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Section Synopsis
NEWS & NOTES
Opera … of love and destiny -ILEANA
CITARISTI
 On
the occasion of Alain Danielou’s centenary celebrations
which culminated in October 2007, the Alain Danielou
Foundation, with branches in Rome, Berlin and Paris,
presented a series of concerts and exhibitions in
different Italian cities related to the life and work of
the great musicologist and scholar. One of the major
events of the series was the presentation of seven songs
by Rabindranath Tagore translated into Western musical
notations for voice and piano by Danielou, at Tagore’s
request. Danielou was a great friend and admirer of
Tagore.
The performance, conceived as an opera for voice, dance,
music and recitation with the participation of Ileana
Citaristi, dancer and choreographer, Saswat Joshi,
Odissi dancer, Surendra Maharana, percussionist,
Francesca Cassio, dhrupad singer, Ugo Bonessi, pianist
and composer and Claudio Di Palma, stage actor, and with
direction by Nadia Baldi, was staged in Zagarolo, the
village adopted by Danielou as his Italian retreat, in
Rome (Teatro Palladium), and Bergamo (Teatro Donizzetti)
on the 13th, 14th of October and 1st of November 2007
respectively.
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Mudra
Festival in Tiruvanantapuram -NANDINI
RAMANI
Artists from across the country presented performances
and lecture demonstrations at the fourth edition of the
Mudra Dance Festival and National Seminar on Performing
Traditions held from 21st to 25th September 2007 in
Tiruvanantapuram. The Department of Culture, in
association with the Vyloppilli Samskriti Bhavan and
South Zone Cultural Centre, organised this five-day
event held in the picturesque ambience of the
Koothambalam of the Multipurpose Cultural Complex, of
the Govt. of Kerala.
Kerala Governor R.L. Bhatia inaugurated the festival.
Minister for Culture M.A. Baby presided over the
function; Sivan Kutty, MLA, Cherian Philip, Chairman
KTDC, Odissi exponent Ranjana Gauhar, and this writer
offered felicitations.
The festival, ably coordinated by Sudha Kutty, Director
of Vyloppilli Bhavan, in coordination with Dr. Neena
Prasad, well-known Mohini Attam exponent, had a balanced
mixture of seniors and young and up-and-coming talent,
providing a fulfilling experience to the keen rasika.
With its focus on the twin aspects of text and practice,
a dance workshop by a senior artist is held every year.
There was a heartening presence of the student
community. Some 75 of them from various parts of Kerala
attended the performances and the lecdems.
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NEW PRODUCTION
Unsuni —
unheard voices -SAPNA
RANGASWAMY
 Unsuni
is a maverick creation by Mallika Sarabhai, a 70-minute
musical based on former IAS officer Harsh Mandera’s
novel, Unheard Voices.
The musical is about the unheard cries of millions of
under-privileged Indians whom we see, yet remain unseen.
They suffer from caste discrimination, poverty,
illiteracy and stigmas. Their cries for help remain
unheard, drowned in the clamour of celebrations over
India’s victory in the Twenty 20 World Cup.
Unsuni is an honest effort by Mallika Sarabhai and her
group of 12 artists to tell us the story of India’s
masses — of starvation, dowry deaths, suicides, women
rapes — which go unnoticed, beneath main stories like
the rise and fall of the Sensex, the story of the
world’s richest Indian, the love lives of film stars and
so on. The play provokes those who can make a
difference, to take action to make life better for the
unfortunate. The idea of doing Unsuni is to start a
movement ‘I Care’ by joining hands with activists and
NGOs.
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GROWING IN POPULARITY
Ananya
dance fest -SUNIL KOTHARI
 The
choreographic group compositions of Guru Gangadhar
Pradhan were presented at the Ananya dance festival in
Delhi. When the final number Ananga Utsav was over, we
all wondered how time flew so fast. What magic in the
dance by a group of Oriya dancers kept us so spellbound?
