Harmonious music can both stimulate and calm. This duel charcter of music inspired violinist and educator B. Anantharaman (a.k.a. Ravi) to experiment with the similarities and dissimilarities of Western and Carnatic styles. His ensemble ‘Strings in Harmony’ at the Mysore Association, Mumbai, was an attempt to show how people from diverse cultural backgrounds, age groups and musical understanding can grow by learning from each other and by integrating ideas from different traditions. The aim is to explore avenues in Carnatic music, bringing together students of all ages with diverse musical experiences.
‘Strings in Harmony’ at the Mysore Association, Mumbai
“Western classical concert orchestration has evolved over the years, and comprises multiple diverse musical instruments, forms and genres. Carnatic music gets its unique existence from ‘gamakam’, meaning ‘oscillation’ or ‘glide’ used quite heavily, whereas in Western Classical music a similar concept called ‘vibrato’, is used differently under certain circumstances. ‘Strings in Harmony’ is an experiment to integrate the unique feature of harmony of western classical operas into a Carnatic group violin concert. The result is the blend of multiple strings in unison with varied other instruments,” says Anantharaman.
Anantharaman surely is one among the growing number of musicians experimenting with new combinations of world music styles and gadgets. He has performed as solo and accompanying violinist in Carnatic concerts, jugalbandis, fusion, classical dance concerts and Bollywood music bands.
Openness to experimentation and adaptation, yet maintaining originality and tradition, has been his success mantra. He believes that the violin is closest to the human voice and proved it with his expert playing.
Emotional responses
The performance showed how by working together, the artistes are able to create harmony and nuances that can evoke emotional responses.
Retaining the Carnatic core, he demonstrated orchestration aesthetics and harmony with multiple violins playing along with instruments such as mandolin, mridangam, keyboard, ganjira and ghatam.
The fundamental elements of music such as scale, pitch, rhythm, tempo, etc., came together to create a cohesive and harmonious impact.
“It’s never too late for an instrument,” the late neurologist Oliver Sacks had advocated. This is also one of the central beliefs of ‘Strings in Harmony’ ,” says Anantharaman. He has brought together 12 players, (unpolished gems as he calls them) of varying ages and training, who work in harmony as a team respecting ensemble ethics over individual skills.
These debutants, whose repertoire contained short compositions, were supported by senior students and accompanying artistes with wider experience. A beautiful performance is the result when all members of the violin section are able to play in tight unison, complementing each other. Be it youngsters (who are pursuing full-fledged academics) such as Punya, Kriti, Sutanup, Yuganth, Manaswini and Ganesh or corporate executives and professionals such as Harish, Deepa, Visalakshi, Gopalakrishnan and Sridhar or late starters such as dance guru Padmini Radhakrishnan and Gomathi, this was a baby step in concert experience.
The highlight of this harmony was a duet performance by guru and shishya S. V. Ramachandran and B. Anantharaman.
Their repertoire comprised ‘Sri Mahaganapatim,’ ‘Edaari,’ ‘Biraana Brova,’ ‘Saagarasayana Vibho,’ Tirupugazh and a crisp RTP.
Guru Ramachandran is a much sought-after accompanying artiste and an innovator. His latest exercise is adapting the viola to Carnatic style making it a seven-stringed instrument.
The violin playing of the guru, sishya and disciples was heart-warming.
