Voice culture - Carnatic music

[Kyvalya Vocalist]

Part 1. Voice Culture - Carnatic music

Voice hygiene should be the first priority for the singers of any genre. Carnatic music can be sung without abusing the voice. Carnatic music can be sung with a proper voice modulation. Many proved it, of course. Many yet to focus on voice culture.

I personally feel that the voice culture also should be a part of carnatic curriculum, though many do it still lacks the authenticity.

UNFORTUNATELY MOST OF US HAVE A TENDENCY TO LABEL THE VOICE CULTRUED SINGERS AS LIGHT MUSICIANS. OFCOURSE STALWARTS DIDN'T CARE ABOUT THIS KIND LABELLING AND PROVED THAT CARNATIC MUSIC CAN BE SUNG LIKE THIS.

I totally endorse that every genre of music has its own dynamics, slang and tradition to follow. Still voice hygiene cannot be completely neglected.

Just sharing my perspective. Whoever didn't like can ignore my post.

In the book ‘Voice Culture’- Padma Bhushan Dr. Mangalampalli Balamurali Krishna mentions in foreword that the teaching of voice productions is founded purely on empirical basis so far, relying on the pernicious(unfavorable) system of trial and error.

Some of his statements as referring points:

(Foreword by Dr.M.Balamuralikrishna in the book “Voice Culture” -SAK DURGA)

• Voice Culture with special reference to “South Indian Music” has not been studied comprehensively till date. Except the passing reference to the merits and demerits of the voice in our ancient musical literature and a few articles by musicologists in the technical journals, there is no publication dealing with this subject.

• The teaching of voice production is founded purely on empirical basis so far, relying on the pernicious system of trial and error, with the result that this branch has been exposed to more charlatanism.

• Though voice is used for both speaking and singing, the technique voice production for singing is more complex.

• The quality of the voice is also conditioned by mental factors for the purpose of singing, the physical organ voice must be able to do ‘more than’ merely produce sounds. Therefore, the art of voice cultivation needs to be studied.

• The voice training methods differ according to the style of music.

• In future, scientific methods of voice training need to be introduced for further improvement with our present-day empirical methods.

Endorsing the above Legend's statements, I give share my suggestions to students who wish to develop their singing skills.

Though there are many aspects of Voice culture, In this post I am only sharing my experience/knowledge/perspective on the pronunciation of vowels and consonants which is one of the core elements of Voice Culture.

It is clearly evident that the pronunciation of consonants and vowels also influence the sruti alignment/ accuracy of a swara/note. I strongly feel, this could be one of the reasons why our past masters had been saying that one needs to learn and practice the ample number of compositions where you find a plethora combo of vowels and consonants. I heard Gurus (Of course I also tell my students the same) saying that student needs to practice multiple compositions in one Raga to master the Raga. Yes it is very much true that the student won't be able to get a deeper understanding of a Raga if he/she didn't learn multiple compositions in that Raga. But this is also true that another important dimension i.e. voice culture - focusing on pronunciation of consonants and vowels is not insisted most of the times.

The language is a combination of vowels and consonants. Every composition has unique lyrics and unique combinations of the consonants and vowels. The more combinations we practice the more easier to align with sruti. Unnecessary stresses on these combo may turn out in to voice abuse and in same way singing them delicately than needed misses the clarity. So there should be a balance.

I am just trying to make the student understand that result of singing wrong note/sruti is not always their knowledge about sruti... it may be the result of the way they pronounce the consonants and vowels. So in their practice sessions, one can check it in this way also when the note goes wrong.

Hoping that the write may help the students(even if it is for one student).

Will try to share more about Voice culture in future. Hoping that you like this part 1

Yours

[RSR]

From many posts in threads on HM, in this forum, many musicians like GNB , MLV, MSS and such have lauded the HM style of training and its emphasis on voice culture. Cultivation of voice culture is about maintaining the sruthi and total adherence to raaga swaroopam, in all the three octave ranges and speeds. By HM standards, voice culture has nothing to do with lyrics even, and less about proper pronunciation, --of course, this is not to say that the vocalist can murder the language and the lyrics by wrong associations and pronunciation. but the best vocalist in CM can convey the raaga swaroopoam even without actually rendering the lines, and typically MMI was capable of that. and rightly considered as a perfectionist .
By all means, let the students of CM try their best to understand the exact meaning of words and grammar when they sing CM kruthis, but let there be no doubt that many kruthis of Thyagaraja swami though correctly sung from verbal graamar angle, have lacked the music and spirit of the same kruthis, as rendered by doyens with emphasis more on the raagam and bhaavam . After all, Telugu was not the mother-tongue of most of those great vocalists. Let us not mix up voice culture with words and grammar. Only the grammar of music matters - not the grammar of lyrics , in kruthis. We need not know the language and meaning at all , to appreciate good music.