The theme was as old as the hills — the old Geeta
Govinda story of Krishna’s dalliance with the gopi-s,
the sringara nuances expressed poetically in Sanskrit,
and performed suggestively by Krishna, the four gopi-s
moving round him, in various amorous positions, and the
finale with one who is formless — ananga, dancing with
anga — the body, multiple Krishnas equal to the number
of gopi-s, reminding us of a sloka in the Harivamsa:
“Anganam anganam antare Madhavo.” Next to each gopi was
Krishna, and all in a tableau froze in a pose of
shooting arrows reminiscent of Kamadeva. It was a sight
for the Gods, with silhouette lighting and an
imaginatively lit Purana Qila for backdrop. (During an
interactive seminar in the morning, we had discussed
their work and many other issues of choreography with
Prof. C.V. Chandrasekhar and with Washington-based
Anuradha Nehru, a disciple of Vempati Chinna Satyam).
Not that the dancers were glamorous, nor was there any
conscious attempt at choreographic design, yet when
Vijaykumar Sahoo as Krishna moved among the gopi-s, he
created the rasa, and captivated the audience. The
dancers did traditional numbers recast in group
presentation. They danced sincerely without trying to
resolve issues of choreography, as they would dance with
their innate Oriya temperament. They enjoyed the
dancing, conveying joy to all those lucky enough to
witness them.
photo credit : AVINASH PASRICHA
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Remembering Kelubabu -
SHYAMHARI CHAKRA
 He
was a mason. And he knew how to build, brick by brick,
beautifully. He was Odissi maestro Kelucharan Mohapatra.
Be it contributing to constructing Odissi dance from
scratch six decades ago, grooming legends like the late
Sanjukta Panigrahi and veterans like Sonal Mansingh,
Kumkum Mohanty, Madhavi Mudgal and Sharon Lowen, or
setting up his dance institution “Srjan” in the temple
city of Bhubaneswar, all his creations have been classic
to the core.
The annual national festival of classical dance and
music he started in his home city of Bhubaneswar 13
years ago is an important event in the cultural calendar
of the country and the best of its kind in eastern
India. Luminaries like Girija Devi, Birju Maharaj,
Hariprasad Chaurasia, Shiv Kumar Sharma and Hema Malini
have performed in this event over the years.
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Rendezvous with Tradition and Beyond -
MICHEL LAVERDIÈRE
Dance was at the centre of Kala Bharati’s participation
in the Journées de la Culture on 30th September 2007,
held at the LADMMI studio in Montreal, with discussions
and demonstrations titled Tradition and Beyond in which
well known dancers and teachers demonstrated how they
have pushed the frontiers of the dance forms they
practise.
From the very beginning, one could feel electricity in
the air as the audience entered the hall and soon extra
chairs had to be added. A larger gathering than expected
is always a good omen! Bhava Thamotharan, who ably
emceed the event, introduced the two segments that were
to follow.
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Symposium on devadasi dance -
JAYA SUBRAMANIAM
An interdisciplinary sympo-sium on “Devadasi Dance in
South India” was organised by inDance in June at the
University of Toronto. It attempted to examine various
historical and aesthetic transformations of dance in
south India over the last two centuries, and brought
together a dedicated group of academics and dance
professionals from the U.K., India, the U.S.A. and
Canada. B.M. Sundaram, the keynote speaker, a historian
of south Indian dance and music, hailing from a
traditional family of musicians, was the best choice for
the event. Having published extensively on the
performance cultures and commu-nities of south India, he
gave interesting historical details of the devadasi-s.
He even showed a copy of Vadivelu’s horoscope! He ruled
out the misconception that devadasi-s were prostitutes.
He listed who married who, described their talent in
music and dance, and did some number crunching about
Balasaraswati’s repertoire.
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Celebrating thirty years of SPICMACAY -
LEELA VENKATARAMAN
It all started thirty years ago in the seventies at
Columbia University in New York, with an innocuous
advertisement appearing in the Village Voice about a
dhrupad recital under the Asia Society at the Brooklyn
Academy of Music New York, featuring Nasir Aminuddin
Dagar and Zia Fariduddin Dagar. And a bunch of IITians
decided to go and “look see”. Listening to music was the
last thing on the minds of these youngsters, who in
keeping with the prevailing trend were more used to
music of Western vintage. The so titled annual “Amateurs
Night” of Indian classical fare organised by a diligent
staff member in a large pandal, was looked upon as an
opportunity of meeting some interesting people. But the
fateful Dagar concert awakened something that had been
lying dormant all this time and the youngsters headed by
Dr. Kiran Seth decided to learn music. Seth’s interest
did not wane even when he started working for Bell Labs
in New Jersey after his Ph.D.
