TMK Vocal Solo - ShutInConcert

[shreyas]

Still going on. He is attempting to tick off requests at this point (claims he got 200+ requests).

Started off as a conventional Carnatic TMK concert, then he moved onto requests. Highlights for me were the splendid Kambhoji alapana and the rendition of Mayamma (Natakurinji), my request to him.

Quite a lot of songs, so this is is as much as I remember.

1. Ramanee Samana - Kharaharapriya - Rupakam - Tyagaraja [Short R, N + S @ Paluku]
2. Devi Brova - Chintamani - Adi - Syama Sastri
3. Sri Subrahmanyaya - Kambhoji - Rupakam - Dikshithar [R, N @ Bhusuradi, S @Charanaya]
4. Krishna Nee - Yamunakalyani - Misra Chapu - Vyasaraya Teertha
5. Muddugare - Kurinji - Adi - Annamacharya
6. Sri Kalahastisha - Huseni - Jhampa - Dikshithar
7. Mayamma - Natakurinji - Adi - Syama Sastri [Short R] my request
8. Azhuden - Perumal Murugan - Mayamalavagowla, Behag, Kapi
9. Neemattume - Kapi - Rupakam - Perumal Murugan
10. Kanivolum - Sankabharanam - Adi - ??
11. Hum Dekhenge in four languages
12. Mast Qalandar (apparently the only request from Pakistan)
13. Dhono Dhanyo - ?? - Tisra Adi - Dwijendralal Roy
14. Allah Tero Nam

It appears to be over now.

A fabulous concert for 2 hours 50 minutes. I would call it a Carnatic ‘concert’ only until Natakurinji, I think. After that it became more of a request fulfilling exercise. But the singing was splendid, and he did a wonderful job holding out without co-artistes for nearly 3 hours.

I was personally delighted that he fulfilled my request (1 out of 4 songs I had requested him, which is quite good ).

[shreyas]

I forgot, after Muddugare was a ragamalika thanam in Hamir, Varali, Devagandhari, Suratti, Khamas followed by the Daru Varnam.

[Sundara Rajan]

I beg to differ ! Until item 7, it was so so, but after that he bored me with his Azhugai that was tooooo long to bear ! I hope the real concert someday in the future may be better. Otherwise my $30 was a total WASTE.

[Sachi_R]

I think Shaale and TMK have to be complimented for streaming this vocal session.

For die-hard TMK fans, just like die-hard TMS and Mohammad Rafi and Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan fans, every session of their favourite's music transports them to a dreamy world. In TMK's case it is one of vocal resonance and raga explorations. Primarily, TMK, in my opinion, is best enjoyed by the raga paradigm and by giving less importance to sahitya and even less importance to any of his messaging through his music.

I think as the performers and streaming techies perfect their delivery, we will hear better sound capture, less ambient noise and moderately set electronic tambura volume in such house concerts. in #ShutInConcert #TMKSolo, the electronic tambura drowned the voice quite a bit and we wished there was a mic picking up the voice better. I don't know if it was my system, but there was a low continuous rumble of an AC or something in the background that was amplified in moments of silence due to some mic AGC setting.

TMK did his best. It is difficult to deliver a vocal concert shut in your room with cameras, but with their not being allowed to show any other animate objects. He finds it easy to get into his zone of music, I mean paradigm. But to sustain it for 3 hours is tough. He did it. So

I found the music to be the standard TMK type. I still consider his Kolkata concert from last year to be the best in recent times. https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=P ... 4YwjCaqARc

His voice seemed to trail off towards the end, as he rummaged through listener requests and picked up the sahitya pages. But his acceding to the Pakistan Sindh request for Dum-a-Dum Mast Qalandar was very sporty.

I couldn't figure out many of the Tamil lyrics he sang - some of which must have been Perumal Murugan types. There was also an atrocity or rather anti-establishment song in many languages.

[Nick H]

... ... ... my $30 ... ... ...

I did not pay, I did not watch, but have to say that I wondered at this. I read (I think, on the online flier for the concert) that proceeds for the concert would go to artists who are not receiving any payment for performing during these tough times. I applaud that: it is a great initiative. But Rs.1,500? Were only the wealthy permitted to contribute to the cause and enjoy the music?