[shankarank]

The pronunciation of MMI and MDR are internally spashTa. We cannot just superficially observe using speech clarity criteria that we are used to.

That's where the term 'lyric' to refer to sangIta-sAhityam comes short! Is rAgam referred to as "notes" or is it same as svarams or Sruti?

Both the above musicians seemed to have arrived at an optimum sound, adding a right kind of drawl, based on sAdhana.

Siksha is one thing, sAdhana is yet another.

Again, don't give me this instrumental music is no lyrics and pure music thing! Each instrument itself is unique - e.g. Violin is not used to produce plucked sound, even if it can be plucked! With a good violinist like MSG, it can sound like a Wind instrument, but it doesn't with most violinists and that is not the intent for that instrument.

Also, even if a musician works alone to blend words into melody based on their gift, the prevailing cultural mindset of the times decides whether to accept it or not. Don't expect somebody to agree with the approach of MMI and MDR for another musician today.

The MahaprANA conundrum of Indian languages, tamizh-vs-the rest, to me is a non-issue. Tell me, in the most popular song like sAmanigamaja sudhA, how many musicians pronounce sudhA with the full mahaprANA dha really? A musician with clear, speech like pronunciation, in their rendering exposes this type of mistakes more.

Also, with respect to the role of compositions referred to in the opening post, if compositions were to simply learn the rAgam only, they would have been dropped from performances to begin with. Yet all the public concert era music is full of compositions only. So how long are we going to pretend that they are some external artifacts that we have imported for reasons of expedience and appeal to listeners only?

So the listeners are pAmaras (some uninformed low knowledge beings) and remain so for 100 years? What a pity? ayyO pAvam! Musicians have had to play to the gallery to make a living and are forever condemned to produce music, not of their conviction. Poof!

[Nick H]

IMHO...

It doesn't matter what names are given to the noises made by a performer using their vocal cords! It can sound good or not so good. It can be done in ways which will facilitate producing them for life, and it can be done in ways that will cause damage after some time.

I humbly suggest that this is voice culture/training. The basic use of the instrument that is voice.

As audience, I prefer to listen to someone who sounds good. Some of my favourite artists sound exquisitely beautiful without any specific training: they are blessed in some way with that gift. Others have been been helped to. Others don't sound so good. Some may not sound so good, but have other strengths that make up for it.

If I were a singer, I'd be interested in the health of my voice. I have talked to youngsters who say that they want to be sure they can still sing in thirty years or more: what wonderful foresight!

That's how I understand voice culture or voice training.

I may never sing a correct carnatic note, even off-stage (and my "English notes" are not so good either!) but will be interested to see the information in this thread

[RSR]

No offence meant.
ref-p-1

student needs to practice multiple compositions in one Raga to master the Raga. Yes it is very much true that the student won't be able to get a deeper understanding of a Raga if he/she didn't learn multiple compositions in that Raga

1- There are about 120 single-kruthi raagams and another 60 raagams with just 2 kruthis - in Thyagarajaswami compositions. In such cases, the kruthis themselves are the raagaswaroopam.
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shankarank
Good point.
<QUOTE>The MahaprANA conundrum of Indian languages, tamizh-vs-the rest, to me is a non-issue. Tell me, in the most popular song like sAmanigamaja sudhA, how many musicians pronounce sudhA with the full mahaprANA dha really? A musician with clear, speech like pronunciation, in their rendering exposes this type of mistakes more[/b][/b]

2. Even in real life colloquial and literary speech by non-tamil speakers, the second and fourth consonant variations are hardly spoken correctly. Most often they are sounded as in Thamizh.
3. Insrumental music has no relevance to voice culture

Also, with respect to the role of compositions referred to in the opening post, if compositions were to simply learn the rAgam only, they would have been dropped from performances to begin with. Yet all the public concert era music is full of compositions only. So how long are we going to pretend that they are some external artifacts that we have imported for reasons of expedience and appeal to listeners only?

