V.S. NARASIMHAN The return of the native
- RAMESH VINAYAKAM
V.S. Narasimhan is an outstanding classical violinist equally well versed in the Carnatic music and Western music traditions. In an amazing career distinguished by high quality, original music, delivered consistently in near anonymity for decades, Narasimhan first acquired expertise in the Carnatic violin, learning from his father, then adapted it to Tamil film music, learnt Western music, formed the Madras String Quartet and eventually hit upon the brilliant experiment of playing Carnatic music as a Western string quartet. He has thus come full circle in his musical journey, passionately determined to take Carnatic music to a sophisticated global audience.
Here he is profiled by Ramesh Vinayakam, a young music director of repute. A student of Jacob John, he is a qualified teacher in the theory and practice of Western classical music. Trained in Carnatic music as well — Rukmini Ramani has been his guru — the author is a singer, lyricist and has composed music for devotional albums, films, teleserials, shortfilms, documentaries and advertisements, as well as fusion music.
Epics and stories from folklore found their way into early Indian ‘talkies’. Music, often classical music or songs of the soil, came to dominate films. Orchestras of Indian classical musicians were formed and for the first time in the history of Carnatic music, live sound was recorded for posterity. The sound of Indian music was captured with equipment and expertise from the West. Indian musicians lapped up the opportunity in the new medium to reach a vast audience across the country.
why do you play jazz music? How did a person of Tamil brahmin ancestry choose jazz music, an African-American music form,
as the primary means of musical expression? (Even within India, jazz music has largely been performed by Anglo Indians and Goans). These questions are asked by both Indians and non-Indians.
I shall relate a few incidents to convince the reader that my decision to become a career jazz musician was not something that jumped right out of the blue. These incidents were powerful trigger points that influenced my future development, and ultimately led to my chosen path.
For most children, parents or parent-like figures make the first impression upon their consciousness. My father A. Krishnama Chari and my mother Indira Krishnama Chari, encouraged me to follow and sustain my passion for jazz music over long periods of time – including the bleak periods, when work was scarce.
Raga alapana could be said to be GNB’s forte. He clearly demonstrated the raga swaroopa straightaway – no confusion between Poorvikalyani and Pantuvarali – even before displaying the arohana and avarohana of the raga fully. He painted a clear picture of the raga with certain key phrases, developed it flash by little flash, made the raga interesting and entire, whether the alapana lasted ten or fifty minutes. His raga alapana was of two kinds – the first preceded kriti-s, while the other, far more elaborate form prefaced ragam-tanam-pallavi.
In GNB’s music, the flow of the kriti dictated the flow of the alapana, ensuring its distinctiveness for each kriti. Examples would be the alapana-s he did for Marakatavalli and Sree Subramanyaya namaste in Kambhoji.
The structure of Marakatavalli highlights the beauty of the uttaranga of Kambhoji, its pallavi starting with the madhya sthayi madhyama and soaring upwards. GNB’s alapana before this kriti follows the same pattern. For example, the alapana
starts with the madhya sthayi panchama and goes straight up from the opening gambit, deploying the madhya sthayi dhaivata and tara sthayi shadja as the nyasa swara-s.
Although early sitar music was performed in a variety of tala-s, performers soon gravitated towards Tritala (16 beats), which has remained its primary tala upto the present. A diversification of temporal orientations took place in the latter half of the 20th century. As a result, a fair amount of sitar music is now performed in other tala-s – mainly Jhaptala (10 beats) and Roopak (7 beats), but occasionally also Ektala (12 beats), Deepchandi (14 beats) and Dhamar (14 beats).
Compositional styles
Firoz Khan – a son or nephew of Khusro Khan – developed the earliest compositional style specifically for sitar in mid-18th century. His compositions featured stroke formats for medium tempo renditions in a variety of tala-s. They had melodic lines covering three octaves with large intervallic jumps, and also spanning three or four iterations of the rhythmic cycle. Probably because of the difficulty of executing them on the sitar, Firoz Khani compositions did not find widespread favour with sitarists. Rabab players however found them interesting and easier to execute because of the multiple-string execution facility on their short-necked instrument. The Phiroz Khani Gat thus became a part of the repertoire of the rabab, and its later derivative, the sarod.
The Other Festival – at Tiruvaiyaru
- VAIDEHI IYER
The Festival of Sacred Music at Tiruvaiyaru-by-the-Cauvery transformed a forgotten temple town into a landscape of rich possibilities.
