Carnatic music thrives on its compositions. Each time you hear a composition you are rivetted to its beauty and its appeal. What goes on in the composer’s mind
Carnatic music thrives on its compositions. Each time you hear a composition you are rivetted to its beauty and its appeal. What goes on in the composer’s mind How would he have created this musical unit
Watching the 169th Tyagaraja Aradhana this year as every year, once again the idea resurfaced in my mind.
Tyagaraja, going by his life story that has been handed down generations, created spontaneously and broke out in song when inspired.
Carnatic stories tell us of Tyagaraja’s transport when the divine vision stood before him, taking him aloft into his kritis. His inspirations came from divine grace, as he visited shrines. He was overwhelmed, enchanted, besotted, angry, benumbed, uplifted as his compositions tell us. Abundance of wealth, meant nothing to him, the closed shrine did however. Nidhi chala sukhama and Teratiyagarada are testimonies of this philosophy and faith that inspired his music. This inspiration was divine grace.
Whatever be the methods of making a composition, I am always intrigued by the sources that inspire composers to create musical gems. For one, the architectural splendour of our temple shrines and the sacred space would have played no mean role in the making of these compositions. Whether it was the sanctum of Tiruvarur or that of Srirangam or Madurai, deities and their abode have had a deep impact on Carnatic composers and their music.
I am currently reading the life of Beethoven. The maestro beautifully demystifies much of what lies hidden within the composer’s creative unit.
“You will ask me where I get my ideas. That I cannot tell you with certainty; they come unsummoned, directly, indirectly — I could seize them with my hands, — out in the open air; in the woods; while walking; in the silence of the nights; early in the morning; incited by moods, which are translated by the poet into worlds, by me into tones that sound, and roar and storm about me until I have set them down into notes.”
Ludwig van Beethoven throws light succinctly on the many dimensions that nurture creativity. Carnatic vaggeyakaras enjoy the unique privilege of writing the poetry and setting it to music themselves. Knowing Tyagaraja’s story, it does not sound credible that he sat with a pen and a paper and scribbled down his creations. Perhaps others did or did not. Yet like Beethoven, it is certain that these ideas come from everywhere and from nowhere. From tangible ideas and abstract elements, from sacred spaces and divine urges, from spiritual yearning and from philosophical reckoning. If Beethoven felt inspired by the woods, then the chant of the birds or the seasons held our composers in awe. The time of night with its celestial wonders have given us Carnatic gems like the Navagraha kritis. Moods There are the very forces that catapult emotions and give us the huge landscape of bhava and rasa in our music.
It is not easy for an artiste to identify where the creativity comes from and how it takes form. Even ugly looking plastic water pipes created beautiful musical sound as I witnessed last evening at a street performance. But when a creative urge is strong, it is irrepressible. It ‘roars’ and ‘storms’ like Beethoven held and will not rest till it has found its haven.
Listening to the Pancha Ratna kritis, once again for the millionth time, Tyagaraja’s indescribable creativity spread its aura around me. Yes, his inspiration led him to unfathomable creations. It roared and churned in him. The tumult however settled in the creation of some of the softest, and the most melodious, elevating music ever made by man.
Dr Vasumathi Badrinathan is an eminent Carnatic vocalist based in Mumbai. She can be contacted at vasu@vasumathi.net
