San Diego Indian Music and Dance Festival 2010: A Debrief

[bilahari]

I. On the Organisation

If a standing ovation was merited for any reason this festival, it is for the organisers and volunteers who worked tirelessly to put this event together. Cleveland Sri Balu captured it perfectly when he said that San Diego had managed in three years what took Cleveland thirty years. Of course, while this is hyperbole, I think his statement does reflect the rapid strides made by the Indian Fine Arts Academy of San Diego. Right from the impeccable sound system praised by several musicians as amongst the best they've ever had to the choice of auditorium to the stage and ambience created to the food to the music, the organisers did a thoroughly professional job. There were some interesting innovations this year as well. For instance, a "Name the Raga" contest was introduced whereby the members of the audience had to guess the raga of one piece of each concert and submit their entries for a lucky draw. This was a really unique effort, I thought, and the number of students and children participating in the contest proved how effective it was in not just engaging the audience but in promoting learning. These were not easy ragas either - aside from shankarAbharaNam, even ragas like bowLi, jujAhuli, and amritvAhini were covered (I didn't know the last two). Additionally, in order to spare the audience the agony of long-winded introductory speeches, the organisers came up with a rather brilliant idea to compile an audiovideo presentation which would show each of the artistes' biosketch and simultaneously play excerpts of their music. This presentation was aired as the audience was getting seated and preparing for the next concert, thereby saving time and saving us from those odiously tiresome speeches with some NRI kid mispronouncing each name and rolling his or her Rs at the most inopportune moments.

Punctuality is the greatest source of concern in the festival. While the delays this year were not as bad as they were last year, they were substantial enough to truncate almost all the 2.5 hour concerts to 2 h. Of course, no matter how hard the organisers tried to keep to time (the concerts on Thursday and Friday were punctual), some problem or the other always managed to creep up to cause these delays (on Sat and Sun, the average delay was an hour). The organisers are well aware of this problem and I'm sure they will address it more effectively with every passing year (remember this festival is only three years old). Another problem is the requirement for all the audience to vacate the auditorium during sound checks (which happen before each concert). Expecting the elderly and families with young children (in particular) to keep leaving and re-entering the auditorium and standing outside in the crowd (there wasn't sufficient seating outside the auditorium either) for extended periods of time is rather inconsiderate, even if sound checks require the exit of the audience. The organisers must find a way to deal with this. On the matter of scheduling, I think it would have been ideal for the vocal concerts to be presented in tandem with instrumental concerts to ensure variety in the daily program. For instance, Sunday was a cornucopia of vocal music with four concerts, and I felt thoroughly saturated by the end of the day. I understand, however, that the various scheduling constraints of each artiste force the organisers to schedule the way they do. (As an aside, how do so many of you go concert-hopping during the season? One concert down and I'm already ready to "rest and digest"!) Finally, I wish seating were reserved for members of the IFAASD. It would be especially beneficial for well-attended concerts like the mandolin concert where I think members should have the privilege of sitting in front and not have to battle the unwashed masses (I kid, I kid) who have only chosen to attend a singular concert in the whole festival and whose monetary contribution to the organisation is thus inferior.

I realise of course that many of my concerns cannot be addressed practically, and I would like to reiterate that I am quite amazed at how far San Diego has come in such a short time. The organisers definitely deserve a pat on the back for a job well done not only on the organisational front but in their choice of musicians - not many organisers would be willing to host a nAdaswaram concert for 2h or to bring artistes like Parassala Ponnamal or for that matter even Trichur Ramachandran. And no, I do not have any vested interests and am not affiliated in any way with the organisers.

II. On the Audience

Now, the audience. Who do not deserve a pat on the back. While the audience listened respectfully and quietly throughout most concerts and there was hardly any exodus during the thanis, I am quite appalled by the audience's tendency to give every concert a standing ovation. Surely a concert has to be outstanding to merit a standing ovation? Let's say we decide to stand up after every concert and applaud mindlessly. What would we do for a concert that is actually outstanding? And how would the artiste who delivered a standout performance feel when we give him or her a standing ovation? Obviously, recognising that the audience readily rewards any kind of music with a standing ovation, this artiste would not be moved in the slightest. Isn't that a pity? I was especially amused by the mostly Caucasian crowd for the sitar concert, who delivered a standing ovation right in the middle of the concert. When the sitarist tuned his sitar and merely played that cascade of notes from S to S to test the tuning, a lady next to me swooned and gasped, and it was difficult for me to suppress a guffaw.

For those who are interested, here are the statistics for audience attendance for each concert of the festival. Not too shabby!