4.
YES.
Voice culture may be tested best in RTP. but the spirit of CM exemplified by the TEINITY, gives more importance to raaga elaborration and kruthi rendering. We cannot think of a CM concert without a number of kruthis. but there can be a conceret without RTP.

[shankarank]

-> p#5 ->
On Point No. 2, when I hear lot of Hindi words, they sound like simplification of Samskrit words, e.g. Lakan for Lakshman and so on.

Point #4 : The ARI concert format at least in initial stages is a continuation of the Pallavi tradition because of the presence of exquisite yatis in the kritis of trimurti vaggEyakkaras and their follower composers. The kriti and its sense and sensibilities had to be honored, and hence the full technical force of RTP (all the three phases) could not be brought in. Later many other compositions were sought to fit into this Mould, but not with complete success.

Without that viSrAnti in the kritis, Carnatic music as a professional distinction would not have been possible. It would have petered out into a populist devotional fare!

[RSR]

We need not and should not scoff at Bajan Sampradaaya.
Thyagraja Swami himself was a product of one such great tradition in Cauvery delta. The main aspects of that tradition were group singing and devotional theme, so common with the Marahta varkari tradition . and in fact the basis of the bifurcation of classical music into the HM and CM streams. just before the times of Purandaradasa.
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Based on that premise, Thyagaraja Swami's compositions- nearly 700 of them are totally a vehicle of his spiritual surrender.
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When singing the compositions of the Trinity, it is impermissible to add our own 'embellishments'. as according to DhanammAL school, it is actually an insult to the TRINITY.
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The HM tradition was heavily of Chamber music and Court-music variety. CM was re-established by saints to decry that mode and to use it as a vehicle of spiritual message among the common people. and musicians themselves.
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Prior to Thyagaraja's time ( Shyama Sastry also was a contemporary and of the same aim ), there were very talented vocalists in the tanjore court , experts in musicology and virtuoso performers, but never thought of any devotional content except to their patrons.
HM gharanas despite being equally court-music were more often of Chamber-music. So they sang for expert-rasikas. - naturally giving maximum importance to voice-culture. and proudly holding aloft the standard of their respective gharanas.
Surprisingly, without any 'standard' guidelines, they instinctively chose as their basic 'thaats' , the 16 MKR of CM - all of the strictly non-vivadi. From those sixteen thaatts they developoed numerous janya raagams of exquisite emotional appeal.
The post-1980 CM has none of these motivating themes- neither religious fervour, nor the rigorous training pattern of HM gharanas, nor the 'gurukula' system of earlier disciples of Thyagaraja.
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CM got mercenary even before the modern kutchery pattern.
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Even HM has succumbed to the whims of the rich in the west - CM much more so.
It may be a good idea to have one or two years of HM training before learning CM and choosing a CM concert as career.
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CM and HM are of the same root but WCM is entirely different. It is almost a crime to 'fuse' CM/HM with WCM or WPM.
- Voice is a divine gift. It can be improved by 'saadhanaa' but not by 'siksha' and artefacts. and gadgets. as rightly but obliquely pointed out in the preceding post.

[shankarank]

We need not and should not scoff at Bajan Sampradaaya.

Well, I did use "populist devotional fare" as a term to draw the distinction and to emphasize the uniqueness of the kutcheri paddhati. There are lot of bhajan like inclusions in the concerts of today, that is half hearted and done, just to round out the package!

Sampradaya Bhajana is a river by itself that continues to seek it's own excellence. We need to know the difference between the two! And I have discussed and pointed out the voice excellence that emerges in that tradition in our own discussions.

When singing the compositions of the Trinity, it is impermissible to add our own 'embellishments'. as according to DhanammAL school, it is actually an insult to the TRINITY.

I listened to the parivAdini interview by the current family descendent SrI Thiruvarur Girish. The fact is, their pAThantaram is quite heavy and loaded with music and likely embellished and fossilized early in their tradition, so much so that, no body dare to change anything in that stream. To try and learn that itself is a big barrier, then only you can think of embellishing.

Musicians outside of that stream , fortunately are not bound by that thought process. Else how could they make a living as well!

The post-1980 CM has none of these motivating themes- neither religious fervour, nor the rigorous training pattern of HM gharanas, nor the 'gurukula' system of earlier disciples of Thyagaraja.

