THE MAGIC THAT MUSIC IS!

FROM SAMPATH’S DESK:

 

 

 

THE MAGIC THAT MUSIC IS!

 

Music is ingrained as an integral part of the Indian psyche. Human mind has the proclivity to absorb and assimilate any matter, message, lesson, etc. if imparted through music. Music has appealing and persuasive abilities. A whole epic story, say ‘Ramayana’ for example, can be better implanted in the minds of the audience through musical discourse and/or song-dance-drama programs effectively rather than by either asking people to read the books containing voluminous texts or someone reading it for them. Music has thus attention-grabbing properties and mind-gripping capability.

 

Music is inseparable part of human-life. Music is a good healer, peace-maker and pace-maker, heightening our joy and pleasure, and reversing even sagging moods and the sinking morale. It can heal the wounds that even medicine cannot touch, as it has mind-pleasing, nerve-quietening, and brain-soothing effects. It takes people out of themselves for a little while even literally patch up the holes in one’s heart. Music holds a magic key to which even the most tightly-closed heart opens.

 

Peace is the music of every soul, and music is the soundtrack of your life. Sometimes, music is the only thing that takes your mind off everything else. And where words fail, the music speaks. Surely, when music hits you, you only gain and feel no pain.

 

There is a saying, which is 100 percent true, that when you are happy you enjoy the music, and when you are sad you understand the lyrics. Soulful music carries a message of peace to hand it over to persons with a disturbed mind, ruffled emotions, and sense and surge of helplessness.

  

Music brings us pleasure and releases our anxiety and negative perceptions. It can calm us down and pump us up. It helps us manage pain, sleep better, and be more agile, confident, and productive. Music has universal appeal transcending all barriers. 

  

Come Winter, Chennai presents a wholesome cultural exposition with varieties of concerts. December music festival there offers a rendezvous for both established and emerging talents.

Here are the highlights of music talents in India, past and the present.

 

Both the old male music trinity - Thyagaraja, Shyama Shastry and Muthuswamy Dheekshithar and the subsequent female trinity of the 20^th century viz. M.S.Subbulakshmi, D.K.Pattammal and M.L. Vasanthakumari dominated the traditional Carnatic music world during their hey-days. Compositions and renditions of the male trinity got recognition as magnum opus of the Carnatic music and proved to be the trend-setter. Generations have adopted them as the foundation and fountain-head of the Carnatic music, and nurtured it for centuries. Subsequently, the female trinity, emerging from their protected  cocoons, rose up to the horizons despite ‘Bhakti’ (devotional) singing till then remained as an exclusive preserve - a privileged male bastion and stronghold. While the male trinity made singing synonymous with the ‘devotion cult’ with orthodoxy and traditionalism as the benchmarks, the female trinity made a right mix of both devotional and non-devotional singing including socially relevant thematic songs including movie songs. They were displaying qualities of elegance in pliable yet indomitable styles, and never missed to convey a message through music.

 

Bharat Ratna, Dr. M.S.Subbulakshmi, a legendary vocal music personality in her lifetime itself, promoted her soul-stirring music to international forums and thitherto unchartered horizons. She was accorded a rare privilege of giving her concert in the United Nations (UN) Assembly decades ago. Her melodies and classical songs couched in devotional, philosophical, and spiritual lyrics have always been spirit-raisers. She was a magnificent performer who would pack up the audience into a world of sheer excitement and delight making them forget their mundane worries, ushering them into a paradise of blissful experiences. Even in foreign countries especially the western world, there is a niche audience to appreciate Carnatic music of which she was an expert.

 

There are separate ‘ragas’ representing and characterizing different times, situations, moods, occasions, etc. each having its unique flair, flavour, fervour and quality. Music can be enjoyed differently by different persons. Musical discourses flourished well in olden days of Kings, Emperors, and landed gentry due to their patronage - mostly for self-pride rather than for the consumption of the common people.

 

Devotional music inculcates valuable values like truth, genial behavior, honesty, righteousness, good character and conduct, societal good, healthy ethical practices, etc. In Bhakti and freedom movements, music was at the forefront, pinpointing and projecting the commonalities for networking the people with the fiber of unity - cementing relationships, initiating and crystallizing the thought processes, synchronizing the efforts of people for the common endeavours  etc., which at that time strengthened our struggle for freedom of the Motherland. More particularly, music helped unifying India as a single entity for attainment of freedom breaking the shackles and freeing it from the yokes of the alien rule even amid hues of diversity.

 

Music that once remained confined to the religious, devotional, and spiritual domains broke the glass ceiling and pervaded into all sectors and segments of human-life especially after the advent of movie era which had engulfed and stormed the entire world. Today, one can’t think of a film without songs.

