Opinion - News Analysis   

Music, musicians, and music critics

K. Narayanan.

It is that time of the year when the Friday Review desk at The Hindu in Chennai gets into a tizzy. The music season is on — the season of tension for the desk. Over 2000 concerts organised by over a hundred "sabhas" at dozens of venues, every organiser expecting coverage — the logistics is indeed daunting.

For The Hindu, music has been an integral part of the paper, with an unbroken tradition from the earliest days of reporting on musical issues and covering concerts (some of this is being re-created in the Friday Review by Sriram Venkatkrishnan). Its correspondence columns witnessed long and passionate debates. Eminent names authored learned articles on the theory and practice of all genres of music, but mainly Carnatic. Lectures and expert discussions were covered in detail. (These now rarely find space.) Gramophone records were reviewed from the early days; these have yielded place to cassettes and CDs.

The focus has shifted — to reviews of concerts on a regular basis in the Friday Review and, from last year, in "Music Season," the twice or thrice a week supplement issued in tabloid format in December-January. For a few weeks there is an explosion of this coverage, in the edition from Chennai, the centre of action. A selection from these goes into the Tamil Nadu edition also.

The Friday Pages had their origins in the early 1970s, when two pages in the main section were devoted to art, culture and cinema. The two pages metamorphosed in the mid-1980s into a separate section, then called Friday Shopping Pages. There was a twofold aim: to provide more space for these cultural and general features, and to woo the local small advertisers with lower rates, as these supplements served a specific area. (There was even a limit on the space one ad could occupy.) With the emergence of Metroplus, the Friday Review is no longer the only vehicle for local advertisers.

The cinema part of the two pages consisted of reviews. Feature articles made their appearance much later — and even they were sober and subdued. The transformation into brighter and lighter stuff, essentially to attract younger readers, has been more recent.

That was the beginning of reviews of music concerts on a regular basis. It also marked the appearance of a full-time music critic on the pay rolls. Others were external contributors. N.M. Narayanan entered The Hindu as a sub-editor. A singer himself, he had opportunity knocking at his door. When the demand for regular concert reviews came, NMN, as he was known, was released from his mundane desk duties to indulge in his passion. His impeccable style and deep knowledge, acquired from extensive listening, won him a host of admirers who almost raised him to the status of an icon. But his strong views — always expressed with finesse and no rancour — also attracted many detractors (not readers alone!).

But that is the occupational hazard of a music critic whose observations are, in large part, subjective. A solid base in theory and practice (not necessarily singing), keen attention and memory, and felicity in expression are the attributes of a good reviewer; but music is an individual experience, and the views of a writer may not be uniformly accepted. Vociferous dissenters include the artists themselves, who are ultra sensitive to the written word.

So there is usually a search for qualified, acceptable, somewhat diplomatic reviewers along with a few who speak their mind at all times. It gets added urgency as December approaches when the regulars have to be supplemented — not only for Carnatic music, but also for dance, Hindustani music, and other forms of art (with the emergence of the "Other Festival".) And every sabha — each with its own awards and titles — expects coverage.

As the season nears, a panel of names is prepared. New writers are included when suggested by knowledgeable persons; some offer themselves and samples of their writing on music are sought. After the final list is prepared in consultation with the Editor-in-Chief and the Editor, the writers have a meeting with the editorial team to finalise their beats, discuss plans to avoid overlapping, and are given the guidelines. They are free to criticise, but in a constructive way, avoiding personal comments or defamation. They must not succumb to pressures or inducements — and the pressures are many.

Performers generally take the criticism in their stride. But there are protests; sometimes to the desk, sometimes to higher levels when there is access. There have been occasions when an artist objected to a particular critic; or made a "request" not to cover a concert. There has even been an occasion or two when a persistently critical reviewer was denied access to the press section by a music sabha — and so The Hindu refrained, by way of professional principle, from covering concerts in the sabha, until it made amends.

Photo coverage elicits its own pressures and pleas. Care is taken to see that there is fair and even representation. But there is always heartburn over the choice of, and the prominence given to, some pictures. The point about pictures is that their selection has to be based on their quality, which means the selection may be at variance with the content of the accompanying review. All these hurdles are crossed to evolve some order out of the seeming chaos.

The mid-week supplements, introduced last year, were a welcome attempt to break out of the pattern of dumping a huge mass on the reader on one day. The tabloids, not advertisement-driven, were brighter, lighter, and had some variety. There is always scope for better and newer features, for so much happens in Chennai during this period. And the congregation of musicians and musicologists can be tapped for expert comments, as in the sports pages.

For me, a question remains: what is the percentage of readers who are really interested in the music reviews and reads all or most of them? Music lovers have their say and their way.

readerseditor@thehindu.co.in

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