INstrumental Music Concert

[hnbhagavan]

Friends,

A Veena Festival was conducted by Sri Rama Lalia Kala Mandira Bangalore at Bangalore Gayana Samaja for 4 days Sep 5-8,2019.
Eminent Veena artists as well as a few Juniors performed.

It was shocking to observe hardly 50 Rasikas attended such a great festival supported by Padmavathy Anantha Gopalantrust headed by Jayanti Kumaresh.

The usual crowd of Sri Rama Lalita Kala Mandira as well as Bangalore Gayana Samaja skipped the event.

My earnest appeal for Instrumental musicians to announce the Kriti as it would help a lay rasika.

[Sachi_R]

My earnest appeal for Instrumental musicians to announce the Kriti as it would help a lay rasika.

Excellent idea.

Instrumentalists have to do many things right to make their music more attractive. They should remember that they are competing with
1. TV serials - endless and addictive melodrama
2. "Star" vocalist ensembles that promote themselves very well.
3. Sahitya-laden music which is absent from instrumental renditions.

Most of all, we should support organisations like SRLKM who hold such concerts, may be they should do it in smaller halls.

By the way Amruthavarshini 100.1FM has a predominance of instrumental music in its 8:30AM slots. I enjoy them hugely.

[hnbhagavan]

I feel all Rasikas should attend the Instrumental Music concert in good numbers.There will be no seats and i have seen halls become full for branded Vocalists.This was the case earlier for LGJ,MSG or TNK concerts.
These days also we have very good Instrumental musicians and they need your support.
At the same time the musicians can announce the lyrics and the raga so that more people in the audience can appreciate the concert.

[Sachi_R]

These days also we have very good Instrumental musicians and they need your support.

Absolutely!

It is instrumental music that is holding up aspects of purity of sound, Sruti and melody in Carnatic music. We can see the dependence of the best vocalists on the accompanying instrumentalists all the time!

[arasi]

Agreed.
Sachi, you get your instrumental music feed on a regular basis, and yet you also try to attend instrumental concerts.
Bhagwan, we all know loves them. He often expresses his angst about the indifference that many rasikAs show towards instrumental concerts .
Bhagawan, your sulking over it has been of no avail. All the well-spelt out reasons above are valid. I like your request to the artistes to please announce the kriti, rAgA and tAla. before they begin playing. It helps a great deal. When we can't make out a piece, we don't have to be distracted from the music to search our minds andstart looking around for answers.

I have a few more thoughts on this. While I like festivals for Veena music, I am not pleased with those which give a pathetically short time for each artiste to feature as many of them as possible.
In a series of concerts on the other hand, interspersing the vocal ones with a few instrumental ones is ideal. Many listeners, though they would like to listen to the vINA,, are not keen on listening to a series of them every evening. Let's take the Gayana Samaja vina festival--I am sure some of the patrons attended at least one. With other social activities, Hubba preparations AND traffic problems, I wouldn't call it pathetic.
Instead, if an instrumental concert precedes a monthly concert on a regular basis, there would be more attendance, is our hope. Even holding one the same day earlier isn't a bad idea. The hall will have extra listeners coming in late, to listen to a bit of it at least, before the vocal one...

[parivadini]

May I use this opportunity to seek support for this initiative: https://carnaticmusicreview.wordpress.c ... m-concert/

When we started this in Chennai, we were thrilled when the audience count reached double digits. If fifty people turn up for nagaswaram concert, we actually think that is a reason to celebrate.

[rajeshnat]

I have a few more thoughts on this. While I like festivals for Veena music, I am not pleased with those which give a pathetically short time for each artiste to feature as many of them as possible.
In a series of concerts on the other hand, interspersing the vocal ones with a few instrumental ones is ideal. Many listeners, though they would like to listen to the vINA,, are not keen on listening to a series of them every evening. Let's take the Gayana Samaja vina festival--I am sure some of the patrons attended at least one. With other social activities, Hubba preparations AND traffic problems, I wouldn't call it pathetic.
Instead, if an instrumental concert precedes a monthly concert on a regular basis, there would be more attendance, is our hope. Even holding one the same day earlier isn't a bad idea. The hall will have extra listeners coming in late, to listen to a bit of it at least, before the vocal one...

