From: ramabhad@en.ecn.purdue.edu (Ramanujam Ramabhadran) Newsgroups: rec.music.indian.classical Subject: Musings of a Mridangam Maestro [long] Date: 9 Jul 1995 17:24:53 GMT Organization: Purdue University Engineering Computer Network This article appeared in The Hindu dated January 22, 1978. Thanks are due to Shri Puvalur Srinivasan for providing a copy of this article. This article was written by the music critic NMN, based on an interview with the great Mridangam Vidwan Shri Palghat Mani Iyer. -------------------------------------------------------------------------- "With his rich experience of Carnatic concert music, Palghat Mani Iyer, the great Mridangam vidwan, in an interview presents his frank comments on the contemporary standard of classical music. In his opinion, Ariyakudi Ramanuja Iyengar combined in him all the virtues of an ideal gayaka. He is firm in the view that the lowering of the pitch is the basic reason for the poor showing by performing vocalists" ---text of article--- ________________________________________________________________________________ The outlook for classical carnatic vocal music is bleak with not a single artiste available who can be counted upon as a hopeful asset. In fact, vocal music may soon disappear from the concert scene if the present trend of musicians to sing in extremely low sruthis in complete disregard of ht need to acquire compelling virtues of tone and timbre continues. This trend and the pursuit of dubious musical substance are affecting even aspirants gifted with voice and talent and misleading them into frittering away their energies in unproductive channels. This view is strong and pessimistic, some may feel, but coming as it is from Palghat Mani Iyer, the Mridangam maestro, who has witnessed concert music and played for it for over five decades now, it has come to be accepted as a timely warning from a deeply concerned and experienced vidwan who knows what he is talking about. According to him, the mike is the culprit luring classical singers away from the painstaking path into the lethargic comfort of low and lack-lustre pitches. They desperately seek the amplification "rebound", creating a false atmosphere on the platform in which it is difficult for clarity to survive. This realization crystallized into his resolve some years ago to play only in mike-less concerts, Mani Iyer said in an interview. ONLY SOLUTION: The only solution to the problem is for vocalists to train themselves to sing to higher pitches. He would recommend the two kattai sruthi as the minimum. The argument that the size of the audience rendered the mike necessary was unconvincing to one who had seen larger audiences and keener listening in the mike-less era. Mani Iyer listed three artistes with outstanding voices: Ariyakudi Ramanuja Iyengar, Chembai Vaidyanatha Bhagavathar and M.S.Subbulakshmi. He had played for the two men singers. They had sung straight to the audience for years and knew the art of relating themselves to their listeners and establishing a rapport with them. When the mike came, it was inconsequential for they continued to sing as they always did with their customary power, vigour and zest. These qualities and the artistry that attracts the audience marked violinist Rajamanickam Pillai's accompaniment too. He surmounted the handicap of a small tone with these assets. Mani Iyer said and vividly recalled an instance in the mikeless era when Rajamanickam Pillai won a longer applause than the main performer by a most effective mounted movement of swaras. Those were the days when the concert platform was low and eager rasikas could be seen very close to the performers resting their elbows on its edge. SAMPRADAYA: A very reticent person whose thoughts are rooted in the past from which he seeks inspiration, Mani Iyer was induced to discuss tradition and speak out his views. Tradition or Sampradaya connoted usage and practice and in classical music meant the form and structure in presentation in which the music had been handed down as a fine art meant to win the appreciation of the people. There was no point in discussing any tradition which did not find favour with the public and which was unrelated to it. Sampradaya had a built-in resistance to unwanted accretions and a knack of shedding them and surviving only on the best and time-tested. It was a discipline that throve more on the bhakti than on the brain, more on the sanctity (sannidhyam) gained through repetition (like the Vedas) than on egotistic experiments. Intelligence had a place, but it had to be regulated by the sense of surrender which bhakti implies. Sadhana of the known trusted and proven music with dedication brought its own rewards by way of ripening the voice and refining expression in presenting it with conformity and dignity. Imagination was inherent in the freshness of colour and creative impulse with which the old was presented. The kalpana or manodharma which stemmed from the individual desire to be new and novel was misleading, meaningless and oftentimes "absurd". Unrelated to discipline, it became more licentious than responsible. Mani Iyer is a very practical man and the discussion suddenly took a turn from the theoretical to the concrete. Sampradaya implied an impersonal approach and a well-knit and integrated style. It needed the grace of God to be endowed with it and serve music as an example. Ariyakudi Ramanuja Iyengar's music alone, in his view, epitomized all the virtues of the ideal gayaka. Maharajapuram Viswanatha Iyer was also a considerable artiste and could, on his day, transport his rasikas to ecstatic heights. Mani Iyer made a particular reference to his sloka singing in ragamalika. But Viswanatha Iyer was not a consistent performer. Ramanuja Iyengar's strong point was his extraordinary consistency. He could strike splendid form on many occasions, but his general form was steady and dependable and ruled out the chance element. He was never guilty of singing with his eyes closed. He sang looking at the audience, feeling its pulse and aware of its responses. He was not interested in exciting or thrilling his listeners but in thoroughly satisfying them with judiciously selected programmes and well proportioned excellence in interpretation of the varied concert material. Mani Iyer was emphatic that Ariyakudi Ramanuja Iyengar personified Sampradaya. His style could not be characterised as the "Ariyakudi style", in the same sense that one referred to the styles of G. N. Balasubramaniam or of Semmangudi Srinivasa Aiyar. They were personal styles which found use for the nagaswaram inspiration. Ramanuja Iyengar's expression was ideally vocalist, completely natural, full of elegance without affectation or mannerism and conforming to all the requisites prescribed for the