[thenpaanan]

I was only able to watch the recorded version due to timezone issues. I found the performance very good. To sing without accompaniment for nearly three hours is no easy feat. I am sure other people have done it before, so it is not unique. I've tried it myself though only for an hour and I can tell you there is no place to hide when your voice cracks or you need a breath. Plus TMK did not seem to be mic'ed which meant that he was depending on voice projection alone for this voice to reach wherever the camera was. To be able to sustain your voice that long without break and without rest periods where your accompanists take over is a physically demanding exercise and he managed very well, even though you could tell he was tired towards the end. Most singers lose pitch when they are tired but that was not the case here. As for the comments here about the slow tempo, my experience has been that when you don't have accompanists, particularly a percussionist, fast tempo songs do not shine. TMK did not even put talam in the heavy loud way that traditional singers are wont, so it would have been quite hard to pull off a fast kriti. Case in point, the damAdam mast kalandar piece. First of all, I am utterly amazed that there are people in Pakistan listening to Carnatic music. Second. the way we are used to listening to it usually involves generous doses of clapping and rhythm. So it was very sporting of him to do it without. Third, I felt that the mystical nature of the piece was missing. Perhaps it is a defect of this listener rather than the singer. As for the other comments, I do agree that the price would have been steep for many listeners, and I cannot figure out how they came up with that number. Also I recall that in the original ad for the program accompanists were mentioned so I thought perhaps this was going to be a live Internet-based collaborative concert which I was looking forward to. It would have been a very interesting and educational exercise if the bandwidth supported it. Perhaps some other time.

-T

[Sachi_R]

@thenpaanan
Spot on.
I think the rapid escalation of lockdown measures thwarted any collaborative effort especially given the inescapable iffy bandwidth, latency, and restrictions on movement of crew.

The Mast Qalandar song request was another example of how we want our favourite musicians to sing our favourite numbers

[Nick H]

... As for the comments here about the slow tempo, my experience has been that when you don't have accompanists, particularly a percussionist, fast tempo songs do not shine.

I guess he is the master of slow. Some of us love slow! We can enjoy it in the performances of some of his students too. Young Rithvik Raja comes to my mind.

... Second. the way we are used to listening to it usually involves generous doses of clapping and rhythm.

Always refreshing when this is absent from a concert and we can just listen to the music.

Also I recall that in the original ad for the program accompanists were mentioned so I thought perhaps this was going to be a live Internet-based collaborative concert which I was looking forward to. It would have been a very interesting and educational exercise if the bandwidth supported it. Perhaps some other time.

I have been wondering about the technology to do this too. I'm reasonably sure that it exists and that recordings have been made with remote collaboration for quite a while. I don't have a clue about the technical demands to achieve the low latency and high-reliability bandwith.

I don't see concerts and concert-going getting back to normal within two or three months, and I don't think us elders (and I am one the younger elders!) should be in a hurry to get back out there. Maybe internet collaboration is a barrier that some our musicians may yet break. Many of them must be itching to play together again.

[sais72]

I forgot, after Muddugare was a ragamalika thanam in Hamir, Varali, Devagandhari, Suratti, Khamas followed by the Daru Varnam.

Shreyas, thank you for your prompt and excellent review of the concert.

Can you please edit your earlier post and include the ragamalika tanam and daru varnam in its place in the list. Thanks.

[thenpaanan]

I guess he is the master of slow. Some of us love slow! We can enjoy it in the performances of some of his students too. Young Rithvik Raja comes to my mind.

Indeed. I was responding to a comment about the pieces being uniformly slow. I am slow in my performances as well but that is more a reflection of my skill level than aesthetics.

... Always refreshing when this is absent from a concert and we can just listen to the music.

Nevertheless, when audience requests come in, they usually have some previous rendering in mind and TMK would have known that this was not going to be up to that sort of expectation, but he delivered it notwithstanding.

I have been wondering about the technology to do this too. I'm reasonably sure that it exists and that recordings have been made with remote collaboration for quite a while. I don't have a clue about the technical demands to achieve the low latency and high-reliability bandwidth.

I saw recently this remote concert on Youtube
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Sj4pE_bgRQI

No doubt this will not be easy with improvised music but worth a try.

-T

[Nick H]

this remote concert on Youtube

Wow: a distributed orchestra!

[Ranganayaki]

Wow: a distributed orchestra!

But haven’t such videos existed for a few years now? And there have been some with hundreds of participants. It’s great editing/mixing or whatever it’s called, but the togetherness is not live. That must be too difficult right now, to make fine music.

Here’s another one that has been doing the rounds on Whatsapp lately re. Coronavirus:

https://youtu.be/tzhbyMzrGNY (Song in Spanish, French and English and may be some other languages)

[Nick H]

Yes, I think they have. I think some choral things have been done like this too.

