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Great Masters of Carnatic Music 1930-1965
Author: Indira Menon, Publisher: Indialog Publications Pvt.
Ltd., 2004
ISBN: 81-87981-53-9, 308 pages
A review by V.
Ramaswami*
This delightful book is comparable to a
grand onam saddhya (feast) with a
variety of exquisite dishes embellished by the right amount of spice and
seasoning, prepared by an expert chef for discerning palates, and served in a regal
style. It should serve as a standard
bearer in a field where a majority of work on the lives and times of musicians
is but a shallow exercise in sycophancy or derision based mostly on gossip and
innuendo, focusing more on personalities than on the art, and worsened only by
poor editing, paper quality and printing.
Be it in artistic content, language or presentation, this book is an
example worthy of emulation.
A chapter is devoted to each of the
following grand vocalists who reigned during the golden era of Carnatic music –
Ariyakudi, Maharajapuram (Viswanatha Iyer), Musiri, Chembai, Semmangudi, MS,
GNB, Brinda-Mukta, DKP, Madurai Mani, MLV, KVN and MDR – and the book also
contains a set of highly informed and informative articles penned by some of
them. Eschewing both the ubiquitous beginning
with inconsequential natal facts and standard clichés like “hails from a
musical family,” the author starts each essay with several pages describing the
stature, style and significant contributions of each vocalist – the raison d’être for inclusion in the
book. Often the details of birth etc., appear
well after five or six pages that describe the uniqueness of the musician in a
way that brings out the nuances of Carnatic music like sarvalaghu and laya and the
differences between styles such as the briga-laden
and gamaka-laden and serve as
valuable pieces of reading that can improve one’s own level of music
appreciation, a facility clearly highly honed by the author through critical
listening. The narratives are
interspersed with a variety of related information on other grand masters of
previous eras, various locales in Southern India and, occasionally, even spicy
humor (like Semmangudi’s remark that Chembai’s voice needs not a microphone but
a silencer), and these make them highly readable.
Through beautiful command of the language
supported by a level of cultured, cultural erudition not so common these days,
the author wins the respect of the reader comparable to that evoked for the
subjects her pen has served well to embellish.
I quote some example text below.
“If architecture could be described as frozen music,
then the best analogy of Chembai’s style would be a column of the Doric order,
solid and beautiful in its simplicity.
Just as it would be ridiculous to say that the Doric order had something
missing, namely, the fluted columns and floral decoration of the Corinthian
order, so would it be ridiculous to say that Chembai’s music lacked the glides,
graces or emotional fervor of, say, Musiri’s music.”
“The difference between the Brinda and GNB styles (to
take two extreme examples of gamaka- and briga-oriented styles) may be likened
to (that between) a river of the plains winding slowly along and a torrential
mountain stream.”
“A briga that consists of a cluster of creative ideas
sung in a fast tempo can be very exciting.
But if speed is used for merely traversing up and down the scale …. or for
the display of virtuosity, there is no aesthetic joy in it. It is like a sprinter who enjoys a special
thrill while sprinting, but who cannot claim to have noticed the landscape
around him”
While being unabashed in the expression of
her admiration for the artist, the author avoids sycophancy and does provide a
balanced portrait bringing out their deficiencies too in the most inoffensive
manner. Thus, while MLV with a style
“more cerebral than emotional, … excelled in all aspects of improvisation and
opened up new worlds for lovers of Carnatic music” and “displayed a hitherto
unprecedented flow of ideas of a rich and fertile imagination,” the “tara sthayi was MLV’s Achilles’ heel …
and her rendering of kritis was
mannered and lacked spontaneity.” Read
in their context, these criticisms could evoke only a nod with tempered
acquiescence even from ardent admirers of MLV like this writer.
It is tempting to write more about this
book and to quote from it, but it would rob a potential reader the pleasure of
directly partaking from it. So, I will rest
by simply recommending the book as a “must
read” for the serious connoisseur of Carnatic music. The only ‘negative’ I can say about this book
is that its pages have an addictive characteristic, and once you start reading,
you can barely keep it down, and when you are done, you may wish to start all
over again. It would indeed be nice if
the author would serve Carnatic music by also writing a similar piece on the
great accompanists and instrumentalists who deserve a due share of the glory
afforded to the main performers. For
now, I eagerly await my trip to India to pick up other books written by Indira
Menon.
*Dr. V. Ramaswami, an Honorary Patron of
the Carnatic Music Association of North America, was its President and
Secretary for many years. . This is re-posted here from an old article in Sangeetham, the magazine of CMANA.
