My Old Carnatic Concert Review - of Sanjay Subrahmanyam - from 2006

My Old Carnatic Concert Review – of Sanjay Subrahmanyam – from 2006

Written by Dr. Seshadri Kumar, 05 July 2012

Copyright © Dr. Seshadri Kumar.  All Rights Reserved.

Please see http://www.leftbrainwave.com for more articles by Dr. Seshadri Kumar

You can reach me on twitter @KumarSeshadri

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I was just surfing on Google, looking for people who may have referenced my articles, and I found an old concert review of mine from 2006, when I had gone to Chennai from Bangalore on a business visit during the Madras Music Season.  I thought it might be nice to share this review with the larger group that I am in touch with, on facebook and otherwise, so I am reposting that review. 

I have edited it very slightly and added a few headings for readability.  I haven’t corrected any of the information in it either – for instance, I now know that Thyaga Brahma Gana Sabha is what used to be Vani Mahal.  I enjoyed reading the review again – I hope you do too.

Kumar’s Review of Sanjay Subrahmanyam’s Concert in Chennai on Dec. 14, 2006

Greetings!

I had a chance to visit Chennai on business about two weeks ago, and it happened to be the start of the greatest annual music festival on the planet: The Madras Music Season. This is a music fest of the kind that I have not witnessed anywhere else: more than 1000 music concerts spread over the time of a month, with more than a dozen venues.

The last time I visited Chennai during the season was 1994, so it has been a really long time. But the level of frenetic activity has not changed. I would have liked to, as I did in '94, take 10 days of vacation and spend them full time concert-hopping, trying to catch a lec-dem in the morning and three concerts subsequently during the day, but, alas, I was out of vacation time for this year, and so had to manage my experiences on evenings after long days with clients.

It was still a fun two days, and I caught Sanjay Subrahmanyam at Brahma Gana Sabha one day and OS Thyagarajan at Krishna Gana Sabha the next. (really, the two artists whom I would have wanted to listen to above anyone else ... btw, on a tangent, can you really believe that OS Arun is OST's brother?, ... so anyway, I think that I got really lucky, both being really good and interesting concerts.)

Karpagam Mess in Mylapore

Add to this the joy of experiencing good Tamil food (Udipi food is NOT Tamil Nadu food, BTW ... they put sugar in the sambar, for instance ... how awful! And apart from the authentic sambar, another delight in Madras restaurants is that molaga podi, aka gunpowder, is a standard side in most restaurants ... and it is the real stuff, fiery, rather than the tame stuff you get in the Udipis in Bombay and Bangalore ... hmm ... in Bangalore you DON'T get gunpowder, even in Adyar Ananda Bhavan) in some real authentic restaurants, and you have two unforgettable days in Madras. 

Of course, I can do without the miserable weather in that city (you won't believe that I was getting cooked there in the middle of December ... even Bombay is pleasant at that time), so I will be glad if I got to spend one month of my working year (15 Dec - 15 Jan) in Madras, experience that city and the amazing music, and then go back home.

To briefly finish about the food, before actually heading into the music, there is a great place in Mylapore, I wouldn't think very well-known, where many of the sabhas are, that I would strongly recommend you go to before or after the concerts (if after, skip the tukdas after the main piece/RTP and head for this ... definitely more value for money than that "Chinnanchiru kiLiyE" that you will hear for the 10001st time) that I learnt about from some relatives there. This is an old joint that is at the back of the Mylapore tank, right opposite the Bharatiya Vidya Bhavan building there. It is really a hole in the wall, and is called Karpagam Mess (not to be confused with the big Karpagam hotel just yards away).

This is a small family joint that, amazingly enough, has an a/c section, and serves the most amazing ghee dosas I have ever eaten. The surroundings are very humble (when I finished my meal and went to the wash basin, there was no water there, so the attendant stood by my side with a jug of water for me to use to clean my hands, etc. ... not that the place is unhygenic ... just that that day the faucet was not working, but still, a very basic atmosphere), but the food is simply unbeatable. 

They serve the dosas on a plantain leaf, and there is a guy standing close by with a bucket of fantastic sambar, and he keeps refilling your leaf with more sambar as soon as you have finished what is on it. I cannot remember how much sambar I ate that night, but it was a LOT for just one dosa. This place will definitely give Saravana Bhavan or Sangeeta a run for their money. I will unfailingly go back there the next time I am in Chennai.

