Planning holds the key

This is the second part in the series on Semmangudi Srinivasa Iyer, written by his senior disciple, V. SUBRAHMANIAM.

OUR VEDIC scriptures declare that music emanated from God. This has been portrayed by Tyagaraja in his composition, ``Nadatanumanisam'' in the raga Chittaranjani, where he says that the Sapta swaras flowed out of the five faces of Lord Siva. Most of our musical creations have been outpourings of Bhakti and traditional music is considered a spiritual exercise for the upliftment of the soul. The presentation of kritis in the form of a concert began in the post-trinity era (the second half of the 19th century), by the disciples of the great composers and has steadily developed to its present stature. Concerts of the 19th century were mostly held in royal houses for private listening. Public concerts for large audiences came into being only by the end of the first quarter of the 20th century.

Sri Semmangudi's ascendance to the concert platform coincided with this. His first concert was held at the National Congress convention held in 1926 at Madras. And that was the year of the birth of the Music Academy. A concert artiste's success and popularity depends entirely on the person's capability to please the audience. The audience, in those days, were familiar with no other form of music except the Carnatic variety and being fairly knowledgeable, were hard to please.

The first step for a successful concert is its thoughtful and planned structure and execution, so that the audience would have no dull moment during the concert. Every one of Semmangudi's concerts is well- planned. This does not mean that he prepares a list of items that he intends to sing and meticulously adheres to it. He usually tells his disciples (who render vocal support), the kritis that he proposes to sing and expects us to be prepared with them. But almost always it so happens that he presents an entirely different set of kritis at the concert. This happens in accordance with his form, the mood of the audience and the accompanying artistes. His concerts usually open with a piece in medium tempo with a short neraval and a few crisp rounds of kalpanaswaras, which sets the tempo and mood. Following this would be a less racy (2 kalai) piece with kalpanaswaras in slow and fast tempos. Next would be a kriti with a comparatively short raga alapana.

He thus builds up the concert towards the main piece, a Ragam Tanam Pallavi (RTP) or a major kriti, with elaborate alapana, neraval, kalpanaswaras, etc. The concerts generally taper off with Javalis, Ragamalika slokas and a tillana.

An analysis of the content and composition of his concerts would be a highly interesting and revealing study. They contain the compositions of Tyagaraja, Dikshitar, Syama Sastri, Swati Tirunal and other composers. In the concert, he ensures that kritis in ragas with similar swaras do not follow in succession.

A raga with Antara Gandhara would be followed by one with Sadharana Gandhara, so that the audience does not feel any monotony. In order to maintain a close rapport with the audience, he always presents popular, well-known kritis of the greats and includes only one or two rare compositions. Even the rare compositions, because of his Bhava-laden handling, attract the listeners who enjoy their freshness. Besides, his concerts include compositions in all commonly used talas like Adi, Roopaka, Misra and Khanda Chapu.

Another significant observation that could be made from the maestro's concerts, is the great sense of proportion with which he handles raga alapanas, neraval, kalpanaswaras, etc. The length of the raga delineations would be in consonance with the position of the piece in the concert. Nowadays, it is often found that the first raga of the concert is rendered elaborately with excessive kalpanaswaras. In this exercise, the concert may sag and the audience become restive.

It also happens that the RTP or the main kriti gets relegated to a minor 15 or 20-minute ritualistic exercise. This kind of imbalance never occurs in Semmangudi's concerts. The RTP or the main kriti has the prime place with the right quantum of creativity. In longer concerts of three-four hour duration, he even renders two major pieces and when accompanied by stalwart mridangists, with two tani avartanams. Kritis which have become very popular with his unparallelled rendition such as ``Marubalka'' (Sriranjani), ``Ksheenamai'' (Mukhari) etc., certainly find a place in his concerts as the audience eagerly waits to hear them from him.

Sri Semmangudi invariably follows the traditional practice of rendering slokas in Ragamalika, with three or four ragas, towards the end. His voice at this stage of the concert is so well- warmed up, that the ragas of the sloka brim with Bhava. It would be no exaggeration to say that he has no equal in this.

The concerts of Sri Semmangudi have haunted the audience over the years and it would be very hard to erase the effect of its loftiness from their memory. No wonder, they have craved to listen to him the last even decades and still look forward to his musical feast.

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