Whither Karnataka Music ?

[arvind.brahmakal]

My op-ed for Ananya Kalasinchana magazine

https://www.blogger.com/blogger.g?blogI ... c=postname

[Rsachi]

Arvind,
Of course, I think you mean whither
Withering is what happens to crops and plants without rain and Cauvery water

Somehow blogger doesn't allow me to access the page, in either of my accounts.

[arvind.brahmakal]

If there is one question that Karnataka music lovers frequently ask, it is this! The passion to protect and pass on the legacy probably drives one to reason this out. In an ever changing world, it is prudent as well to visit this question over and over again. The answers have been and will be different at various points in time. As the way of life changes, so does art – in form and in substance. Equally important when we visit this question is for us to delve into the potential opportunities to carry this legacy forward.

Let us analyse the possible reasons for this threat perception:

a. Form and Substance: concerts used to be for several hours but now, anything over 2.0-2.5 hours appears to be an overkill. The sequence of songs in a concert is being questioned and some experimentation has commenced. Questions around the proportion of kalpana and kalpita have been raised. Should the focus be on compositions or ragas – and how does this change the substantive presentation in concerts
b. Quantity and Quality: Only one of these two will succeed. We see multitude of concerts in India and abroad these days. So, is this question more about drop in quality? Are we then getting into the realm of subjectivity?
c. Physical and Digital: There has been a digital onslaught over the past few years and this is expected to accelerate in future. Will this lead to fewer live concerts? What will happen to the sabhas?
d. Heart and Mind: Much of the music we hear these days just about reaches the mind and sometimes confuses it too! Is the heart somewhere getting left out in this and so the deeper concern about the future?
e. Artistry and Presentation: Has genuine artistry been overpowered by excellent presentation of mediocrity?

A river determines its own current and direction. It does not look the same at different points in time and at different places. But, it is inextricably interwoven with life.
Music is something similar. Music and life are inseparable as the foundational principles for both are the same – shruthi and laya. However, it is about how music appears at different places and times. Change is constant and there probably is sufficient space for all. More of music in its diverse forms, greater is the celebration of life.

Back to the moot question – is Karnataka Music on the decline? Simply looking at the number of young artistes who have emerged, there is no tangible proof of decline. The number of concerts only seems to be increasing by the day. A cursory glance at social media shows young and experienced artistes globe-trotting i.e concert tours. We are at the cusp of witnessing more and more artistes taking this as a full time profession. Skype classes help too. Clearly, these are not indicators of decline. These trends surely indicate that Karnataka music is thriving. This said, a common complaint is that the attendance in concerts is low. This is a genuine concern that needs to be seriously addressed as a sabha’s sustainability depends on this.
Let us briefly look at how the current society desires to embrace Karnataka Music. This question opens up the “opportunities list” for artistes and sabhas to ponder on. The advent of digital media can significantly disrupt the current eco system leading to greater listenership.

Here below is an illustrative list of possibilities:

Artistes:
· Create your own youtube channel
· Distribute your music and education videos through your channel at regular frequency. If your channel gains popularity, you will be paid by youtube
· Blog frequently on different topics – be heard and be seen in all social and mainstream media
· Build your fan club - consciously build your brand
· Concert opportunities and attendance at your live concerts would be higher if you have delivered hits online
· “My music is at the listener’s finger tips – anytime, anywhere” can be the motto

Sabhas:
· Put out all the concerts on your youtube channel and webcast all your programs. There is a need for more and more content
· Support budding artistes by producing their videos
· Produce and disseminate videos to improve the perception and adoption of this idiom
· Help in digital marketing of Karnataka Music
· Spate of out-reach programs – both in physical and digital worlds. Take music to where people are than to passively wait for audiences to show up at the venue
· Significantly enhance the experience for the audience at the venue
· Don a larger role of an “integrator” of the Karnataka Music eco system in your neighbourhood

The current lifestyle of people in urban, semi urban and rural areas needs to be keenly observed. The target audience base (children, youth, middle age, senior citizens, men, women, boys, girls, etc) has to be identified and their aspirations understood. This critical exercise needs to be performed by the artiste and the sabha at frequent intervals. Art needs to be viewed as an integral part of everyone’s life and not an end in itself

The current form and substance of Karnataka Music has a good following and this must continue and scale up too. There is also a collective responsibility to keep Karnataka Music relevant to today’s rasikas and to provide easy access at minimal cost. Towards this end, suitable modifications may be brought about in the form and substance of this art form. This may be viewed as evolution of Karnataka Music and not necessarily non-conformist to tradition. Such a well thought through approach could give rise to multiple formats through different media, which only goes to increase the size of the pie. The ones that can continually connect with the audiences will last and the rest will fall by the way side. Let us give an opportunity for this to happen. In all, let us just celebrate!

[shankarank]

The current lifestyle of people in urban, semi urban and rural areas needs to be keenly observed. The target audience base (children, youth, middle age, senior citizens, men, women, boys, girls, etc) has to be identified and their aspirations understood

There was this vINa player from kalakshEtra who was performing at South Western Methodist university some 10 years back. I was there at the invitation of a young Mridangist who was studying for his Bachelors degree and playing in this ensemble. After the performance during the conversation - the subject of MDR came up - and he immediately opined - "technology yellam improve ayiduccu pazhaiya sentimentallam poyiducchu (with all the technology and modernization people no longer carry those old sentiments)" - almost implying that MDR doesn't stand a chance of appreciation in this era.

But we know this to be not true even in that era - we had/have lot of agnostics - physicists connecting with his music!! We should give Kudos to those Sabha kArya KartAs - that gave him opportunities and those that recorded him!!