On returning to India, Dr. Seth began to see how
completely uninformed about our classical music our
youngsters were. In 1976 when he asked a group of
students if they had ever heard of Nikhil Banerjee one
of the sitar legends alive at the time, not one hand was
raised in answer. The first effort to have a recital by
MEFORG (Mechanical Engineering Final Year Operations
Research Group) with great hopes of luring a large
enough audience to fill the 1500 capacity hall attracted
ten people at the start, which dwindled down to five as
the recital progressed. But failure only added to their
determination, and next year, the whole class of
Mechanical Final Year students joined the effort.
Gradually, other colleges too were injected with this
spark of taking the best of our art and culture to the
young and the SPICMACAY movement was set in motion.
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COVER STORY
Old is gold, so what’s new? -
V. RAMNARAYAN
 Bigger…
and better?” we asked in our last issue on the Chennai music and dance
season. Bigger it certainly has been but whether better is arguable. We
shall at any rate wait till our next issue, when all our correspondents
will have filed their stories, before we pass judgement. Yes, it’s early
days yet but on evidence gathered so far, some eminent representatives
of an earlier era of music gave greater demonstrations of the grandeur
and depth of Carnatic music than today’s stars. Devotion rather than
showmanship prevailed in these concerts, leaving even newcomers to
kutcheri listening thirsting for more.
Nedunuri Krishnamurti at the Music Academy, for instance, belied his 79
summers, with his stirring effort to bring out the soul of the sangeetam
of which he has been a worshipful devotee. True there was the occasional
slip owing largely to a voice rendered recalcitrant no doubt by age and
the December throat, but the striving for perfection and the dedication
to bhava were unmistakable. In the best guru-sishya tradition, the
Malladi Brothers gave the septuagenarian devout support. The
accompanists Sriram Parasuram, Tiruchi Sankaran and T.V. Vasan combined
in a seamless partnership to give a delightful start to the season at
the Academy. Fittingly, the foursome received a standing ovation.
 An
equally moving experience was listening to Tanjavur Sankara Iyer at a
Naada Inbam concert at Raga Sudha hall. For the handful of listeners
present at the kutcheri, it was an unforgettable Sunday morning, as
Sankara Iyer fought a sore throat and frail health to reach out towards
some deeply personal musical goal. He found time to chat with the
audience as well as his two disciples on the stage, coaxing them to sing
full throatedly, but in vain, as the sishya-s in their reverence for
their guru, refused to raise their voices. Umayalpuram Mali’s resonant
percussion support too was appropriately subdued in keeping with the
general air of bhakti towards the veteran. Violinist Varadarajan was
restraint personified until under constant prodding by the vocalist he
surpassed himself with some exquisite bowing, producing music that can
only be described as profound. It was a clear demonstration of what
complete absorption in the music submerging the self in a spirit of
devotion by a seasoned artist can do. It is to Varadarajan’s credit that
his performance that morning was compared for its ripe classicism with a
magnificent offering by T.N. Krishnan in November at the same venue
during the R.K. Venkatarama Sastry centenary week.
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SPECIAL FEATURE
Rhadha -
The dancing heart Part 2 -SUJATHA VIJAYARAGHAVAN
 Rhadha,
senior Bharatanatyam exponent and guru, was honoured by Sri
Krishna Gana Sabha with the title Acharya Choodamani on 5th
December 2007 on the inaugural day of the 52nd Art and Dance
Festival in Chennai. This is the concluding part of the article;
the first part was published in Sruti 279.
Rhadha now had an excellent team of disciples. I prepared the
script and music in consultation with Rhadha and was the main
singer for all the projects. My mother Ananthalakshmi Sadagopan
composed the music for a number of songs, including most of the
songs in the dance-drama Vallee Bharatam. T.K  .
Padmanabhan, enthusiastic associate in composing the
instrumental score, composed an exquisite tillana in Sree raga
for Meenakshi Ammai Pillai Tamil, presented first at the
conference of the Tamil Isai Sangam. Soundara Kailasam, the
Tamil poet, told Rhadha that she had brought goddess Meenakshi
on stage in all her splendour and divinity.
Between 1987 and 1999 Rhadha produced twenty dance-dramas and
thematic presentations on widely varied topics (see box). Some
memorable ones were Bhavaye Padmanabham, Jaya Jaya Gokula Bala,
Desh and Buddha Deva. There were repeat performances of most of
the dance-dramas and Rhadha was invited by the Music Academy to
present Nauka Charitram and Vallee Bharatam.
