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27 comments | Friday, January 19, 2007

I was listening to this recording of "Deva Deva Kalayaami te..", mayamaalava gowla keerthanam by Shri Semmangudi Srinivasa Iyer with my friend during the christmas vacation at home. This was an AIR broadcast, and was done during the last days of Sri SSI. My friend is a staunch carnatic enthusiast and has this rather strange philosophy.

Critisism of music is a flexibility available only to a listener, but a student of music is not entitled to it. He should look for only the positives and learn from them and NOT get into the fault finding mode.

Well, I am sure, he is not the only one who thinks that way. I have seen eyebrows go up and voices getting heavier when I used to remark Shri SSI should have stopped singing atleast 30 years before he actually sang his last concert. His shruthi lapses where too many, his voice was unpalatable to my ear. ( Now the elitist will argue that you have to grow beyond the voice to appreciate carnatci music, there by weakening the line between caliphony and cacophony!) I have tremendous respect for the knowledge of Shri SSI and the enrichment he has provided to the art. But wait!! Just beacuse I am a student of music, I am allowed to talk only about his postives and not about his rough and unwieldy voice. Hypocrisy taking another form. period.

As much as I learn from the greats of carnatic music about whats good about them, I also learn whats miserable about each of them and how not to let that happen in my singing. I feel thats just getting constructive. Most of the guys who oppose my view take the apologetic supportive stand "Man, he is 88 and still he is pretty very good!". Bah! Mohinder amarnath played a crucial part in winning cricket worldcup to us, but he retired when he knew he was no good. Unfortunately many of our musicians have never heard that word. They will sing, croon, cry but wont give up!

If a student of music doesnt look at the art with a critical angle then its a shame to call himself or herself a student. A student of music is more equipped to be a better rasika and he/ she should use discretion to point out flaws in the past master's renditions along with imbibing their virtues. It is just not a one sided coin. Criticism is the best form of music appreciation and it should form a major part of the cumulative mindset of all music enthusiasts / students of music.

I came across the following in Shri G Ravikiran's blog:
KVN showed me just what soukhyam actually meant!!
SSI showed me what singing with life and energy was all about.
MDR was shruti and bhaavam personified.
MSS symbolised purity and clarity in every aspect of music.
Ramnad Krishnan embodied grace and finesse.
Brinda was the epitome of aesthetics.

So true, The qualities he as mentioned were the positve differentiators for the above mentioned greats of carnatic music. Ofcourse every student of music should learn these nuances from these masters of the past. In another post Shri Ravi writes:

Is there ANY great musician who has not toiled day and night in the hope of mastering the art?
Arent all human beings prone to a fault (or faults)?
Being a student, if I casually form opinions and stay that way, my music would definitely not grow!!
This is the point that I oppose:

If I were to write down what aspects of the above mentioned artiste's that I would work hard NOT to absorb, then it will look like this.
KVN showed me how you can create boring monotony by rendering almost all the rendition in the same vilambita kaalapramaanam, which lacked grip, tempo & excitement.

SSI showed me what having a good voice meant to the listener with his rather rough and unconditioned voice and also how raaga aalapana akaarams make or break the soothing effect it is supposed to provide (ex: instead of the usual na, tha dha ri na... he had a rather annoying "nghya nghya...")

MDR showed me, much like KVN, singing slow is not always the way to go as almost all his renditions were like a tortoise race. He had biological reasons why he had a 1/2 kattai shruthi but then will you accept it in a sports form if the athlete had a disability which makes him less capable than some one else?

MSS showed me that music without vyavahaaram is like coffee without sugar. It was like sitting in a plane that will never take off. And also how much on stage creativity adds value to a concert by demonstrating the lack of it!

GNB (I have to confess, I just love his style and attitude to singing, and he is almost close to what I think is exciting concert rendition with absolutely no predictability). showed me that it can be terribly annoying to race through all compositions at 100mph! Also when you sing brighas at machine tempo, your shruthi could go for a six.

....

Okay, I am sure many of you folks who read this will find my representation haughty, boorish and filled with hatred (Thats what my friend tells me most of the times...) I reiterate the fact that I have learnt gazillion things from these greats but I have no hangups pointing out their shortcomings. I feel that makes me a neutral, non apologetic and keen to learn rasika / student of music. I agree every body has their shortcomings, but the community / artist should have a bigger heart to accept criticism on the etablished norms and also appreciate younger folks criticizing the former generation. Music, for god's sake does not quantify against age, it is the amount of time you spend analyzing it.

5 comments

If you ever wanted to be part of the company that made Acrobat, Photoshop, Flash, Dreamweaver, Flex , Coldfusion... Here is your chance! Adobe india is hiring Engineers (Dev / QE) , Engineering managers (Dev / QE) & Program managers at all levels.

If you feel Adobe is your next destination, Rush your resume's to harishsivaram [at] yahoo [dot] co [dot] in.

Thanks
Harish

3 comments | Thursday, December 21, 2006

Wish you all a merry christmas and happy new year. I am off to kerala tonight. Taking a rather interesting route:

Bangalore - Salem - Pollachi - Udumalpet - Munnar - Muvattupuzha - Aluva - Ernakulam - Mattancherry.

ofcourse, this is not by choice, there was no other option. no complaints though!
Have fun all of you!

3 comments | Friday, December 15, 2006


3 comments | Thursday, December 07, 2006

aa chaandni bhi meri tarah jaag rahi hai
palkon pe charaagon ko liye raat khadi hai...
hariharan live @ Bangalore - 10 more days to go!
Venue : Christ College Auditorium, Near Diary circle, Bangalore.

6 comments | Friday, December 01, 2006

A R Rahman in Guru proves there is only one KING in indian music. Barso re & E hairate aashiqui rocks my world.

Now Playing: Barso re megha megha - Shreya Ghoshal.

0 comments | Monday, November 27, 2006

Adobe Developer Olympiad: Flex development contest for students in India

I’m happy to announce that Adobe has set up a Flex development contest for students in India. If you’re pursuing a degree in any stream (full-time) from a recognised university, you could spend some time over the next four months building something cool in Flex and walk away with a prize of fifty thousand rupees!

Submissions can be in 3 categories: engineering (components), applications, and ColdFusion integration. Each category has a prize of Rs. 50,000. You can participate individually or as a team of upto 5 members.

Note these important dates in 2007:

  1. Send us your proposal by the 10th of January.
  2. Send us your prototype by the 31st of January.
  3. Send us your complete implementation by the 27th of February.
  4. Winners will be announced on the 10th of March.

If you have any questions or issues, check out the students forum.

For latest up-to-date information, visit the Adobe Developer Olympiad page.

Write-up courtesy: Manish Jethani

1 comments


You wouldnt want to miss the opportunity to watch ghazal maestro Padmashree Hariharan perform live at palace grounds on 17th dec 2006. Accomplished flautist Praveen Godkhindi will be felicitated by the governer of Karnataka on the same day.

For tickets, visit http://www.alaaplive.com or call 91 80 64519707.
Contact Person: Mr Sharath Vatsa.

1 comments | Friday, November 24, 2006

and one more on the same lines as what manasi prasad has written, this time by euphonical euphemisms.

5 comments | Tuesday, November 21, 2006

Sri sent me this link(go to page 18) from a music monthly that gets published from bangalore where young musician manasi prasad talks about introducing new subject themes in carnatic music. I had written about something in the same lines back in 2005 in my blog post Lyrics or Music?. It is extremely heartening to see the newer generation speaking up against the irrational norms based on religion imposed on carnatic music where every experiment is looked upon and quantized against what the trinity did!

A great sign indeed. Me is very happy!