5 posts tagged “music”

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Music Season

Dec 21, 2008
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For the uninitiated, December is "music season" in Chennai. A time when hundreds of concerts are held in various auditoriums across the city (mainly around the Mylapore-T.Nagar area), a literal heaven for music lovers. The music is 99% Carnatic with a few others thrown in for variety occasionally.

Dude is totally into the season, and will, hopefully be posting reviews at his site. I attended a couple of concerts myself, the low number attributed to domestic/mom/official duties coming a bit in the way, and my own incapacity of sitting in an auditorium for a few hours, breathing in carbon dioxide, without getting killer headaches soon after. So far, only one artist has made me forget the carbon dioxide, the crowd, the lights, the mom duties and work deadlines -Sri Sanjay Subramaniam. The downside being, once you have listened to him, the rest pale in comparison and even a well-sung kedaragowlai by well-revered singer sisters fails to elicit the spiritual, almost orgasmic bliss of Sanjay's concert.

Hopefully, I can attend a couple more concerts, preferably of Sanjay, although I wonder if, after singing for two weeks non-stop, and with such gusto too, his voice will hold out much longer this season. I hope it will.

UPDATE: Dude returned after a marathon concert by Sri. TNS and says Sri Sanjay has ways to go to approach the music extravaganza of TNS. I can only imagine.

Music has no colour - Part II

Nov 15, 2008
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If I find a Caucasian singing Carnatic impressive, this one just blew me away

Tribute to M.S.Subulakshmi

The late Smt. M.S.Subbulakshmi sang this hymn, penned by Sri. Rajaji, (set to music by ???) at the United Nations many many years back, and I am sorry that I missed hearing it until now.

The reason it amazes me is that it is very difficult for a person trained in Carnatic music to sing hymns, because of the constant microtones (gamakam/briha) that would creep in due to the training. Heck, I don't call myself a carnatic musician by a long shot, but with the little CM that I learnt, Mrs. Alice, my high school choir conductor, would beg me with tears in her eyes to stop singing carols "with a Shankarabaranam flavour".

In this piece, if you ignore the accent, you'd never believe that this hymn was sung by our very own M.S. She sounds like a soprano in a Church choir. And I thought Sri Ilayaraja was the pioneer.

Child Prodigy?

Oct 28, 2008
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Shakti is 2 years old. She can't talk too well yet. She sings Varaveena to near-perfection.

Varaveena_gugu

Music has no Colour

Oct 28, 2008
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Indian Classical Music Rocks Central Connecticut!!!

Perfect shruthi, perfect kaalapramaanam. Eyes welled up.
Hats off.

Einstein or Bach?

Jul 6, 2008
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My little daughter just listened to Bach's Barndenburg Concerto 6 and refuses to accept that it is anything but Little Einstein that she watches on the computer, that features the piece.

That is the risk of incorporating profound pieces into banal everyday events, however educative.