It was by chance while making a regular call to violin virtuoso V.S. Narasimhan that he mentioned about his tryst with a capella and invited me to listen to a cappella version of Tyagaraja’s ‘Brova Baramma’ that he has come up with recently.
Narasimhan is one of the few musicians in the country with a sound knowledge of both western and Carnatic music. His father V. Sreenivasa Iyengar was a gottuvadyam vidwan from whom Narasimhan had his training in Carnatic music. Simultaneously, he also trained in western music, both theory and practical, and entered the Tamil film industry. He has played for several leading music directors and still continues to work. He has also directed music for a few films. Later, he joined hands with fellow musicians in the film world to start a group called the Madras String Quartet. Apart from playing classical western pieces of several composers the group forayed into fusion. Narasimhan’s orchestration for several kritis beautifully balances the grammar of Carnatic and Western music.
In an interview he talks about his forays into different genres and the joy of exploring the many facets of musical notes.
When did you get exposed to a cappella?
I joined the film music industry in the 1960s. It gave me an opportunity to listen to various styles of music. A famous group called Swingle was making waves then with a cappella version of Mozart’s ‘Eine Kleine Nacht’. Impressed, I began collecting a cappella records.
What is a cappella?
It is an Italian word. A cappella is music by a solo voice or a group of voices without any instrumental accompaniment. This type of music was prevalent in churches initially. Later it became secular. An American group of eight recreated the music of John Williams for the films ‘Riders of the lost ark’ and ‘‘Indiana Jones’. Sounding so close to the original, listening to them was a mesmerising experience. Many other groups began recreating Beethoven’s choral symphony and Verdi’s operas. It was not just passive listening; I started researching the way the harmony had been arranged.
How did you conceive the idea of treating Carnatic kritis in a capella?
It was only about five years ago that I thought of a cappella version of kritis. ‘Brova Baramma’ in Bahudari came to my mind first. I started working on the harmony.
The lead singer Sriram Parthasarathy and eight others of the Madras Youth Choir lent their voices. Initially, I tried the pallavi on an experimental basis. Thereafter I went for the recording at Sai Shravanam’s studio.
The music was then balanced and mastered by ‘Keyboards’ Chandrasekar.
Objective beyond this effort?
A cappella version of kritis would be more appealing to westerners. Most of the classical western pieces are without lyrics, yet the musicians there strive hard to interpret each and every line. On the contrary, our music has lyrics with both emotional and devotional content, which can be translated for their benefit to help them enjoy the songs better. But it’s not easy.
Kritis have to be studied both from musical and lyrical points of view and sangathis have to be fixed.
The choral arrangements have to be made strictly in consonance with the rules of harmony as propounded in the theory of western music and at the same time it should also not violate the scale of the raga under question. This requires expert knowledge in both genres. The voices comprising high and low tenors, baritone and bass have to be treated correctly.
How did you score the music?
The lead and the harmony have to be first written and examined thoroughly. The script has to be gone over several times before training the voices for parts. (He shows the meticulously written scripts in western and Carnatic notations). He plays the song that takes you to new realms of enjoyment.
A capella version of the kriti will be launched at a function on July 24 (10.30 a.m.) at Arkay Convention Centre,Luz, Mylapore.