That is not entirely true! If you listen to the stories of most practicing musicians, they have spent considerable home time with their teachers, alongside their academic pursuits. Guru vITTil veSHTi tOyttu poTTAlthAn gurukulavAsam enRAL, you are missing the spirit of it. To the extent possible given the conditions, I can boldly state, that most successful musicians in the fray have done extended time with their Gurus.

Voice culture , the lack of it, cannot be blamed on musicians , as those with good gifted voices may not be committing to this music. HM wants to train the voice primarily and may filter out unworkable voices early!

[RSR]

Just to keep the thread going.
Among the famous lady vocalists of the Golden era, The Trinity in that group, Smt.MS, Smt.DKP and Smt.NCV did not have any rigorous gurukula training. Among the male vocalists, Sri.GNB also was self-taught.
All the other lady-vocalists after 1945, did have extended training for a decade. Smt.MS was uniquely fortunate to be trained in regular HM .by
-Pt.Naaraayan Vyas?
Post-1980 generation of male vocalists, always aimed at a non-music professional career- not as concert artiste- and naturally could not spend whole time with any music guru.
Just as well.
It is said that in the early decades of last century, a disciple will not be allowed to do solo concert even after a decade and a half of continuous training , by the guru. ..
As for doing house-hold chores for the guru and his family, the disciple boys considered it as a privilege. It was not like a tuition class- The guru will teach only when he had the mood- it can be anytime! I think, in our generation, the student will learn only when he has the mood! After all he is the employer and the teacher a mere employee. !
I remember an anecdote- of a guru feeding and training a disciple boy for over 15 years, finally gave him leave to blaze his own path, AFTER GIVING THE DISCIPLE A HANDSOME AMOUNT FOR HIS SUSTENANCE. !
Culturally, it was a different era.
==

HM wants to train the voice primarily and may filter out unworkable voices early!

Well said.

[shankarank]

Just to keep the thread going.

If it is a thread on a famous movie singer, will it keep going on its own?

Post-1980 generation of male vocalists, always aimed at a non-music professional career- not as concert artiste- and naturally could not spend whole time with any music guru.

Who is to blame for that, the ignorant educated public?

I remember an anecdote- of a guru feeding and training a disciple boy for over 15 years, finally gave him leave to blaze his own path, AFTER GIVING THE DISCIPLE A HANDSOME AMOUNT FOR HIS SUSTENANCE. !
Culturally, it was a different era.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/There_ain ... free_lunch

Land grants taken away? Ask your friends! People migrated. Inflationary economy. An educated generation read falsehoods, isn't it? My front porch is insured for excess liability if my neighbor slips and falls! India is not too far away from that too, wait another decade. So, if I need music, it must come through some amount of business, commercial, mercenary route! To the credit of the community, that part has been kept to the minimum.

A certain way of thinking has led to calling even the national defense mercenary. What is the point of reminiscing old socioeconomics, instead of reminiscing what essence or philosophy we can take forward?

[RSR]

The essence spoken of is our ancient tradition - of all societies in fact.
It is known as Asiatic mode of production.
In modern parlance , it is state-subsidized basic needs of life, education and healthcare.
Even IITs are heavily subsidized. They should in fact be free.
Wage earners are not to be confused with mercenaries. Defense personnel work not merely for pay and perquisites. They risk their very life. to enable the other people lead peaceful and productive life.
What is so impractical in society taking care of great teachers and give them the freedom to pass on their creativity to deserving and dedicated few. Thyagaraja Swami's life exemplified it.
From each according to his ability. To each according to his needs.

[shankarank]

IITs could be subsidized because the commercialized West gave grants. Now the fees have been hiked multi-fold unless you are eligible for scholarships. The fees may still not account for much, but then we have liberalized the economy , so the government can now more comfortably allocate. Government understood commercialism after some struggle?

Still compared to money that is wasted, I mean wasted, not the actual benefit, for flood relief, education gets a pittance.

[RSR]

If it is a thread on a famous movie singer, will it keep going on its own?

