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.