Continuity is an indispensable element of all traditions, especially cultural traditions which have very deep and strong spiritual roots. So far as Carnatic music is concerned, therefore, while innovations in the modern world are quite inevitable and may often be justified, preservation of the spiritual values is a vitally important factor.
This doesn't mean that the actual performing styles of the old masters must necessarily be carried forward for preserving the spirit of the music, as in the case of the traditional guru-sishya system, which is no longer universally practical. At the same time, some of our young and highly accomplished musicians, whose sources of learning and inspiration are many and varied, do somehow revive in our minds forceful memories of Carnatic music as we had heard it 50 years ago or even earlier.
Prominent among such youngsters is Prasanna Venkatraman, a versatile alumnus of the Madras Institute of Technology. Prasanna had learnt the basic elements of Carnatic music from Balamani in Bombay, and subsequently enhanced his skills by observing and absorbing the music of veteran vocalist T.K. Govinda Rao and the relatively younger vidwan Sanjay Subramaniam in
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Chennai. These teachers/mentors all happen to be great admirers and followers of the old masters of Carnatic music. Although Prasanna's
singing style doesn't actually resemble any given vidwan's, it does have a certain old-world character which is transparently authentic and spiritually elevating.
Singing in an extremely reposeful manner, with eloquent pauses, Prasanna held the audience spellbound in a couple of recent concerts at Amarabharati and Hamsadhwani in South Chennai. Concise and superb sketches of the ragas Varali, Harikhambodi, Simhendra Madhyamam, Sama, Saveri and Kedaragowla; exquisite recitations of several kritis of Tyagaraja (Eti Janmamidi, Enduku Nirdaya, Neetu Charanamule, Saantamu Leka), Dikshitar (Sri Rajagoipala) and Poochi Srinivasa Iyengar (Saragu Na Paalimpa); and brilliant swara sequences following the songs - one couldn't help recalling very old impressions from long ago!
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Augmenting the contemplative mood created by the singer was the sensitive and superior accompaniment provided on both occasions - by violinists Shertalai Sivakumar and Mysore Srikanth, and mridangam players Mannarkoil Balaji and Ganapatiraman, at Amarabharati and Hamsadhwani respectively.