How can Tiruvaiyaru need introduction to music? Yet, there was not one discordant note in the elaborate and gently delivered introduction on the opening day of the recently concluded Festival of Sacred Music at Tiruvaiyaru-by-the-Cauvery. Thumri, listeners were told, is a form not unlike the padam-s and javali-s of “namba Carnatic music”. Soulful, romantic and philosophical by turns, it uses metaphors laced with love and longing to convey deeper, more spiritual meanings. Vidya Rao, a thumri-dadra performer, then commenced her recital after delightful verse-for-verse translations and nuanced interpretations of the songs she rendered on that moonlit night. Language and form transcended geography as the ruins of the Husoor Palace in Tiruvaiyaru became the setting for a style this temple town, with its own legendary musical history, enjoyed for the first time.
Theatre workshop for rural children- LATHA ANANTHARAMAN
A workshop on theatre arts for village children culminates in a well-crafted performance.
On May 8, a unique experiment was launched in Tillaisthanam village, near Tiruvaiyaru. A week-long children’s theatre workshop was held, free of charge, by the Marabu Foundation, which promotes classical and folk arts and culture. Its modest aim at the outset was to introduce this art form to children and to teach them how to speak and carry themselves confidently on stage.
The finale, a performance on a breezy Saturday evening, outran all expectations.
Guru Adyar Lakshman honoured in Melbourne- SHOBHA SEKHAR
The Academy of Indian Music, Melbourne has hosted the Tyagaraja Festival – now christened the Mummoorti Festival – for the past 22 years.
Bharatanatyam Guru Adyar Lakshman who presided over the proceedings says, “The festival stands out for the overall enthusiasm, commitment and sincerity of all involved – starting with the Artistic Director Ravi Ravichandhira, his wife Narmatha (a student of Adyar Lakshman) the other musicians and teachers, their students and the audience”.
The two-day event, which showcased the talents of Melbourne-based artists, teachers and their students in group and solo renditions, was well appreciated by a very responsive audience throughout the 2x8 hours schedule.
Kolkata was literally inundated by melodious Maharashtra during two mammoth festivals organised recently by Indo Occidental Symbiosis (IOS) and the Pandit Firoz Dastur Memorial Foundation. While the latter, essentially a Maharashtra-based organisation, showcased some of the region’s celebrated veterans and some budding talents with Bengal’s Partho Sarothy (sarod) as the only exception, IOS presented a bouquet of handpicked artists from all over India in their ‘Spirit of the Spring’ – a four-day festival spread over two six-hour-long evenings and two all-night sessions, during which vocalist Kishori Amonkar along with her entourage and Suresh Talwalkar along with son Satyajit on the tabla represented Maharashtra.
The Foundation’s inaugural festival in Kolkata received a warm welcome from city-based Chowdhury House and their handpicked invitees consisting of music lovers who do not believe in region-based divides.
A.R. Rahman has been waving his magic wand over a whole new generation of men and women. He has transformed film music, connecting the aesthetics of music and “sound”. His tunes are a stunning amalgamation of Carnatic music, jazz, rap, folk, voice-overs, calypso, Arabian, opera, cadenza and a multitude of chord progressions and rhythmic collages, all living harmoniously in unison, sometimes in the same song. This discontinuity has captured the imagination of the young and gradually drawn other music lovers as well. It is no wonder then that the film music industry is a multi-crore industry now, many times more than yesteryear. Rahman’s pathbreaking brilliance is a key tipping point in this gearshift in appeal.
In some ways, Carnatic music is also yearning for such an ‘innovation formula’ that would be a magnet for the young and the unitiated. The ‘small scale’ industry trap that it has fallen into has attracted many views on how it can stay relevant and contemporary with a wider appeal and yet classical. The ‘niche’ label may still continue, given its rigours, but how can we get more people to listen to it? It is said that in the late 1950s and 60s, more than 2000 people attended a GNB or an MS concert at the Shanmukhananda Sabha in Mumbai. When do we see the return of such crowds?
A midst the limestone walls of Cairo’s Citadel, a makeshift auditorium is formed to showcase the art and rituals of Twirling Dervishes – an Order of dervishes that moved from Turkey (after it became a Republic) and settled in the area at the foot of the Citadel, just below the Sultan Hassan mosque. As the musicians and dervishes take their position on the performing arts platform, the character of the Citadel (once a military garrison) perceptively changes. Every inch of the terra firma gets bathed in asceticism and drenched in sprays of faith and belief. In the rhythmic chanting and twirling, the audience gets hypnotically tugged into another world. One can sense that every sigh uttered amongst the viewers is laced with a different and deep inflection, reflection and awe. Prayers and worship sprout wings literally on a twirl.