That particular thread on Lata and Smt.MS, has crossed 10,000 views. So, it seems to be liked by rasikas. Gratifying.
--------------------------
In the glorious Soviet era, Lunacharsky was the minister for cultural affairs. He sent a number of teams to the remote corners of that vast land straddling two continents , as talent scouts to spot young students with gift for music and the students were brought to the capital for very advanced decades of training in most classical Western Music . All the expenses were borne by the state.
Astounding progress was made in Nuclear Energy and Space technology, by Russians, in the much maligned era from 1945 to 1953. - rising like a phoenix from unimaginable devastation of the war in infrastructure and human lives. Evidently, the scientists were the product of that era for which the later generation of leaders took the credit while hypocritically denouncing and mortgaging the national interests to carpet-baggers. .
I believe , there are many scientists in this forum, on musicology and voice culture. Can we create such intellectual and artistic experts by Gulag? or by financial inducements?
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State can use its power for both good and bad things. ....so can some industrialists . Example- IISc at Bangalore. BIT in Rajasthan. ..even the earlier MIT at Chrompet founded and funded by the industrialist Rajam
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APJK was a product of MIT.
We already have a school of CM at Kalakshetra and it can offer training in HM also, That may solve this problem of voice culture in budding CM vocalists.

We should first 'democratize' and then we can make it 'elite'. .

[shankarank]

Can we create such intellectual and artistic experts by Gulag? or by financial inducements?

What creates experts in this case is sampradaya and the intent to continue the same! Government does provide scholarships and that is appropriate as nurturing can be done out of public funds. However, sustenance requires the larger society to support and appreciate. The support sometimes takes a commercial form because people don't do their duty. It must be imposed using a commercial tool.

This took a silly form, when front row seats were cordoned off for a corporate sponsor and you found some insensitive and irreverent individuals with free passes letting their children run around empty rows!

Indian Jugad tries all means to get things done, but things can go wrong! This is when people hate the "commercial" method.

[thenpaanan]

IMHO...

It doesn't matter what names are given to the noises made by a performer using their vocal cords! It can sound good or not so good. It can be done in ways which will facilitate producing them for life, and it can be done in ways that will cause damage after some time.

I humbly suggest that this is voice culture/training. The basic use of the instrument that is voice.

As audience, I prefer to listen to someone who sounds good. Some of my favourite artists sound exquisitely beautiful without any specific training: they are blessed in some way with that gift. Others have been been helped to. Others don't sound so good. Some may not sound so good, but have other strengths that make up for it.

If I were a singer, I'd be interested in the health of my voice. I have talked to youngsters who say that they want to be sure they can still sing in thirty years or more: what wonderful foresight!

That's how I understand voice culture or voice training.

I may never sing a correct carnatic note, even off-stage (and my "English notes" are not so good either!) but will be interested to see the information in this thread

Good/attractive voice is something that easily defies easy characterization. Even someone with a "broken" voice can create a spell-binding experience. That is the magic of human voice. We are seemingly attracted to mysterious elements, which is why even a beggar singing for alms on the street can make you stop in your tracks, even if momentarily.

Last Jan I was being a tourist in Fatehpur Sikri and it so happened that there was a qawwali singer singing in front of the shrine there who said his family has performing this service (he refused money) for hundreds of years. His voice was anything but what you would call a smooth or silky or a free-ranging voice. And he had the flu that day on top of that. And yet when he started singing, I was rooted to the spot, mesmerized. Then he saw me standing there and urged me to sit down next to him. Half an hour of sheer magic followed. Some heady combination of classical-tinged melody and deep-seated spiritualism -- devotional spirit of the likes of Tyagaraja kritis -- combined with the struggle with a recalcitrant voice. It felt like the broken voice almost made the music more beautiful than otherwise. Go figure!


-T

[Nick H]

Wonderful, @thenpaanan.

Ultimately the music defies cold analysis

[RSR]

@ThenPaaNan
===========

Half an hour of sheer magic followed. Some heady combination of classical-tinged melody and deep-seated spiritualism -- devotional spirit of the likes of Tyagaraja kritis -- combined with the struggle with a recalcitrant voice. It felt like the broken voice almost made the music more beautiful than otherwise. Go figure!

Very nice. My conjecture is that he was a Sikh or a sufi devotee. The Sikh tradition has an Esraj as much as a kirpan. Choir singing in Churches also have that blissful effect. Pandaripuram yathra groups singing also makes us forget ourselves. I suppose, they may not appeal to non-spiritual people. As you like Thyagaraja kruthi and its spiritual message, you like similar music in any quarter.

May be partly subjective as well as constitutional receptivity. We may expect some sort of a gadget soon, which can alter the timbre of what we hear , independent of the timbre in which it is sung.
Not all people in the South like instruments like Sarangi- Dirubah-Esraj.