An evergreen debate on tradition versus modernity in Carnatic classical music has been revived with the music season on in full swing in Madras.
Last Sunday, T.M. Krishna, while arguing for preserving the integrity of the Carnatic tradition, wrote in The Hindu that instruments like the saxophone and keyboard were just not cut out for the south Indian classical form.
This has drawn a response from the pianist Anil Srinivasan in the Sunday magazine of The Hindu:
“Tradition has become indelibly linked with the past. This is where the problems begin. We get autoregressive when discussing the preservation or conservation of a tradition. Trapping it in a time capsule and not allowing it to breathe or acquire newer characteristics is antithetical to the very notion of an intergenerational transfer….
“Historically, traditions were largely oral and were passed on from one generation to another….
“Music cannot be classified. To the human mind, the illusion of control or self perception leads it towards instant and automatic categorisation. We want to label everything we encounter because it makes us feel at least temporarily in control of the environment. And hence terming Carnatic music a tradition becomes a hook on which we hang our approximations of what we think South Indian classical music ought to be.”
In the same issue of The Hindu, Aruna Sairam tells Dr Srinivasan:
“Tradition exists to show you who you are. Innovation should be encouraged to show you who you could be…. Innovation is an approach to an existing body of work that has not been thought of before. In that respect, each of us is innovating constantly…. Only two things matter: be true to who you are, and be sincere in what you want to articulate. If this happens, the music will transcend categorisation and analysis.”
Also read: Can Carnatic music change the cheri pasangal?
Not this or that, this and that is the zeitgeist
Balamurali Krishna: If it sounds good, it’s Carnatic
‘Carnatic music can innovate, expand, grow’
Carnatic music is meant for the whole family. So there is no room for sax and violins in Carnatic music.
What is Carnatic?
Can carnatic music do with a little more moans of porno flicks!!!
For once I thought it was sex than sax.
I am sure with Madras connection and most urbanized state of TN; CM celebrating polygamy, it’s not going to be too far. I got this piece.
In movie “Eyes wide shut” , a seer deliberately shown like shankaracharya who catlayses masked sex as a fantasy of a psychiatrist-Tom Cruise, over that a Meddras Brahmin helps in the name of Carnatic -thank song wasn’t kannada.
“The background score during the orgy (where Tom Cruise walks from room to room) is a Tamil song sung by Manickam Yogeswaran who is a Carnatic singer”
Illegitimate spawns of evangelism speaking Kannada discourse under Meddras Iyengari pulchars.
Dadda shikamanigala.
Veene , Kolalu , Mridanga , Piteel , chande etc all have their own differences of vibrations.
For accomodating a instrument you blame the music itself. Can’t take more insanity!!
Looks like he doesn’t have money to buy one or time to learn one.
It’s like saying
A bad worker blames the tools.
A half baked musician with lame instrument blames the music.
It’s hightime we pay respect to thespians who gifted us with this knowledge not letting it flow in drains of Tamil blood.And rephrase Carnatic to Karnataka . Time to Patent and separate out.
The violin too was an “import” into Carnatic music. So why not the sax and keyboards?
Gundecha brothers have revived Dhrupad with their innovations. Their innovations do not change the fundamental roots of Dhrupad neither do the compromise on the purity of the Dhrupad style. They are excellent example that proves that you can bring in innovation without diluting the essence.
The question for Mysoreans is passe and almost a century old ! Maharaja Nalvadi Krishnaraja Wadiyar was an authority of Carnaticmusic, was also interested in western musical instruments. He was proficient in playing Veena, Flute, Violin, Mridangam, Nagaswara , Sitar , Saxophone, Harmoniuum and Piano ! The palace Band, called Nadamuni Band and familiar to old-timers, used to play select Carnatic kritis. This Band also had a Saxophone player. Saxophone artiste Sri Lakshminarasimhaiah of the then Mysore Palace Band inspired young Kadri Gopinath to learn Saxophone. Even Great musician Semmangudi Srinivasa Iyer, the doyen of Carnatic music, has acknowledged Kadri Gopalnath as a true Carnatic music genius.
Carnatic music, of course, has always had a big connection with Kannada, Purandaradasa having been credited with systematising it, determining its swaraprasthaara.
The story why it is called “Carnatic” music has little to do with us. It is just that the East India Company indiscriminately called large areas of the south, some now part of Karnataka, of AP, and TN, the Carnatic. The eastern seaboard extending all the way from the border of Orissa to the tip in Kanyakumari was called the Carnatic coast and the land along the coast came to be called Carnatic (essentially meaning southeast). Of course we can fantasise that our Kannada military might extended latitudinally and longitudinally all over Bharathabhoomi. However, we may want to remember that our own Mangalapura and Uttarakannada jille areas were part of the Malabar coast administration.
Conclusion: The appellation “Carnatic Music” applies to the tradition prominent in all four southern states. ThamuLra myaage sumke kwaapa byaada kaNaNNa.
This nails it : http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nfVufU_vC-0
Anna,
Quite brilliant!
Tiger’s Whiskers the Ultimate!
