Introducing MDR
Many many years ago, I wrote a post titled “Discovering MDR” about how I fell in love with this man’s music and what made me like it so much. I think it is apt to begin this post with the last line from my old post. I had said, “today, if I have to understand a ragam better, MDR(’s online presence) is the first person I go to.” Today too.
I chanced upon this 4 year old lecture by Dr. Sriram Parasuram on the “Sound, Music and Meaning in MDR’s art”. He had organized this lecture under five different aspects of MDR’s music, because otherwise it would be such a vast topic and one wouldn’t know where to begin or end. The titles were — 1. Minimalism, 2. Flow, 3. Submersion, 4. Deconstruction, 5. Sound.
Those titles intrigued me, and I initially wanted to write MDR’s impact on me using the same five titles. But then the topics are pretty deep, Sriram Parasuram is a revered demonstrator, and the audience present in the lecture also would have been connoisseurs of MDR’s music. Here I am, someone who has only listened to recordings and videos of the man, writing to the internet generation, both of us having merely an abstract idea of the man’s music.
My post, thus, will be more in the lines of an introduction to MDR’s music. I think I have the right to talk about it, having spent so many hours in his virtual company :) Also, I have come to question this idea that one needs a deep understanding of music to understand MDR. I think MDR’s music is for everyone.
MD Ramanathan
MD Ramanathan was born in Kerala 100 years ago on this day (i.e) 20th May 1923. He did his music course at Kalakshetra under Tiger Varadachari and then continued to teach in the same college. He was also a vaggeyakara and used the signature “Varadadasa”. I refer to him in this whole post as MDR with all due respect.
Convention against Convention
I have heard many people say that MDR was a very traditional man. However, while listening to him, I often get this idea that he was very unconventional. Believe me, there are certain non negotiable core ideas to his music. But apart from that, I have felt many a times while listening to him, that he simply had fun singing!
Lyrics — Spashtam vs Slurry
His singing will keep reiterating to you that lyric is of prime importance. If the words get split wrongly to suit the meter of the song, he will carefully realign them and sing such that the line conveys the meaning intended.
For example, in the Anupallavi of this rendition of Sadhinchane, a Thyagaraja Pancharathnam set in the ragam Aarabhi, he would sing “Bodhinchina Sanmaarga Vachanamula”, instead of the usual rote “Bodhin Chinasan Maargava Chanamula” when the first is the right way to split into meaningful words. Extra information: note in the above recording, how he sings the charanams of the Pancharathnam in two speeds like we do for varnams.
At the same time, he is also known to sing in a slurry tone sometimes because the words might hinder the flow of the music. That is, vowels ensure free flow of sound while consonants hinder the same. Hence, the slurry illegible singing in songs like Anyayamu Seyakura or Samaja Vara Gamana simply ensures the flow of Kaapi and Hindolam phrases.
Its just Sangathi, not Neraval
Conventionally, we have all been taught to identify (and sing) the various parts of a Carnatic composition. According to those terms, a sangathi is improvisation in the raga structure of a line or a particular phrase in the composition, which is taught. Neraval is the elaboration and improvisation of melody for a particular line in the composition, and this is supposed to be extempore. Apparently there is a thin line differentiating the two.
When MDR sings, sometimes this difference fuses into one. To him, there is only embellishing the line in the composition. He does it by splitting the words to convey meaning, playing with word placement in the thala structure, building on a particular phrase to beautify the word further.
Notice how he sets up the phrase “Shabari bhaagyamu” and gradually expands it into the pallavi line which is ideally how the Thyagaraja krithi in ragam Mukhari begins, “Entani ne varninthunu shabari bhaagyamu”.
Elaboration vs Brevity
MDR is known for his “vilamba” singing. Please don’t go by the google definition for vilamba which is simply tardiness. Vilamba in Carnatic music is singing in a slower tempo. There are instances where he sings an elaborate raga aalapana or even a line, repeat a certain phrase with slight adjustments to it and simply delve into it and explore, oblivious to the idea that it might sound repetitive to the listener.
In fact, MDR was someone who subscribed to the idea of “Not Limited By Time (NLBT)” long before TM Krishna made it a brand. Listen to this video (below) where he says he can sing just a mangalam for 45 minutes — you can find recordings where he presents many conventional mangalams interwoven and sounding like a single piece.
It might sound contradictory here, if I say that he does brevity and succinct very well too. The first example that comes to mind is this 3 minute (still fulfilling) aalapana for a ragam as big as Thodi and a composition as big as Kaddanu Vaariki by Thyagaraja. You can notice a short pause when the violinist realises that it is his cue to begin playing.
Reference Point to Ragas
He is said to be the reference point to certain ragas like Kedaram, Manji and others. I still don’t know how to differentiate Manji from Bhairavi, but if I say this man’s rendition of Varugalamo is a go to reference, I am sure many would agree.
Final Thoughts
On a completely tangential note, after watching this interview of director Thyagarajan Kumararaja, where he talks about how explaining and over analysing an artwork closes other perspectives with which many might view said work, I deliberately chose only in-your-face and very few example YouTube videos and linked them (with timestamps, though feel free to listen fully) throughout the post. If one or two readers read this and listen to them and then decide to explore MDR’s music, I have achieved my goal. Because, believe me, there is so much to explore and enjoy and go AHA :)
A major part of my observations have been influenced by the Sriram Parasuram lecture and my conversations with a very big connoisseur of MDR, Diwakara Tanujaha, who composes and writes music himself. A big shout out to them here. And finally, HAPPY 101st BIRTHDAY MD RAMANATHAN! Your music should live hundreds of years more.
Until next,
Vid :)