 

The traditional South Indian Carnatic and North Indian Hindustani singers subsequetly invaded the shadow industry and made it more colourful and shiny.

 

In the South Indian tinsel world, we had a galaxy of male singers of many generations like – Thiyagaraja Bhagavathar, PU Chinnappa, TR Mahalingam, Kantasala, Tiruchi Loganathan, Chidambaram Jayaraman, TM Soundararajan, Seerkazhi Govindarajan, PB Srinivas, AM Raja, Chandrababu, KJ Yesudas, SP Balasubrahmanyam, and the like – and female singers MS Subbulakshmi ML Vasanthakumari, DK Pattammal, Soolamangalam sisters Jayalakshmi and Rajalakshmi (Kandha Sashti Kavacham fame), P Leela, P Susheela, Jikki (G Krishnaveni, Jamunarani, LR Easwari, S Janaki, Vani Jairam, Chitra, Sujatha, and the like.

 

Names of great music directors – K Ramanathan, AM Raja, MS Viswanathan, TK Ramamoorthy, K Mahadevan, Kumar, Veda, Ilayaraja, Deva, and AR Rahman among others. 

 

The North Indian male singers included - Mohammed Rafi, Mukesh, Kishore Kumar, Kumar Sanu, Jagjit Singh, Pankaj Udhas, Suresh Wadkar, Sonu Nigam, Shailendra Singh, Amit Kumar, KJ Yesudas, SP Balasubrahmanyam, Udit Narayan, Shankar Mahadevan, and the like, while female singers included, among others, Lata Mangeshkar, Asha Bosle, Suraiya, Shamshad Begum, Mubharak Begum, Noorjahan, Suman Kalyanpur, Usha Uthup, Vani Jairam, Aarti Mukherjee, Alkha Yagnik, Kavitha Krishnamurthy, Hemlata, Sadhana Sargham,  Shreya Ghoshal, Mahalakshmi Iyer and the like.

 

Names of the Bollywood music directors who dominated the scene are - SD Burman, RD Burman, Lakshmikant-Pyarelal, Shankar-Jaikishan, Kalyanji-Anandji, Bappi Lahari, Ravindra Jain, Shankar Mahadevan, AR Rahman and others.

 

In fact, many films proved to be box-office hits in the tinsel world of many Indian languages because of the popularity of the songs sung by eminent singers with music composed by maestros. 

 

Names of some biggies of stringed and other music instruments are – Nadhaswaram: TN Rajarathinam Pillai, Karukurichi Arunachalam, Namagiripettai Krishnan, Madurai MPN Sethuraman and MPN Ponnuswamy, Mambalam Siva – Violin: Dwaram Venkataswamy Naidu, T Chowdiah, Lalgudi Jayarama, Kunnakkudi Vaidyanathan, N Rajam, TN Krishnan and Kanyakumari, among others – Flute: Haripreasad Chaurasia, Ustad Bismillah Khan, Pannalal Ghosh, N Ramani, and TR Mahalingam, among others – Mandolin: U Srinivas – Veena: Ravikiran, S Balachander, E Gayathri, Chitti Babu, Gopal Krishan, and Jayanthi Kumaresh, among others.

 

Musicians are ambassadors of goodwill and special emissaries of the divine art capable of entertaining, enthralling and assuaging even disturbed and dejected minds. Listening to music is sure to assuage, pacify and placate the feelings of turbulence in the mind and reverse the sagging moods. Stalwarts of the yore created their own styles in music arena with which they carved a niche and métier for themselves in the music world.

 

Renditions of Tamil National Poet Subramania Bharathi’s soul-stirring songs kindled patriotic fervour and ignited the fire of nationalism and unity among people against the alien rule. D.K.Pattammal was given the privilege of singing Bharathi’s patriotic songs on the day when India got independence from the studios of All India Radio. A rare, unique and prideful opportunity it indeed was!

 

Psychologists and educationists the world over strongly recommend imparting of education through ‘song-dance mode’ because music, gestures and body language capture the fullest attention of the learners especially children, and forcefully grip and grab the attention of the minds during the learning process.

 

Music has healthcare value too. There are certain ragas which soften and calm a perturbed mind. Music compositions can heal pains – physiological and psychological – a proven fact endorsed by Doctors and scientists.

 

Aldous Huxley had this to say, “After silence, that which comes nearest to expressing the inexpressible is music.”

 

In conclusion, it is relevant to recall the quote of Aaron Copland, “So long as the human spirit thrives on this planet, music in some living form will accompany and sustain it.”

 

 

 

R.SAMPATH

12/8/2009