Wednesday

Time to shred prejudices! – Chennai Music Season 2009

3 Comments December 30, 2009 – 9:30 am | Share and Save | Permalink | |

Shuba is a writer based in Chennai. Her expertise is in editing and translation of literature between Tamil and English. She works as an editor. She has a PhD in physics, more specifically, theory of magnetism. She has translated articles and some plays of Chennai artist Mr G. Chandrasekaran and playwright Mr Na. Muthusamy into English and some books for children published by Tulika books into Tamil. Further, her book reviews have been published in the Sunday New Indian Express.

It is now almost a fortnight since the start of the “Music Season” in Chennai. From mid-December to January, every musician in the trade of carnatic music has to perform at least once in this grand musical festival. It is a tradition that goes back almost a century. The season goes on for a month and ends with tributes to the musical Trinity, three great musicians of the modern era of carnatic music named Thyagaraja, Muthuswamy Dikshitar, and Shyama Shastri.

The origins of carnatic music have been traced back to the Sangam age, as articles in present day magazines, such as Shruti, testify. It has been a long journey for this type of music, from the creation of the ancient raga scales such as Bhairavi, Thodi, Kalyani which date back to around 300 BCE. Through the times of Siddhas, Jainas and Saivite saints in 600 CE Thevaram, Thiruvasagam and other such hymns were composed. The Azhwar paasurams, early in this previous millennium continued this tradition down to the twentieth century concert format.

The journey has not all been blameless and the dominant feeling in the recent decades has been that this musical form has been appropriated by the so-called upper castes. No institution can escape a criticism that exposes the coupling of power with art or science and neither can the practice of this musical form.

Among the oldest sabhas to patronise carnatic musicians are Rasika Ranjani Sabha, Parthasarathy Swami Sabha, Karthik Fine Arts, Music Academy and others based in Chennai. The latter was considered particularly purist and had very strict rules about how music was played. Every aspect of the performance was strictly circumscribed – the performers, what they sang or played, what instruments could be used in the concerts and so on.

This further created a hierarchy of instruments, with the Veena, Violin, etc assuming pride of place and accompanied by percussion instruments such as Mirudangam and Ghatam. Instruments that were more common in folk performances like the Kanjira, the Thavil and so on were relegated to the status of subsidiary support instruments (upa-pakka vadhyams).

Do you see a caste pattern here? Well, that is left as home work for those interested. In the following I will flash forward to the very interesting and happy news of what happens this year.

Every sabha hosts every year, at the end of its season festival, an award of a title for the best musician of the year. One of the most popular and coveted among these awards is that instituted by the Madras Music Academy. The title given is Sangeetha Kalanidhi. For the year 2009, this title was conferred on Valayapatti A. R. Subramaniam, renowned Thavil exponent. This was the Academy’s eighty-third congregation and the first time it was given to a Thavil Vidhwan.

Valayapatti A. R. Subramaniam

Another twist was that the award was given to the exponent by chess champion Viswanath Anand. It is worth mentioning that the post of President of the Academy is for a period of three years, held this year by Mr N. Murali of The Hindu group of publications.

In his acceptance speech, the nominee Valayapatti, as he is affectionately known, nostalgically recalled his vibrant student days. He narrated movingly how he used to practice on Taalam for two whole years before learning Nadhaswaram and then gravitating to the Thavil. He spoke of performing for hours at a stretch during temple festivals where he would have to play in three different tempos alternately, for half-an hour each, non-stop; sometimes his hands would bleed!

Remarking that skins of goats or cows were used to make Thavils, he said that perhaps they had been allowed into the temples because they were herbivores. He concluded his speech, expressing a wish to reinstate temple music festivals, establish the practice of conducting concerts in schools, and set up statues for renowned musicians like M.S. Subhalakshmi in the city.

Mr N. Murali, president of the academy, who spoke earlier, also made an interesting point. He noted that prior to 1947, the Music Academy had not permitted instruments like the Thavil that were categorised as upa-pakkavadhyams, to perform in their sabhas. He also revealed that in all these years this is the first time a Thavil exponent has been awarded Sangeetha Kalanidhi. He announced that The Hindu group had instituted a cash prize of Rs 1 lakh in the name of the musician Dr M. S. Subhalakshmi which would be given each year to the Sangeetha Kalanidhi designate of the Music Academy. This year, in its first run, it was awarded to Valayapatti.

The Thavil is the hero of this season, as evinced by a concert featuring the Thavil and the Mirudangam in apposition. The concert featured the innovative violin duo, the brothers Ganesh and Kumaresh in Mylapore Fine Arts Academy, playing ragas on their violin in step with one Thavil and one Mirudangam instead of the usual softer percussions. Yes the Thavil is an embodiment of joy, which is why it is used for festivals and marriages. The evergreen songs of the Tamil film music genius, Ilayaraja holds many examples for creative and sensitive use of these nearly invisible percussion instruments.

The Violin duo Ganesh and Kumaresh

Carnatic music experts often say that it is born to Shruti, the mother, and Laya, the father. The third dimension of verse must now be added as its body, if you like. I will close this round up of unusual happenings at the music festivals with a brief note on how some musicians use the words of the song appropriately to the occasion.

One musician who is perfectly tuned into the concert is Madurai T. N. Seshagopalan. He is known for selecting and ordering the parts of his concert to move the listeners’ emotions in a planned manner. This year he seems to have started the season with a brand of humor that takes us quite back in time!

One of his first performances this year, for Karthik Fine Arts, at Narada Gana Sabha hall, started a mite late. He began the concert with ‘Aparadhumula norva’ in which Thyagaraja sings: ‘It is time you (Lord) pardoned me for my fickleness’! Well, listeners appeased, the evening passed pleasantly until it was dinner-time and many elders had to leave even before the main piece. His eyes following the defectors, he sang ‘Saravana Bhava Samayam Ithi’, leaving the loyalists sniggering!

In his Music Academy concert, he chose to sing Sri Subramaniyaaya Namaste, in Kambodhi. Rather apt, considering Vidhwan Valayapatti Subramaniyam had just been conferred Sangita Kalanidhi earlier that evening at the academy.

Humor does make music accessible even to the non-cognoscenti and T.N.S. certainly has a flair for this.

Photos: Shuba