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Music & Dance
For that state of bliss
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There were compositions based on raagas for ancient instruments. Musicians must try and revive the rare repertoire to restore glory to musical instruments, say GANESH and KUMARESH, violinists.
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WHY VIOLIN happens to be the instrument through which we convey our musical feelings is something that was destined to happen. For one hardly can make a decision at the age of three because it was then that our father gave us the violin as an outlet for our imagination. He guided us to do what we wanted without curbing our enthusiasm and thereby letting us explore the instrument and allowing us to proceed in our journey in our own way by giving us valuable suggestions off and on.
It has been quite a remarkable journey for us from being child performers (prodigies as we were referred to in those days) to where we are today, avoiding all the pitfalls and problems that challenge a musician's life. To be looked upon as worthy musicians is indisputably due to our parent's good wishes, Acharya's grace and elders' blessings. Great violinists such as Lalgudi Jayaraman and M.S. Gopalakrishnan have been a great source of inspiration. They have done so much to improve the standard and quality of music and to bring in a professional touch to the concert platform. This has had a distinct impression on the vocalists too. In fact, it can be said that instrumentalists have provided path-breaking music, which has been followed and adapted by vocalists. For instance, the raga delineation of T. N. Rajarathinam Pillai and Karukurichi Arunachalam were adapted to vocal music years ago.
In the process of becoming a musician, the exertion experienced is more mental than physical. The more one soaks oneself in the Swaras or Swara Devatas, as the great S. Balachander used to say, the better it gets, like the vintage pickle that mother makes. It takes an immense amount of patience, unswerving dedication and the will to slog it out for hours to mature as a musician of merit.
The satisfaction and joy that one gets during sadhakam can be called Paramanandam. It is a state of bliss, totally devoid of stress. One more reason for our success is the fact that we have stuck together through thick and thin. We are still one among the few performers who started their musical career as a violin duo and continue to do so.
God is great! There has always been one question about our concerts — why does Ganesh sing in a violin concert? While we predominantly depend on songs on various deities by great Saints and scholars, which are very popular in a performance, there are also some rare compositions, which if just played on the violin will not reach the audience like the way it does when one sings.
When one has a gifted voice and a natural flair for singing and when the audience appreciates it, then why not sing! Why should we play lyric-based songs on the violin instead of some nice instrumental compositions based on the wealth of the ragas we have? When you do that you get so many different perspectives of the raaga, which may escape the attention of the vocalist. Why not give vent to one's own musical thoughts than repeatedly depend on compositions of great saints and composers who poured out their feelings in a totally different religious atmosphere and vibration? Their state of mind was very different from that of ours, living as they did in a very different environment.
There have been compositions based on raagas for all the instruments of yesteryear. They have all been lost due to various reasons. It is the responsibility of instrumentalists of all genres, like the veena , flute, nagaswaram, etc., to ponder over it and try to bring out the natural elements in their instruments in order to give a breath of fresh air to the music system. Once we do that, there will not be any more complaints about a dying art form or an obsolete musical instrument.
We have successfully compiled a few raga-based instrumental compositions; a few of them are quite popular with the audiences. In one of our forthcoming concerts we are going to compare and illustrate the differences of playing a song with lyrics in a raaga with playing a composition without lyrics in the same raaga.
A scale, as it is, does not convey anything. It is like a set of colours available to paint any picture. It is the musician who gives life to that scale and makes it a raaga with his imagination and embellishments.
Japa Koti Gunam Dhyanam-Dhyana Koti Guno laya: Layakoti Gunam Gaanam - Ganath paradaram Nahi.
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