Subject: Article on T. Brinda Date: Fri, 16 Aug 1996 08:22:41 +1000 From: "Mohan Krishnamoorthy" ============================================================ Last week, Carnatic music rasika-s around the world will have heard the sad news of T. Brinda's passing away. It had a particularly significant effect on a few rasika-s in Melbourne because Chitravina N. Ravikiran was here with us. Indeed, just hours before we got a call from Madras (India) informing Ravikiran of this news, the Chitravina exponent had talked a lot about T.Brinda's greatness in a Master Class that he was conducting for locally resident artistes... For a few years now, Ravikiran has been learning from the great Sangita Kalanidhi T. Brinda. Like many of his musical peers and elder citizens, Ravikiran obviously regarded her very highly... In his opinion, she is "one of the greatest musicians of ALL time"!! Naturally, the news of Brinda's passing away had a profound effect on him. As a result of this, he was reminiscing a lot during the last few days. The article that follows is a result of these recollections... T. Brinda: A mammoth contribution... ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Recently, the Carnatic music world lost one of the greatest musicians of all time -- Sangita Kalanidhi Smt. T. Brinda. She was, undoubtedly, a musicians' musician. She was one of those extraordinary achievers who could afford to barely tolerate excellence -- demanding nothing short of perfection, as much in herself as in others. That she could continue along this path for nearly eighty years is, perhaps, a significantly remarkable testimony to her achievements. She was born in a family of musicians and dancers with a great tradition. She was the grand daughter of Veena Dhanammal. Her relatives included personalities and luminaries such as the famous Balasaraswati, Prof. T. Vishwanathan, T.Mukta, Jayammal, Lakshmiratnam and Rajalakshmi. This illustrious family included as many as three Sangita Kalanidhi-s. As such, Brinda was exposed to high quality music and dance from a very early age. Veena Dhanammal was an assiduous collector of masterpieces composed by, amongst others, Muthuswami Dikshitar, Shyama Shastri, Kshetragna, Patnam Subramania Iyer, Veena Kuppaiyer, Tiruvottiyur Thyagaiyer and Dharmapuri Subbarayar. She picked the best sources for these compositions -- either from the composers themselves (where possible) or from their closest musical associates. As a result, she was sought after by legends such as Ariyakudi Ramanujam Iyengar, Musiri Subramaniam and Gotuvadyam Narayana Iyengar. These stalwarts could pick up almost anything that they wanted to learn from the 2,000--3,000 compositions that Dhanammal was reputed to possess in her armoury. It is, therefore, no surprise that Brinda inherited most of these authentic masterpieces. As a result, she was, in turn, sought after by stalwarts such as Semmangudi Srinivasa Iyer, M.S.Subbulakshmi,Ramnad Krishnan and many others, including, more recently, Chitravina N. Ravikiran. Brinda was sent (along with Mukta) to Kanchipuram Naina Pillai, to be tutored by the maestro. This was a remarkable occurance because his musical bAnI was totally different to the Dhanam style. The latter concentrates more on the microscopic nuances, delicate gamaka-s and projects feminine grace. Brinda's mother, Kamakshi Ammal, reasoned that, if her daughters could imbibe the highly challenging, powerful and fast style of Naina Pillai's music, their musical progression would be more complete. Moreover, given that Naina Pillai performed in the Walajapet style, the added bonus would be an enviable repertoire of Thyagaraja kriti-s, in addition to Tevaram-s and Tiruppugazh-s. It is said that Naina Pillai was as committed to these forms as he was towards sophisticated pallavi-s. And what a wise decision this was! Recordings of Brinda's concerts from the 1950s and 1960s depict her tremendous control and accuracy, whether she sang fast or slow, soft or loud, plain notes or oscillated notes and irrespective of the octave she was operating in. Her rendering was as forceful as it was graceful; a combination that very few musicians can even dream about. Besides these amazing qualities, Brinda had a tremendous breath control. This quality enabled her to sing long passages without loss of either clarity or elegance. She also had a strong grip over kala pramanam (sense of constant tempo). She was very competent in rendering the core Carnatic music rakti raga-s like sahana, yadukulakambodi, nayaki, anandabhairavi, not to mention the major raga-s like todi, kalyani and shankarabharanam. She believed in projecting kriti-s without deviating from tradition, even if there were apparent mistakes, "I am sure that those phrases were valid at the time they were composed. Otherwise, they would not have used them", was her strong contention. She would be very critical if the structure of the composition was changed in the name of creativity. "Why don't you show it in alapana, neraval and swara-s?", she would demand. Awards and titles came her way: President's Award, Sangita Kalanidhi, Sangita Kalasikhamani, Swaralaya Puraskar, to name a few. She was a top grade artiste of All India Radio from 1955 to 1996 (41 years, which , in itself is a record)! She has toured and performed in the USA, Singapore, etc. She has also served in the University of Washington, Seattle, as a visiting professor. As a teacher, she was very conscientious and thorough. She had the capacity to spot even the tiniest of flaws, however softly it was rendered. She would accept a student only if she was sure they could pick up the minute details and render them properly. But once she was convinced of the students' abilities, Brinda would teach the best and the most challenging pieces uninhibitedly. As a person, she was strong to the point of being perceived as invulnerable. She was also respectable, sharp and witty. To friends, she would open out and be cheerfully extroverted all the time. However, in general, she was very reserved as a person. The most amazing aspect of her significant achievements is that she stood by what she considered to be the right approach and correct values for over 75 years of her musical career, without ever compromising an iota for the sake of name, fame or money. It is perhaps extremely difficult to come across a person with such intense committment, clarity of thought and strength of character. It has to be added that she achieved whatever she had set out to do. She did it in grand style and lived very comfortably in a magnificent house in Kalakshetra Colony, Madras... Perhaps there is a moral somewhere there...