Kartik Seshadri (sitar) - 330
Student performance - 350
Injikudi Subramaniam - 250
Manasi Prasad - 400
Uma Suresh (bharatanatyam) - 420
Mandolin Shrinivas - 570
Trichur Brothers - 180 (8AM concert...)
Gayathri Venkatraghavan - 400
Odissi - 420
Pantula Rama - 350
Trichur Ramachandran - 300

III. On the Music

I felt that the music in this fesival was generally of a high quality. A week after the festival, several moments stand out in my mind as highlights: Injikudi Subramaniam's teliyalEru rAma, AbhEri, and dES ragas, Trichur Brothers' sUryamUrtE, tODi neraval, and jOg ragam, Gayathri Venkataraghavan's neraval in O rangasAyI, and Trichur Ramachandran's bhairavi. While it has become rather fashionable these days to proclaim that Carnatic Music is heading rapidly towards a tragic denouement, the music that I have heard this festival indicates to me that CM is in safe hands even in the younger generations.

For one, several younger singers like Trichur Brothers, GV, and Pantula Rama have a solid voice that can effortlessly produce brighas while maintaining fidelity to pitch. The voice culture of contemporary singers is generally quite good, and even though the voice is often the least important consideration in CM and merely looked upon as a vehicle to communicate the actually important ideas, a good voice can go a long way in enhancing a rasika's appreciation of music. This is not to say that contemporary singers are mere voices - I was impressed by the manOdharma of the musicians in this festival as well. Even while sticking to traditional ragas like tODi, kAmbOji, and kharaharapriya, these singers managed to captivate the audience which has likely heard a hundred alapanais and swara prastharams in each of these ragas. To do so is no meagre feat. Simultaneously, ragas like bowLi, jOg, dEs,and hamsanAdam were handled with finesse.

Then there is that "something else" - call it bhAvam or sowkhyam if you like. While good music can entertain, great music can move. It is here that contemporary singers - at least in the context of the music I have heard in the festival - have a way to go. Unfortunately, this is also least tangible quality of music, and as much as we have discussed qualities like bhAvam, I do not think we are much closer to understanding what exactly separates the great from the merely good in music. What is it about the way SSI sings PDM in the tara sthayi in his dwijAvanti swaras? What is it about MMI's kAnaDa? MDR's giripai? And what was it about TVR's bhairavi last Sunday which elevated it so supremely? We often speak of the past greats as being "one with music", but I find that quality in several contemporary singers as well. There is something else that is missing, but I just cannot put my finger on it. This is not to say that I do not believe contemporary musicians have the capacity to become great - there was enough in Injikudi's teliyalEru and Trichur Brothers' sUryamUrtE to indicate that they can. But at the end of the festival, I was just left wondering about what exactly it is that makes music great. It is still an open question.

Moving on to more mundane, practical matters, I do have a few suggestions for musicians based on the music I heard last week. For one, I must emphasise the importance of neraval, which is almost a dying art these days (now what sort of a purist would I be if I didn't prematurely declare the death of something?). I was disenchanted by artistes singing two hour concerts with just one neraval - or even no proper neraval. As arasi has mentioned in another thread, neraval is something that combines the beauty of the sahitya with the beauty of the raga and presents both in the framework of the tala. In essence, it is the component of manOdharma which encompasses everything that is important in Carnatic music. To see neraval being relegated to the main piece, dealt with haphazardly and briefly, or being ignored altogether saddens me - and this happens fairly regularly these days. It is even more painful that neraval is often substituted with insubstantial swara prastharams in the opening pieces of a concert. This is where I think we need to evolve from the ARI paddathi. When ARI sang a few quick rounds of swaras in the first few pieces of his concert, it was in gentle preparation for the remaining three or four hours. When the opening pieces are a none-too-gentle preparation for the remaining hour and a half of a concert, each of the pieces presented in the concert - right from the varnam - assume a much greater importance. As such, spending the first 20-30 minutes of a two hour concert on introductory pieces with short sketches and short swara prastharams appears a tad wasteful to me. Instead, artistes should introduce elaborate manOdharma early in the concert - as early as the first or second piece. Not a soul stirred in the auditorium as Neyvel Santanagopalan sang a brilliant neraval for gurulEka eTuvanti as the first piece in his San Diego concert last year. Not a soul stirred as Trichur Brothers sang elaborate, intense kalpanaswaras in siddi vinAyakam anisham last Sunday.

