… music divine and absolute
Music season is drawing to a close here, and I’m settling in to a fairly hefty practise schedule on the sax. However, many gems have been cropping up in the musical calendar out of the blue.
Last night saw what I’d regard as one of the two best vocal concerts I’ve seen here so far. This was S.Sowmya and M. Narmada (violin) in Mylapore. I think Suddha Ragunathan’s concert at Nungambakam has been the peak for me … but Suddha is the unquestioned diva of the carnatic vocal scene, a very dynamic performer, an outstanding musician, and a personal favourite for a very long time. Sowmya, I knew only by reputation, and I was hoping to catch her perform. I was not dissappointed. She has a very strong sense of time, and avoid a lot of the hysterical gesticulating that plagues many of the better know and less well regarded performers. When the principal singer has solid tala, the supporting musicians have a lot more space to embellish the work rather than merely accompany. The mridangam (percussion) player took many opportunities to allow Sowmya to sing unaccompanied, providing virtuosic fills to give her melody a much more varied structure. Her voice is strong and earthy, and she is a master of Brugha (the vocal wavering that you hear as a distincive characteristic of Carnatic music) but uses it coloristically rather than as a flashy excess. Her alapana (improvisations without words or rhythm) were interesting, and full of surprising melodic leaps. Dr Narmada was also an outstanding improviser, with strong and intereresting improvisations. Both ladies had an a very serious and almost sombre presence, but when an extroardinary musical moment happened (and there were many), they cracked big childlike grins of pleasure, sharing the magic moments between themselves.
Many of the Rasika’s (fine music lovers) have been spoiled by the quality of the season so far, this late in January the turnout was low, with many chatting on their mobile phones. This is less ruse here than it would be elsewhere in the world. There is a culture of here of helping a performer by providing annoying distractions and barriers to concentration that a musician needs to overcome. People don’t necassarily keep a respectful silence unless something truly extraordinary is happening. That’s just a part of the normal chaos of India I think: the worlds largest functioning anarchy. And growing up in this environment, the top echelon of performers here are absolutely unstoppable in their concentration: fazed by nothing.
It has been a busy week musically for me. It is the anniversary of Tyagarajah’s moment of Samadhi this week, and there have been several vocal concerts devoted to his music. Night before last, I heard the Priya sisters in concert at the music academy. I have several recording of them, though I’d considered that most of what I’d heard had been a bit lightweight. They are undoubtedly good performers and great musicians, but I think they have a lot of emphasis on showmanship, pretty voices, and being a sister team. They had a tendency for the mudra-esque gesturing that I’m starting to think of as a bad sign in a classical singer. They had some very clever musical tricks (an excellent cross-time rendering of a Pallavi, in particular), but compared to the rhythmic dynamism of Sowmya, these sounded more like well rehearsed party tricks. But it was undoubtedly a concert worth seeing, as was the male vocalist the previous night, M Balanakrishnan. Tyagarajah’s music is outstanding, with a very deep spiritual and philosophical side in the lyrics that I have seen translated. His music is, however, very tuneful and accessible … perhaps the nearest western composer to compare with would be Mozart.