Modern Sabhas in Chennai

Back to the music season. Much has changed in 12 years. For instance, the Krishna Gana Sabha, which I visited during this trip, is now air-conditioned, and looks a lot better than it did 12 years ago.  Apparently, they redid both the acoustics and the interiors. Very nice. The auditorium has wicker chairs, which, at first, I thought would be crude and uncomfortable, but they turned out to be the most comfortable seats I have ever had the pleasure of sitting in, better than all the second-rate cushioned chairs that we think of as comfortable normally but that we always feel like shifting in. But I digress.

The concert that I am going to talk about was at the Brahma Gana Sabha (it did not exist in '94; btw whatever happened to the Rasika Ranjani Sabha? I did not see any mention of it in the newspapers ... did it get scrapped?  That was another run-down sabha at the time, where, to add insult to injury, I heard a forgettable concert by Gayatri on veena, but that is another story). There are also a bunch of other sabhas that I had never heard of at the time, like the Thyaga Brahma Gana Sabha. Where are all these sabhas coming from? In '94, the Music Academy and Narada Gana Sabha were the only two that really looked polished; now all of them have been spruced up.

Sanjay Subrahmanyam

Now to Sanjay. I first heard Sanjay in 1994 at the Music Academy in an afternoon concert. I remember hearing a beautiful Janaranjani (nADAdinamATa) and a bEgaDA by him that day, and I was very impressed at the time. I said to my friend who was with me, an older gentleman and a veteran listener, at the time, that Sanjay had the makings of a great musician, and he echoed that opinion, both then and in every conversation we had since then.

Well, Sanjay has not disappointed in the years since in terms of his progress towards that summit, and this concert definitely underlined that point. Sanjay in 1994 was an upcoming young artist; he had been on the concert circuit for a few years, but then there were many who were at that level. Not everyone makes it to the next level, of being a major star. Sanjay has now definitely reached that level. There is an ease and a mastery of the medium and the art that is immediately obvious when you see and hear him now. He has become a seasoned veteran. 

In this evening's concert, Sanjay was accompanied on the violin by S. Varadarajan, the mridangam by B. Satishkumar, and the morsing by Bangalore Rajasekhar.

The Concert

The concert began promptly (as do all concerts in Madras during the season; they really run on a tight schedule and cannot afford to be tardy) at 6.30 pm, and Sanjay began, rather unusually, with "nAda tanumanisham" in cittaranjani. which he sang well for 20 minutes. This was followed by raghunAyaka in hamsadhwani, which was notable for unusual sangatis.

kannaDA

He followed this with an elaborate kannaDA ... now how many people will elaborate on this rAga?  After a nice AlApana, which he stopped at just the right time to avoid getting repetitive, but long enough to show his ability to improvise, he sang a dIkshitar kriti, "gIticakrarthasthithAyai." This raga, especially the AlApana, showed that this was a musician at the height of his creative powers. Highly enjoyable.

dharmavatI

The next piece was a composition in dharmavatI. A long AlApana, after which the violinist displayed admirable musicianship in his solo AlApana, was followed by the composition "aRuLvAi angayar kanniyE ... unmai uyar guNangaLellAm uLLam adhilE" (who's the composer?.... btw, the concert had a LOT of Tamil songs).

kAmbhOjI

This was then followed by an elaborate kAmbhOjI, the main rAga of the concert. Again, Sanjay tried to do a lot of things with the AlApana. Unfortunately, IMO, this fell flat. The thing about kAmbhOjI is that while it is a rAga with a lot of scope, when you have heard a lot of versions by a lot of great musicians, it is hard to come up with new and creative melodic patterns in it. To do something new in something that well-worn requires a lot of creativity. On another day, Sanjay might have been able to rise to the occasion, because he is capable of it, but on this day he simply wasn't up to it in this particular raga. It was clear that he was trying too hard.

But it still showed me what I have seen consistently in his music over the years ... he is not afraid to try new things, to truly create, something that most of his peers are afraid of, in case they fail. Sanjay can fail sometimes, but he is never afraid to try. As they say, nothing ventured, nothing gained. Sometimes it works brilliantly, sometimes it fails miserably. You can't have one without the other.

But he admirably made up for this in the composition, "Adum deivam nI aRuLvAi iRanDu pAdam tUkki nin tiru pAdam tanjum ena unai adandEn viri prapancam" (apologies for any mistakes).  Really, really good. A long, and very nice neraval (unfortunate most musicians today don't want to do this very pleasurable thing, the neraval, and jump straight to garden variety swaraprasthAra) that displayed some fine musicianship, followed by swaras of mixed quality.  (I think this was a Gopalakrishna Bharati composition. It lasted about an hour in total.)  Overall, a nice main piece.

hamsAnandi RTP

He was back to peak form in the next piece, an RTP (rAgam-tAnam-pallavI)  in hamsAnandi. He was in complete command here. The tAnam was phenomenal. I felt sorry for the violinist, who had a thankless job. He tried gamely, but could not come close. It really was not his fault; it is really hard to follow an act such as this. Sanjay seemed to realize how well he was doing here ... there was absolute confidence and a swagger about his performance that you can understand only when you hear him do the kinds of things he did that day ... the ideas simply seemed to come to him from nowhere.