Sorry Karnataka Desha predates East India Company. Please correct your historical records. In fact Kannada might extended all the way up to Madhyapradesh!
Pulikeshi the Last,
History gotilla andhre yeno yeno mathadBedi. Karnataka sangeetha – the reference of this word firstly comes in Kannada works of 12th century. What started as a music of kannada land was further systemized by purandaradasa. This music tradition of kannada land gave it the name karnataka sangeetha which was later pronounced or misprononced by britishers as carnatic. But that does not take anything away from the music which has been reffered as karnataka sangeetha way before britishers came here. Added to this it was telugu tyagaraja who popularised the music in tamilnadu.Its now certain that karnatik music is popular in tamilnadu.but history has shown how this music fridted from vijayanagara kingdom to mysore kingdom to Tanjavore kings to chennai.
Don’t dance to the steps pf writers who are jealous of the term karnataka sangeetha and wants to get rid of it.
Music is Universal.
Corruption is also Universal.
@Imsai Arasan 23am Pulikesi
Dhanur maasa . Swalpa weakness iruthe. I do understand. Adenu namma janano gothilla. Kannada bittu ellara melu karune prema kaama.
Karma.
TN is nothing short of this.
http://ibnlive.in.com/news/president-concerned-about-alcoholism-in-kerala/107863-3.html?from=tn
The problem with Kerala and TN is they aren’t able to separate Political class from Janasaamanya.
Who bothers here about a Renukacharya? But can the same happen there ? With a star studded politician and self proclaiming working class who even after earning lakhs now still don’t bother to learn anything.
It takes a corrupt shape with international collaboration with English dividing the neighbours.
Dearest TMK,
You and your brethren killing the lyrics of songs in Kannada, Telugu and Sanskrit is sick and OTOH, Saxophone and Piano try more honestly to speak in the language of Shastriya Sangeetha!
AR Rehman says he is keen on performing Indian Classical Music on Continuum I say, bring it on!
TMK has some really weird notions about music and his intellectual property, I once saw him stop a white thatha capturing a few seconds of his performance on a handheld video camera and in the same concert he scolded a kid toying with a camera phone and told every one that he has a exclusive contract with a big label and they should not try stealing his music. That teeny-weeny video captures with mono sound could challenge big record companies?
Aham… Aham… Ahem!
Anna–
Thanks for the title. I have seen the movie, and I know that Tamil movies can be as much an insult to our intelligence as most Kannada movies are.
Anna,
In your last post you write ‘Kannada bittu ellara melu karune prema kaama.’ Should that not be- Kannada bittu elladhara melu….. OR Kannadigara bittu ellara melu…….. Just a bit of hair splitting. Mannisa beku.
Hope you have a gr8 2010.
Pulikeshi
I agree the prefix ‘most’ does the most talking.Do you think you just pushed me off Tippu drop?
Gaby
hair splitting!! I remember Poornachandra Tejaswi narrating a similar dilemma with ಶ or ಷ in ಶುಭಾ ? ಯ in some of his books.
1.Well about ಎಲ್ಲದರ and ಎಲ್ಲರ
ಎಲ್ಲದರ becomes impersonification like Everyone’s language.
ಎಲ್ಲರ means more abstract. Every language (taking context).
2. Here even I can pull hair or what is it ? split hair. pull leg. whatever.
If you use Kannadigara….. – you still miss yourself -Kannadathi there . I didn’t want to miss even if they were fingercount(ful/able) (ಬೆರಳೆಣಿಕೆ ) who may be reading this.
Hence mortal homo sapiens when included can beat the abstraction of the language which might have included bird and animal sounds from anaadi kaala.
Remember Yagnya Valkya and Shuka upanishad!!
or Hanuma.
If we leave it Tamils will grab and produce lot of noise for classical status that too in Mysur centre.
PS: on usage of fingercountable: I really have this dilemma of using ‘handful’ due to presence of much popular ‘handsome’ which itself is quite controversial- much to amusement of women and astonishment of men and meaningless of neither. It becomes a terrible pun sometimes in the punny language.
Remembering Aswath singing Shareefa’s
“Tharavalla thagi ninna thmaburi swara barade baarisadiru tamboori…..”
quite apt for the sax player.
TM Krishna is one of the best artists of Carnatic music of our generation. But, he is entirely wrong when he says other instruments can’t capture the essence of Carnatic music.
Indian Classical music is most extempore of the classical musics. There is so much scope given to the performer to interpret and improvise, unlike in Western Classical systems. It is precisely this improvisation, that makes an artist great (versus mere good).
Adaptation of new instruments and styles, while keeping the essence of music is what makes classical music relevant and exciting. For people who are interested in Carnatic as it was being recited 100 years back, there is always recordings of Shemmangudi as well.
TM Krishna, who is a genius in improvisation, should know this better than others.
Oh BTW!
Violin is an import from Western Classical to Indian Classical. 100 years back the pakka-vadhya for Carnatic singer was a Veena. I have attended TM Krishna’s concerts and he does use Violin accompaniment.
Wonder…