Comparing CM virtuoso attributes to those from other genres

[thenpaanan]

Given the recent talk about perfection in sruthi shuddham, three octave range, stamina, etc of various eminent musicians I wonder if it is indeed appropriate to compare them to people in other genres.

If your opinion is that MMI or MSS had perfect alignment the automatic implication is that they had no peers in their own genre, so one has to go outside the system to find persons with whom to compare. But that comparison is difficult on some dimensions.

After all if you are looking for the world's best yadukulakAmbhOji it would be futile to look elsewhere. On the other hand, if you are looking for a general attribute it might be instructive to see how our giants compare with those from other systems.

Alternately, if we come to the opinion that such comparisons will always fail we learn what is particular about our system's approach to certain basic things that defies a common ground to make the comparison from. After all singing is singing, or is it? (I will restrict myself to the vocal category since I know even less about instrumental features.)

So here are some examples to get us started:

1. Sruthi shuddham: MMI, MMS, KVN -- I would compare them with Mallikarjun Mansur or the early Lata or even Ella Fitzgerald

2. Octave range: TMK, (who else would fit here from CM?) -- compare with Bhimsen Joshi

3. Virtuosity: Madurai Somu, GNB -- compare with (the pre-heart attack) Bade Ghulam Ali Khan, Bhimsen

4. Well-supported voice: Jesudas -- compare with Frank Sinatra

5. Sowkhyam (i.e. pleasing to listen to at all times): MMI -- compare with Mukesh, Amir Khan

6. Richness of voice: MDR, BMK compare with Mohd. Rafi or Johnny Cash (mentioned in this form not long ago!)

and so on. Of course one can provide many more examples from HM since it is closest to us, this is only a starter.

Going by my inspiration Coolji in all things music-web, I will try to post snippets if there is enough enthusiasm for the topic.

Feel free to add attributes as well as your favourite icon either from Carnatic or from some other system of music and perhaps something about an illustrative piece to your point.

-thenpaanan

PS. People who want to get into "my music is bigger than yours" discussions please accept my apologies in advance.

[Nick H]

In Western music, a good voice is usually the starting point.

There are obvious exceptions, where a various combinations of character, presence, general musicality or just having something to say that people want to hear wins the day. eg Bob Dylan, Tom Waits

[anandasangeetham]

On the octave range did you mean BMK? I am not sure if TMK has such an octave range. others who qualify for the octave range apart from BMK is OST (some ten years earlier) BMK will and can still touch all three octaves effortlessly.

Other attributes
Janaranjakam - Maharajapuram Santhanam
Forceful music - Start to end full of power - Madurai Somu
unhurried music - Vijay Siva

[vasanthakokilam]

thenpaanan, good topic.

On bhAvam, who all can we consider across the various genres?

For this purpose, I define bhAvam as the 'communication of what the song is about, specifically the emotional content'.
What the song is about is already carried a lot in the Lyrics, Melody and Layam, but the singer definitely plays a big role
in manifesting them. The voice timbre can make a big difference ( e.g Chembai ).

[bilahari]

MDR had good range, too, especially in the lower octave. I'm also impressed by Hyderabad Seshachary's range.

[vasanthakokilam]

Another point about bhAvam laden singers. We had talked about Tadepalli Lokanatha Sarma as one who does full justice to the artha bhAvam of the song. In CM, artha bhavam of the lyrics is carried by the musical aspects of the composition itself in melody and rhythm. If we want to compare this to singers in other genres, we have to see where the weight of that exposition of the artha bhAvam falls, on the composer or the performer. It is both but CM singers seem to have an advantage that the composers have done the heavy lifting.