Arasi,
Jayanthi Kumaresh in the name of padmavathi Ananthagopalan trust had conducted a 4 day exclusive veena festival , There is usually a sympathy veena concert type series of having each slot of 45 minutes each . But what this trust has conducted is a 4 day non sympathy festival . There is four 2 and 1/2 hour main evening slot and four 1 hour slot preceding the main slot for 4 junior artist. As such 8 vainikas get stage opportunity

Interspersing with vocal or veena is a very bad idea . This wil only give crowd to vocal and usually only one vainika gets a chance , that is not good at al for the health and sustenance of veena . What the trust is doing is best as they have bunched as a 4 day festival . This is a long term plan let them continue of having exclusive 4 day festival for veena .

Most like me only like vocal and we can take only 1 or 2 veena in a span of 4 days . The danger for veena or any instrument concerts succeeding more is not determined by rasikas but by waythe sheer emprical count of quality vocalists especially youngsters who are entering in. Excess count of vocalists cannibalizes the instrumentalists.

Appreciating veena and its sound is usually accompolished by a more seasoned and conditioned rasika who hops after way too many vocal concerts.and gets into a bit of vocal excess sound fatigue(here i am talking about myself) I have seen in SKGS and BGS where a 4 day festival concerts on Nadaswaram gives more count over a period of time than having a day of nagaswaram in a 10 day festival . Also for violin there is a marungapuri violin festival for 4 consecutive days which is great too.

All said patience is the key and kudos to Smt padmavathi trust. Approach is fine Result will not be perfect that is also fine . . Dear organizers - Do not listen to respected vaggeyakkara Smt Rajee Krishnan

[hnbhagavan]

Exactly
Rajesh has put it correctly.The Junior concerts was 1 hr and senior about 2 and half hours.This festival was conducted by Smt Jayanti Kumaresh in collaboration with Srirama Lalitha Kala Mandira.The venue was Bangalore Gayana Samaja one of the best in Bangalore.
The Bangalore Gayana Samaja conducts a four day festival called Vadya Vaibhava and an eminent Instrumentalist is honored.mr.Kumaresh takes a lead role and has instituted the cash award.The Jayanti-Kumaresh pair now settled in Bangalore are doing their bit for the Instrumental Music concerts.
Sri MSG was the first one to receive the award about 5 years ago.
Madam Arasi

Whatever logistics and Habba problems are always there.But put an Vocal concert of a popular one ,you cannot get a seat even if it is priced Rs500/.
I attended a hloy festival concert called Ekatva by RaGa sisters,the Bangalore Gayana samaja was full and people left disappointed.
Here in this festival concerts were free and no takers even by SRLKM crowd who generally attend their festivals.I am trying to highlight the apathy shown by Rasikas which is very discouraging.In fact I appreciate the brave face put up by organisers who took great pains to organise this festival.

[arasi]

Rajesh,
You may call me respected, and I am not going to moan like Rodney Dangerfield to say that I get no respect
Well, I ought to have prefaced my concerns with the appreciation I have for the family's effort in bringing to focus the greatness of the veena, and for showcasing the students in particular.
Sorry Bhagwan, but this is what could happen when we dwell on the negative aspects-- like audience turn out My focus got shifted, I guess.
I appreciate Jayanthi Kumaresh's playing no end. She can transport me to another world with her playing. I do remember her students coming in swarms to listen to her at SRLKM's Sankaranthi festival. Had I been in Bengaluru, I would have attended a few concerts.
Rajesh, you know me better than that. When it concerns burgeoning young musicians, I am always rooting for them.
Apologies if I sounded the way you seem to have understood my may be mixed up thoughts

[RSR]

Karnataka is the meeting ground of Carnatic music and Hindusthani music. ( especially, Northern Karnataka).
As a lay-rasika, I have often pleaded in this forum that classical music is more about the tunes than the lyrics. and cited the case of famous instrumentalists like TNR (Nagaswaram), Chowdiah(special violin),Karaikkudi Sambasiva Iyer, VeeNa DhanammaaL, Shanmugavadivu, Devakottai Narayana
Iyengar, Flute Mali, Palladam Sanjiva Rao, Emani Sankara Sastry, S.Balachander, and AKC Natarajan.------
-I still hold that opinion but on second thoughts, realized that human mind cannot remember and retain pure notes alone. We can remember and relish tunes connected with lyrics, better (whatever be the language).--------
Better Still, if the lyrics are in the mother-tongue of the audience and have literary beauty, the tunes will be loved all the more.
- When we listen to an instrumentalist playing a well-known song, we listen to the lyrics in our sub-conscious mind. What I am trying to convey is that CM Instrumentalists MUST play only such songs and ragas that are already popularized by gifted vocalists. Even the raga-alaapana must be of very well-known ragams. and preferably, in ragams that are common to both CM and HM. Just ten scales..

