Lec dem on Shabda

[malkons]

I recently saw few clips of lec dems put up by Shabda (http://shabda.co.in/ ). I am inclined to make some observations on lec dem in general. As the word suggests lecture-demonstration consists of two parts, lecture and demonstration. The first part comes from scholarship and requires the ability to articulate, sequentially and communicate with the listeners. This is the field of musicology that has its foundation on extensive academic exposure and class room experience. Demonstration on the other hand is based on musical performance skills and derives from performance experience. Only in rare cases like with Vedavalli or may be Ravikiran, can one find both the skills rest with one person. In CM most lec-dems are done by performing artists who assume the role of great scholars. This is unnecessary. They can take the help of a good scholar and with some rehearsal do a good job. What they do is to take the help of a senior student, a performer himself, and ask him to help the main lec-dem guy, passing some cheap jokes in the process. Dr Srivatsa set a good example. A scholar par excellence, he always employed a performing musician to demonstrate his ideas and thoughts.
Coming back to the Shabda lec dem, Vedavalli proved my point. She had come well prepared, conveyed her interpretations and also demonstrated well what she wanted to say. The one by Karakudi Mani was pathetic. He is a great mridangam player and should restrict himself to doing that. He started saying that the will avoid English but speak in Tamil. Nothing wrong with that. Why should all lec dems be in English? But then he used several English phrases in may places which made no sense to what he was saying. What he or people like him should do is to take the help of a scholar who can do the speech part. The psychology here is that the lec dem people want the centre stage and they will not share it with others. The mridangist for once wants to act like the "main" artist. This approach nullifies what could be a very useful part of CM. It is not necessary for every performing artist to be a scholar or vice versa. Many performing artists tend to self assign that role after they have reached a certain level. This is what perhaps drives some to obtain by some means or "do a PhD" without really understanding what it means and what its purpose is.

[vasanthakokilam]

What you say about Karaikudi Mani is quite unkind and untrue. I do not want to pick a fight on that here, but so what he used some English phrases here and there. There is definitely scope for improvement in presentation. I thought his objective of communicating to the common man was not quite fulfilled, though he started off that way. The latter half of his speech probably went over the head of most people but when he played what he talked about, I am sure a lot of people got the essence of what trisram is about. I do want the mridangists to be the main artist once in a while. There is absolutely nothing wrong with that.

Modern day musicians are well spoken and they can communicate very well. I want them to be cogent, clear and focused.
There is no requirement that only scholars can talk about these subjects.

[mahavishnu]

I am in complete agreement with VK's sentiment.

Carnatic music is as much a performance art as it is a theoretical venture that belongs in the realm of music theory/musicology. In my opinion, lec-dems on the art of performing itself are equally welcome. While theoretical topics like the structure of aTANA are wonderful, there is a lot of room for practical demos also. Furthermore, I think getting even a brief glimpse into the mind of a performing musician and his/her skill is well worth the effort. Understanding nuances of the performing art greatly enhances the listening experience.

Yes, Sri KM may not be the most articulate lecturer, but I found his explanations of tisram with the changing stressed syllable position as he counted, to be a very intuitive and easy to understand. KM is also a person of considerable musical scholarship that comes from being a seasoned performer.

Secondly, following what VK has already said, it is very important to have mridangists take centre-stage to explain their craft. A great example is the lec-dem of Sri Trichy Sankaran (a recent Rasikas.org event). Following this, I have now made it a point to give chit requests to mridangists to play certain korvais or phrases in their tani.

[sruthi]

Personally I found Mani sir's lec-dem quite interesting and educational. The only English he used was one-two-three, so not sure what the complaint is! He explained the tisram concept (the topic given to him) quite well, and like VK says when he showed the sollus on the mridangam it became much more clear. Layam is an area where one cannot just talk at length - demonstration is an essential part.

In fact, I found Vedavalli mami's lec-dem a bit lacking in detail. I wish she had elaborated a bit more on the raga phrases. She referred to Dikshithar's version of Atana, but never gave a demo of it, or explained in what way it differed from other versions.

By the way, thanks are due to member 'malkons' for bringing to our attention this interesting lec-dem series. Shri TM Krishna & co. have launched a very useful series - hope it grows in strength.

