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Music & Dance
Focussing on voice culture
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Besides reiterating the need for voice training for aspiring musicians, V. SUBRAHMANIAM dwells upon the importance of bhava, melody and musical sense in Carnatic music.
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CONTROL OVER voice is very essential for a person who is desirous of indulging in vocal music and that too Indian Classical. Just as an athlete or sportsperson who has to indulge in physical exercises to tame the body muscles and joints, a vocal musician has to exercise his vocal chords to bring them under the command of the musical impulses of the brain. Such exercises undertaken to make the vocal chord music worthy are known in musical parlance as sadhaka and in general Western terms as voice culture. Any determined effort focussed towards attaining perfection is called sadhaka.
Every person interested in becoming vocal musician is not necessarily blessed with a melodious voice. But such a person blessed with a musical sense (sangeetha gnana) could by constant sadhaka gain command over the voice. A gifted voice also has to pass through the rigors of practice to gain proficiency to bring out all the deep nuances abounding in the Indian classical systems of music, particularly Carnatic.
The foundation for our systems of music or perhaps any form of music is the basic pitch known as sruti. The melodic movements of music are developed on this foundation. The fundamental requirement for vocal music is the ability of the musician to align his voice perfectly with the sruti and also with all the notes built up on the sruti. Any draw back in this regard has to be overcome with rigorous sadhaka.
Choosing the correct sruti suitable for each voice is very important. This is to be done according to the pitch of the voice. It is common knowledge that the female voice is high pitched in comparison with the adult male voice. One factor that governs the choice of sruti is the range of the voice. Having the sruti base, the voice should be able to traverse below the sruti half an octave and above the point at least one and a half octaves comfortably.
Major step
The human voice is comparable to a wind instrument, the vocal chords vibrating when air passes through them. But when deciding the basic sruti suitable to the voice it is to be compared with a stringed instrument. When, for instance, a tanpura tuned for a high pitch sruti suitable for a female voice is reduced and re-tuned to a lower sruti the strings become less tight and the tension of the strings drops, leading to vibrations from them. The tension of the strings is maintained at a tight level by choosing thinner strings for higher sruti and thicker ones for lower sruti.
Similarly, a voice would be unsteady with a lose grip of the sruti if the pitch is set lower than the position in which the grip would be better. This is also equally important in choosing the correct sruti depending on the range of the voice. Culturing the voice for absolute alignment with the sruti at all levels and on all notes traversed in the octaves is a major step in voice culture. In this respect, certainly, the vocal musicians of the Hindustani system of music are past masters and a student aspiring to become a concert artiste spends years of toil on this aspect. These artistes do not show any undue haste to ascend the concert platform until the voice is totally trained to merge with the sruti.
Anyone having a ear for music is easily carried away by the melody emerging from the voice that totally becomes one with the sruti and hence the tendency in most of the average listeners in the South to be overwhelmed by Hindustani Music in preference to Carnatic. Both the Indian systems of Classical Music are based on the sapthaswaras. But compared to the Hindustani style Carnatic Music abounds in gamaka — oscillating usages, use of half notes and nuances. To successfully handle all these aspects in unison with the sruti and not go off key at any point needs vigorous determined sadhaka in comparison with a system having mainly plain note usages. The tempo of a Carnatic music concert is also faster than the Northern system.
The present trend
All these go to indicate that the voice needs deeper, sophisticated, devoted training to handle Carnatic music successfully. It is highly regrettable that the present day artistes show indifference to this aspect of voice training. The idea that the music concert should be intelligence oriented rather than bhava, melody and musical sense oriented, has been gaining ground for the past few decades. This is very unfortunate. Intelligence can certainly be well used but not at the cost of other musical aspects.
Even in certain concerts by experienced vocalists one notices scant respect for sruti and alignment to swaras (notes) when traversing up and down the octaves at a fast pace under the guise of intelligent adventurism. Making the voice obey the commands of the musical impulses of the brain with bhava is a hard task that needs intensive training but achievement is not impossible.
Frantic hurry to ascend the concert platform shown by the students of music (or their parents?) is another aspect, which ails our music today. No time is spent on voice training.
Correct techniques
Open, free voice production is most suitable for effective rendition of Carnatic Music. Felicity to handle gamakas and nuances without resorting to muffling the voice or constricting the production tone is required. Use of false voice for Carnatic Music is also a wrong approach. Adopting modulation of the voice under the pretext of creating bhava would only leave the rasika feeling that the music is rather implied than expressed.
In his "Jaganmohini" composition "Sobhillu Saptaswara" Tyagaraja has declared that the saptaswaras shine when the navel (nabhi) heart (hrid) voice (kanta) tongue (rasana) and nose (nasa) are involved in the rendition.
Experience reveals that any student indulging in voice training adopting the correct technique of voice production would find the abdominal muscles around the navel strained and not the vocal chords.
If on the other hand the person feels a strain on the throat muscles and the vocal chords the conclusion is that the technique is faulty and would lead to adverse effects on the vocal chords.
The use of the nasal cavity as the resonant chamber and in the right proportion is also very critical and more so to achieve close alignment with the sruti. Over use of the nasal twang is an erroneous voice production. Using false voice in a concert and rendering with least effort seems to be the order of the day. This is so particularly in the higher octaves. On account of this, clarity and depth are sacrificed and the listener (rasika) is left feeling that there is something wanting in the music.
The average listener looks forward to melody and harmony when attending a concert. In an off key situation the concerts fail to evoke soothing results.
The Hindustani musicians, because of their close adherence to sruti undergo intensive training in this aspect and hence satisfy the lay listener. Our system of music is more sophisticated and deeper in content. Due to sheer indifference to voice culture and inadequate training, are not our vocal musicians driving away many rasikas from concerts? Is this not one of the major reasons for the thinning audience at Carnatic concerts? Music is for the mind and soul and not so much for the intellect.
Acrobatics in concerts would not attract the listener. Whatever is attempted should be fully musical and aesthetic. Skimming through the surface of classical music would prove less and less evocative. It is time young concert aspirants woke up to the situation and indulged in proper voice training.
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