Around 15 years ago, I visited a xerox shop in Chennai. It was a popular shop then, for school & college students, as they were efficient in helping students compile their projects. Generally one wouldn't expect to hear any Carnatic Music in such a location,but I had a very unique experience.
As they worked on my project work, I waited in the lobby and out from nowhere, I heard my father's Kambhodhi, ( Sarasijanabha Swati Tirunal's composition ). It was a pleasant surprise to hear him start the majestic Sarasijanabha varnam. There is always an excitement, a moment of anticipation, eagerness when we wait in a live concert, before the artist ventures into a new Ragam. But, it's totally a different kind of excitement to hear your favorite musician(that too father in this case) in a totally unfamiliar or rather unexpected surrounding.
It was hard for me to suppress my expressions of excitement. The owner started his conversation with me. He asked, thambi.. neenga Carnatic Music kEpingala (Do you listen to Carnatic Music).I said yes. He further asked, whether I had listened to 'this' musician (referring to the audio). I just nodded my head & tried hard not to reveal my identity. Then, he mentioned, " I don't know anything about Carnatic Music or the seven notes, but when I listen to this musician, I feel peaceful & it calms me." Then I introduced myself to him.
It is a very special memorable experience to me, as till then, I was under the impression, that only people who have knowledge about CM and only people who can understand the language, listen to CM, more specifically my father's music. But, this incident proved that my perception was not entirely true. This experience taught me that it is possible that someone without any background in CM could still enjoy my father's music and develop a liking to it.
This leads to an interesting question. Should we necessarily have knowledge about CM to appreciate MDR's music better or is it possible to enjoy his music without any formal exposure or training in CM?
A good deal of this site has been dedicated to my father's mission, approach and attitude towards his life, his guru, CM et al. It is also important to observe how the rasika community received his music and how they interpreted his style and approach.
Various online discussion boards like Sangeetham.com, Freepgs.com have given the opportunity for rasikas to communicate about Carnatic Music. Here's a compilation of some anonymous remarks from such discussion boards, & I have made sure that no individual's identity is revealed. The purpose of this post is just to show how rasikas perceive MDR's music, and if anyone has any objections to any part of this post, please mail me at the earliest.
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MDR's music is like getting up from an afternoon nap and sipping a cup of hot (elaichi + ginger) tea sitting in a relaxing chair in the balcony of a hill resort while a gentle breeze is flowing through and looking outside at the picturesque mountains and the trees and nature's beautiful landscape. At that time, you don't gulp down the tea in 10 seconds. You enjoy the tea little by little. There are long pauses between your sips. More than the sip itself, it is the time in between, the after-taste, what you see, visualise and enjoy that really adds value to that experience.
MDR was also one of the few musicians whose each concert was like a new lesson one learnt in music.
My biggest complaint with MDR was he mostly sang in vilambha kalam. If others can sing 10-12 renditions in a 3 hour concert MDR would probably render half that number in the same duration.
His music will be an acquired taste for a layman, and for the connoiseur, a sheer delight. Music laden with vidwat, sweetness, princely gait, leisure (visranthi), bhavam, sangeetha-anubhavam and sahithya-anubham. Many may disagree , any composer himself, Trinity included, would have felt happy to hear MDR sing their compositions. Reason -- the exact bhavam that might have been in the mind of the originator is brought out in every song, word and swaram.
MDR's speciality is his rendition of vilambaka kala krithis, soaked with his bhava laden rendition.
MDR is an acquired taste.. people listening to him first time will say - "enna kazhuda maadiri....", and of course some amount of music knowledge will enhance the appreciation of his music. I probably would not have been able to appreciate MDR 7-10 years ago.
It took me probably 2-3 concert recordings to start appreciating his music - thankfully I listened to them when I had a sufficient knowledge base to appreciate it. Had I listened to it during my initial stages of musical learning/development - I may not have been able to appreciate it.
If you broadly write the facets of Carnatic music, the three that stand out are properties of the music, a) Raga b) Tala and c) Sahityam. Equally important is manodharma in each aspect. My claim is this:
"If you list the *best* person in each aspect, MDR would be equal to, if not better than him/her in other aspects."
That's possibly why he's called a musicians' musician. The minimum you must give MDR is that he's probably the most prolific sahitya-manodharmist.
He was really a naive, simple, introspective man with vast knowledge and competence not only in music but also Sanskrit, English and religion. He was not just respected but also loved by the musician community. MDR was a great musician who did not really sing for the vast majority of concert going masses but to all those who could participate in his reflective and distinctly diffrent music sans his mannerisms or his style of singing.
mdr was an absolute GENIUS. mdr's music for me is STAPLE diet. i love his predominantly vilambha kAlam music, his unmistakably sure & resonant voice, his renditions always pregnant with bhAvam and (most importantly) the frequent creative trips that he breaks into at every possible opportunity. having said that, what in fact appeals to me most in mdr's music is it's element of pleasant SURPRISE. you can almost be sure you guessed wrong! ever so often you expected the sangati to evolve thus, and he would adroitly lead it around another path. you thought he would not put any kalpana svaram, but he did so brilliantly. you felt the tempo would now definitely slow down further, but it picked up instead. you thought the tone/pitch cannot get lower than this, but in fact it did! this list is endless. i cannot think of any other artist bestowed with this precious gift of being able to surprise without sounding awkward (and in fact sounding remarkably sure and melodic). that is why i feel mdr's music is so SPECIAL
When I first listened to MDR on tape, somebody else asked why he was singing the way he did. I replied that he was singing to please himself and not the audience.