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MAIN FEATURE
Manjiri Asnare-Kelkar
A modern interpreter of an orthodox idiom -
DEEPAK S. RAJA
 With
the categoric steering of Jaipur-Atrauli vocalism towards
romanticism by Kishori Amonkar, only an accidental modernisation
could have given its orthodox idiom a fresh lease of life.
Though her musicianship has yet to deliver its promise, Manjiri
Asnare-Kelkar (born: 1971) could just be the accident the Jaipur
legacy needed. Manjiri’s music maintains a substantial stylistic
distance from the last orthodox stalwart, Dhondutai Kulkarni, as
well as the revisionist exponent, Kishori Amonkar. And, yet
there is no mistaking the orthodox Jaipur flavour in her music.
Manjiri was selected by the Sangeet Natak Akademi for the first
Bismillah Khan Memorial Award for Young Musicians in early 2007.
A few years earlier, India Today, the influential news magazine,
had hailed hers as the “voice that spans not merely two octaves,
but two centuries”. In less than a decade, she has established a
significant presence on the Indian concert platform, acquired a
following abroad, and released five commercial recordings. She
became a broadcaster on All India Radio at the age of 16, after
topping its nationwide talent-search, and currently occupies the
penultimate “A” grade. She holds post-graduate degrees in
English Literature as well as Music.
 Coming
to terms with a musician’s risks
Manjiri spoke to the author on June 3, 2003
“My family is deeply involved with music. My grandfather was an
advocate in Amravati (a town in north-eastern Maharashtra), and
an excellent tabla player. He studied with the best
percussionists in Amravati, and belonged to the Gyan Prakash
Ghosh lineage. The family home was never without music and
musicians. Because of my grandfather’s love for music, my father
also got involved. He trained as a tabla player and, in his
youth, stood first in the All India Radio national talent search
competition.”
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ROLE CHANGE
Aural dance and visual
music - Singing for
Alarmel Valli
 Darkness.
The first plaintive strains of Charukesi are heard and the
spotlight comes on, revealing the silhouette
of a woman in total distress, kneeling in agony. As the
composition proceeds further, you see a nayika in anguish at
being separated from her beloved, his complete silence and the
prospect of a life of loneliness. The music moves in accordance
with the mood of the dancer. Suddenly, in total contrast, the
music shifts to the strident notes of Gambheera Nata, the mood
shifts drastically and the audience holds its breath while the
heroine resolves to shut out the agony, move on and face life
boldly.
Aural dance and visual music: that is the reigning principle,
the mantra behind the inimitable style of dancer Alarmel Valli.
Whatever the theme — devotional, romantic, descriptive or even
purely rhythmic, for Valli Akka the dance and music must flow in
total synchronisation with each other.
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REAR WINDOW
Carnatic music and
University education – Part 2
Institutions rarely produce good vidwans
The Music College at Vizianagaram was one of the non-university
institutions to come up in the early part of the last century.
The Music College at Annamalai University and the Kalakshetra
Fine Arts College soon came into being, followed later by the
Swati Tirunal Music College, Tiruvanantapuram, and the Central
College of Carnatic Music (now the Tamil Nadu Government Music
College), Madras. These could be regarded as ‘conservatory’ type
institutions. Most institutions had certificate or diploma
courses for a duration of about four years. The T.N. Govt. Music
College had a two-year programme. The students who sought
admission had to be radio or kutcheri artists, but later, the
duration was increased to three years and the admission norms
were diluted.
Kalakshetra offered two streams — its own diploma, as well as
the four-year Sangeeta Siromani diploma course of the Madras
University. This too, in the earlier years, had advanced level
students seeking admission. A similar situation prevailed at the
Swati Tirunal Music College. These institutions, in their early
years, had as their principals and faculty members very senior
performing artists like Tiger Varadachariar, Karaikudi Sambasiva
Iyer, Mysore Vasudevachar, Musiri Subramania Iyer, T. Brinda,
T.N. Swaminatha Pillai, Semmangudi Srinivasa Iyer, G.N.
Balasubramaniam and K.S. Narayanaswamy. None of these
institutions had the teaching structure to admit a ‘raw’ student
and shape him into a good mature musician.