The pallavI was "karuNincarA lOkAdhAra" ... but don't think of this as an authentic pallavI exposition. No anulOma or vilOma anulOma or trikAlam or anything like that here.  Maybe he got tired of all that, but the pallavI was simply a rAgamAlika of kalpanAswaras. 

He got the audience excited by singing the pallavI swarakalpanas in each rAga in the melodies of the most popular compositions in those rAgas: so, for Shuddha dhanyAsI, "enta nErcinA," kalAnidhi, "cinna nAtana", naLinakAntI, "manaviyAlakin," for bahudhArI, "brOvabArama," and so on. And I don't mean just the pallavis of the songs...for example, he would sing "karuNincara lOkAdhArA" for the "shRI vAsudEvA" anupallavi of "brOvabAramA" as well. The other rAgas were SahAnA and one more that I don't remember.

Tukkadas

Then the short pieces, which, surprisingly, were still enjoyable. A composition in a rAgamAlika, by Subramania Bharathi, followed by a viruttam in rAgas nAdanAmakriyA, sindubhairavI, and sAma, was followed by "nArAyaNA naLinAyata lOcana", a pApanAsam sivan offering in sAma, and then a tukDA of Gopalakrishna Bharathi, "ghaNTA maNi Adudhu," in kAnaDA. The last tukDA in the concert, before the mangaLam was, unfortunately, the infamous "English Note."

Must We Really Have This English Note???

I love Madurai Mani Iyer, and think of him as one of Carnatic music's greatest and most creative vocalists, but I cannot ever forgive him for introducing this abomination into Carnatic music (Yes, I know that it was one of the Dikshitars who started this nonsense a long long time ago, but really, that was his response to colonial rule and an early fascination with western band music ... this junk should really have no place in modern, polished, sophisticated Carnatic music, and MMI did Carnatic music a great disservice by reintroducing it.) It did make him popular, though!  Shows that even the great ones are not beneath pandering to the audience.

Some folks might say that, after all, it is just an entertaining and popularizing device, but it really is just light/pop music.  If this is acceptable, why not go all the way and sing "nI varEnA vA, varATTi pO, nI varalEnA un pEccu kA" in a concert? Why blame Unni for singing "ennavaLE" in a Carnatic concert then? Anyway, that's my pet peeve for you.)  After all this wonderful music, you end up in this morass? It's like having a fabulous dinner and then having plain oats for dessert.

An Evening to Remember

So, overall: a very satisfying, enjoyable evening in Chennai that was worth every paisa of the Rs. 300 (the cheapest class of ticket that was available at the last minute, after I returned from my meeting with the client ... but hey, I got a terrific view ... now this is a good and a bad thing ... the good is that you get to see the performers up close; the bad is ... that you get to see the performers ... well, Sanjay ... close. Not that he is bad-looking; but you don't really want to see him while he is singing ... his face goes into all these contortions that you think something is wrong with him ... now that is not really a pleasure) that I spent.

And that ghee dosai at Karpagam Mess was just the kind of ending to make this a perfect evening.

Cheers,

Kumar

On Women's Education in India, and Government Employees Who Take Themselves Too Seriously

On Women’s Education in India, and Government Employees Who Take Themselves Too Seriously

Written by Dr. Seshadri Kumar, 01 July 2012

Copyright © Dr. Seshadri Kumar. All Rights Reserved.

Please visit http://www.leftbrainwave.com for more articles by Dr. Seshadri Kumar.

Disclaimer: The opinions expressed in this article are the personal opinions of the author alone, and of no one else, unless specifically mentioned otherwise.

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Recently, a school in Tamil Nadu in South India disallowed two girls who got married immediately after finishing their Xth in that school from joining the XIth standard in the same school on the grounds that they would set a bad example for other girls and encourage them to do the same.  This was reported in The Hindu.  There are no other higher education institutions in the area for the girls and this action would effectively put an end to the education of the girls.

