Friday Review
Bangalore
Chennai and Tamil Nadu
Delhi
Hyderabad
Thiruvananthapuram
The impact of print on music
SUGANTHY KRISHNAMACHARI
|
EXHIBITION Publications dating back to early 19th century, gramophone records and handbills are on display at the Roja Muthiah Library.
|
Photos: S.R.Raghunathan
From the archives: Gramaphone, old manuscripts and prints displayed at the exhibition.
The Roja Muthiah Research Library (RMRL) has 200 years of printed material in its collection, with the earliest printed matter dating back to 1804. They have organised an exhibition that showcases the impact of print and gramophones on music.
“A library can’t be just a place of reference. A library must organise lectures, exhibitions — what are called extension activities,” says G. Sundar, Director of the centre.
Display of old issues
Displayed in the exhibition are an 1856 publication of Arunachala Kavi’s Rama Nataka Kritis, an 1863 publication of Thevaram, an 1887 publication of Vedanayakam Pillai, and a 1902 publication of Manicka Mudaliar’s book on talas. There are also old issues of Sudesamitran, and copies of Deepavali Malar on display. A gramophone, 78 rpm records, and handbills advertising concerts complete the collection.
The exhibition was inaugurated by Radha Parthasarathy, daughter of Ambujam Krishna. Speaking on the occasion, Radha said that her mother used to record her songs on a reel to reel tape recorder. She promised that if she could locate the tapes, she would donate them to RMRL.
Sundar said that invitations about the exhibition had been sent to schools, so that schools could bring their students over to see the display. They are even prepared to take the exhibition minus the gramophones to schools, if any school wants them to.
They are in the process of setting up an audio archive, which will include gramophone records, 33 rpm and 45 rpm vinyl records, reel to reel tapes and cassettes.
Do they have the equipment to play both two-track and four-track spool tapes? “Yes,”says Sundar. “To keep the records from getting damaged we plan to get laser equipment, which will pick up a signal from the records. The surface of the records will not be touched.”
Will they make copies available to the public? “There might be copyright issues. People can listen to the recordings here. However, we plan to engage a legal consultant who will advise us on intellectual property right issues.”
Books on classical music
Since both printed material and audio are available in the same place, cross-referencing will be easy. They have enough material to put up exhibitions on classical music for the next 25 years, according to Sundar. “Maybe we could also have other thematic programmes. We could have a lecture on folk music, and then play folk songs from our collection. We could have an exhibition only on Tamil film music. We have 2000 song books of Tamil films,” says Sundar.
Their catalogue of books is available online. Very soon it will be available in Tamil Unicode, and Roman script with diacritical remarks.
“We’re very happy that James Nye, South Asian bibliographer at the University of Chicago is here today. When A.K.Ramanujan and Ambai informed Nye about our collection, he took the initiative to get the University of Chicago to collaborate with us,” explains Sundar.
Before the inauguration of the exhibition Sanjay Subramaniam spoke on the impact of print and the recording industry on classical music.
The exhibition is open from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. on all days, till January 4.
Photo: S.R.Raghunathan
Sharing INFORMATION: Sanjay Subramaniam.
Nuggets from the lecture
There was no printed matter of anything musical during the time of the Trinity. The first publication of Tyagaraja’s compositions came 10 years after his death in 1847.
Before the printing of compositions, it was difficult to access a kriti. Even when palm leaf manuscripts were available, ragas would be deliberately mis-spelt to confuse people. The propagation of music got a fillip when the Thachur Singaracharlu brothers published their books.
On the Trinity
Sanjay Subramaniam theorised that it was probably around Chinnaswami Mudaliar’s time that the practice of referring to Tyagaraja, Dikshitar and Syama Sastri as the Trinity arose. Although Chinnaswami Mudaliar does not actually call them the Trinity, he speaks of them in a similar vein.
With Subbarama Dikshitar’s Sangeeta Sampradaya Pradarshini, Muthuswami Dikshitar’s kritis became available in the public domain.
In the early 20th century Abraham Panditar and K.V.Srinivasa Iyengar came out with books on musicology.
The Music Academy used to get a person from the Madras Legislative Assembly to record the proceedings of every music conference.
With the Tamizh Isai movement, one saw the emergence of printed versions of Nandan Charitram, Thevaram and Tiruppugazh.
Annamalai University published Tamil compositions with notations. If one wants Muthuthandavar kritis, one must go to this book. Vanoli, the monthly AIR journal that contained details about radio programmes is also a part of the history of music. Sanjay recalled how he chanced upon a collection that had notations for rare kritis, while on a visit to Sydney!
S. Sivakumar
Audience reaction:
Sophie Grimmer, who teaches music at Trinity College of Music, London, found the exhibition and lecture interesting, but felt that there should have been a question answer session at the end of the lecture.
Printer friendly
page
Send this article to Friends by
E-Mail
Friday Review
Bangalore
Chennai and Tamil Nadu
Delhi
Hyderabad
Thiruvananthapuram
|
