Lovely article on the openness of CM

[seema]

At a time that we are discussing the "commodification" and close mindedness of CM, here is a lovely counter melody. Once again, written by someone related to the enfant terrible! Can't help but wonder at the irony!

http://scroll.in/article/735225/from-na ... atic-music

Interestingly, this article seems to have been widely read but once again didn't get posted on this forum.

[sureshvv]

Nice article with some insight. Had to look up a couple of words but was worth the trouble

[Rsachi]

Seema,

I also looked up something:

Open-Standard System Architecture

An Open-Standard System Architecture (OSSA) is an architecture development approach that utilizes open standards to reduce the cost/risk of ownership of weapons and other systems, delay system obsolescence, and allow fielding (=deployment) of capability more quickly.

The views of Anil Srinivasan, a well-known pianist and collaborator in many fusion and such endeavours, are interesting. I understand what Anil means in his article: the incorporation of violin, clarinet and mandolin etc. into CM is a sign of its openness.

At the same time, the strength and uniqueness of CM, according to me, is actually a set of standards that are very rigid indeed:
1. The raga system
2. The tala system
3. Manodharma and kalpana sangeetha as only an adornment of kalpita sangeetha, ie the body of compositions.
4. Primacy of the vocal, gayaki or gamaka tradition.
5. Huge discouragement to try fusion/infusion of performance elements foreign to these principles.
I also daresay that the lyrical or narrative content of CM, as and when present, cannot read like page 1, page 3 or op-ed page of a newspaper, dealing with subjects like IPL, politics, Amma canteens, bail/jail debate and such. In other words, sing as much as about Annapoorna. Not about Anna, Amma, or Thalaivar. At least as a part of CM.

So I think the openness of CM is actually an openness to input resources and HW/SW but not output specfications. I think this is an important clarification for me.

[vasanthakokilam]

Sachi, understood.

What you state above is definitely fully applicable to the mainstream CM concerts. So, for now, let us just say 'CM Concert music' is far from OSSA even though it has allowed in other instruments.

There are others dimensions to CM beyond the concert where what Anil says applies even more so.

As a direct example that relates to Anil, Sampradaya in Toronto recently debuted their original creation 'Niranthara' which is a bharathanatyam program with live music by Anil and Sikkil. http://www.harbourfrontcentre.com/nexts ... creations/
The small sample of impressions I heard from people who attended this ticketed concert was quite positive.

Second example is related to lyrics. It has been my nagging feeling for quite a long time that confining the great CM melodies and rhythm to divine and spirituality related domains is vastly underserving its potential. Without really diminishing the use of CM for those domains, we need to acknowledge the obvious fact that there are more things to life than those two. This is not about singing compositions of different themes in a CM concert but bringing CM to express other life situations. This brings to mind a topic I have been meaning to write about in a separate thread. It is about the CD of Arasi's compositions 'engirindo vandai penne' sung by Suryaprakash but here briefly, that is an example of original compositions that are soaked in proper CM ragas but the subject matter is very tastefully described in fantastic lyrics that are easy to relate to most people. When the CD was released, people were comparing that to the male version of the typical Padam, but it is actually much more than that. It has the vibe of the 'singer songwriter' genre that some of you may be familiar with. That genre itself has nothing to do with CM and of course here the singer and song writer are different people but the commonality I felt is the original creations of songs on a coherent theme that ties together all the songs and that are arranged in an aesthetically pleasing manner. And it is in proper CM and not some fusion or light CM ( as we hear in film songs or bhajan CDs ). I think that combination of things make this work quite unique and it shows it is possible to take CM in different directions.

More on this later..

[Rsachi]

There are others dimensions to CM beyond the concert where what Anil says applies even more so.

As a direct example that relates to Anil, Sampradaya in Toronto recently debuted their original creation

......
This is not about singing compositions of different themes in a CM concert but bringing CM to express other life situations.

VKM, I agree. Both these examples are about using the grammar and syntax of CM to provide music to flesh out an artistic presentation... A kind of modern Bharatanatyam type of dance (i am familiar with such work) and presenting a type of ghazal kind of poetry in CM.