Many people were shocked by the attitude of the school in denying education, now legislated in Parliament as a fundamental right to all Indians, to girls, widely recognized as the one segment of Indian society in greatest need for education.  While it is sad to see Indian parents still parcelling off their girls to their husbands’ homes so early (and, in this case, below the legal marriageable age), it is usually the case that after marriage, it is the parents or in-laws who put a stop to the girls’ education.  However, in this case, the girls applied for admission to standard XI, only to be rejected by the principal of the school.

Distressed as I was by all this, I was even more distressed by a response to this action, also published by The Hindu in its Opinion section, written by a Professor Krishna Kumar, a Professor of Education at Delhi University and a former director of NCERT (National Council of Educational Research and Training), which actually defended the action of the said school principal.

According to this response, the fault does not lie with the principal.  The author of this piece believes that the principal is trying to fulfil the school’s social contract and their response is just a way of “conveying her inconsequential anger” at being unable to do so.

Noble though this sounds, there are many flaws with Professor Krishna Kumar’s arguments.

First, the author refers to a 1988 study by Prof. Leela Dube.  Accurate though the work may have been then, it is 24 years old, and many things have changed.  Importantly, that study was done before the opening up of the economy in 1992.  Society, especially urban society, has changed significantly since then.  Just look at how many women work in the IT sector alone.  Yes, Prof. Dube is right that women get a very different message in the home from what they do at school, but two things have changed how much of the home message they are willing to accept.  One is that there are so many employment opportunities available for women.  The other is that families need the extra income that women bring to the home and are not inclined to discourage women from working.  Both of these are different from the the situation in 1988.

Second, Prof. Kumar mentions (via Prof. Dube’s work) that there is a fundamental contradiction between expectations of girls in schools which, in an ideal world, encourage freedom of thought, freedom of action, and develop confidence in girls that they can do anything, just as boys can; and expectations of girls in the home - obey thy father and mother, obey thy husband, devote thy life to thy children.  Sure, this is true, and exists even today, but the intensity of the conflict is decreasing.  More and more parents are trying to give their girls a strong educational base so that the girls can stand on their own legs.  This isn't only in upper middle class homes - our maid servant in Pune was proudly telling us how she had big plans for her daughter, who seemed to be doing very well in school, much better than her son.

Third, the author assumes that teachers have taken upon themselves the mantle of reforming society and that the government also expects this out of them.  As anyone who has interacted with government employees of any kind, including teachers, knows, most of these employees do their job as a contractual obligation.  It is hard to believe that they truly think that the transformation of society rests upon them.  There may be some sincere teachers (yes, I have had some good teachers in my school as I grew up, as I assume many others have had too) who want to do a good job of teaching what they are supposed to teach, but to presume that they believe that the transformation of society is in their hands is a bit too much.

Fourth, let's think about education in India.  In his idealistic world at NCERT, Prof. Kumar loves to revel in illusions that Indian schools actually think of education as a means of teaching students to think and reason.  The truth of the matter is that Indian students all over the country, by and large, are NOT taught to think at all.  They are taught to memorize and learn by rote.  They learn an essay in English and then memorize answers to stock questions such as "explain with reference to context" that are dictated to them by the teacher.  And Prof. Kumar is telling us that teachers are trying to inculcate critical thinking in students?

The truth of the matter is that parents in India send their children to school for the certificate they get at the end of 12 years and the hope of getting a marketable degree in a college thereafter.

Fifth, how is denying the girls admission after they have been married helping anything?  What was the principal expecting, that she should have been consulted and her approval obtained before the marriages were fixed?  And how is denying women education helping with the mission of empowering women, even if we were to accept Prof. Kumar's thesis that that is the perceived mission of the teachers?

Sixth, and finally, what is this gibberish about "she is right in indicating that she is not equipped to run a school for married women. If the government is concerned about the education of child brides, it should develop a curriculum for them and start institutions where it can be taught."  What is there about history, geography, mathematics, civics, physics, chemistry, biology, English, Tamil, Hindi, or most of the other subjects that are standard in XIth or XIIth standard schools that are to be taught differently to married women than they are to be taught to single women?  When the same syllabus applies to boys and girls, why make a distinction between single and married women?

The whole essay by Prof. Kumar presents a distorted (and idealistic) view of what the purpose of a school is.  It is as though Prof. Kumar believes that the sole purpose of a school is to engineer social transformation of a certain kind, and since getting such young girls married violated the objectives of that transformation, the girls should be expelled.  This is such ivory-tower and impractical thinking, and so out of touch with reality – and the irony is that the author prefaces his article by speaking of Prof. Dube, whose writings he claims to like because “her view ... derived its perspective from a deeper commitment – to social reality, rather than to activism or political correctness.”  Yet Prof. Kumar’s own article is completely divorced from the social reality of women in our country today!  It should have been discarded on arrival at the office of The Hindu - yet, it has been published - maybe just because it is a contrarian position?  Just because something is controversial is not reason to publish it.  For a paper like The Hindu, the arguments must also make sense.  There has clearly been a lack of proper editorial involvement here.

