Inner Skies of a Recluse

Thirteenth century Japanese author and Buddhist monk Kenko Yoshida once commented on a kind of a recluse:

“A certain recluse, I know not who, once said that no bonds attached him to this life, and the only thing he would regret leaving was the sky”

As all of us know, at the peak of his career that too in his thirties Mali ( T.R.Mahalingam), the legendary flautist from Karnatic music had lost his interest in performing for the public and most of the time he had withdrawn into his own inner worlds. I am sure Mali had a sky within which he considered as intimate and valuable. Here is a one hour video footage from one of his elaborate concerts. The concert starts with an amazing Anandabhairavi. This video recording is believed to be his last concert on 31 December 1985. He died at the age of 60 on 31 May 1986.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ajr07JUa79I

When we listen to Sadagopan…the body does not matter

Suppose Shri V.V.Sdagopan is alive, he is 98 years now. It’s sad that we could not locate him after his disappearance from a train journey in 1980 when he was traveling from Delhi to Chennai. There could be three reasons for his disappearance, 1) His own option to withdraw from the madding crowds to some point on earth in search of peace of his choice 2) As sudden shift in one’s mental state by which a person loses his track and could not come back to his self as he didn’t get the right person’s helping hand at the right time 3) Death itself probably due to an unnoticed fall from the train in which he was traveling. But even the body was not found.

29 January was his birthday. He started giving concerts all over Tamil Nadu in his teens itself. In mid 1940s, at the height of his music career he entered into Tamil films and acted in the films like Madana Kamarajan, Athisayam etc in leading roles. Later he served two terms as a professor in the music department of Delhi University. He was known as a musicologist of tall order with an amazing skill as a singer as well.

Here are two rare music tracks of V.V.Sadagopan

1. Ramabhajanai- Ragamalika- http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cdtwwIMOw1U&feature=related

2. Saraswati Manohari: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d-vs_uQif4Y&feature=related

National Mathematical Year and Music

Inida has decided to observe 2012 as the National Mathematical Year to mark the 125^th birth anniversary of Srinivasa Ramanujan. Records say that his mother Komalatammal used to sing in a local temple in Thanjavur district. I have tried to get some idea about how much music was in Ramanujan, but could not locate much information. However, a lot of studies have gone into the aspects of mathematics in music and vice versa. German philosopher-mathematician of the 17^th century, Leibniz wrote: “Music is the pleasure the human mind experiences from counting with out being aware that it is counting”

Notable studies of Xiadeng and Gordon Shaw in this area state that classical music and higher mathematics excite the same part of the cortex in human brain which contains the repertoire of spatio-temporal thinking. Spatio-temporal thinking is the base of all rhythms and scales in music…and these T.N.Seshagopalan renderings prove that.

1. http://gaana.com/#/streamalbums/Madurai_T_N_Seshagopalan_Vocal_Vol_2_Live_8581

2. Seethamma Mayamma- http://www.muzigle.com/artist/t-n-seshagopalan#!track/seethamma-maayamma

3. Hamsaanandi Ragalapana- http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MP6wCPZ4SPU

Martin Luther, Balamuralikrishna and Ragam Thanam Pallavi

Martin Luther , the German priest of the 16^th century who challenged the authority of Pope and the Roman Catholic church had something to say about music: “ Beautiful music is the art of the prophets that can calm the agitations of the soul; it is one of the most magnificent and delightful presents God has given us”. Here is an elaborate Ragam Thanam Pallavi by Dr. Balamuralikrishna, who by his music and life has challenged the power centers of music and their ‘theological diktats’. Ragam Thanam Pallavi renderings can calm the agitations of the mind…and as Martin Luther said, ‘it is a delightful present’ that the Carnatic aesthetic mind had evolved through centuries. It is sad that the ‘shortened’ concerts have no space for an extensive Ragam Thanam Pallavi nowadays.

Here is Balamuralikrishna’s gift which could calm my mind this morning:

http://www.muzigle.com/track/ragam-thanam-pallavi-10

Madurai Somu and his ‘adhaara sruti’

Photo: Madurai Somasundaram with his Guru Chittoor Subramanya Pillai

What made this musician distinctive from his contemporaries? Why a listener always experiences a pensive, melancholic sruti as the base of his music? Whether his eventful life had derived this adhaara shruti? Yesterday night I have come across a rare video of his rendering. It is an excerpt of a Todi Tagalapana from a 1987 concert in Kanchipuram, two years before his demise at the age of 70.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ou4qV5ATTnU&list=UUizoqbWqbuEStaK4LS9YhcQ&index=1&feature=plcp

You can also listen to a 3 hour live concert of Madurai Somu recorded in 1975 from this link:

http://chowdaiahandparvati.blogspot.com/2010/01/madurai-somu-music-that-stormed-mysore.html

R. Vedavalli: One Question and its Answer

If not innovation, what is the way for a system of arts to change and grow with the times?
R. Vedavalli: Those who are doing innovations do it only for name and fame, they cannot add anything to this great art.

Take any krithi that you have learnt, sing only that for 30 days. Let me tell you the swaroopam and rasam of your own singing of the same ragam and the same krithi will be very different at the end of the 30 days.

(courtesy: http://www.kutcheribuzz.com/features/interviews/vedavalli.asp)

Please listen to an outstanding one-hour concert by Smt. R. Vedavalli (a Doordarshan production)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qTsJNAhVxkM

What happens when Sanjay Subramanyan sings for a commercial release?

Once Sanjay Subramanyan, eminent Carnatic musician of the new generation was talking about his relation with the audience. He says that first of all, he sings for himself and the audience comes to his mind only as a second preference. To him it is an aggregate process, where at the first instance the artiste creates music, then the music travel to the rasikas, then the response comes from the listener. He said “ So I cannot think about the listeners before singing”. But once the vibrations start coming from the audience, it is an experience to live…he feels. He said: “There are days when it does not happen…when I know I am not doing a good job. There are days it happens in abundance”

I would like to believe that when he was singing this beautiful Tamil composition ‘Chandiran Ozhiyil Avele Kanden’ in Malayamarutham ragam, his composite process of singing as a blend of himself and the rasikas was at its best…

But my question is….then how one sings in a studio for a commercial release? What happens to the composite process there?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=78PYv37RiK8&feature=related