Both these examples illustrate the power of CM rather than its openness, as I can see. In dance, the messaging and therefore the music is dictated mainly by the dance/choreography. In poetry the primacy is obviously for the words.

I feel time alone will tell if such music will become a part of what we learn and listen to as CM. But as far as potential and power of CM is concerned, there can be no doubt.

[vasanthakokilam]

Yes, very much so. I see what you are saying about the 'power of CM' vs 'openness'. 'Openness' is a loaded word. Just as in open source, it is only as valuable as the extent the eco system supports it. The ecosystem support for anything beyond the current boundary is hard in the concert circuit.
But concert circuit has now become just one of the many avenues for music to be heard. I see Sanjay releasing a lot of his stuff on Spottify. I am sure he will be available on the upcoming Apple subscription service. He is not the one to experiment outside the classical concert boundary (though he definitely tries to widen it ), it is now a question of if some high quality CM in different persona can find a decent audience. I am not sure of the outcome but definitely the opportunities exist today that were not there just a decade back.

[SrinathK]

It has been my nagging feeling for quite a long time that confining the great CM melodies and rhythm to divine and spirituality related domains is vastly underserving its potential. Without really diminishing the use of CM for those domains, we need to acknowledge the obvious fact that there are more things to life than those two

I fully agree. But point in mind, once upon a time in another century this was probably where the oldest film songs broke out of mainstream CM compositions. Then eventually, film music went the way of the LCD. And see what comes on Tamil songs these days ....

But, I don't think CM will ever land up like that if it adheres firmly to maintaining it's depth and high standards and avoids the LCD. I just pray to God though that 100 years from now, this initiative doesn't read to an RTP with kolaveri lyrics . The theme of losing someone whom you love (either via death or a breakup) can create something as phenomenally deep and timeless like the Bach Chaccone, but it can also create a kolaveri

I hope to see compositions that can speak deep to the soul. Bhakti is so popular IMHO not only because of CM history, but because it can touch the soul easily.

Time will filter out the crap from the gold. It wasn't that there was no bad music in the time of Mozart or Beethoven or even in CM history, but you never hear about it because LCD "music" doesn't survive the test of time. In fact there was a lot of bad music and even in CM I've heard my share of really poor renditions, fortunately none of them made it to the records. I was surprised to know that this is one reason why the music of the past always seems so glorious -- because only the best of that era will survive.

[Rsachi]

LCD =Lowest Common Denominator
Right, sir?

By the way, I have heard from playback singers and classical vocalists that film music directors carefully eschew a purely Carnatic idiom. They want a dash of garlic and a bit of mushroom in every dish. So Much so that any heavily, obviously, unapologetically, Carnatic voices don't fit their requirement at all. That's why so many "great" CM artistes don't find a place in films I think.

[rshankar]

The theme of losing someone whom you love (either via death or a breakup) can create something as phenomenally deep and timeless like the Bach Chaccone, but it can also create a kolaveri

Betrayal could also result in pieces like 'sakhi, prANa-sakhuDu...', or nETRandi nErattilE...', or even 'engO pirandavarAm, engO vaLarndavarAm...', right??

[SrinathK]

Or all of Thyagaraja's krithis when his beloved Rama did not appear. @rshankar, not knowing Telugu, I have been linguistically handicapped to appreciate most of CM - until sahityam.net or shivkumar.org came and translated things. This means I have no idea what I'm listening to in most padams or javalis or varnams and I'm not sure if my pronounciation is even decent, which is why I did not quote those (some of them I haven't heard either).

At least my shock is not as great as TRS's when he sang Thyagaraja krithis in Andhra and people told him it was really wonderful, but if only the saint had composed in Telugu

Sanskrit is far easier for me to understand. You may want to know, I've known the Thodi varnam for 12 years now, but only last year through a Telugu speaking friend I came to know what that the charanam "dAni mAtulu vini inta sAhasamElara" meant and I had to laugh -- not to mention all those other varnams. Thanks to one lec dem by TRS, I have come to know that I've been singing the Kalyani adi tala varnam all wrong -- it's not Neeeeeee looo pa raaa Nii, it's nilupa rANi (which was also pointed out by my friend).