Carnatic music is manOdharma sangItam and there is nothing like heavy manOdharma to draw an audience into the music and fix its attention for the remaining hours. This is why I strongly believe that musicians should introduce neraval or elaborate kalpanaswaras or a full-length alapanai early in the concert these days, and do away entirely with the few-quick-rounds of swaras they affix to the opening pieces. In any event, these few quick avarthanas of swaras often do not convey the rAga bhAvam and appear to be executed in an almost nonchalant manner.

I especially hate to see neraval being replaced by kalpanaswaras in general because kalpana swaras as they are executed today are an almost technical exercise. As I have mentioned before, I do not find myself as interested in kalpanaswaras because the patterns are nothing new and exciting (or maybe I've listened to so much music online that little appears new and exciting), and the emphasis on concluding swaras with kOrvais these days robs music of its spontaneity and beauty. I also notice that there is an increasing trend to shorten swaras in first speed and concentrate more on second speed swaras, which is unfortunate because it is in the first speed that the gamakas that adorn each swara and which are the window to any raga are best demonstrated.

I also fear that too many musicians these days are getting carried away by brighas and speed, and too little emphasis is placed on the music of silence. I have whined about this elsewhere too, but I think it bears repeating. Silence is an essential ingredient to music, and especially to a form of music as involved and intricate as Carnatic music. Carnatic music is not the kind of music that can just be playing in the background while I work - it requires immense concentration from both musician and rasika. As such, the rasika and the musician should both allow themselves time to absorb and process music, and this is an important reason (I feel) for punctuating music with moments of silence. As a rasika, I find another reason for silence as well. During raga alapanais, when an artiste pauses after a phrase, I find myself guessing the next phrase, and am pleased when my guess is proven correct, and pleasantly surprised when it is proven incorrect. In either event, music is made more interesting when I have the time to not only reflect on what I've heard but anticipate what is to come. There is of course musical value in silence as well - merely hearing the tambura drone between raga phrases can help reinforce the musical ambience. In addition, there is the quality of singing without singing - so to speak. To leave a phrase dangling and to allow the rasika to complete it in his or her mind (see MDR's kalpanaswaras in the Google video for a fine demonstration of the same). In sum, there are so many advantages to introducing silence in music, and it is a pity that some musicians pay scant regard to this and insist on pressing forth violently.

IV. On Reviews

I would like to conclude my coverage of the San Diego Indian Music and Dance Festival with a few thoughts about reviews.

Why do I write reviews? I do not speak for other reviewers on this forum, but I can tell you that I write reviews purely as means of introspection about the music I have heard. Having listened to a certain concert and deemed it good or bad, a very basic question arises: Why was this concert good? What made that bhairavi so moving? Why didn't I like those ragamaliga swaras? I write reviews because they allow me an opportunity to reflect on and investigate the reasons for my emotional response to a piece of music. As I have mentioned above, it is often still difficult to exactly account for my impressions of music. For instance, as I have asked above: What made TVR's bhairavi neraval so moving? What separates good music from great music? These are questions for which I still do not have any good answer, and perhaps such knowledge and understanding are even asymptotic. In search for answers, I share my reviews with the members of the forum, engage the active members in a discussion of music, and hope to gain from this discussion different perspectives and a deeper understanding of music and music appreciation.

I would like to reinforce here that I do NOT write reviews to emptily air my views or whimsically pass judgement on musicians, and I care not a jot about what musicians who read my reviews think and about what people who read my reviews but who do not see fit to contribute to discussion on this forum think. It is for the Arasis and Ravis and Srikants and the numerous other active and engaging members of this forum that I share my reviews, and not for anyone else.

I know now that the reach of rasikas.org is far greater than I had imagined when I started writing on this forum in 2007. I understand that musicians, organisers, and a host of other powers-that-be in the music world read and take interest in reviews and are perhaps even influenced by them. I would like to issue a warning here. A review is merely one rasika's opinion of a concert and nothing more. Moreover, the opinion presented in a review is a rasika's immediate reaction to a concert and is subject to change. For instance, I have heard concerts and reviewed them here and have had a rather different opinion of these concerts when I review the recordings. The reason is that an opinion is the product of innumerable conditions and variables. A rasika's mindset, receptiveness towards music, mood, the acoustics in the auditorium, a rasika's craving for certain ragas, his or her personal prejudices (no matter how objective he or she tries to be), all coincide in a moment in time to fashion a rasika's impression of a piece of music, which is then communicated in this forum. This set of conditions is non-reproducible and as such a review is nothing more than a still; a "photograph" of a rasika's response to music. The same subject matter can be interpreted by the same rasika in any number of ways depending on the prevailing conditions. . It is precisely for this reason that I do not make any judgement about an artiste until I have heard him or her at least three times, and when I read reviews on this forum to get an idea about the music of an artiste, I look at multiple reviews written by multiple authors and study trends. It is entirely irresponsible and downright foolish to be influenced by a singular review in a vacuum. So, my warning is as follows: take individual reviews with a pinch of salt and a little levity, and judge instead the trends and patterns in reviews. And always remember that true objectivity is nonexistent.