Note that I am not advocating that girls should be married off young.  I'd rather that people take their time before getting married, get an education, get to know themselves a bit, and obtain some qualifications to stand on their own before marrying.  But the decision to not allow them to pursue their education because they married early is an attempt to impose the teachers’ own morality or vision of society on others.  Prosecute the parents for arranging a marriage of minors if you will, but you have no right to stop their education.

If what you are teaching in school is worth anything, then in time, it will have the desired effect.  Maybe not in this generation, because the girls are forced to bend to their parents' will, but perhaps, when they grow up, they will think differently about their children.  But it is education that will empower them to change.  Maybe it will take a couple of generations, but it will happen.  Let them get that education first.

How, Indeed, Should Carnatic Music be Performed?

How, Indeed, Should Carnatic Music be Performed?

Written by Dr. Seshadri Kumar, 12 February 2012

Copyright © Dr. Seshadri Kumar, 2012.  All Rights Reserved.

Please visit http://www.leftbrainwave.com for more articles by Dr. Seshadri Kumar

You can reach me on twitter @KumarSeshadri

Disclaimer: The opinions expressed in this article are the personal opinions of the author alone, and of no one else, unless specifically mentioned otherwise.

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The well-known Carnatic vocalist, TM Krishna, recently wrote an article in the Hindu Arts section on how Carnatic music is presented and what is wrong with it.  

While I agree with Krishna's intent in writing this article, and do think a debate is very healthy, I would have liked it more if he could be a bit more specific and less hazy.  In some cases it appears he is trying hard to speak in generalities lest he offend anyone.  I disagree with some of the points he has raised and, further, believe that some of his points are typical of the Indian complaining mentality where people bemoan the ills that plague India without doing anything to remedy them.

Here is the article: http://www.thehindu.com/arts/music/article2874909.ece

I will now consider the substantial points he has raised (by paraphrasing his arguments) and also give my response to them.

Pandering to the Audience’s Plebeian Tastes

TMK:  You don't necessarily need to pander to the audience.  Today's concerts often seem more like variety entertainment programmes, namasankirtanams, or the performance of a trapeze artist. Art music is “a shared, intense, aesthetic experience,” and “not a service of spiritualism, religion, or entertainment provided by musicians to the audience.”

SK: Yes, at a philosophical level I do agree: you do not need to pander to the audience.  When you go to the level of the lowest common denominator, art suffers. 

But today, music is a commercial venture.  Sabhas make money if people come to concerts, and if you are going to be performing things people do not care about, the sabhas are not going to invite you.  So it is a delicate balance between preserving your own integrity and recognizing that you ARE an entertainer. 

I was in Chennai a few years ago during the season and attended a very nice concert by OS Thyagarajan, one of the singers I like, because he does interesting things with his music.  The concert hall was probably ¼ full.  I heard that the next evening, his brother, OS Arun, performed a concert of light classical numbers to a packed audience.  No prizes for guessing who makes more money!  If your own interests are absolutely divergent with that of your audience, you will probably have to sing for yourself in your home.

Understanding the Changing Context

The fact is that the context of Indian classical music, both northern and southern styles, has changed significantly in the last 100 years, and musicians who care about the excellence of their art have not evolved in tune with the changing context.  This is the reason for the dilemma that TM Krishna is finding himself in.  Let me explain.

In the past, musicians knew their audience.  It was, largely, a musically literate audience.  This was true both in Hindustani and Carnatic music.  In Hindustani music, classical music was reserved for those who had access to the royal courts, for that was where great musicians used to situate themselves.  If you wanted to hear someone of the stature of a Bhimsen Joshi, for instance, you had better have connectivity with the royal court that musician was associated, else your chances of listening to such a great master would be limited indeed.  The audiences that these musicians performed for was much smaller and more expert in the art – often, other musicians or nobility who were themselves well acquainted with the art.

The situation in Carnatic music was not very different, even though the social circumstances were very different.  In the old days, in select communities, such as Brahmins, all the girls used to learn classical music, and for extended periods.  Music was considered a necessary accomplishment to be able to obtain a good husband; indeed, mastery of music is mentioned even in an ancient text such as the Kama sutra as one of the 64 arts necessary for a woman to master.  It is true, some gents were also musically literate, but for a woman it was mandatory.  Professional musicians therefore had a ready audience of highly literate ladies who could critically evaluate their efforts – many of them would know the compositions that the singer was performing, including all the sangathis involved, the crucial part where the niraval was to be done, could probably each reel off a dozen kalpanaswarams in the raga the singer was singing – and so it was essential to raise the level of the music to such an extent that such an educated audience would consider it good.

