DIFFERENT STROKES

MRIDANGAM: Umayalapuram Sivaraman, this year's Sangeet
Natak Academy Award winner, has combined with
artistes of different genres to make unconventional
music, writes LEKHA J. SHANKAR

HIS winning the Sangeet Natak Academy Award
this year is just another milestone in his eventful career.
Umayalapuram Sivaraman has spread the rhythms of the
mridangam all over the world by playing jugalbandis not only with
tabla players but also with musicians of different genres in differ-
ent countries.

 The velvet-clad mridangam of Sivaraman is the chief showpiece
in his sitting room and he proudly describes it as the "king of per-
cussion and the queen of melody" whose rich strokes provide ample
inspiration to the creative artiste. "I liken the mridangam to the
ocean and the player to a fish--the more you delve the more you
discover," he says.

 Sivaraman says there is a connection between all the arts and
"a coherence in all systems".  Which is why he has taken part
in music conferences and lecture demonstrations all over the world
to "explain and demonstrate the commonality of different music
forms". He started the jugalbandi trend as far back as in 1955. He
has combined with every well-known instrumentalist in India--
Ravi Shankar, Hariprasad Chaurasia, Ram Narain, Kishen Maha-
raj, Allah Rakha and Zakir Hussain. His percussion ensemble,
which combines instruments like the tabla, ghatam and kanjira, has
captivated audiences of all tastes.

 In 1962, Sivaraman's coast-to-coast tour of the United States was
such a success that many young Americans evinced a keen inter-
est in playing the mridangam. He has some foreign students even to-
day. After teaching them the techinque, he encourages them to
be creative and innovative. He is of the view that a guru's job is not
just to teach but also to motivate his students to create and perform
on their own.

 "one has to create one's own parampara," he says, expressing a
remarkable broad-mindedness for one who was himself trained in
the strictest of gurukula traditions. "It is impossible to expect
youngsters of today to follow the old rigorous schedules," he ex-
plains. "It is unfair to expect them to devote themselves to the art at
the expense of everything else".

All he expects of them is that they undergo training with total con-
centration and treat it as an education and not just as a hobby "so
that even if they don't take it up as a profession, it will make them
better listeners."

 Sivaraman encourages his students to attend as many concerts
as possible. "The silences in a live concert are as important as the ac-
tual sounds. These can be learnt only from the stage and not at
home," he says. He has codified the mridangam patterns and de-
veloped a remarkable combination of muted and magnificent
sounds. That is why it has been possible for him to accompany a
variety of instruments. one of the highlights of his career was a
mridangam-drums jugalbandi with two famous Germans.

 Born in the "cultural village" of Umayalapuram, Sivaraman gave
his first performance when he was only lO. His father was his first
guru, and he later underwent rigorous training under four emi-
nent gurus. In between, he pursued law and acquired an LL.B. de-
gree. His father was a doctor, which is why he refuses to accept
that today's youngsters don't have the time to pursue an art. "Surely
24 hours a day is sufficient time to combine everything," says the
musician who insists that his students never give up academics.

 One of the most in-demand performers, he has accompanied all
the major singers, from Semmangudi Srinivasa Iyer to Maharaja-
puram Santhanam. Even with his classical leaning, he has evolved
many new rhythms in order to "connect" his music to other
schools and make it relevant to modern times. His new 
mridangam is one more effort in this direction. "No performing art
can remain static," he declares.

--

(scanned from an article in 
Deccan Herald, Bangalore,
12/25/93)
_____________________________________________________________