft on our ears. Infact during the 3 song Dr. Venkat prompted Manoj to instruct the PA guy to increase the volume for mrudangam. I remember an anecdote of ARI refering the mic as micasuran. It is valid even today. For Pete's sake, why can't the organisers engage a good person to handle the public address system. Let me do it as an organiser sometime and set the trend!!!
I met the team on stage and gave my compliments from the bottom of my heart. I have requested Dr.Venkataraghavan (GV's husband), incidentally our family ophthalmologist, to send me pictures of this concert to include in this page. Will upload as soon as I receive them.
The 2nd concert of the day was by the living legend TNS. This is the 5th concert of TNS in this season am preparing myself to listen.
TNS started the concert with the Sri ragam varnam. He then sang 'sivaloga nathani kandu' without singing even a short sketch of the ragam. He compensated with a good panthuvarali ragam, I have heard some more brilliants by him earlier in my collection of more than 150 concerts of his. His voice was very good, heard that he had a tooth extraction, probably the antibiotics he took as post operative therapy helped his voice. And the audience were the obvious beneficiaries. He sang 'siva siva yenaradha' with his usual kankku in the kalpanaswarams.
A short digress. I forgot to mention about the accompanists of the day for TNS. The best violin TNS can ask for MC was there. I say this because LGJ, TNK, VVS, MSG have all stopped playing as accompanists. And the younger ones who are good haven't started yet. Though my take will be Mysore Nagraj, Manjunath, MA Sunderaswaran, Embar Kannan, Varadarajan, Lalgudi Vijayalakshmi (infact its very sad that she is not accompanying these days), for reasons best known these artistes are not seen with TNS over the last couple of years. Guruvayur Dorai (GD) was on the mrudangam, a great admirer of TNS. Guruprasad on the ghatam. I've to mention the way Guruprasad carried himself on stage was not pallatable to me. Particularly after seeing Anirudh Athreya an hour ago, the difference in attitude was very loud. No doubt he plays well and infact grasped most of the korvais TNS sang well before GD got them. But that shouldn't give him the audacity on stage. I have seen TNS ruthlessly slaughter the pakkavadyams and even went on record saying that they can't accompany him. And Guruprasad remember this, if TNS gets a clue that you are trying to over power him then that concert will be your Waterloo. So better be careful.
TNS then sang sahana and a song I haven't heard before - 'appa naan venduthal kettarul puri'. Alas TNS is starting kedaram ragam. We were for sure he is going to sing 'aananda natana prakaasam'. And he did. But, believe me, it was very refreshing. Infact I typed in my cell phone and showed it to Sri. Hariharan too. The rendition was totally different from what GV did. The tempo was much slower than her version. At places GD didn't play enhancing the effect. 'innamum santhega padalAmo' was the next kriti TNS sang. Kiravani is another ragam TNS freaks out. Particularly his 'amba vaani nannu' is one rendition I like very much.
In the 150+ concerts of TNS I've, one RTP I used to yearn was in aabohi. And TNS fulfilled my desire that day. Yes he sang one of the finest abohi ragam (I have heard a rendition by MLV in one of her US concerts, where she announced at the start that she will sing 'manasu nillpa' and changed to a RTP, my mother always used to talk high of this concert. I rate this the best abohi rendition). This one TNS comes next to it. He sang the phrase 'oru tharam sivachidambaram enruraithaal modhume' as the pallavi in khanda triputa 2 kalai. The ragamalika he sang after the kalpanaswarams was something I can't write about. Because the way he brought the ragams' full structure in a minute was amazing. He sang ahiri, amrithavarshini, hindolam, kaanada etc. After the thani TNS sang a virutham 'paal ninaithu uttum' again in ragamalika - the ragas he choose were saveri, yadhukula khamboji, boopalam, hamsanandhi, darbari kaanada, yamuna kalyani and shankarabharanam. Here I have to mention the large heartedness of MC. In all the concerts this season I heard of TNS & MC, MC was gracious enough to say that TNS has sung enough in a ragam that he wont play it. MC did it for y'kalyani. TNS sang a mangalam praising all the celestial pairs and concluded the concert.
Now you know why I have named this post as Double Sundae. Yes it was.
To rasikas - Try and listen to more of GV's concerts.
To GV - please maintain the consistency in your performances and provide us with some good no gimmicks music.