But things have changed today.  Today’s young women have to worry about getting an education and later a job.  Let alone singing, many of them do not even know enough about a more essential skill: cooking.  They are too busy with their classes and tuitions and homeworks and getting ready for their 10^th, 12^th, and IIT/Medical entrance exams.  Even if they do manage to learn something about music, their understanding is often sketchy.

In addition to this, the potential audience for a singer has hugely expanded.  Whereas, earlier a singer would sing for a small gathering (what is known as a “mehfil” in the north), today he or she sings in large auditoria.  And musicians today have to earn their income through commercial recordings, such as CDs, which are sold in the millions.  Most of the millions buying these recordings are not, in the least, familiar with classical music.

So, to put it in a nutshell, audiences are fairly illiterate.  An audience can only relate to what it knows.  People today come to a Carnatic music concert for different things.  Most Carnatic compositions are religious, owing to the fact that the majority of compositions have come from saint-composers, and so, to many people, Carnatic music symbolizes religious music.  So yes, such people come to Carnatic concerts expecting a parade of bhajans.  They are not interested in long alapanas, elaborate niravals, or kalpanaswarams.  They only care to hear Rama or Krishna or Devi being praised.

Others are only familiar with catchy film melodies, and so when they come to a classical performance, they expect something similar.  Such people will only applaud if you keep belting out songs like “Raghuvamsa sudha,” “Vatapi ganapathim,” and other catchy numbers.  If you serve up stuff like what Ganesh and Kumaresh or Kunnakkudi Vaidyanathan do, they will be delighted.  If you perform Madurai Mani Iyer’s “English Note,” they will love it.  Yes, they are looking for a variety entertainment experience.  Can you blame them?  That is the closest they can get to what they actually know: “Why this kolaveri, kolaveri, kolaveri di?”

And yes, others who don’t know much about Carnatic music will enjoy it more if the tempo goes up, simply because it is fast and exciting.  Hindustani musicians have discovered this long ago.  Go to any Hindustani sitar player’s concert and you will find the audience goes ecstatic, not when a soulful alap is played (for which a polite applause is granted), but when the sitariya and tabliya do a back-and-forth “sawal-jawab” (question-answer) session.  Oh, and the fast-paced “jhala” that is integral to every sitar performance is always a favourite.  Such displays are common in Carnatic music as well.  If that seems like a “trapeze performance,” recognize, again, that really this is all your audience can appreciate, so if you want an audience, you better make them happy.

Do the Right Thing

Now, it doesn’t have to be this way.  If you notice, the root cause why audiences demand all these gimmicks is because they are not educated.  If you want audiences to swing to a different rhythm, why don’t YOU teach them that rhythm?  Why don’t YOU, TM Krishna, and others like you, educate them?

Why do I rarely, if ever, find Carnatic musicians conducting lecture-demonstrations in schools and colleges to explain what they are doing and why?  If YOU want a market for the kind of music YOU wish to perform, it is YOUR responsibility to educate the public as to why they should listen to your musical style rather than another trapeze performance.

That this is possible and not a pipe dream has already been demonstrated, most impressively, by Pandit Ravi Shankar, the famous Hindustani music sitar player.  When he first went to the west in the early 1960s, very few had ever heard of Indian classical music – “raga” would well have been considered a misspelling of “rage.”  But, with his untiring efforts, he made “raga” part of the western lexicon.  Even 20 years ago, when I told a white American friend in the US that I listen to Indian classical music, his immediate response was, “Ah, like raah-gaah music?  What Raavi Shaank-aar plays?”  So Ravi Shankar, with his lecture-demonstrations and concerts, created a market for his art, and the result is that he is now so popular in the west that he has even made it his home.  To most westerners, Pandit Ravi Shankar is the face of Indian classical music.

Why don’t Carnatic musicians try doing this? I know L. Subramaniam has done some of this, but I have never attended a lecture-demonstration by him, only concerts.   I have never seen a lecture-demonstration by a Carnatic vocalist in my life.  Given all this, how do you expect to land at an auditorium in some city all of a sudden, and hope to find musically-literate fans to whom you can showcase your talents?

Now, I know that TM Krishna, like other young Carnatic musicians, belongs to an organization called Youth Association for Carnatic Music (YACM), which supposedly organizes such events.  I went to their webpage and found these events, which look promising: http://www.carnaticdarbar.com/news/201002/20100817b.asp.

