It was a moment to behold, cherish and commit to memory when 109 children played Carnatic music for a quarter of an hour on the keyboard in unison to create a new Guinness record, and the only more pleasing sound was the thunderous applause they received at the end of their feat. Students of pianist M. S. Martin’s school, Mellifluous Melodies, the children sat in a gallery facing the audience on the Music Academy stage, and produced a spell-binding strip of music, scored by their guru. Some of them sat there with the easy aplomb of a veteran, while others stared at the audience, looking cherubic — all these kids were aged between six and 14 years.
At the end of the stupefying performance, the Guinness adjudicator, Jack Brock Bank, handed over the certificate that marked the entry of the event into the Guinness Book, in the presence of music maestro M. S. Viswanathan, Carnatic vocalist Aruna Sairam and N. Murali, president, The Music Academy.
Awarding the certificate to M. S. Martin, Brock Bank said “I am impressed by the stunning performance of the students and the dedication they have shown for creating this record. I am confident that this group will create many more records in future and I wish them all the best”.
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The earlier record was created on September 25, 2004, by Billy Joel. It consisted of 107 participants who played ‘Piano Man’ for five minutes at the opening of The Shoppes at Cross Keys, Florissant, Missouri, in the U.S.
The performance for the record was followed by a two-hour concert in which the children played several popular Carnatic numbers, including the Tyagaraja Pancharatna kriti, ‘Saadhinchane,’ and ‘Bantureeti Kolu’ in Hamsanadam. Swami Dayananda Saraswathi’s ‘Bho Sambho Siva Sambho,’ in raga Revati, also figured. Not all the children played all the numbers. Sangeetha Sriram, a member of the organising committee, (whose son was one of the 109) said that the children were at different stages of learning and played the instrument accordingly.
Earlier, in 2009, 75 children from M. S. Martin’s school entered the Limca Book of Records by performing on a single stage. Martin, who graduated in Music with a gold medal, was conferred the title of ‘Isaimamani’ in the year 1993, by Annamalai University. Martin has been training children in Carnatic music for over 14 years.
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