Hindustani music and self-respect
On 29th Jan, I attended Shubha Mudgal's hindustani concert ....
And since the Fine Arts membership is dominated by South Indians, I guess not many people in the audience could appreciate her Raagdhari music....
For those of you who do not know - Shubha Mudgal is one of the most versatile and popular artists among the younger generation of hindustani musicians. Born in Allahabad to a family with a rich musical tradition, Shubhaji was taught by the finest musicians and musicologists in India. Initially trained as a Khayal singer, she soon realized her powerful voice could encompass a wide range. She sought the guidance of maestros who encouraged her to evolve beyond her traditional training and experiment as an artist. In addition to being a popular concert artist, she has won recognition as a sensitive composer also.
Why I am mentioning her here is for an entirely different reason though....
On the day of the concert, she sang the raag "Yaman"(or Kalyani in Carnatic music) for the first hour...She deeply explored each and every nuance of the raaga ... For the audience though, this must have gotten too technical I guess, as people started leaving....
On seeing this, she says "I have always sung songs of welcome , Swagat ke liye gaate hain, but today I see myself singing for departures as well!!!"
"The description that I have been giving at the begining of every composition is - pardon me, I am not challenging the music knowledge of the great connoisseurs of music that are sitting out there - for those of you in the audience who are not well-versed with classical form of music."This she said when she saw the audience almost snoozing to her highly classical music:D
And then after another 20 mins of singing, when she sees the audience not responding quite favorably, leave alone being engrossed in her music she says "Thank you!"; and starts packing up her stuff. The dumb-struck audience doesn't know what to do and keeps sitting(because the concert was not supposed to get over until an hour more or so!)....Then finally after a pause, somebody gathers the courage to tell her to continue her singing....To that she says, "You know, I really got nervous, extremely sparse audience that it is......Why don't those of you at the back come and sit in the front...."
Now the people who had not left the auditorium were, of course, the people who wanted to listen to her truly, and they had been sitting in the back not by will but because the stupid Fine Arts Society had allocated seats to people and had hired peons to see to it that people actually sit only in places allocated to them and don't occupy the so-called "VIP" front-seats, all the people now came rushing forward and started hunting for seats as close to the stage as possible...With everybody settled, she started singing again...
This must have been a serious blow to the FAS organizing committee...Because the next day at Talat Aziz's concert, we could not see the peons giving directions to the audience:)....
In between her singing, an elderly person walked upto her on stage and gave her a request note, which apparently asked her to sing Ab Ke Sawan (a super-hit number from her pop-album)....She plainly refused the request and said "I am sorry, it is as impossible for me to sing popular music now, as it is for me to suddenly change into a three piece suit and start dancing. I have been called here to sing classical music and that's what I am going to do. For those of you who came here expecting something else from me, I sincerely apologize. And I tell you, there will be a time when I will be performing at a pop-concert and then, when somebody asks me to sing Raagdhaari music, I would have to plainly refuse. Thank you all for your patience."
What an amazing sense of self-respect!
I guess that's one thing our Carnatic musicians still have to learn....Money is not the only thing that matters, having an equally well-educated audience matters too! Our musicians would not hesitate from performing in front of a sparse audience if they were offered the amount they demanded, except a chosen few individuals(one of whom is MS, MS would never perform at a concert unless she is guaranteed an audience first)...
Demanding the attention of the audience is something our musicians do not bother about, they do not mind back-benchers sitting and chatting continuously - hmmmmm, we yet have a lot to learn ......
Hats of to you, Shubhaji!
Btw, almost forgot to mention - the harmonium accompanist Sudhir S. Nayak was a total flop:)
And since the Fine Arts membership is dominated by South Indians, I guess not many people in the audience could appreciate her Raagdhari music....
For those of you who do not know - Shubha Mudgal is one of the most versatile and popular artists among the younger generation of hindustani musicians. Born in Allahabad to a family with a rich musical tradition, Shubhaji was taught by the finest musicians and musicologists in India. Initially trained as a Khayal singer, she soon realized her powerful voice could encompass a wide range. She sought the guidance of maestros who encouraged her to evolve beyond her traditional training and experiment as an artist. In addition to being a popular concert artist, she has won recognition as a sensitive composer also.
Why I am mentioning her here is for an entirely different reason though....
On the day of the concert, she sang the raag "Yaman"(or Kalyani in Carnatic music) for the first hour...She deeply explored each and every nuance of the raaga ... For the audience though, this must have gotten too technical I guess, as people started leaving....
On seeing this, she says "I have always sung songs of welcome , Swagat ke liye gaate hain, but today I see myself singing for departures as well!!!"
"The description that I have been giving at the begining of every composition is - pardon me, I am not challenging the music knowledge of the great connoisseurs of music that are sitting out there - for those of you in the audience who are not well-versed with classical form of music."This she said when she saw the audience almost snoozing to her highly classical music:D
And then after another 20 mins of singing, when she sees the audience not responding quite favorably, leave alone being engrossed in her music she says "Thank you!"; and starts packing up her stuff. The dumb-struck audience doesn't know what to do and keeps sitting(because the concert was not supposed to get over until an hour more or so!)....Then finally after a pause, somebody gathers the courage to tell her to continue her singing....To that she says, "You know, I really got nervous, extremely sparse audience that it is......Why don't those of you at the back come and sit in the front...."
Now the people who had not left the auditorium were, of course, the people who wanted to listen to her truly, and they had been sitting in the back not by will but because the stupid Fine Arts Society had allocated seats to people and had hired peons to see to it that people actually sit only in places allocated to them and don't occupy the so-called "VIP" front-seats, all the people now came rushing forward and started hunting for seats as close to the stage as possible...With everybody settled, she started singing again...
This must have been a serious blow to the FAS organizing committee...Because the next day at Talat Aziz's concert, we could not see the peons giving directions to the audience:)....
In between her singing, an elderly person walked upto her on stage and gave her a request note, which apparently asked her to sing Ab Ke Sawan (a super-hit number from her pop-album)....She plainly refused the request and said "I am sorry, it is as impossible for me to sing popular music now, as it is for me to suddenly change into a three piece suit and start dancing. I have been called here to sing classical music and that's what I am going to do. For those of you who came here expecting something else from me, I sincerely apologize. And I tell you, there will be a time when I will be performing at a pop-concert and then, when somebody asks me to sing Raagdhaari music, I would have to plainly refuse. Thank you all for your patience."
What an amazing sense of self-respect!
I guess that's one thing our Carnatic musicians still have to learn....Money is not the only thing that matters, having an equally well-educated audience matters too! Our musicians would not hesitate from performing in front of a sparse audience if they were offered the amount they demanded, except a chosen few individuals(one of whom is MS, MS would never perform at a concert unless she is guaranteed an audience first)...
Demanding the attention of the audience is something our musicians do not bother about, they do not mind back-benchers sitting and chatting continuously - hmmmmm, we yet have a lot to learn ......
Hats of to you, Shubhaji!
Btw, almost forgot to mention - the harmonium accompanist Sudhir S. Nayak was a total flop:)
posted by Nandini Sriram @ 6:58 AM
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