If a musician chooses to sing to please himself, he might as well do it at home!! When one sings in a concert or in a recording that goes commercial, it is indeed important to have some consideration for the audience who pay to listen.
MDR is what MDR is; a musician's musician.
The bhava of MDR clearly shows that he is singing for himself. That's great! One can still pay for enjoying it. An artiste who is able to forget the audience while performing and still soaks himself and in turn the listeners in music is greater in stature! It ceases to be mechanical when one experiences this. Certainly such a musician will not strike awe in the fans, but he will be fonder to them. This fondness could evolve into a perpetual liking for his music.
Once, a famous musician had remarked that it was nearly impossible to learn from Tiger. For e.g Tiger would sing Paridana (Bilahari) differently each day. So, for a novice student, to learn that krithi from him was very difficult. MDR had some of Tiger's qualities in his krithi rendition.
Can you call MDR's Viriboni as 'Viriboni'? Absolutely not. He took it to unseen levels. Being absolutely creative and unorthodox was MDR's forte
MDR's Bhavayami Raghuramam was a revelation to me. His interpretaion is totally different from what I had heard earlier, & for the first time I knew actually what the sahityam was & also his break up of the swarams revealed a new pattern, a different facet of the gem!
Shri Ragam and MDR are made for each other. I personally feel he lost himself in ecstacy while singing that ragam (not to mention the rasikas). The only word I can say about MDR's sri is "unparalled".
That is why MDR's Endaro is a defining rendition. I guess it was only thyagaraja himself who could have sung it that way!!
There have also been instances of recordings where MDR himself was overwhelmed by his music and got trapped in eccentricities which may not be easy on the ears for many(may be a reflection of his genius and unconventional approach).
MDR excelled in such things as vishranthi, spontaneous sangathis (sometimes successful, at other times not very), etc.. His deep-bass voice was not very conducive to singing delicate, "sensitive" type gamakas but one didn't miss those things when listening to him. His greatest strength lay in his TOTAL CONVICTION about his music and the fact that he NEVER tried to sing anything he could not execute well. I love his unhurried approach to alapanas, dwelling and savoring every note, not a prayoga out of place (including the "plain" notes in nattai, etc..!).
His "style" is one of a kind, completely natural, some might even call it lazy. It comes out as a carricature when someone tries to imitate it. I've seen artistes involuntarily lapse into MDR imitations but they have always been quite out of place. I guess the same can be said about any imitation.
I could catch MDR at the tail end of his career/life and there was nothing else like it that I have seen/heard before or after that. Opinions on the nitty-gritty apart, I hope that at least some people will have the guts and leisure and inclination to sing in that manner in public (the style itself is more or less inimitable in the real sense of the word).
If you think you should have the right to tell MDR what and how he should have sung, then I would equally have the right to tell a few artistes not to appear on the stage altogether.
While I was too busy with artists of every other hue,MDR remained on the fringes. Then one day , I received a clip - a very short one , in the swara passages of sogasuga mrudnaga thalamu.
that came my email -those heady early days of internet in India- unbelievable to get a clip over the email -we kept playing it nonstop for days-it was only a 2 minute extract.
Much later i got the full concert with that specific rendering , but i must admit that it is one track which explains MDR in full.
Yes many may say Giripai , but that assessment has the same element of falsehood that befell Hindi Film actor Amjad khan when he was sterotyped as gabbar singh in sholay.(He regretted that role till his last breath).Even the assessment of the Kannada critics (some of them noted authors) had the same element of falsehood..
One look at the swaras here, it is clear that MDR CHOSE to sing like he did. And he must have been a brave man to do so. More concerts followed and I have seen him in various moods ranging from the Searing hot to the Frosty melancholy.
Well , it is manodharma at its best-like as though we know the person without ever having met him. As i keep listening to him these days, I still remember the days of my Rodana tag .all my later experiences with meanings of the kritis , familiarity with the general undercurrent of sadness in most HM raga renditions --they all lead me to believe that (as i say often) appreciating MDR is a fruit that grows on the tallest of branches .takes some time and effort for us to get there.
this thread on his compositions is only adding one more dimension to my admiration.
(Ref; MDRÂ’s Giripai)
I am sure it is a combination of the meaning/situation behind the song, MDR's rendering of it, sahana being one very apt for his slow contemplative style etc. it is just pure bliss to hear. Everytime I listen to it, I go into a trance - outside world seems so far away. In short, I dont think I have heard a better sahana. I may be biased here but I do like and appreciate almost all musicians past and present. Among all the great ones I have heard, to me, MDR delivers the bhava of a raga the maximum - in every raga he chooses. Dont know why, how - its just how I perceive it
