Classicism

Miscellaneous topics on Carnatic music
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kvchellappa
Posts: 3597
Joined: 04 Aug 2011, 13:54

Classicism

Post by kvchellappa »

What is classicism and who are the singers who are purely classicist and who are those who fall from grace and on what grounds? Who decides that?

shankarank
Posts: 4042
Joined: 15 Jun 2009, 07:16

Re: Classicism

Post by shankarank »

A violinist who was on a tour , when asked about Hyderabad Brothers ( the former was accompanying them on that tour) in the midst of a conversation , simply responded - "avA nalla SAstrama pADuvA", i.e. they sing in conformance to the sangIta SAstram. And there is the famous sucaritra charsur DVD recording of SrI Sanjay subramhaNyan, where SrI KAraikuDi maNi laments the decline of "traditional" singing and people like SrI Sanjay are keeping it up.

And almost every upcoming, not so popular , or completely obscure musician will get such an accolade from SrI SVK , if you attended nAda inbam. or if you happen to catch him speaking at Nanaganallur , where important insiders will later fret over his speech, that they could not escape it even if they come afar to catch some music.

I feel this is not a statement "against" any so called new trends being explored by various artistes or new trail blazing attempts by earlier artistes.

This is mostly said in angst created by a phobia against the popular art and how the community of listeners might lose touch with the tradition. It is more for the the community at large to appreciate , cherish and preserve the traditions.

Classicism , the sense with which it was used in the Congress era independent India, however is being twisted by sell outs , sepoys and subverters and we should viciously subvert their own diatribes, and call them out for their conceit!!

We should assert that the word sampradAya is a non-translatable word and SAstra / vyAkaraNa is not same as grammar!

Carrot danglers and opportunity providers subtly infiltrated our narratives and created this "classical"/"folk" divide and then the Church , co-opting the leftists created the sub-altern theory to further divide and alienate a section of population from the so called "classical" cogniscenti.

It still finds expression , I am pained to observe, in some of the comments made in the Smt. AruNa sairam sangIta kalanidhi discussion!

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