[shreyas]

Happened even earlier than expected - and with none other than TMKs student.

https://www.instagram.com/tv/B-mYLwLhel ... ne9i7ux6q2

[Sachi_R]

Oh what a lovely song and so well rendered! The team simply rocks for such a sensitive rendition with good tonality. The technology (Zoom?) seems to work very well.

Like with all Samskrita lyrics, I tend to nitpick some wrong words.
The following sahitya looks to be to be right:

चाम्पेय—नासाग्र-लग्न-सुमौक्तिक a lovely pearl is ornamenting the tip of Krishna's champak-like beauty of a nose....

Well done Rithvik!

[Sachi_R]

OK. There is no evindence that the Rithvik +Vittal+Sumesh video was produced in a single pass.
Perhaps it is done by a. First vocal track, then b. Violin add on and c mridangam add on.

[sureshvv]

Looks too good to be live (true). Yet not sure what else can be the intent of the video. Any background info available?

[thenpaanan]

I agree that the tonal quality was superlative. It is indeed very satisfying to see that audio quality has come of age in Carnatic music. There was no accompanying description of the video so it is hard to tell the intent.

Even if it was done in multiple passes, it is well-worth the effort in my opinion. My imagination is running ahead already with deliberate (measured) gaps left in the singing by the vocalist to be filled in later by the violinist as appropriate and then finally an overlay by the percussionist(s) to give it the verisimilitude of an actual live performance complete with manodharma. Why not? It will require new kinds of creativity and discipline on the part of the musicians which can only be a good thing.

-T

[Sachi_R]

Thenpaanan,
Yes. That was how it was meant to be. I do think that the current level of tech easily available and the iffiness of the Internet precludes actual, live, one pass collaboration and recording.

To be fair, I have been privy to information that many recordings done 20-30 years or more earlier were done in multipass layering of ensembles and effects.
As I was saying to someone, unless you as the listener and the musicians are breathing the same air in the same room at the same time, there is a deviance from the actual truth of the music created live. But yet it is all enjoyable in one way or other.

[Ranganayaki]

Happened even earlier than expected - and with none other than TMKs student.

https://www.instagram.com/tv/B-mYLwLhel ... ne9i7ux6q2

What are you saying happened? This is very, very, nice, and really gives the impression of a live concert, but I think it is the same as the other videos we see here: the togetherness is not live. They are not playing simultaneously.

[Ranganayaki]

OK. There is no evindence that the Rithvik +Vittal+Sumesh video was produced in a single pass.
Perhaps it is done by a. First vocal track, then b. Violin add on and c mridangam add on.

Yes, that’s what I thought. The accompanists have the voice recording to listen to as they play.

[Ranganayaki]

Looks too good to be live (true). Yet not sure what else can be the intent of the video. Any background info available?

I think the intent was to beat the frustration of the shut-in period, and produce something nice, and share. If they had actually played together in different locations, that would be incredible and they would have mentioned it. It’s the same as all those other videos.

[Sachi_R]

Email received from Sri. T. M. Krishna:



Thank you very much for supporting the #ShutIn concert through which we were able to start a COVID - 19 Artists Fund.

We've shared in this email, the updates of the Fund so far. Details of the total amount disbursed, various art forms we have covered, demography, gender and the number of artists who were supported are all presented in the infographic.

Please do take a look. We would greatly appreciate it if you could share it on WhatsApp, Facebook, Instagram, etc., with your networks, so that more people can contribute to the fund.

Details of the bank accounts to which donations can be made are also given.

We look forward to your continued support.

Warm Regards
TM Krishna
COVID-19 Artists Fund Update
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[shankarank]

It is very much possible that it is live and done in one pass, may they did multiple tries - may be. But the Zoom conference that I am having daily with Banglorians are almost instant with no perceptible delay in response, as it used to be in the old days of telephone conversations - where you had to pause before you get a response. Same with whatsapp or calls these days.

If the artists are colocated in the same city, there will not be any perceptible delay. Mridangam has a way of naDai playing where it can extend the time interval using toppi sound to do delay catchup.

[Sachi_R]

Which one, Shankaran? So far all the apparent collaborations floating around during the lockdown are multipass.
There is a dead giveaway - the metronome.

[Ranganayaki]

Were you able to see a metronome in any of these videos? I couldn’t! I’m not sure what you mean by a dead give-away.

[Sachi_R]

I mean any sign of a beat keeping device(eg that Corona video) shows they are all being prompted by those metronomic beats, via headphones/earpieces during each layer of add-on. Also small cues as to how well the accompanists seem to know whatever little nuance or touch is coming next (since in multipass they can listen to it a couple of times before actually recording their part). Headphones hint at that. But the final track may or may not have the metronome sound.

[Ranganayaki]