December music festival season 2015
Wish all the
artists a great season with more rasikas attending them.
I am happy some
artists are honest about it that they would like to have at least one tenth the
number of friends that they have in facebook and whatsapp to be present during their
concerts.
This honest
acceptance and sorry situation must also lead us to some realization to rectify
certain short comings and effect the necessary changes, if possible.
First we need
to set right certain very simple things that are to listen and enjoy a karnatik
music concert one need not necessarily require great knowledge but only sharp
ears and better listening with interest. So there need not be any inhibition.
Do we have any
inhibition to watch movies in India where most often when anyone falls in love
with another person of the opposite sex [ I do not want to misuse the word hero
or heroine] immediately they must dance and run in a beach, preferably in
Mauritius or Australia with a group of at least ten other people changing the
attire every two minutes; or hold hands, safest way to get censor board clearance,
in a mall at Singapore or in front of some internationally labeled monument or
swing near a waterfalls?
Actually till
date, at least personally, I have not understood this type of love making at
all.
Do we have any
inhibition to watch a very angry person with a gun or big sword holding it and
delivering a lecture to his enemy, longer than the ones I have ever heard in my
college days, and then after the enemy escapes jump over buildings, hang on to the
wings of plane etc to catch the enemy to continue the lecture!
I can never
understand these anyway.
Nor do I have
any objection? Who am I to question them anyway? But nor do I see anyone
attempting to do social engineering in these art forms questioning why love
making must be done only in that way? Why shooting an enemy must be done only
after a lecture etc?
There are
consumers and producers so from making films we now manufacture them to suit
the tastes of the consumers or we have effectively conditioned the consumers to
want only such products ad nausea.
So it is not
just about concerts and crowds, lack of knowledge or inhibition etc.
It is a
manifestation of many of our attitudinal problems starting from lack of
patience; unwillingness, ignorance and indifference to learn of art of
appreciation and want of aesthetic sensitivity; confusing and evaluating a
particular art form with irrelevant and illogical comparisons and evaluations; trying
to deprive it of its very essential ingredients; smudging it with clumsy
political overtones; performing most of the things more as a ritual rather than
with real reverence for substance; worst part
criticizing performers/performance on things unrelated to music and indirectly
in general belittle the very art through various means despite the fact that the people who do these
may not ultimately gain any great tangible benefit out if it.
Everything knows
its own evolutionary process, and I think karnatik music is too great to succumb
to squeezing by small minds and smaller crowds.
Classical music and Natyams are not a few sabhas centric
activities, nor are they a few artists centric nor a few media houses centric
nor a few institutions centric.
They are massive universes where in all these are either
significant or not so significant planets moving about either with or without
life.
Excuse me for
trying to over generalize but these are some observations that I made as a naïve
listener who also happen to be an avid rasika with very little knowledge.
The fact is
nowadays there are more performers than Rasikas.
Even the
rasikas are hard pressed for time; traffic is an excuse, many other options
available on audio-visual media and internet etc; besides many do not have the luxury
of attending so many concerts and for long duration. There are also many
genuine constraints.
People want
something of everything in anything; you can call it multiplex mentality or
masala movie syndrome [ I remember a popular but learned producer when asked
why he was making such silly movies mixing everything in a particular theme
said ‘baba Hindi movie mei masala chahiye sab cheese ko thoda thoda aur kuche
bhi nei choda] because we would like to have a short go at everything, a brief
peep into something then a peck at something else.
For example this
is the 20th topic that I am reading or writing in the past 10 hours.
That’s why search engines are more popular than old reference books or library.
The performers
and sabhas all will have to pay more attention to acoustics, here in though I
am tempted to explain in detail many unpleasant things in Karnatik music circuit
I prefer to exercise restraint.
Besides, the distractions
are too many like operating mobiles and lap tops during concerts, in addition
to the usual constant chatting with others etc.
More often many
concerts are performed very ritualistically without substance by some artists who are more conscious about impressing with
rendering of more kritis, more complicated pieces beyond their expertise, capacity
of their lung power, strength of their vocal chords etc which deprives music of its bhava and leaves the
listener dissatisfied.
More than
everything else there are too many programs crammed in a very short span which
has its own share of votaries in the form of status quo addicts who want it for
various reasons some valid some mere justifications put forth/assigned to
vindicate their position.
All said and
done there is a festive mood and there are some who enjoy it.
Too much of
questioning may end up winding it up. So we need to find more ways and means as
to how to not only uphold the rich tradition but also update/upgrade it in such
way without depriving it of its musical richness and make the tradition to an
appealing transformation through a very effective, acceptable, pleasant but
without compromising any component of musical richness through some form of
transition which some senior musicians are already doing or attempting to do.
Emphasis must
be more on expressing the joy that one derives out of music, the experiences that
one has enjoyed through the journey of music rather than exhibiting the technical
skills, though they are also necessary but the emphasis must be more of bhava.
I sometimes
wonder whether artists should be bothered at all about the number of concerts
they perform, time slots of their concerts etc especially during December music
season.
I wish all
artists realize that the greatness of an artist is neither the number of
concerts he/she performs nor the crowd of rasikas that flock to their concerts
or the slot that they get to perform nor even in the awards that they get etc.
I have given below
some links which can/may be used as reference to
1. Can we
deprive carnatic music of its main ingredients? This was as a reply to someone writing
some aspects of carnatic music as being a hindrance to its development
2. What contributes to greatness?
Recently while
writing about science I wrote this small piece and I think this applies to many
domains of human activity. http://contentwriteups.blogspot.in/2015/10/real-greatness-of-science.html
3. Distraction from
karnatic music through irrelevant priorities
4. Why at any
cost we must try to promote carnatic music actively
5. Dress code
is not a major contributory factor to carnatic music
6. 2013 Music
festival
7. There is definitely
a need for transition and transformation without compromising too much on
tradition because in ancient classical art forms tradition acts as a measuring
tool and also set the rules /grammar so one cannot totally deviate with
carefree abandon
8. Carnatic music
will gloriously survive in all its splendor despite everything else.
Page 141of ‘Becoming Indian’ by Pavan K. Varma
“When people are the subjects of their own culture, their
creative expression has self –assuredness and spontaneity, so they create a
unique and effective language of communication even when the grammar is
imperfect. This is because the idiom is authentic. But when people become
objects of a foreign culture, a huge transformation takes place. Suddenly, a
creative work is judged not for its intrinsic value, or for the heritage it is
sourced from or is a part of, but for the degree to which it is comprehensible
and conforms to the outsider’s culture. The process is all the more mutilating
if the outsider belongs to the dominant political or military power of the time
[or a putrefied political ideology-italics mine], and there is necessary
prejudice, condescension and prurience in his gaze. When this happens, spontaneity
reduces itself to self –conscious mediocrity; creativity seeks to qualify
itself [to some irrelevant yard stick]; authenticity gives way to
imitation; self –assurance is replaced by denial. An entire culture attempts to
reinterpret itself in terms that will somehow win the dominant outsider’s
approval. The ‘objectified’ people then thrive only as exotica; their historic
role becomes that of the observed; everything external about them –and nothing
of intrinsic value-is collated, classified and investigated. They finally end
up as caricatures, divorced from their own cultural milieu and perpetually
alien-in spite of their best efforts at emulation-to that of the outsider.” [What
is more pathetic is the hitherto insiders getting converted into outsiders causing
chaos]
Please note: All things written in this quote in brackets and in
italics are mine.
No comments:
Post a Comment