Here, pianissimo fuses with pallavi for a perfect blend
Shalini Umachandran, TNN 29 August 2009, 04:17am IST

CHENNAI: The Madras String Quartet is preparing for practice in violinist VS Narasimhan's living room. Violins come out of cases, music stands are
set up, sheets of music covered with western music notations are placed on them but instead of instructions like coda' and pianissimo', the sheets are covered with words like pallavi' and arohanam'. Though they do play Mozart and Bach, today, they're practising Tyagaraja's Gnaana mosagaraadha'.

The group, formed in 1993, has been playing Carnatic music arranged in the western style for a string quartet for the past few years. "But for this concert, we want to explore the influences of colonial music on indigenous music," says Narasimhan, who is trained in both the Carnatic and western classical style and has worked with composers such as Ilaiyaraaja. Their line-up for the evening includes Mozart, Dikshitar, Purcell and Papanasam Sivan all specially arranged by Narasimhan for the string quartet.

"Classical and colonial music influenced Carnatic and local music in different ways," says S Venkataraman, a UNESCO project officer based in Bangkok and music lover, who helped them arrange the concert. For instance, the concert format in Carnatic music of starting with a varnam or vatapi, moving onto kritis, picking up the pace with ragam-thanam-pallavi and ending with thillanas or tukadas is based on the western classical concert format of starting with a simple overture, moving to the main symphony and endling with light pieces. "The colonial influence is not just only in music but also in presentation. Years ago, Carnatic music was sung mostly in temples and performances ran for hours. It was Ariyakudi Ramanuja Iyengar who started this format in the 1900s. Now, even encores have entered Carnatic music," he says.

Other influences are in the introduction of the violin and the harmonium, both of which have been adapted so well that audiences seldom remember they came from the west. "In terms of music, there was very little interaction between the western musicians and the Indian ones, but even then masters such as Dikshitar heard tunes played by the bands and incorporated them into his music," says Venkataraman. He adds that around the same time Tyagaraja and Dikshitar were experimenting and creating immortal music here, Mozart and Haydn were doing the same in Europe.

For the musicians, playing Carnatic music arranged in the western style has been interesting. Viola artist BJ Chandran says he actually found the posture he had to adopt to play in the quartet less strenuous than the way he played for Carnatic concerts. "For western music, we play sitting straight. I can play for longer hours without discomfort now, though at first I found the position a little strange," he says, while second violinist Hemanthraj Muliyil smiles and nods in agreement. The fourth member of the quartet is cellist VR Sekar, who is also Kunnakudi Vaidyanathan's son.

"No two languages have the same grammar, yet many of us are bilingual," says Narasimhan. "It's similar with music," he says. "If you understand it, you can be comfotable in any system."

(The Madras String Quartet will give a Carnatic and western classical music concert, Ragas in a Chamber' on September 1, 7 pm at Music Academy Mini Hall, while S Venkataraman will introduce each of the pieces)