Excitement rather than Introspection and Meditation

[harimau]

An indictment of today's standards in music... from a musician.


http://www.thehindu.com/arts/music/the- ... 294581.ece

[harimau]

Shall we attempt to classify Carnatic musicians?

Introspection and Meditation

R Vedavalli
Neela Ramgopal
Parassala Ponnammal

Excitement

????
????
????


Feel free to add names to both categories.

[arasi]

Harimau,
You are more open-minded in your appreciation of music than many rasikAs give you credit. Otherwise, why would you quote a northern musician and musicologist?

Without introspection (meditation too, perhaps), any music is bound to lose its appeal after a while. Catchy film music is such. Even then, some of the cine tunes don't fade away from memory.

Good start of a list from you...

RKS, a good example. His music can also be exciting (soul-stirring?) at times for me. Parassala Ponnammal is a perfect example. Serenity personified.
But Neela Ramgopal? Her music embraces both categories. She can very well fill the next category (if such a severe classification has to be made!). You should have been there when she sang the Rishabhapriya pallavi that morning!

How would you categorize TyAgarAja if he happened to be a musician and that your list were to include composers?

[harimau]

Harimau,
You are more open-minded in your appreciation of music than many rasikAs give you credit. Otherwise, why would you quote a northern musician and musicologist?

Thanks.

RKS, a good example. His music can also be exciting (soul-stirring?) at times for me. Parassala Ponnammal is a perfect example. Serenity personified.
But Neela Ramgopal? Her music embraces both categories. She can very well fill the next category (if such a severe classification has to be made!). You should have been there when she sang the Rishabhapriya pallavi that morning!

I hesitated about RKS for precisely the reason you mentioned.

Perhaps it is not a black-and-white category but a continuum, with one extreme being excitement and another introspection and meditation.

Perhaps then a musician can be placed somewhere on the line according to our personal evaluation.

[rajeshnat]

Harimau
When a musician sings varugalamO ayyA in mAnji it is introspection and meditation. When a musician sings manavyAla in nalinakAnthi it is excitement . I think musician needs to have both in mind for every sangathi , where one contributes synergistically to the other. But overall I agree with this kind of compartmentalization where there are few musicians who achieve polarity in one side - like parasala golden girl in introspection and meditation.

[balakk]

When a musician sings manavyAla in nalinakAnthi it is excitement .

I think it is possible to sing even Nalinakanthi in a contemplative fashion. I am moved every time I hear Nathajana palini by NSG sir. I have seen others sing Entha vedukondu just as a flamboyant filler ; but when TKG sings it, I wonder if he is in direct communication with his beloved Raghavan.
I reckon most top musicians are capable of that - but I suppose only some try to perform *every* song they sing in that fashion.

[varsha]

I think it is possible to sing even Nalinakanthi in a contemplative fashion

TKR
http://www.mediafire.com/?obajvwbilgl41b8
What a singer !!!
another example
http://www.mediafire.com/?djoob0qja6vswcq
Anantalaxmi Sadagopan

[jagan]

Harimau

I would like to add Smt Palkulangara Ambica Devi who sang in Naada Inbam on 21st Dec.
Perhaps many of you might not have even heard of her.
To me it was the Best of the season.
Bharath and Baby Sriram were the only ones present whom I knew

[cmlover]

Harimau
Introspective = one who sings for himself = e.g., MDR
Excitement = One who sings for the audience = e.g., Santhanam
Is this Ok?
I agree it has to be a continuum. Maybe a rating scale of 1 to 10 can be applied?

[vasanthakokilam]

balakk wrote:
Entha vedukondu just as a flamboyant filler

I like that phrase: Flamboyant filler

BTW, this delineation of this thread ( and the implicit message that introspection and meditation is the preferred path ) seems to make a carnatic concert much more towards a sangeetha upanyasam rather than a music concert. Not that there is anything wrong with it, but I would consider that a ekarasa endeavor. A music concert is much more than that though that bakthi rasa is indeed very much part of it.
But remember, even in such ekarasa endeavors, the method of expression is not always introspection and meditation. The upanyasakar uses humor and excitement and flamboyant fillers to make the points as well as keep the audience engaged.

To me an ideal performer is one who puts together a comprehensive concert involving many elements of human emotions. May be it is skewed towards one end of the spectrum one day and to the other another day, depending on the context, pomp and circumstances but a good spread is the hall mark of carnatic concerts This is true even if one sings for oneself and not for the audience. ( IMHO, of course ).

[ramarama]

I find introspective and meditative music rather exciting, and exciting music can often send me into a meditative trance |(

That said, I think there are musicians who don't particularly seem to care that there is a (paying or otherwise) audience in front of them, and who mistake a concert for a musicology master class.

I think that some think that their primary job is to remember and replicate exactly whatever their guru taught them, so a concert is really a "comprehension, memory and recall" exercise and they are hoping somewhere from way above, their guru is assessing their performance. Guru bhakti is great, but it can also be overly constraining and unproductive especially in a creative field like Carnatic or Hindustani music. And I think a truly great guru would appreciate his/her shishya attempting to transcend their own teaching.

And then I think there are musicians who think the only purpose of the concert is to show off their riyaz/practice so as to draw an applause - kinda like a circus acrobat.

Can't name any in any of these categories, 'cos I just think there are and you can never tell for sure what a musician's real intentions are. A musician may be trying to show off and yet achieve a sublime meditative state in their audience because of the sheer beauty of the raga or kriti s/he is expounding and the inevitable effect that has on a (lay) audience member. So the intentions may often result in outcomes completely out of sync with the intentions. But is it arguable at all that the purpose of performance art is to create rasa?

All that said, I think all these categories of musicians are to be respected tremendously, just for their sheer devotion to the art, and high level of understanding of music and ability to execute their ideas consistently. And i think by listening to all kinds of musicians and looking for excitement, contemplation, whatever you like in each of them, one can often find something enjoyable "to take home" in every concert.

[arasi]

ramarama,
Like your post

[Shivadasan]

It appears that the heading of this thread itself is unfortunate. It presupposes that music has to be either excitement or meditative. People forget that the earliest text on music Bharata Natya Sastra it self states that music is capable of inducing the nava rasas. When such is the case how can we restrict it to one or two moods of the mind ?

A capable musician can take the audience through all the rasas in his concert including excitement and meditative, even humour. A musician can also specialize in a single mood or one or two moods, viz.,excitement,, pathos, romantic, aggressive or meditative. There is no restriction. Even the great saint Thyagaraja had composed in many moods like Pathos, Anger, Karuna, Shanthi, etc. etc.. It the choice of the listener whom who he would like to listen.

In such case such debate may not be fruitful. The discussion can at best be about musicians converting the entire concert into mental gymnastics and dramatic just to gain audience applause.

[mahavishnu]

Shivadasan sir, I totally concur.

[varsha]

Shivadasan sir, I totally concur.

+1
I lost count of the emotions I went through ...
http://www.mediafire.com/?54shdax50x59ti1
http://www.mediafire.com/?ep7qaoda7pcoz77