Concert Appreciation
When you see the words ‘concert’ and ‘appreciation’ associated with Carnatic music, we automatically link it to an expert playing excerpts from recordings of yesteryear stalwarts and talking about what one should notice while listening to it. I am not that expert and so I am not writing about that.
I have had many friends who do not have a Carnatic music background or a family that listens to traditional music and each if them have asked me the same question. “I don’t understand the music, how do I appreciate it?” I wasn’t able to give them the standard answer, “you need to keep listening and train your ears for it”.
So I did the next best thing. I began taking my friends to December music season concerts, sit next to them and act as a guide who gives running commentary during the course of the concert. I even curated playlists of a few grand expositions of music and shared it with them assuming that will draw them in. I think they had an introduction enough to explore and listen more of the art form.
What I face now is slightly different. The kids I teach Carnatic music are slowly catching up on the basics, but they still have no clue as to what happens in a concert, or even what manodharma is. When I was young, I had a parent who dragged me to concerts and helped me identify ragas. How can I do the same to these children?
The answer to the above question was how my “Concert Appreciation” classes started. In the initial stages I would play excerpts from different concerts (all thanks to YouTube) and then we would discuss it. Most kids begin with a clean slate, so I cannot discuss about nuances and raga exploration.
Our topics of discussion included the most basic-est things, viz.,
- Who is sitting on the stage and what are they playing or singing?
- Why are certain songs fast and some slow?
- Why don’t all the musicians perform at once? Did we notice a dialogue between the vocal and violin?
- How to identify if something being sung is a composition or an extemporaneous improvisation?
I distinctly remember this one conversation between two kids where they were contemplating if a particular instrument they saw was a tambura or a veena. And their primary observation was it is held vertical and not horizontal. Then I pointed out that there is a kudam missing. Finally we got to talking about how veena is a stand alone instrument on its own, whereas, all a tambura can do is keep your sruthi.
There is also this one time, years before covid where we could take school children of a different school to an afternoon dance concert at the Music Academy. The fact that the singer was putting aadhi thalam, something they knew got them excited.
We need more people interested in the art form. Why fight for a share of audience amongst the small elite few who already attend the concerts? Which is why I think these discussions are important.
As a phase two to this experiment, every student was asked to attend concerts and have a write up about it — consisting of artist details, song details, if they could identify manodharma or a raga, and what they observed or felt about each song. It is good that ‘Googleananda’ is readily available for reference to the kids as they are can listen more informed than before.
I am looking forward to how their assignments turn out to be. More later. Thanks for reading.
Vid :)
