If there was one event in recent times that had 20-somethings participating along with seniors, some of them pushing 90, it must have been the Music Academy-Tag Raga Identification competition held at the TTK Auditorium on Sunday last. In fact it was the 60-plus enthusiasts seniors were included in the competition and participated enthusiastically who garnered an impressive tally of prizes.
“I'm going to give three top prizes each in the gold, silver, bronze category in the 26-above group and three prizes for those 25 and below. Besides, winners will receive raga identification CDs containing 75 pallavis sung by Neyveli Santhanagopalan and lecture CD series by historian V.Sriram,” said the managing director of Tag Corporation R.T. Chari, who sponsored the prizes, and was the force behind the show.
The main hall of the Music Academy resembled an examination hall that morning with the participants poring over their notes and books, some hooked to their phones to brush up their knowledge. Of course no helplines were allowed during the competition.
Forty raga tracks were played - a beautiful Bageshri from MLV, a buoyant Bindumalini on the mandolin, a heartening Hamir Kalyani, a vivacious Vachaspathi, an adjacent Nayaki and Darbar . . . the list had contestants racing to reach the winning post. While gold toppers received Rs.5,000 each in cash, winners also received a concert guide book by Kannan. With over 100 participants, nine out of the 10 winners were in the above 26 year group, and only one winner was in the below 25 age group. Those with fifty percent correct answers received special prizes.
“We thought there are so many rasikas who are able to identify the song and the raga. This competition is for those rasikas,” beamed coordinator Sumathi Krishnan.
The difficulty level varied from difficult to easy. “Care was taken to see that the selection of tracks was a good mix of yesteryear greats, contemporary stalwarts, instrumental, vocal, songs, ragas, pallavi, and viruttam,” Sumathi explained. She worked with veena R.S Jayalakshmi spending hours listening at the archives to derive the right mix.
Designing the competition eclectically, Sumathi kept snippets brief in order to raise the bar. “The letter to the participants had clearly stated that no performing artist will qualify for the event,” Sumathi said.
The audience found the experience wonderful. “We wished the show would go on,” one of them said. “We hope to hold this event every year,” Sumathi said.
