Days before he leaves Chennai for the Udaipur World Music Festival, Sangeet Natak Akademi award winning flautist Shashank Subramanyam rummages around one of the three flute stands in the ‘practice space’ of his house. Here, about a hundred flutes sit clustered in three different stands, and in two bags.
“These are the ones I use for Hindustani music; they’re made of Assamese bamboo,” he points out. One of them is made of titanium, and yet another is almost four feet long. “That gives a deep bass tone, for meditative pieces,” he explains, playing a sombre note. He alternates that with a peppy one, from a smaller, mid-range flute.
Art doesn’t exist in a vacuum: a true performer understands the value of the listener, and customises his instrument in accordance to the mood of his audience and the acoustics of the venue. Shashank has developed this art in his 30-year career as a flautist, which has taken him — and through him, Carnatic music — around the world, from all of Europe, to Iran, the US and more. The next stop on his way is the three-day Udaipur World Music Festival, starting February 15.
Shashank Subramanyam,Flute Artist,in his house,at Mylapore,Chennai,on 4thDec2014.
The festival will see performers from Spain, Italy, France, and more. “I look forward to festivals like these, which facilitate exchange between artists and music-lovers of different communities,” says Shashank. The Grammy-nominated flautist talks about how they influence each other with compositions unique to their country’s styles.
“I met a vocalist from Mauritiana (a country in Northwestern Africa) in Germany for the first time. And still, we managed to do a jugalbandi in the sarasangi raagam ,” he says. “We will be performing together this April in Germany.”
Likewise, he has brought his Carnatic ragas to Persian and African compositions, played with Japanese and Iranian musicians, and free-styled with jazz maestros. He is also part of a band called Shashank meets Lelo Nika, a quartet with him, a Swedish bass player, Serbian accordionist and a Roman cimbalom player. Interestingly, the band doesn’t have a percussionist: the four support each other rhythmically.
“Any good musician will tell you that 90 % of music is extempore. Even when you have a fixed set, you have room to improvise,” he says, explaining, “It’s about kalpanaswaram , how aesthetically you can combine these mathematical structures with music.” Turning scales into ragas is something fundamental for Carnatic singers: there are over 50,000 ragas, all that can be improvised.
The art lies in incorporating these global musical influences into your own classical structures and retaining your unique voice. Building a recognisable identity is important for a musician, he stresses. “Notes are your alphabets, you take them and go off conversing.”
- If not flute, what would you play?
- It would be a tie among the guitar, the piano and the sitar.
- What instrument works best for a jugalbandi with flute?
- Any string instrument, like the sitar or the sarod.
- Which international artist would you want to work with?
- I admire Jethro Tull, Chick Corea, and Eric Clapton.
Shifting scenes
Shashank notes the change social media has brought for Carnatic music, in terms of making it easier for talent to rise. But at the same time, he rues the singles culture.
“When you had CDs, it was a more immersive experience. An album was a journey, where songs were put together, one after the other, in a particular way. Now people just listen to the first couple of minutes of one song online,” he says. On the other hand, he admires the many advantages of music going digital: “Somebody sitting in a different country can learn Carnatic music without having a physical guru present,” he says. Despite starting to play at the early age of six, Shashank never had a formal flautist guru.
He learnt playing from his father, himself an amateur flautist, and later, from vocalists. That, he says, gave him the freedom to experiment with different techniques and upped his creativity. “To me, the phrase ‘you sound just like your Guru’ is not a compliment. As important as they are, you have to imbibe the best that they have to offer and then build upon that.”
The Udaipur World Music Festival, organised by SEHER, will be held across three different venues in Udaipur, from February 15 to 17. Entry is free. For details, visit http://udaipurworldmusicfestival.com.