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BOOKSHELF
 MUSICAL
SPRING: Christian music exponents in Tamil Nadu. By Anand Amaladass.
[Satya Nilayam Publications, Chennai. 2007. xvi+311 Pp. Rs. 275.]
This is a very laboured and valuable document that gives an account
of the contribution to Christian music made by 42 personalities.
This account spread over 230 pages is preceded by an introduction to
‘Sacred Music Tradition in India’ and is followed by a ‘History of
Church Music in the West’.
The personalities selected have been arranged in alphabetical order
and among them Vedanayakam Sastri (1774-1864) appears to be the
oldest. While most of them are music composers and singers, some are
scholars who have made contributions to the academic sphere of
music. Examples are Abraham Panditar, Fr. Michael Amaladoss, A.M.
Chinnaswami Mudaliar (scholar), John Britto, Sr. Margaret Bastin,
V.P.K. Sundaram and D.A. Thanapandian.
ON A HIGH NOTE — A slightly inebriated introduction to Western
classical music. By Peter Colaco and Paul Fernandes. [<paulf@hathway.com>
November 2007. Hardbound. Rs. 795.]
For those who know the intricacies of Indian
classical music, it touches the funny bone to talk high about
Western classical music. One of the reasons about such a
condescending attitude is the way in which any study or reflection
on Western music has been built so far in popular culture. Every
book and monograph on this subject has been structured to look
serious, parched and often snootily high-nosed for no apparent
reason. So much so that any lesser talk would amount to being
sarcastic or disdainful. To bring all the approaches to Western
classical music from the ivory tower to common coffee table
conversation is what Peter Colaco’s book On a High Note does. Its
punchline ‘A slightly inebriated introduction to Western classical
music’ demystifies the hot air around this genre of music.
MRINALINI SARABHAI — The Voice of the Heart. An Autobiography.
[HarperCollins, 1 A, Hamilton House, Connaught Place, New Delhi 110
001. Hardbound. Pp. 316. Rs. 495].
Mrinalini Sarabhai’s autobiography The Voice of
the Heart covers a vast canvas. She tells her story — her beginnings
in an educated, upper class family of Madras, her marriage to Vikram
Sarabhai, a scientist from an upper class family in Ahmedabad,
Mrinalini in her journey in dance — in an easy reader friendly
style. She has followed the voice of her heart, narrating incidents
that shaped her life, passion and her career as a dancer and a
choreographer. She comes through as human, vulnerable, undergoing
her share of agonies and ecstasies. While reams have been written
about her as a dancer and a celebrity, it is interesting to read her
own account of several events with which readers may be familiar.
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RECORD RACK
T. MUKTHA - PADAMS & JAVALIS. (Excerpts from live concert
Sept. 1999). CD. [Srishti's Carnatica. CAR CD 1082. Rs. 125].
Kuvalayakshiro – Gaulipantu – Misra Chapu (Kshetrayya)
Mosamaya – Ahiri – Misra Chapu (Kshetrayya)
Yarukkagilum – Begada – Misra Chapu (Ghanam Krishna Iyer)
Neyyamuna – Ghanta – Misra Jhampa (Kshetrayya)
Emi mayamu – Kambhoji - Roopakam (Pattabhiramayya)
Smarasundaranguni – Paras – Adi (Dharmapuri Subbarayar)
Velavare – Bhairavi – Adi (Ghanam Krishna Iyer)
Meragadu – Athana – Adi (Chinnayya)
Payyada – Nadanamakriya – Tisra Triputa (Kshetrayya)
Narimani – Khamas – Adi (Dharmapuri Subbarayar)
Parulanamata – Kapi – Roopakam (Dharmapuri Subbarayar)
Vagaladi – Behag – Roopakam (Tirupati Narayanaswami)
Marubari – Jhinjhoti – Roopakam (Dharmapuri Subbarayar)
Accompanists:
S. Sowmya - vocal support; Savitri Satyamurthy – violin; P.
Ganesh - chitraveena; Umayalpuram Mali - mridanga.
Released by Srishti’s Carnatica under their ‘Parampara Vintage
Classics series’, Padams & Javalis is a rich tribute to the legacy
of Sangeeta Kala Acharya T. Muktha. The music of the padam-s and
javali-s is of the highest order. Though recorded late in Muktha’s
career, it provides a fine sample of the ‘Brinda-Muktha’ style of
the Dhanammal bani.
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