It is the mystical lightfooted twirling images of the Sufi saint Jalal ad-Din Muhammad Rumi and the fresh fluidity of his poetry that gave a tangible construct to the concept of twirling dervishes. Rumi’s son Sultan Walad organised the Mawlawiyah brotherhood and moved the Sufi dance ahead with the Order of Whirling Dervishes. ‘Dervish’ in Arabic and Turkish literally means the ‘sill of the door’ (dar). In the idea of a “twirling dervish”, it alludes to the one who is at the door of enlightenment, through his zikr (profound and meaningful remembrances of God) to attain a trancelike state of devotion.
Sangita Kalanidhi R. Vedavalli is not only one of the most accomplished of our vocalists, she is also among the foremost thinkers of Carnatic music today with a mind as insightful and uncluttered as her music. Sruti is delighted to share her thoughts on a variety of topics with its readers.
There is a general view that Indians lack in documentation and hence have a very poor record of their past. In contrast, in some other countries, much authentic information is available about great musicians, poets and writers in the form of essays, biographies and other written material. It is even common to preserve their possessions carefully. A closer look at India’s heritage and literature handed down through generations, gives rise to such questions as “What do we mean by ‘documentation’? How is it done and handed down to posterity?” Preservation of information about the life and works of great men in written form is one way. The other is the preservation and passing on of knowledge drawn from the works of great people through the guru-sishya parampara or family lineage. The latter form of documentation was prevalent in India from time immemorial and continues even
today. The Vedas were handed down mainly through this guru-sishya parampara with such devotion and sincerity by each succeeding generation that the words and the swara-s or intonations are intact even today. The Vedas themselves give much importance to preserving tradition.
sruti.com
V.S. Narasimhan is an outstanding classical violinist equally well versed in the Carnatic music and Western music traditions. In an amazing career distinguished by high quality, original music, delivered consistently in near anonymity for decades, Narasimhan first acquired expertise in the Carnatic violin, learning from his father, then adapted it to Tamil film music, learnt Western music, formed the Madras String Quartet and eventually hit upon the brilliant experiment of playing Carnatic music as a Western string quartet. He has thus come full circle in his musical journey, passionately determined to take Carnatic music to a sophisticated global audience.
Here he is profiled by Ramesh Vinayakam, a young music director of repute. A student of Jacob John, he is a qualified teacher in the theory and practice of Western classical music. Trained in Carnatic music as well — Rukmini Ramani has been his guru — the author is a singer, lyricist and has composed music for devotional albums, films, teleserials, shortfilms, documentaries and advertisements, as well as fusion music.
why do you play jazz music? How did a person of Tamil brahmin ancestry choose jazz music, an African-American music form,
as the primary means of musical expression? (Even within India, jazz music has largely been performed by Anglo Indians and Goans). These questions are asked by both Indians and non-Indians.
Raga alapana could be said to be GNB’s forte. He clearly demonstrated the raga swaroopa straightaway – no confusion between Poorvikalyani and Pantuvarali – even before displaying the arohana and avarohana of the raga fully. He painted a clear picture of the raga with certain key phrases, developed it flash by little flash, made the raga interesting and entire, whether the alapana lasted ten or fifty minutes. His raga alapana was of two kinds – the first preceded kriti-s, while the other, far more elaborate form prefaced ragam-tanam-pallavi.
Tala-s in sitar music
The Festival of Sacred Music at Tiruvaiyaru-by-the-Cauvery transformed a forgotten temple town into a landscape of rich possibilities.
A workshop on theatre arts for village children culminates in a well-crafted performance. 
Kolkata was literally inundated by melodious Maharashtra during two mammoth festivals organised recently by Indo Occidental Symbiosis (IOS) and the Pandit Firoz Dastur Memorial Foundation. While the latter, essentially a Maharashtra-based organisation, showcased some of the region’s celebrated veterans and some budding talents with Bengal’s Partho Sarothy (sarod) as the only exception, IOS presented a bouquet of handpicked artists from all over India in their ‘Spirit of the Spring’ – a four-day festival spread over two six-hour-long evenings and two all-night sessions, during which vocalist Kishori Amonkar along with her entourage and Suresh Talwalkar along with son Satyajit on the tabla represented Maharashtra.
A midst the limestone walls of Cairo’s Citadel, a makeshift auditorium is formed to showcase the art and rituals of Twirling Dervishes – an Order of dervishes that moved from Turkey (after it became a Republic) and settled in the area at the foot of the Citadel, just below the Sultan Hassan mosque. As the musicians and dervishes take their position on the performing arts platform, the character of the Citadel (once a military garrison) perceptively changes. Every inch of the terra firma gets bathed in asceticism and drenched in sprays of faith and belief. In the rhythmic chanting and twirling, the audience gets hypnotically tugged into another world. One can sense that every sigh uttered amongst the viewers is laced with a different and deep inflection, reflection and awe. Prayers and worship sprout wings literally on a twirl.
