Stealing hearts with music

THE BIOGRAPHY of a great musician rarely rises to that ecstatic height when one can feel that full aesthetic justice has been done to the divine artiste. K.V.N. is one of the noblest among living singers of Carnatic music that the best Boswell cannot accomplish his mission to perfection. Narayanaswamy is a friend of mine, and of my wife, who was a lovely player on the veena in her own right while alive She was a KVN fan. Narayanaswamy, sometimes with his talented wife, used to stay in our house if some sabha brought him to town for a concert. I refer here to one such occasion when KVN came to Kochi and stayed with us.

Countless cutcheries of KVN have enthralled me but let me narrate one delectable anecdote, homely and indelibly exquisite. My wife expressed a small wish to the great singer. Will you be pleased to enchant us with your glorious music for an hour, without accompaniments? I seconded the request; but it being a working day (I was then a Judge of the Kerala High Court) even sweet music could not keep me absent or late. My apologetic plea to the marvellous vocalist was to sing between 1 p.m. and 2 p.m. (lunch recess) and in a happy mood he consented. It was a thrill and I promptly drove home at 1-05 p.m. What was the scenario like? The Bhagavatar, in informal domestic dress, my wife on the tanpura and my small family sitting round to listen, with expectant ecstasy. No minute to lose since my time was unalterable. The charm of simplicity, the absence of accompaniments and mellifluous music spontaneously flowing! The room was transformed into Nada Brahmam reverberating! There is a divinity in melody when alapana and gana blend at their finest and lift the listener to the skies and fill the hall with ananda. The essence of music is so completely love that the full savour of it cannot be won by oneself alone, and so it is that at a music concert one locates a friendly company to share a joy too great for oneself alone.

K.V.N., singing solo and inspired by a higher summons, loses himself in the effortless flow. That confluence of art and artiste elevates us all into Outer Space as it were. Such was my experience for sixty minutes, each minute vibrant with sixty seconds! Seconds also sing when the singer and the song transform the hallowed place with ineffable, infinite ascent of the human spirit. Music-conscious we all were, and our souls were stolen by the sound of sangeet. The hour was over and I rushed back to court to hear litigative battles from the bench. What an acoustic contrast between mellow music and bellicose lawyers exchanging verbal blows! But years later, every time I met him, the maestro remembered that celestial hour at Kochi and asked for a taped copy. That hour was my best performance, he used to say, reminiscing ruefully.

I could not recover the tape. The reason was simple. Many valuable things, tapes, photographs, letters and books which were a treasure, were lost once for all when my wife passed away. I lost all interest even in things precious and hardly bothered about preserving expensive items or even memorable events. KVN's musical cassette was a victim of this disappointing disappearance. For sure, the aerial waves and sonic vibrations never die and the songs he sang and the ragas with which he regaled must still be somewhere. Nothing vanishes forever. When science can pick up vintage vibrations and vocalise again the KVN hour at my old residence, that sangeet may still swim into sound of music and still come alive! I am beholden to KVN and Nada Brahman.

Narayanaswamy belongs to Kerala by birth although he was a sishya of Ramanuja Iyengar, the immortal musical legend. `Age cannot wither him nor custom stale'. Nevertheless, Kerala has its own individuality in musical culture, articulatory purity and pronunciational authenticity which vidwans with Malayalam - Sanskritic linguistic clarity possess. No pejorative reflection on Tamil greats, please. Apart from this, I must emphasise that KVN has enriched Carnatic music by his own originality. The seed, in life and in art, may shape the tree broadly, but surroundings, experiences, creative faculties and several other influences impart distinctive beauty beyond the seed's potential. So I believe, and I have heard others agree, that though KVN is a true disciple of the great Iyengar, he has a place, in his own right, in the pantheon of Carnatic music.

Swati Tirunal, the great royal composer of Travancore, left a legacy which has considerably contributed to the repertory of South Indian music. Narayanaswamy has sung Swati's songs and, more importantly, has performed concerts during the annual Navarathri festival in the Padmanabha mandapam. I am not a connoisseur of music but a friend of mine and musicologist, who used to review in dailies, weeklies, music concerts, reminded me that quite apart from the beauty in rendering the padams composed by the Maharaja, exposition of subtle nuances, accurate pronunciation of the padams in Malayalam and such like attributes were impeccable aspects of the KVN style. My musical friend was insistent that he had on several occasions, been moved by KVN's rendering of the poem- varnam ``Sumasayka'' in ragam Kapi from various platforms. I am baffled as to why Lakshamana Pillai compositions or even Kathakali music - how exquisite! are ignored by vidwans.

Similar is my pejorative reflection on the pathetic lack of musical patriotism of our galaxy of vidwans who fail to thrill audiences with patriotic songs like those of Bharathiar or passionate renderings which moved the Mahatma. The power of song beats the best oratory and we need that nationalist spirit today to sustain swaraj.

I am truly entranced by the professional talent attained by Narayanaswamy and I am proud that a biography of this aging vocalist is going to be produced so that generations later, lovers of Carnatic music may remember KVN the prodigy.

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