Survey
* Your assessment is very important for improving the workof artificial intelligence, which forms the content of this project
* Your assessment is very important for improving the workof artificial intelligence, which forms the content of this project
COVER STORY RAMNAD KRISHNAN Music was his life I n an age when the nagaswara-inspired, robust, masculine, forceful music of G.N. Balasubramaniam, Alathur Brothers and Semmangudi Srinivasa Iyer held sway, Ramnad Krishnan’s choice of the veena-like, delicately modulated style of singing was a decisive deviation from the general trend. Regarded as synonymous with raga-s like Sahana, Begada and Saveri, Ramnad Krishnan was as passionate about what he believed to be aesthetic and pure music as he was steadfast in creating his own path in the midst of several performing greats of his times, no mean achievement. Yet, none could match his sense of the aesthetic and suggestive in music. Far ahead of his times, Ramnad Krishnan was a musician with a revolutionary streak, who innovated and experimented with aesthetic brilliance. Today, he is often described as an ideal musician and role model for aspiring Carnatic vocalists. Early life and training Krishnan was born on 14 September 1918 in Alappuzha in Kerala, to Vaidyanatha Iyer and Brihannayaki, hailing from Kooniyur in the Tirunelveli district of Tamil Nadu. When Krishnan was four months old, his father shifted from Alappuzha to Ramanathapuram (anglicised to Ramnad) district in Tamil Nadu to join the service of the Maharaja of Ramnad. Krishnan was one of eight siblings. Since the family spent many years in Ramnad, all of them Savita Narasimhan prefixed Ramnad to their names. Krishnan began his first vocal lessons in Carnatic music under the tutelage of his elder brother Lakshminarayana and his guru C.S. Sankarasivam (a disciple of Harikesanallur Muthiah Bhagavatar). Among the brothers, Lakshminarayana and Venkatachalam learnt the violin, while Raghavan and Eswaran were trained to play the mridanga. By the age of seven, Krishnan had mastered Arunachala Kavi’s entire opera – the Ramanataka kriti-s. His singing prowess earned him opportunities in theatre while at school in Ramnad. Even at a young age, Krishnan had an inbuilt sense of rhythm. His guru Sankarasivam, who sang the complex Tiruppugazh in difficult tala cycles, accompanied by Pudukottai Dakshinamurthy Pillai, enjoyed making Krishnan keep the beat with his impeccable sense of rhythm. In 1936, Krishnan moved from Ramnad to Madras, where he started performing and gaining exposure to the music of the veterans of the time. GNB was his favourite musician and Krishnan was a regular at his concerts, seen almost always in the front row. He was quoted saying, “Just as Hanuman is present wherever there is nama sankeertanam, so also will I be seen wherever there is good music.” Influence of the Dhanammal school Krishnan was first introduced to Veena Dhanammal Ramnad Krishnan with his brother Ramnad Easwaran (mridanga) 13 l SRUTI May 2012 COVER STORY through his friend Mottu Krishnaswamy Iyengar, a direct disciple of Kanchipuram Naina Pillai. Krishnan’s son Ramanathan says, “My father vividly recalled his initial experience of Dhanammal’s music: there was no effect of that music for the first two weeks, probably because he could not understand what was happening. But around the third week, the melody and aesthetic of the style hit him hard. It was a defining period in his life, when his perception of the aesthetics of Carnatic music underwent a sea change. Though he was strong in laya, the bhava aspect henceforth started dominating his music.” Krishnan began to expand his repertoire with the help of T. Brinda, granddaughter of Dhanammal. The padams, javali-s and other compositions he learnt from her acquired his signature style and sheen while remaining true to the Dhanammal tradition in spirit. He gained supreme control over accuracy and vocal precision in any tempo – slow, medium or fast. Brinda, who set and maintained very high standards in music, was known to be an outspoken and thoughtful critic. It needed such a top category weighing scale to measure the quality of Ramnad Krishnan’s music. Style Krishnan’s voice was one of his greatest assets – a voice that uniquely combined dexterity and delicateness and the ability to handle any speed without sacrificing clarity or nuances. His brilliance lay in how he employed it to suit his artistic temperament. Most musicians tend to avoid gamaka-s in madhyama kala – but he managed it beautifully, a rare feat. He was arguably one of the first musicians to highlight tonal modulation despite belonging to the mikeless era. He had an unfailing sense for sruti and an almost reverential approach to shadja and panchama vocalisation. Krishnan always spoke of the significance of contrast in Carnatic music. His own style was marked by this aspect, especially in his manner of rendering alapana, slow gamaka-s juxtaposed with sudden brilliant flashes of briga, plain notes in the midst of a tapestry of gamakas, a detailed phrase followed by a meaningful, musical pause, a softly modulated phrase or karvai in the tara sthayi contrasted with a full and deep throated expression in the mandra sthayi and so on. He scrupulously avoided trite, stereotypical phrases. Never one to over-dramatise or over-emphasise, he was brief and precise in expression, a possible effect of the Dhanammal style. He was in perfect control in the higher octave; his voice acquired a special 14 l SRUTI May 2012 caressing softness and sheen to be able to negotiate the higher notes. He intertwined vilamba kala and madhyama kala phrases intuitively, to bring forth the inherent gait of the raga. He was said to be very careful with the prayoga-s he used in any alapana, eschewing as he did, those that did not feature in the composition to follow, however attractive. He included phrases from classical compositions to make the alapana more wholesome and interesting. His renditions of compositions stood out for their almost filigree-like detailing and intricate sangati structure. For example, through his embellishments in the sangati-s for Sree manini or Lavanya Rama, he gave the raga Poornashadjam an added identity by the strength of his rendition. He modulated sangati-s where required, to highlight the beauty of the given raga. An instance in point was Tulasamma in Devagandhari, in which he rendered the panchama almost caressingly after starting the first phrase with complete weight and musical force. His kalpana swara-s were always gamaka-rich and full of melody, even in the most intricate tala-s. Krishnan had a fine sense of proportion, his improvisations matching the composition he sang, in length as well as mood. Repertoire Over the years, Ramnad Krishnan evolved a style that effectively synthesised GNB’s repertoire and Brinda’s conceptualisation. Krishnan’s name was synonymous with raga-s like Sahana, Saveri, Begada, Keeravani, Bhairavi and Madhyamavati. He was known to handle even secondary or minor scales in a scholarly and interesting manner. Thus, Malavi, Poornachandrika, Bahudari, Phalamanjari, Janaranjani and other similar raga-s acquired sophistication when he rendered them. Compositions like Nee bhakti and Yagnadulu ( Jayamanohari), Sree manini and Lavanya Rama (Poornashadjam), Bhuvinidasudani (Sreeranjani), Nijamarmamulanu (Umabharanam) and others came to be associated with him. Krishnan was aptly called ‘Sahana’ Krishnan thanks to his approach to the raga – innovative, fresh and passionate, no matter how often he rendered it. In his alapana for this raga, he frequently combined madhyama kala with vilamba kala phrases, using tonal modulation wherever required. The effect was mesmerising. He treated even traditional raga-s like Varali, Surati, Sankarabharanam, Todi and Madhyamavati with the same individuality and freshness.