But I have never had a YACM event near where I ever have lived, so I cannot comment.   What I can say is that a lot more needs to be done.

Other Kutcheri Formats such as Alapana-centered Performance

TMK: The modern kutcheri format isn't necessarily the best - you can have a concert of alapana alone. He also suggests that there are Hindustani khyal traditions that have alap as an independent presentation.

SK: I am unaware of any tradition in Hindustani classical music that treats alap as an independent unit, and I have heard a fair amount, not only of khyal, but also dhrupad and instrumental music. The only khyal gharana that presents extended alap is the Agra gharana, but they, too, present it as a prelude to a composition.  The dhrupadiyas present long alaps too, but they always follow it with a composition.  The only person who sometimes presented pure alap was Zia Mohiuddin Dagar, on Rudra Veena (witness his Yaman or Shuddha Todi recordings). 

In instrumental music, however, there is a concept of an alap-jod-jhala which does not necessarily have to be followed by a composition in the raga, though this is often done.  Sometimes the composition is in a different, though related raga.  As an example, I once heard a concert of Ustad Ali Akbar Khan where he started the concert with an alap and jod in Shreeraga, and then followed it up with a gat in raga Puriya Dhanashree.

Having said all that, however, I don’t see anything wrong in a concert that is entirely alapana-focused – provided you can find enough people to hear the concert.  I would come, but I don’t know how many more people will.

How Alapana is Sung Today

TMK: In the old days, they had concerts of alapana which were fixed; nowadays our alapanas are improvised.

SK: Krishna talks of ancient concert traditions that present pure alapana, and this would be interesting to hear, but his subsequent sentences are confusing.  He says in those days the alapanas were very structured, whereas today alapanas are much more improvised.  Is he making a case for alapanas to be more structured and less improvised?  Why?  As it is, so much of Carnatic music is rigidly codified; why would you want to get rid of the few improvisational elements that are left?

Presenting Padams, Varnams, Swarajathis as Main Pieces

TMK: One can try to present padam, varnam, and swarajathi as central pieces in a concert - because in the hoary past this has been done.  However, doing this for kalpanaswarams or niraval would be wrong, because such a tradition never existed.

SK: Like a concert that gives special emphasis to alapana, I would welcome a concert where a padam or a swarajathi is treated in an elaborate manner.  But I find Krishna’s reasoning on this very amusing.  His reasoning is not necessarily on artistic grounds, viz., that padams/swarajathis are interesting compositions that would benefit a lot from being elaborated on, but rather that they have been elaborated on in the past.  Niraval and kalpanaswarams should not be sung in isolation – only because people did not do this in the hoary past.  

Why should the past be the dictator of all our actions?  Old is not necessarily gold.  If you are going to argue that there existed a wonderful tradition of singing in the past that has, for some reason, vanished, and needs to be resurrected for artistic reasons, I am all for it.  But does it, simply because people of that age did not think it appropriate to do certain things (or, maybe, it never occurred to them), mean we should not try them today?  

In fact, Krishna’s arguments do not show him as a proponent of innovation, but rather as a person who constantly is throwing back to the past.  He strongly feels the need to justify everything he says by saying that there was an ancient tradition to support what he is proposing, and does not support anything that is really new.

In some ways this is understandable; there is a “purity mafia” in Carnatic circles that frowns on anything new, and on anything that Ariyakkudi wouldn’t approve of.  You don’t want to incur their wrath.  So if it’s older than Ariyakkudi, that’s justifiable; if it’s newer, watch out.

Singing Ragas Faithfully or Interpreting Them

TMK: People are often massacring ragas by not singing them properly - by singing them without emphasis on the correct notes, without the right gamakas that characterize the ragas, etc.  This is wrong as ragas have evolved over centuries to reach a certain form.  Massacring a raga's personality in the name of creativity is wrong.

SK: It would be valuable if Krishna would give some examples to illustrate this point.  It seems he is speaking with some specific instances in mind.  I agree that ragas have a structure and that should be respected – obviously if a rendition of Kalyani starts sounding like Shankarabharanam, you are doing something wrong -  but the boundary between transgression and creativity is a thin one.  Unless one has a concrete example, one cannot comment.

Singing Niraval and Kalpanaswarams

TMK:  Niraval is hardly being sung these days and, when sung, is not creative at all.  People do not pay attention to where words/phrases should be split in order to maintain the meaning of the lyrics.  Kalpanaswarams are used only for "mathematics and a climax." 

