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Anil Srinivasan
Music, Magic, Madness and India
We live in an age of magic. There are dreams being painted outside my window, and there are bubbles of hope everywhere. In a street not so far away, a slightly reticent musician we all know managed to wow the world, put Chennai on the global music map and smile as though he were just walking up to redeem his air ticket all at the same time. I am talking about A.R. Rahman, of course, and his wonderful work through the past so many years, Slumdog notwithstanding. If you were a musician like me, your heart would have swum with pride. Tremendous things are happening right around us, and talent abounds in so many forms. It is a great time to be alive, and more so in Chennai than anywhere else on the planet. For this is the original source pool of so many traditions and art forms, and an intellectual granary that will never go out of style.
The magic of music is that it is the language of the past. It is also the language of inclusion, and the number of influences Indian sound has managed to imbibe in the last few years overwhelms me. In this first dose from India, I paint a picture of the city whose musical output to the Indian soundscape is immense.
Once upon a time, going to a concert meant knowing what to expect. Classical music buffs were treated to a “format” that was more or less regularized, calibrated across performers such that it was merely a question of wondering what “raga” the day’s artist planned to delineate. Everyone listened to the same film songs, the airwaves remaining relatively uncluttered. Coming to think of it, it had an impact on quality as well. There is an adage that the quality of the music is affected in great measure by the quality of the listener, and with relatively less to choose from, the audience indeed developed a scale for high quality that artists needed to measure up to. And then it all changed.
Not to say that everything then was great and everything now is not. If anything, the quality of sound has improved drastically and there is a surfeit of great ideas that are finding their way across the changing sands of the Chennai music scene. This has also meant effortful decision making for the listener, who now has more complexity thrust up his aural cavities. In social psychology, this is often referred to as the “paradox of choice”, wherein more choice makes the listener less satisfied with whatever he/she chooses in the end. Rather like going to an ultra-lavish buffet spread and constantly doubting if one has the best choices on one’s plate. The subconscious mind keeps niggling at the choices that got away!
In attempting to make sense of the madness, I saw three clear trends emerge. One, the movement towards great “vertical” scoring in music. In simple language, the addition of different types of instruments into the composition, a phenomenon that Rahman took all the way to the Oscars. The melody was still given its due (especially in the case of the former), but the sub-melodies, the cross-currents and the harmonic layers added to the texture and made the experience all the more enhanced. So, one heard the African Congo play a nifty tango punctuated by a mridangam (south Indian percussion). A French accordion kept pace with the tabla in a heady, sinuous arrangement before the singer took his lead. In the classical world, the idea of experimenting with harmony and integrate it into the experience of classical music has seen the burgeoning of several musicians. Stalwarts like Dr. L Subramaniam, L Shankar giving way to Mandolin U Shrinivas who went on to tour with John McLaughlin and the “Shakti” ensemble and Ravikiran with his “melharmony” are just a few of these examples. In recent times, the sound produced by the Madras String Quartet led by V S Narasimhan is being heard from Santhome to Singapore in equal awe.
The second important development was the maturing of the “horizontal” score itself i.e. the melody itself – growing in complexity, understanding of nuances and influences. So, a popular film melody could have a leitmotif that consists of a folk ballad asking a question that is answered by a Western classical string section’s answer. Counterpoint (a relationship between two or more voices that are independent in contour, but still sound harmonious when sung together) has made its presence felt. Cross cultural influences abound – one can see Gypsy folk music and desert tunes from Arabia sharing space with Carnatic music-based compositions and the Lambada, all within sixty minutes of the same soundtrack!
In the classical world, the idea of counterpoint has long found its Indian counterpart in the “moorchana” style of singing, where male and female voice sing in their independent pitches and different ragas but still produce dormant harmony when sung together. Although not precisely falling within this description, the recent efforts of Bombay Jayashree and T M Krishna, two leading Carnatic vocalists, is nevertheless a brilliant example of the expansion of the melodic line to incorporate two independent influences that vivify and colour each other.
The last development is the coupling of both the earlier trends i.e. the simultaneous expansion on both the horizontal and vertical axes. For example, the first two lines are sung in a traditional, Carnatic style, but the following musical passage has a new motif that emerges from a different tradition (say, Western Classical) before both lines converge in an exciting harmonious third movement. The work of Aruna Sairam with the French musician, Dominique Vellard in the album “Sources” springs to mind. In my own experiments with the talented classical vocalist, Sikkil Gurucharan, I have found room to bring in the western classical element composed specifically to intersperse with the sparingly harmonized Carnatic voice. The result often finds empathy with a pan-Indian and/or a global audience that has not yet wholly attuned itself to the South Indian classical aesthetic.
The language of the past is still spoken, but the unmistakable influences of other contexts and tongues make the Indian template a living testament to the glory of music.
Anil Srinivasan is a classical pianist who trained both in India and the United States. He has recorded and performed with many eminent musicians including U Srinivas, John McLaughlin, Daniel Tetlow, Unnikrishnan, Aruna Sairam and Chitravina Ravikiran among others. In addition, Anil is a highly acclaimed columnist on music, a professor of management and consultant. www.anilsrinivasan.com |
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