Only after that I started looking into the lyrics varnams (and I am still very much dependent on translations). The irony is that padams and jaavalis are supposedly in decline while we get 6 year olds to sing at least a dozen dozen varnams ALL with ninnE kOri and vanajAkshi for lyrics -- you'd think they'd have at least tried to do something different. But I guess heroes and heroines were the in thing then. <End of digression>

The point is, one can make something substantial, or something totally **@$#$ on any theme. I abslutely would love to see a song that can touch audience's souls 300 years from now, but I will NOT accept "kolveri di" as a pallavi line as the future of CM.

[vgovindan]

What does music express?

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3764399/

How I wish the author had taken note of Indian nava-rasa approach.
IMHO, musician as an interpreter of the composer (vAggEyakkAra) further erodes the original intent.

[shankarank]

That dhArmic cultures embody a sanskriti and an open architecture has been suggested by Rajiv Malhotra here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TkDayu0GtPg . Closed ended-ness has also been explained with respect to the "religions" of the world.

That talk answers some of the demands of historical accuracy in this forum in several other threads.

I did a search on this forum to check the receptiveness of such topics - lo and behold Rajiv has been called Xenophobe.

We sit before the ritual fire in the morning. Evening we sport a Tie. We just not wear the Tie but also swear by its moorings. Now the Tie and the 2/3 piece suit has also been replaced by Sherwani (the Pakistani national dress) and the action has moved to the night prior to the fire ritual.

I heard that Muslims don’t wear a Tie because it is thought to symbolize the Cross – something I was clueless about before as well.

History is not important apparently in Dharmic cultures - but the state can be recreated by sAdhana. Many musicians have indeed done that. Here TVR not only relives GNB, but also reflects the elephantine gait of ARI: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=86ngKDHZ9CI.

Anil is probably trying to port that idea of open architecture to Carnatic music to accommodate his favorite instrument.

CM is all open fine.. but there is also the thing called architecture where some constraints are implied. Extensibility comes after constraints are imposed. The constraints are kept in vogue if listeners also are put through the traditional stimulation of sensibilities of Nama Sankirtana, Hari katha , Nadaswarams in temples ( that is a forced one and travels the Wind – ask the inhabitants of kamalAlayam and TNR) and Carnatic music in that order. The listeners also are trying to relive the historical experience in the exact order of the musical evolutionary path from Jayadeva , Narayana tIrta , OVK , Purandara Dasa and so on.

This path was recommended for musicians. UKS recalls MVI sang behind a Harikatha exponent before hitting the concert circuit. Many percussionists did this as well. But for listeners this used to happen all by itself just by being in the habitat which now no longer exists as it used to. That is where bhAva is reared.

Today the listeners are tasting Mac food synthetically grown, genetically modified and engineered by the tinsel world to increase the ROI of an abstract investor instead of Grandma's food. Sand is being sold to the Arabs. The first versions in early 1930s resembled Grandma's food. They moved on.

People like Anil are trying to capitalize on this. We celebrate this as natural change and leading to innovation, clueless as we always are.

Mandolin for all its glorious achievements has work left still in feeling the flow of time. An example would be Srinvas's rendition of Sri mAtrubhUtam where it seems to run past .. where you would expect a grip and resume... The percussionist reluctantly tries - but gives up and keeps pace. The elephantine gait of ARI tradition became a wild elephant. There are vocalists who have sung this as well that let go of this opportunity not just the Mandolin. They are a mute witness to the aesthetic beauty as it flies by.

I believe there are mechanisms involved before the various rasAs can be felt - it is not a straight trip from sounding of the melody to the ears to the emotion. Else it is not music - it is a museum - showcasing the notation - dissembling and displaying the tools.

tyAgarAja said yati viSrama satbhakti virati drAksha rasa navarasa all in one line... I guess he might have had a feeling!

[varsha]

Beautiful piece of writing !!!
I mean post 12