[srkris]

The clarity of the demonstration was mind-blowing. The lecture was valuable as well.

Vedavalli's lec-dem was splendid as well.

[nri]

I agree with sruthi. The lec-dem session was for 30 minutes and one of Smt Vedavalli's point of contention was that MD's athana is very different from what we are all used to know as Athana. I was eagerly waiting to hear those few phrases of MD's athana; it was quite possible that was even hinted by her vidhushi student Smt SV, towards the end of the video. If Smt Vedavalli will not treat us with that MD's Athana, who will?

Otherwise clarity was excellent. What I look forward in a lec-dem is a music lesson. Not particularly interested in accompaniant music or linguistic excellence or jokes on present day music.

[malkons]

I am not making a personal criticism of Mr Mani.He is one of the best "performers" around. It so happened that I penned my thoughts after listening to the recent lec dem. In fact the myriad lec dems one sees in Chennai during the season all fall into this category. It is wrong to say that after years of performance one becomes a scholar. It is like saying that after reading thousands of books one becomes a writer! While at college here in the US I used to have a physics professor who has written several text books and whose knowledge of physics was unchallenged. But when he wanted to demonstrate an experiment, he took the help of a trained lab technician since he was never good at experiments or demonstration". By doing this no body thought any less of him. This concept should apply in music also. If Mani or TM Krishna or Shivaraman take the help of a true scholar to convey to the audience what they have learned through years of performance experience, all the parties will gain from it. I guess the blame also goes to the organizers who want just a large audience and towards that they will arrange lec dems by popular artists without realizing the damage they are doing to the audience, the artists and the the art itself.

[vasanthakokilam]

Of course you were making a personal criticism of Mr. Mani , about his lecture skills. I do see the merit of the general point you are making but that does not mean that is the only way to do it. I do not understand why you are harping on that. There is definitely scope for improvement in lecture demonstrations but that is about the quality of the presentation on a case by case basis and not in general whether the presenter is a scholar or an artist. What I look for are simple things: Know your audience, do not use unnecessary terminology ( no 'Shadava', 'Audava', 'Varjya' etc. to a lay audience ), if you need to use them define them first clearly and unambiguously and sequence the ideas and thoughts properly. And in my experience, the scholars are not necessarily good in keeping all this straight.

I attended many lecture-demonstrations during last December at the music academy. There were both kinds and they were equally effective. Examples: Sri.Sundaram's lecture on Mallari with Injikudi providing the demo and Dr. Deepti Omchery Bhalla's presentation on Dundubhi nAtyam where she talked, sang and danced. ( http://www.hindu.com/fr/2010/12/31/stor ... 590300.htm )

The Shabda Lec-dems, or for that matter any good lec-dems given by artists, are not damaging the audience, the artists or the art I am baffled that I even need to make such an obvious statement.

But getting on the wavelength of the general point you are making, namely, having a separate demonstrator, there are indeed some benefits. In my own professional work, I like to have another person provide the product demonstration part. That is about focus. I provide a running commentary over the demonstration instead of having to focus on the nitty gritties of the demo itself. And it lets me have the freedom to focus on my audience's reactions and mentally prepare for the possible questions.

[sruthi]

Btw, Smt Lakshmi Viswanathan's lec-dem on Music in Bharatanatyam is very good too. Her references to the Tanjore Quartet and Todi padavarnam are especially very illustrative: http://www.shabda.co.in/videos/lakshmi-vishwanathan.php

There is also a very interesting lec-dem on Abhinaya in a padam by Smt Bragha Bessell: http://www.shabda.co.in/videos/bragha-bessell.php

[rshankar]

Thanks to the OP for kindling an interest in the site. The most moving lec-dem for me was this, on the similarities between architecture and choreography. The speaker, Sri Jayachandran was very eloquent (although I think he could have been a bit more specific, but in 30 minutes there is only that much one can do, I guess). The layered significance of each (seemingly very simple) set of movements choreographed by Smt. Rukmini Devi was brought out in two examples: the first was rUpamu jUci, and the other was mukhattai kATTiyE (which also served to let me know how ignorant I was when attempting to translate this extremely complex concept). While her esthetic sensibilities were clear for all to see, these examples serve to demonstrate that she was a very intellectual choreographer as well.