Here's to San Diego - a city upon a hill as far as Carnatic music is concerned. And here's to many more years of fruitful discussions of music on rasikas.org.

[rshankar]

Bilahari - another brilliant piece of writing. Thank you for sharing.

Your reasons for reviewing are very interesting in particular. I write the ones I do to share something I enjoyed. I do not think I can deconstruct how or why I enjoyed something.

[arasi]

Yes, we are MAS here and are proud of it (for those who do not know what it stands for, this means Mutual Admiration Society). We rasikAs come in every imaginable kind and age. We are a unit, not as much individuals here, however individualistic we all happen to be. We thrive on each other's strength and knowledge and that's how the MAS factor creeps in. While I admire my peers for their wisdom, I'm also in awe of many of those those much younger to me. The things I learn from them about music!
Which brings me to our reviewer-members. Most of them are young in age but are very mature in their musical experience. When they share their concert experience with us, each in his own style, it is not at all like reading a review in a newspaper. Such a rasikA sharing his experience with us makes our day (look at the clamoring which goes on when not many reviews come in!). Bilahari is one such rasikA and we can't have enough of his perceptive, communicative and beautifully written reviews. I wish him well with his academic work but wish he were a roving reviewer like our VIjay (do we miss him!).
Hello, Vijay! Mumbai is having a series of concerts and there are concerts in Bengaluru and other cities you happen to be. Yes, we miss you

Bilahari,
About your epilogue: it amply illustrates that a rasikA is keen on seeing that the music he loves thrives--not only in performances but in the organizations which make them happen and in audience behavior too. Several of the things you point out are shared by other rasikAs as well. Some can be solved easily while others may need effort and discipline.
Yes, the still young San-Diego area CM organizers do get a round of applause

[rajeshnat]

bilahari- Nice roundup almost like reading a well written shruthi magazine article.

Punctuality is the greatest source of concern in the festival. While the delays this year were not as bad as they were last year, they were substantial enough to truncate almost all the 2.5 hour concerts to 2 h. Of course, no matter how hard the organisers tried to keep to time (the concerts on Thursday and Friday were punctual), some problem or the other always managed to creep up to cause these delays (on Sat and Sun, the average delay was an hour).

I see this happening many a times Assuming the first concert is expected to be from 9 to 11:30, many a times the musicians and organizers wait by giving that 15 minute grace time to have more crowd , and then at 09:15 Am the musicians come to the stage another 10 minutes gone for mike setup . So as such it starts atleast 20 minutes or half an hour late and with concerts lined up back to back the concerts indeed are truncated.
..........

Another problem is the requirement for all the audience to vacate the auditorium during sound checks (which happen before each concert).

Is sound checks alone the reason or is it to ensure no one pays for only the first concert and sits too for free for other concerts. It happens always in kutcheri season, may just happen in sandiego too .

Now, the audience. Who do not deserve a pat on the back. While the audience listened respectfully and quietly throughout most concerts and there was hardly any exodus during the thanis, I am quite appalled by the audience's tendency to give every concert a standing ovation. Surely a concert has to be outstanding to merit a standing ovation?

bilahari is the ovation only for the concert or deep down is it for the indianness (especially with music and arts )that is typically missing through out the year is acknowledged by mostly NRI crowd and possibly they feel like clapping. I assume as sandiego has more concerts in the next few years you will see the claps become more normalized with reality then this smilie .

[kedharam]

Bilahari, lovely reviews and a honest sum up. i had a nice chat with Mr. Venkaatachalam at the cleveland aradana about the San diego festivities and at one point he was kind of surprised that i knew the details of all the concerts and asked for my source and i said, 'bilahari':). He was kind of perplexed. You do put in lots of effort and thought in your writing. Now we have to wait for a year or if we are lucky... may be December??? Thanks.

[arasi]

Kedharam,
Good to hear from you! So, you are in Cleveland now? Did you meet Lakshman and other rasikAs? Where are the reviews? Treat us to a few of them, please.

[kedharam]

arasi, will write soon. busy running around. had a ball meeting everyone.

[narayan]

Bilahari,

Enjoyed the reviews. Was the ensemble concert part of the festival? Didn't see it listed in the attendance stats! In case I am able to post, I have some follow up points on a couple of issues, but for now, wanted to say that the reviews and writing are appreciated. Thanks.