[Rsachi]

There is also a collective responsibility to keep Karnataka Music relevant to today’s rasikas and to provide easy access at minimal cost.

Arvind,
I know you to be a committed promoter of CM. Your feelings are well articulated here. Congrats.

Let me share my opinion. After listening to music for 6 decades, and collecting terabytes of concerts, always having at a minimum four devices and three fast internet connections for over 8 years now, I am of the firm experiential understanding that
1. Live concerts are EVERYTHING. No webcast, no telecast, no recording, nothing can ever approach the visceral effect of a live concert. In my own case, if a live performance is 100 in experience quality, a webcast/live remote viewing is a 40, and CDs and MP3 etc. below 20.
2. Why is live so much better? I feel the listener gives a lot in this equation. The travel, the sitting, the breathing of the same air as the musician and audience, the "being in the moment", the eye contact, the shared joy of music, is all a big deal.
3.I hate to bother to record programs sneakily as I sit through a concert. I hate it even more when large video camera-men with big T shirts loom in between me and the musician. This is one piece of technology that needs to improve big time.
4. If there is one thing where quality trumps quantity in this world, it is music for me. A musical moment lodges itself in my heart and gives me joy for long years overcoming my own degenerate memory and senses.
5. Godspeed to all live concert organisers. They are really doing the most for the art form.
6. A live concert is a living hell if the mics and sound system are badly rigged.

*trumps is a word that has been vandalised by the US election. I use it in its old pristine form.
** I feel sport is best watched on TV. The 27 cameras show up even if the threads on a cricket ball have been picked.
But not music listening Being in the audience is a several-fold better experience.
What do you say?

[kvchellappa]

In a concert, there is the joy of seeing how others enjoy. We like basically company and even though music is a contemplative art, company certainly enhances its appeal. Much as some people may want that music is to be differentiated from bhakthi, I liked Smt TSS mention how bhakthi is what underpins at least CM. In a concert, we have that union of souls that is the heart of bahkthi which is the soul of CM.
SSI was quoted as saying that CM will never die. Yesudas said it in a concert in Bengaluru. It has vitality and 'quality' audience and patrons as typified by this forum.

[arvind.brahmakal]

Thanks Rsachi !

The audience experiences are so subjective - some swear by live performances, some swear by digital and some prefer live but can do with digital too !
I hear especially from the digital natives, i.e, youth, that they would rather plug some white plastic into their ears and listen to music on the go than to brave the urban melee. While the live concerts have gone up significantly, there is a wider audience that is underfed and starving. We should not miss this opportunity of providing access to them.

What I am propounding is an open source model where free content is widely available to everyone at their finger tips. There is a much better chance for more and more people to experience CM. Also, I think this will push artistes and organisers to get more innovative and breathe freshness into CM.

Can we envision the possibility of live and digital co-existing and growing together - each feeding of the other ?

[Rsachi]

It's actually very simple, Arvind.
Digital= painless, on tap, any time, anywhere, cost-free, virtual and partial/distorted.
Live=immersive, multifold experience, high recall value, costly (travel & time!), lock-in (can't turn off at will!), one at a time.
If food,..., sleep, exercise, and prayer, have all to be real to be fulfilling and meaningful, why not music? Are we settling for much less being led astray by plenty, affordability, ease always?
One for sure feeds the other, but central to this discussion is our life's goals. "asatO mA sadgamaya"....

Anyway just my opinion. Nothing sacrosanct.

[sureshvv]

Interesting discussion.

Arvind's take on music is as if it is an essential commodity, like say "rice". We should make more of it & distribute all of it widely so it is available in plenty to everyone & they can all "benefit" from it.

I am not sure that is the right analogy for music.

[shankarank]

Interesting discussion.

Arvind's take on music is as if it is an essential commodity, like say "rice". We should make more of it & distribute all of it widely so it is available in plenty to everyone & they can all "benefit" from it.

I am not sure that is the right analogy for music.

bhAgavatALLukku pODum unccha vriddhi arisi mAdiri pavitratvamA vistAraNam paNNinAl - the analogy becomes perfect!! All it needs is an ounce of sacredness into it to make it perfect.

[sureshvv]

To some extent, artistes have to insulate themselves from the audience. If they worry too much about giving the audience what they want and the way they want it, the art itself may go for toss. This is yet another way the commodity analogy fails.

[Meera]

Thats a point.Some artists feign as if they want to give only the audience wants by asking what ragam shall I play for RTP etc.To whom are they cheating?Is the reply for their qn.going to be singular?So they satisfy one rasika out of the many requests and leave others disappointed.Even some v.g.artists practice this cheap tactic.

[Nick H]

... ... ...

What I am propounding is an open source model where free content is widely available to everyone at their finger tips. There is a much better chance for more and more people to experience CM. Also, I think this will push artistes and organisers to get more innovative and breathe freshness into CM.

Can we envision the possibility of live and digital co-existing and growing together - each feeding of the other ?

Why? Just look at the internet: it is there already. Youtube is as accessible at it gets: everyone from todlers to thathas uses it. Accessibility at fingertips: done deal, solved problem. On top of this, a number of sabhas are risking their life-blood backsides on seats by live webcasting of their programs.

Accessibility has never been so easy --- and it can only get better. So what I am not getting is, what are you asking for that is different?

[hnbhagavan]

Digital or technology can live only if LIVE programs exist.Music and Musicians do not exist without live programs.The recorded programs do a secondary job and is a poor replacement for Live programs which is discontinued for a TV program or some errand in the house.The Wife calling you will be the highest priority interrupt.
In fact i do not prefer listening to CM on TV.
But recorded programs are important for future generation and for present generation to fill the gap when Live programs are not available.