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Music as a life-force

Last Updated 13 December 2019, 21:44 IST

As a young girl in my early teens, I would frequently attend with my father ‘music for friends’ session at the house of a renowned Carnatic vocalist. As the dulcet notes floated upward under the moonlit sky, I felt such energy that I could neither decipher nor handle it. Tears kept flowing from my eyes and through the blur, I could see that everybody enjoyed the music and appreciated it with smiles and nodding heads. I felt terrible, I felt ashamed that I was the only odd one, not knowing then that what I was experiencing was an out-of-body experience.

That stellar effect, I did not experience again till I heard the composition “Sri Krishna Yanu naama mantra ruchi” in Prince Rama Varma’s soothing, mystically elevating, blissfully transcending voice and I cried— this time unashamedly as I was by now aware of the power of music, that when rendered by a musician of his stature, has a meditative quality. His enunciation of notes came from the depth of his heart. For me , the connection with the song “Sri Krishna yanu” composed by him is deeper, as I had the blessed privilege of translating all the compositions of the Saint-poet Yogi Narayana of Kaiwara into English along with a young scholar, whose disposition in literary and esoteric matters is the same as mine.

The book received appreciation by the very musician who had rendered it so mesmerizingly which was a significant award in itself. When he said he wanted a few more copies for his students, I was elated but a feeling of disappointment was not far behind. I had failed to ensure that the copies reached him as planned. But then he said, “I will come to your house and pick them up. I need to give the copies to a student tomorrow before I start our class,” and then I panicked.

How was I to welcome such a renowned musician? My heart raced, my mind went numb. When he came, be he brought with him his disarming smile, leaving his footwear outside. I was stunned by his simplicity. He was a teacher par excellence— all age groups enjoy his teaching sessions nationally and internationally. Essentially, he is a propagator of music — as a life force, as a joyful force, not as a forced regimental exercise.

For him, singing in concerts is not just a standard routine, it is understanding the emotional, contextual procession of words of the lyrics when he is singing and rendering them with great command and care. Yes, each concert of his is a celebration.

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(Published 13 December 2019, 21:44 IST)

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