|
|
Cast aside sentiments & rigidity to ensure wider
acceptance of Carnatic music, says Ghatam Suresh
By Sudha Jagannathan |
|
A simple human being, a dedicated professional,
a keen student and a resourceful teacher, he is
a well known percussion artiste. A disciple of T.V.
Gopalakrishnan, he has developed an intimate relationship
with this instrument. This friendship with the pots
has seen him go places and earned him the sobriquet
Ghatam Suresh. |
|
A specialist in `double
gamaka’ (i.e playing the Gumuki, the base
notes with both wrists with felicity), he has also
learnt to play on a variety of instruments such
as mridangam, kanjira, thavil, konnakkol and dolki.
Vaidyanathan Suresh shares his views on very many
issues connected to Carnatic music in an interview
with Sudha Jagannathan. Read on.
Can
Carnatic music go beyond the Indian shores?
Answer: Yes, but not in its entirety.
Divided by regions, customs and acceptability, world
has different genre of music. For the human mind
in general, music is a pass time relaxation or entertainment.
Some systems of music also have the emotional appeal,
which goes deeper into the minds. For one genre
to go beyond its region, it needs to appeal to a
large section of people as an accepted form of entertainment
and emotional appeal. Since the music also carries
the culture of a region by way of language, life
style and the message, which is conveyed through
expressions via melody and the locally familiar
instruments, the entry of a new genre in its full
form into another society is difficult. Every new
system of music introduced in a society is first
received with curiosity and the taste does not generally
grow beyond the momentary appreciation of the skill
of an artiste. To be precise, for a Carnatic musician
singing for a whole lot of westerners to influence
a majority of them to prefer his/her music to the
one they are used to in their lifestyle and push
them to seriously pursue learning from then on is
the rarest of possibilities. But there are musicians
and students of music who see music beyond the boundary
of their culture, trying to experience the beauty
of music originated from different parts of the
world. They look forward to Indian music, which
is ageless and rich. It is some of these serious
listeners we see in Chennai during the December
music season. But again, Indian rhythm has been
received better compared to the melody by the general
audience, who could identify their swings and grooves
in our traditional solfa patterns.
What
has to be done for that?
Answer:
Well, there is nothing in specific to be done to
take our music to west and Far East. For, our classical
music makes its normal course through our musicians,
especially percussionists. Just as we take our own
time to accept others’ music, we should wait
for natural acceptability. In my opinion, India
is a huge country with diversified customs and practices
even in music and dance. We should devote more time
and funds to explore the pure cultural richness
of the villages and tribal areas, which are more
emotional and blended with life.
Between
Carnatic and Hindustani music, the latter has gained
recognition globally. Carnatic music appears to
have a long way to go. Why?
Answer:
Great doyens like Ravishankar and Ali Akbar Khan
did two things as early as in the 1950s. They toured
the west far and wide, performing even in small
towns and villages. Secondly, they made a point
to speak to every available gathering, especially
the students in universities about Hindustani music
and called it just Indian music. Well, at that time
they were only introducing Indian music and, hence,
cannot be expected to dwell deep into our diversified
systems. They targeted the western audience very
early with an eye on the future. Our musicians (Carnatic)
at that time were hesitant, introvert and highly
contented.
|
What
is the role of `laya' instruments in this
context? How far they (laya instruments) are
successful in taking Carnatic music global?
Answer: Laya or rhythm is
universal. It is human nature to move with
the rhythm, especially when it is expressed
by some aesthetic and organized beats. The
west is familiar with an acoustic drum kit,
its related percussions, frame drums and the
African and Latin American percussion instruments
and their beats. Our percussionists can easily
identify and show similarities of such beats
in our instruments, which pave way for blends
and jelling. The laya instruments of the south
- the mridangam, ghatam, tavil, kanjira, morsing,
konnakkol and folk instruments - have attracted
the western audience instantly in spite of
playing classical and traditional patterns.
|
|
|
As I said earlier, our
beats are easily identified with their grooves and
enjoyed. The varieties of instruments and also the
solfa systems we show in our playing amuse them
naturally. We must also accept the fact that our
classical melody is very dissimilar to their classical
system, especially the voice modulation. It takes
many years for a westerner to accept our style of
singing.
What role
do you intend to play in spreading Carnatic music
across the globe?
Answer:
Whenever I get opportunities to perform with western
musicians, apart from observing and understanding
their approach and styles to the extent possible,
I try to explain our style in a simple way to kindle
their interest further. I have succeeded in making
many professional percussionists compose patterns
and laya structures within a short time and motivated
them by incorporating the same in my compositions.
To impress upon the general audience, I use every
opportunity to talk to a homogenous gathering and
explain about our music in simple language. It is
wise to keep aside the religious sentiments and
excessive rigidity of our music temporarily, if
you want their acceptability.
Even
within India, Carnatic music is still considered
an `elitist' art. How do we make it music for masses?
Answer: I strongly object to this
contention. There are hardcore rasikas among the
masses who yearn for Carnatic music and there are
large elitist lobbies that ruin the status of Carnatic
music by both being near to and far from it. For
most of the elitists, Carnatic music is symbol of
status (like a club or a social gathering). With
their prejudices, they ruin the spirit of genuine
musicians. They also succeed in distracting the
talented musicians from good music and indulge more
in socializing and public relations unnaturally.
In states like Kerala and Karnataka, people assemble
in thousands during temple festivals and, as custom,
they sit through the Carnatic music concerts for
long hours. In Tamil Nadu, the Dravidian influence
sort of succeeded in keeping Carnatic music away
from mass gathering like temple festivals. Why Carnatic
music? People of Tamil Nadu have lost the taste
for even our rich folk art.
When
you try for mass appeal, does it mean you have to
compromise on core values?
Answer:
A majority of our present day musicians has already
compromised on core values for elite appeal. They
have realized that even the elite want only entertainment.
As for mass appeal, I would site an example. In
Kerala, we do lot of late night concerts in Temple
festivals. There would be some over doing of niraval,
swara and percussion rounds to keep the audience
entertained for more than four hours. Some ragas
and kritis (not tukkadas and funny pieces) are a
must! Apart from this, the mass does not expect
any dilution.
Laya
artistes - do they have enough scope to become professionals?
Answer: Certainly. If they believe
in their knowledge, have the urge to improve and
mature naturally, they can have a respectful profession
as percussionists.
What
is the role of laya artistes in Carnatic music?
Answer: In simple words, percussion
artistes give life to the still music. The embellishment
they give to the songs keeps the diversity alive
which, in turn, keeps the audience amused. They
clearly define the change of mood in a piece and
also demark the breaks and, thereby, guide a presentation.
One very important difference between the melody
musicians and the percussionists is that the melody
musicians, be it vocalists or instrumentalists,
have a broad boundary within which they can safely
tread and exhibit skills. They have the compositions
and well established ragas on which they can rely.
But the percussionists have no such guiding scripts
or set of compositions and standardized formula
to depend on and they are all the time constrained
by time, taste and requirement of the musician etc.
It takes longer time for a percussionist to establish
his route and very less time to emphasize the same.
Yet, the contribution of percussionists in Carnatic
music is remarkable to the extent of making incredible
performances to `immortal’ concerts.
Post your comments
Printer friendly page
Send this article to Friends by E-Mail
|
|
|
|
|
|
