Musical Tamil: Article in TOI of 20/3/2017

Miscellaneous topics on Carnatic music
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kvchellappa
Posts: 3596
Joined: 04 Aug 2011, 13:54

Musical Tamil: Article in TOI of 20/3/2017

Post by kvchellappa »

Musical Tamil: Article in TOI of 20/3/2017

Snippets:
• Till the early 1940s, the all-powerful establishment of Carnatic music had held that Tamil was not suitable for the art form. It said the language lacked musicality, and more importantly, Tamil compositions did not have the depth and nuances of the Telugu and Sanskrit compositions of the Carnatic trinity. All this in spite of there being compositions of the Tamil trinity, Marimutha Pillai, Arunachal kavi and Muthu thandavar- Gopalakrishna Bharathi and Papanasam Sivan, apart from the canonical works of Azhwars and Nayanmars.
• Tamil Isai movement came up in this background and was a success in that it secured a place for Tamil in the main part of the concert.
• But, the movement concentrated on only the Tamil lyrics, and not the wider concerns of what constitute Tamil Isai. Isai Tamil is an exhaustive grammatical outlook of music, as deep and wide as the grammar for written or spoken Tamil. Tholkappiyam refers to various musical traditions and practices prevalent in the region. Silappathikaram is a bible of Isai Tamil research and has detailed description of padam and pann – swaras and ragas, musical instruments and dance of that age. Isai Tamil is a way of looking at and composing music. A French poem or an English lyric can also be set to tune in the Isai Tamil method.
• Tamil Isai also includes folk musical traditions like themmangu, Sindhu, ballads and lullabies.

shankarank
Posts: 4041
Joined: 15 Jun 2009, 07:16

Re: Musical Tamil: Article in TOI of 20/3/2017

Post by shankarank »

http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/city ... 052199.cms

At least she leaves out the sacred in some places!

When Nagasvarams were performed in temple towns - recognized vidvans played whatever they considered as great music and others in terku vIti and mADa vIti have to listen to whatever they play - as wind carries it - they don't have a choice - much different from sabha-dom!

if Nagasvarams don't have anything to do with any lyrics and hence secular - why not the General body shareholder meetings of large corps employ them as entertainment! Oh sorry we gave them religious color - we associated them to temples and marriages - and marriages still have association with Agni - and hence religious!

What happened and still happening to Temple funds? Why the rich Chettiars could not bring hoardes of people to come and listen to this music from various communities? Why is it the obligation of whoever and only those who are listening to Trinity music to also listen to other composers?

Sama Bhava or equanimity could also exist in, and in fact required only of those, that comment in privileged speech stages like the media - who could view somebody enjoying Rahman's rIti Gaula or those that gate crash into a NithyaShri concert at Bharat Kalachar ( yeah it has happened per YGM) with the same regard / completeness as a sabha-goer going to a musician's musician music!

Rest of us private citizens are fair game to retain our condescension for anything we don't consider our taste!

Some of us walk out of the tani, for example don't we!

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