perfect gayaka. Any good voice used naturally to create clean classical music would automatically kindle thoughts of Ariyakudi Ramanuja Iyengar, Mani Iyer said. Ramanuja Iyengar's repertoire was matchlessly wide and in Thodi alone he coule render 40 great songs. He did not pursue rare ragas which would perplex the public but pleased them with the masterly concise quality of his versions of the major ragas. Three minutes was enough for a satisfying version of Pantuvarali and there was no empty stretching beyond that. STAMP OF DIGNITY: Mani Iyer's assessment of Ramanuja Iyengar has to be viewed against the background of the fact that he has played for all the other top musicians too. He had been playing for Chembai Vaidyanatha Bhagavathar earlier and his admiration for Ramanuja Iyengar started on their very first encounter when the glories of his voice and the music of form, substance and lively tempo which he created with it swept him off his feet. It was a voice with equal volume and appeal in all the areas it traversed and a style with the stamp of dignified Carnatic captivation and proportion running all through his music. This captivation conferred unique class even on his renderings of Hindustani colour songs like "Vaishnava Janato" and "Nandakelala". He could programme judiciously to suit the condition of his voice and strike form even on a bad day. The Mridangam maestro said that he had derived greatest enjoyment and experience from playing for Ramanuja Iyengar who was also the embodiment of professional etiquette. The sadness that he was no more still remained with him though the years had rolled on. Musiri Subramania Iyer was a musician whom Mani Iyer would rate second only to Ramanuja Iyengar. He had the unique capacity to secure applause on the strength of song rendition alone. Mani Iyer recalled his first encounter with the formidable Conjeevaram Naina Pillai when the musician sang a pallavi controlling the count. Mani Iyer's resourceful artistry won over the vidwan and on the next occasion the proceedings were more open. Mani had a good word to say about the musicianship of the late Ramnad Krishnan and felt sorry that he was not a full-throated singer. Mani Iyer had accompanied the Alathur brothers in many thrilling concerts. The strong voiced partner was no more, and Alathur Srinivasa Iyer was singing alone. His voice, though small, was firm and sruthi aligned, his vidwat was substantial and his exposition was lucid and steeped in Carnatic taste. While the vocalist must uphold the dignity of the vocal music tradition, Mani Iyer was of the view that the Carnatic instrumentalist too should create music approximating to vocal excellence. Violinist Papa Venkatramiah was unique in this respect and acquired a style of vibrant substance and beauty which became the envy of the vocalist. The great nagaswaram player Rajaratnam also, in his finest moods, sought to capture the grace and essence of vocal music in is playing. Violinist Rajamanickam Pillai was unique as an accompanist. Dwaram Venkataswamy Naidu who did not share this secret of accompaniment had struck a separate path for himself as a soloist. He was gifted with an excellent technique of bowing and created pure melody but also mixed Hindustani colour in his art. Mani Iyer spoke with feeling on the personality of Pudukottai Dakshinamurthy Pillai and the thrilling bouts between his Mridangam and Pillai's Kanjira. Those were the days when they did not wait for the thani to be given. It was taken by the two at will. Mani Iyer recalled an occasion when he had to leave the concert platform to catch a train. Dakshinamurthy Pillai kept the Kanjira aside and started playing the Mridangam and created such an effect of subtle beauty from even the very simple sounds of rhythm that he stood rooted to the ground for quite a while forgetting that he had to leave. Of contemporary violinists, Mani Iyer commended Lalgudi Jayaraman as an artiste of considerable vidwat and intelligence who also knew the secret of audience interaction. His weakness was excess playing. T.N.Krishnan had profited a lot by his association with Ramanuja Iyengar and the "Papa influence" and his playing indicated that he had looked into the well of happiness and gained some insights. Mani Iyer has blazed a new trail as a Mridangam artiste and many follow him without producing the same results. Asked about the secret of his unique and matchless quality and the ideology and technique from which his excellence springs, he was quite reluctant to speak except to advise that his style need not be followed. It was his great love to be a singer more than a Mridangist and perhaps it wast his overpowering passion for music that had enabled him intuitively to grasp the vocalist's art and get his rhythmic artistry to flow with the song. He declared that he loved playing for songs and the thani was not important. He remembered how he had once got so lost in the experience of Ramanuja Iyengar's exquisite singing of "Enthaninne" (Mukhari) of Thyagaraja and the neraval and swaras for the song at "Kanulara Sevinchi" that he refused to play the thani offered after it. Thyagaraja was to him the foremost of the musical trinity and his compositions mattered most. Dikshithar and Syama Sastri came next in importance. Mani Iyer agreed that the purity of padanthara was disappearing in song rendition these days and liberties were being taken in the name of embellishment. Sarvalaghu was the prime factor in swara-singing, he said and paid a tribute to Madurai Mani Iyer's excellence in this respect. He reminded that this vocalist never resorted to the "thadinkinathom" finale. Mani Iyer was unhappy that excessive mathematical calculations ruled swaram singing today and that the liveliness and precision of natural rhythm were losing ground. These calculations belonged to the domain of the percussionist and are better left to him by the vocalist, Mani Iyer said and jocularly remarked that a vocalist could even trip him in a premeditated pallavi though of course he would always manage to do something to hold his own. Asked about Upalaya vidwans, he said they were losing their distinction. Umayalpuram Kothandarama Iyer was among the last to play the ghatam with the authentic style of beats related to it. Mridangists Palghat Raghu and Umayalpuram Sivaraman are among Mani Iyer's disciples and he had a good word to say about the intelligence and skill of these artistes. In a passing reference to contemporary vocalists, Mani Iyer said M.D. Ramanathan had wasted his gift of a very rich voice by deliberately going in for an extremely "thaggu" sruthi. K.V. Narayanaswami had changed his style, but the influence of his guru Ariyakudi Ramanuja Iyengar could still be seen in his singing in the top octave. NMN