SK: I have no issue with his comment on niraval.  Yes, good niraval singers are few and far between.  On his point on kalpanaswarams, some elaboration would be helpful.  I think Krishna is trying to say that there isn’t much aesthetic value in most kalpanaswarams, and perhaps he is right about this.  But perhaps without a live lecture-demonstration, this is hard to explain.

Choice of Compositions Sung in Concerts

TMK: People do not sing compositions that are multi-layered in sahitya (lyrics) and sangita (music) - most compositions sung are like nursery rhymes.

SK: Which compositions is he saying are like nursery rhymes?  What is the example of a multi-layered composition in sahitya and sangita?  Is he suggesting, for example, that people sing more Shyama Sastri and Dikshitar krithis?  Such concrete examples on compositions would help a lot more than making a general comment like this.  Also, what does he mean by “sung like nursery rhymes”?  Does he mean, sung without elaboration?  I would probably agree with this assessment then.  Shyama Sastri being a personal favourite, I would also probably agree if he is suggesting that people sing more Shyama Sastri and Dikshitar krithis.  But I am only guessing his intent.

Poor Quality of Taniavarthanams

TMK:  Taniavarthanams are mere displays of virtuosity with no aesthetic or intellectual value.

SK: How many people can appreciate a taniavarthanam?  Even when I was a kid, coming with my parents to the Shanmukhananda Sabha in Matunga to attend concerts, I always remember that people started heading for the aisles the minute the tani started, maybe for a bathroom break or a cup of coffee or to chat with friends, and then return when the tukkadas started.  The fact is that people zone out during a tani because most don’t have a clue what the mridangam player is doing. 

My question to Krishna is: who is responsible for this?  Have you ever attended a single lecture-demonstration informing listeners what mridangam/ghatam players do during a tani?  How many of us can keep tala (correctly) during a tani?  If you are an artist, then it is your responsibility to do the things that raise people’s awareness of your art.  If you do nothing, there is no sense complaining that no one appreciates what you do.   Given all this, is it surprising that percussionists will play to the lowest common denominator?

 

This phenomenon is also common in Hindustani tabla-playing.  Tabla players are well-aware that most of the audience has no clue about tabla compositions, etc., and so indulge in what are called “machine-gun relas” – endless “tirakita” sequences that will earn applause from astonished, ignorant audiences. 

The ignorance about percussion is a much bigger problem than the ignorance about classical music in general.  Let me take my own example.  My parents were musical connoisseurs, and my mother is a trained Carnatic vocalist, so if I did not understand something about melody, I could always ask my parents questions about ragas, compositions, and the like.  But neither of them could really appreciate a taniavarthanam.  If this is the state of experienced connoisseurs of music, what dare we say about lay listeners?

Earlier, I said that there are very few lecture-demonstrations in Carnatic music.  While I have at least heard of a few lecture-demonstrations by singers and the like, I have NEVER heard of a lecture-demonstration by a mridangam vidwan.  The general public is absolutely clueless.  I have been seriously listening to Carnatic music for more than 20 years and still cannot understand what goes on in a taniavarthanam.

So why are you surprised at the quality of taniavarthanams, TM Krishna?  I would say they can play anything they jolly well want and still get an applause from me and most others in the audience, because we sure as hell don’t have a clue what they are doing in the first place.  Mridangam and ghatam vidwans realize this, and so they know that unless they do something exciting that our limited literacy allows us to appreciate, we might well ask, “why should we pay for that extra guy in the concert?” and they’d be out of a job.  So they play something fast and catchy to impress us.  Throw the pot in the air and catch it, $5 more per ticket for that.

The Bottom Line

Yes, it is true that some of the ways in which Carnatic music is being presented are not ideal.  They do not showcase the full aesthetic complement of the art, nor do they allow for full expression of what truly creative musicians can do.  The way Carnatic music is often presented today often reduces a great art to a spectacle, a “tamasha.”  TM Krishna has every right to be perturbed by this changing reality.

However, he needs to recognize that he, and musicians like himself, need to be change agents.  Musicians need to improve the musical literacy of their audiences by taking significant efforts (yes, often for free) through lecture-demonstrations, music appreciation CDs, etc., that start at a basic level.  Unless this is done, and done in a concerted manner, nothing can rid Carnatic music performance of its evils and prevent it from going down even further.  Else, do not be surprised if, 10 years hence, someone in the audience asks you if you would only sing “Kalyanam daan pannikittu odipolama” (a popular Tamil song from a few years ago) in the middle of your concert as a “tukkada.”

Stop complaining and do something about it.  To borrow from John F. Kennedy, “Ask not what your music can do for you; ask what you can do for your music.”