Choir Music

[makham]

Surprisingly I have not seen in our forum reports/reviews of genres of music other than carnatic classical. I had an opportunity to hear for the first time a type of music called choir music. There is a misconception that a choir is always associated with church. Choir only refers to a group of singers singing in unison led by a conductor. A church may have its own asthana choir but choirs can exist anywhere. The late MB Srinivasan apart from being a film music director is credited with being the torch bearer of choir music at least in South India. There are two groups nurtured by him continuing to carry the tradition – one in Chennai (Madras Youth Choir) and another in Trivandrum (MBS Youth Choir). These two groups came together on 19 Jan 2014 at Trivandrum to pay homage to their founder on the occasion of his 25th death anniversary.

This genre of music combines the traditions of Indian classical and folk music with Western techniques such as counterpoint and harmony. What I inferred from listening to the hour-long performance was that a group of 20 to 30 voices are organized to produce the effect of an orchestra sans fancy instruments. “The human voice is the most amazing instrument” seems to be the motto driving choir groups. And why not? The very arrangement of the singers signified soprano, tenor, alto and bass voices grouped appropriately. There was just harmonium and tabla to support but these artistes also kept a low profile so as not to drown the human voice.

The subject of the lyrics is usually about Nature (Rivers, Rain, Mountains), Patriotism (Bharathiyar’s works, homage to Bhagat Singh), World peace and so on. Language is no barrier as they use songs in Tamil, Malayalam, Hindi, Bengali and so on. Music that is meant for singing in a choir is called choral music. The members of the group are passionate individuals coming from diverse age groups and social strata. Some of them have been performing for over 30 years!

I am told that these performances do not last longer than an hour to an hour and a half. The intense rehearsals result in an exhibition of flawless and total harmony.

The MBS group undertakes to train school children in group singing and encourages schools to set up their own choir groups. The training imparts indirectly the much needed soft skills (or life skills) such as team work and respect for the environment.

I was thinking that the corporate world too can take a leaf out of the schools and can organize a choir of their own. It would boost loyalty and help brand building if corporate houses have their own theme song conveying the organization’s vision and mission and they begin the week and end the week by group singing of their theme song.

Would recommend rasikas.org members who have not experienced listening to choir music to try and attend a program. In these days of disharmony, this seems to be one tool that can bring in a semblance of harmony by channelizing energy in a harmless and soothing pursuit.

[rajeshnat]

Makham
We have few reviews outside of carnatic - classical , like HIndustani and also some string quartet like vs narasimhan etc. Tx for your review . Many years back few from my school inclusive of me have participated in some group singing conducted by Late MB Srinivasan. There used to be a book fair exhibition in St Ebbas school in mylapore and he used to conduct group singing there- not sure what we participated was group singing or indeed we were part of choir. I do know musicians like sudha ragunathan and rajkumar bharathi have participated in choir of MBS.

[rshankar]

And our member 'Kanniks' Kannikeswaran was recently featured on NPR for setting up 'carnatic choirs' in many places around the world.

[vasanthakokilam]

makham, thanks for that review.

As I was reading your review, like Ravi, I was also reminded of Kannikeswaran's monumental efforts in organizing such Choirs. My friend and his family participated in one such event by Kanniks in the Philly area 5 or 6 years back. They said it was incredible experience to be part of something that big. I did not know about M.B. Srinivsasan but what you wrote about the nature of his choirs make me wonder if they knew each other since there is much similarity in their approaches.

[mahavishnu]

Many years back few from my school inclusive of me have participated in some group singing conducted by Late MB Srinivasan. There used to be a book fair exhibition in St Ebbas school in mylapore and he used to conduct group singing there- not sure what we participated was group singing or indeed we were part of choir. I do know musicians like sudha ragunathan and rajkumar bharathi have participated in choir of MBS.

Yes, and MBS choir was all over the AIRwaves in the late 1970s and early 80s, in the nascent days of Madras doordarshan. I remember great renditions of Bharathi songs (ODi viLayADu pAppA for e.g) and other children's songs. Like Rajesh, I participated in my school's version of this for several years. Members of the original AIR choir would come to our school to train us. The first piece we learned was called the frog song (kottum mazhayin sattham kEttu koR koR endru thavaliyAr), a beautiful children's song.

Some music conservatives were apalled by the liberty MBS took with tuning and adding dramatic bits to Bharathi songs, and it was no comfort to them that Rajkumar Bharathi was participating in this himself!

I found MBS's approach refreshing and his idea of introducing four part vocal harmonies in Indian music to be quite an amazing feature. He was clearly way ahead of his times. People like Ilayaraja experimented with this only in later years.

MBS had a bit of a career as a film composer, mostly in the Malayalam film industry. The sad thing is that not much of his legacy stayed, many of the people that were part of his choir had glorious careers of their own (Sudha R for e.g).

As VK said, I wouldn't be surprised if Kanniks were a member of this choir at some point. His general Madras vintage puts him right in the middle of this movement. Even if he was not in it, I can definitely see him as being influenced by the general zeitgeist.

[vasanthakokilam]

Look what I found!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R7Hoh2bShV4
(In tamil audio).
But there are recordings of children's song along the lines of what Ramesh and Rajesh refer to.

I remember very much the Usha Udup song 'Under the mango tree'. I did not know it is by MBS. It makes sense now.

( look in the description of the video on how to enroll with the Madras Youth Choir )

Ramesh, I see why these can be considered as forerunners to IR's yukthis!, in both western and Indian folk.

In the video, Ramachandran says that Ilayaraja and gangai amaran played guitar for that MBS song.

[arasi]

Makham,
Thanks for starting this thread. I was not aware of a movement like this until I read this!

Here's a choir with just a few instruments, so that the focus is on the impact of the words through human voices. A contrast to today's musical extravaganzas where dozens of instruments are played, competing with the human voice!

When we were growing up, AIR had instrumental music, choirs too. However, choirs were strictly in the domain of religious music--on air, in churches and schools.

In radio's children's programs, we sang individually and in groups. Radio Mama (Guhan)
and others wrote the lyrics. Special occasions were marked with specially written songs. Lines of what we sang soon after the Mahatma's death was rendered with tears,
I recall: SAnta svarUpi sattiya jOthi, sAtvika mUrthy mahAtmA gAndhi. namakkena vAzhndE namakkena iRandAr, namakkE ulagil thani madippaLithAr, thamakkkena vAzhA thava muni avarai santatam ninaindE darumathai vaLarppOm...and after all these years, I remember the words!

Can't help bringing up another movement for children which started in the sixties--Prof. V.V.Sadagopan's Tyaga Bharathi. Children gathered at India Gate in Delhi, singing joyfully his songs specially written for them: all a wonderment about Nature's beauty and its creatures big and small, and about human values.

If music can inspire children by way of choirs which emphasize the impact of the words through human voices with a minimum number of instruments, if children's songs can be heard more widely, it assures us that new generations will benefit--with sound values, and sweet sounding music

[makham]

If music can inspire children by way of choirs which emphasize the impact of the words through human voices with a minimum number of instruments, if children's songs can be heard more widely, it assures us that new generations will benefit--with sound values, and sweet sounding music

The idea of my starting this thread has been fully realized through the wonderful articulation by arasi as above.

[arasi]

Thanks for your kind words, Makham...