Harikambodhi(HM-KAMAJ), Karaharapriya(HM-KAPI),Todi(HM BAIRAVI), SankarabaraNam(HM-BILAWAL), SubpanthuvaraaLi(HM-TODI),Panthuvaraali(HM-POORVI), MayaaMaLavaGowLa(HM-BHAIRAV),Natabairavi(HM-ASAVERI), KalyaaNi(HM-YAMAN) and Gamanasrama(HM-MARWA).
------------Any concert ( vocal/ instrumental) in Karanataka, should give prominence to Purandhara dhasa saahithyams and compositions in Kannada language by famous lyricist/tuners of that state.
If we want students and young professionals to attend the concerts in large numbers, the concerts should be only on holiday-evenings. So, the idea of arranging the concerts on successive days is wrong. Even the best of things in any field are likely to be unknown / ignored , without sufficient planning, publicity and field-work. At least, ten days must be given to would-be attendees, to plan their engagement. For young artistes, it is not wrong to pre-inform the list of songs and ragams which are to be performed.
- Poor attendance, then, is as much due to ignoring these points , if our aim is not catering to the old people alone.

[RSR]

Would like to share some valid points from an article (Live mint)

https://www.livemint.com/Leisure/5LwUJy ... -city.html

'Earlier, every home had a veena and Balagopala, Dikshitar’s majestic composition in the Bhairavi ragam, talks about Carnatic musicians as vainika-gayakas, or “veena players and singers".
In previous generations, every Carnatic musician, including singers, learnt to play the veena because its notes resembled the human voice. There are photographs of Subbulakshmi playing the veena. Playing the notes helped singers see and feel their music in a way that complemented their vocal riyaz (practice). You could watch your fingers go through the swaras or notes; practise the gamakas or vocal quivers that are Carnatic music’s signature; and internalize this instrument’s tactile feel into your repertoire. The veena, more than the voice, I would argue, is perfectly suited to the gamakas that differentiate Carnatic music from Hindustani.
- "Saraswati, the mother of all learning and creativity, plays the veena; Krishna plays the flute; Nandi plays the drums; Shiva plays the damaru. Instrumentalists are part of our music tradition." ( )
If you are an instrumentalist in Chennai, you work doubly hard to get the same number of stage performances. You have to do everything the voice does and better. This is because you are functioning in a music genre that is entirely lyric-driven. Carnatic music is suffused with sahitya-bhava, or emotions that come from words. Kurai ondrum illai, sang M.S. Subbulakshmi, turning Rajaji’s words into a paean for contentment and acceptance: “I have no grievances."I know the song by heart. Everyone in Chennai does, or seems to. The minute any singer begins this song, the entire auditorium sighs in recognition. The minute
S. Sowmya begins singing Papanasam Sivan’s Tamil song, Devi Neeye Thunai (Devi, you are my only companion/hope), the audience will shake their heads in devotional fervour. Thyagaraja’s Swara Raga Sudha? We know that one too, and can compare versions by different singers. This is the greatness of the Chennai audience.For instrumentalists, it is their greatest challenge as well. Carnatic music is monophonic, suited therefore to verse and melody. How then does an instrumentalist deal
with an audience that expects him to duplicate the pleasures of lyric-based songs?

[Nick H]

I don't know if this will deflate the Bangaloreans, who have expressed genuine concerns, but... veena concerts in Chennai get a decent turn out. Some more than others, sure; but that can be said for vocalist too.

For those who cannot enjoy instrumental music without knowing the name and details of the song, I can only suggest: try! Yes, I am being flippant and a bit cheeky, but I regularly see people missing out on pure pleasure because they do not have those details.