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Don’t rush kids
to concert stage, pleads veena vidushi Kalpakam
Swaminathan
By Sudha
Jagannathan
sudha_jagannathan@yahoo.com |
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Veena vidushi Kalpagam Swaminathan was given away
the “Veena Seshanna” award at a function
in Bangalore on July 20, 2008. After returning to
Chennai, she shared with www.carnaticdarbar.com
her feelings about getting the award and her award-acceptance
speech at the function. Shri N. Murali, President
of Music Academy, Shri Mysore V. Subramanya, a great
grandson of Veena Seshanna, and other eminent personalities
from the music world attended the function. She
also gave an hour-long concert on the occasion. |
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The concert also comprised two compositions
of Veena Seshanna. One was in raga Darmavathy and
the other a tillana in Chenjuruti. Smt. Kalpagam
Swaminathan said that she felt much elevated when
Shri Subramanya heaped praise on her for her dedicated
devotion to music. She had by-hearted a couple of
Veena Seshanna kritis in a short span of time.
Shri Subramanya paid encomiums to the veena vidushi
as she played so well sitting in a padmasana at
the ripe age of 87. Smt. Kalpagam Swaminathan said
she had frankly expressed her views while giving
her award-acceptance speech. Children, she said,
should not be rushed into concerts. They should
not be hurried to sing in TV, Radio and concerts.
Parents, she felt, should have patience and wait
for an appropriate time for sending their kids to
concert stage. Just the way attichuvadi and vocabulary
were taught in the beginning stage, swaravali, jantai,
alamkaram and geetham were taught to students, she
said. Varnam and kirtanai formed advanced lessons
in music, she added. Students had to be well trained
in basic lessons first and further perfect themselves
in advance lessons before venturing into concert
idea. To learn all these, considerable time was
required. Even more tough was the manodarma sangeetham
or the creative music, she said. ``It is learnt
through one’s own experience in music and
not through others. An artiste’s creativity
will grow only after learning a lot of kritis in
a raga. A musician will be able to sing kalpanaswaras
and the raga bhavam also will develop. On the contrary,
if the raga and swaras are learnt from others, it
will become composed music or kalpitha sangeetham.
It won’t be one’s own creativity,’’
asserted Smt. Kalpagam Swaminathan.
To overcome this, she emphasized the need for a
strong foundation. In this context, she had come
out with her own format for arengatram or the maiden
concert for the children.
The children should be made to sing in front of
vidwans at each stage, she said. Vidwans could pinpoint
their mistakes on the spot. In the first stage,
they could demonstrate on stage their prowess in
the basics – from swaravali to alamkaram.
The next stage could see them exhibit their talent
in geethams and swarajathis. Varnam and kirtanai
could form the next stage. If this technique was
adopted, the children would be better placed. This
would lay a strong foundation for them, she said.
``They will gain more confidence,’’
she pointed out. If an artiste sang a raga without
proper gamakam or presented a kriti without bhava,
one would find fault with the foundation, she said.
Smt. Kalpagam Swaminathan said that the sabhas and
others were not to be blamed for not giving veena
artistes prime slots. “We have to rectify
our errors. Then only can we blame the sabhas if
chances are not given,” she said. ``Why Goddess
Saraswathi is holding a veena instead of a mandolin
or other instruments? It is because veena is such
a divine instrument and the art of veena-playing
is not that easy,’’ she pointed out.
If ragas such as Malahari, Kalyani and Anandabhairavi
were played in veena in plain notes without gamakas,
they won’t appeal to the listeners. ``Even
the basic lessons such as swaravali can be played
with gamakas. That will give an enriched presentation
to the whole exercise,’’ she said. She
regretted that some patantara didn’t give
importance to tala in the beginning stage of veena
playing. ``Tala is essential while playing veena
in all three speeds,’’ she explained.
Expressing her views on Tiruvaiyaru festival during
Saint Tyagaraja Aradhana, Smt. Kalpagam Swaminathan
felt that flute, veena, violin, gottuvadya, mandolin
and other instrument players could play the swara
part and the sahitya could be handled by vocalists.
In this way, the rendering of pancharatna kritis
could be made more enjoyable, she pointed out.
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