Innovative & inquisitive.

That the much coveted and awaited December music season has arrived, we thought of covering interesting aspects of one of the biggest music festivals. We, then surely can’t miss out on artistes and their performances (though there are other aspects to the fest like food, artiste wardrobes etc).

As a first, we are starting over with a write-up on T M Krishna famously known as TMK.

TMK - the musician has been created and moulded broadly from:

• Strong music loving family.

• Tutelage during early years under Sri. B Seetharama Sharma.

• Special training in Ragam Tanam & Pallavi from Sri. Chengalpet Ranganathan,

• Advanced training from Sri. Semmangudi Srinivasa Iyer.

• Due to his own efforts (of course).

His greatest achievement is in not just in being a concert performer, but also in innovating and creating value; and making these two aspects as an integral part of the musician in him.

The value addition initiatives of his include:

• Swanubhava that provides learning opportunities for music students across institutions and styles and making them contributing to Indian performing arts.
• Kalachara Marumalarchi that aims to revive temples as cultural hub by organizing events therein.
• Matrka, a publishing company that aims to showcase the richness of Indian art and culture ("Voices Within", a coffee table book on 7 greatest pioneers of carnatic music was released as part of this initiative. This was authored by T M Krishna & Bombay Jayashri).
• Jnarnava: Under its auspices, Muthuswamy Dikshithar's compositions were documented. According to me, this is the closest we can get to the beauty of Dikshithar's compositions. The source of this documentation was the book Sangeetha Sampradaya Pradarshini by Subbarama Dikshithar (grandson of Muthuswamy Dikshithar's brother).
• Shabda (www.shabda.co.in), aimed at creating an online archive of various aspects of Indian performing arts. I would regard this as the knowledge management initiative.
• Sumanasa (www.sumanasaf.org): Children and student focused initiative. Aimed at providing access to learning music in underdeveloped areas, providing platform to showcase young talents and providing music therapy to special children.
• Margazhi Ragam, the first film dedicated to carnatic music ever. This features a concert by T M Krishna and Bombay Jayashri.

Whilst he can be appreciated for all his initiatives, he is not a person who has remained away from criticisms.

He has quoted controversy right away from “asking rasikas not to leave during mangalam” to “writing articles like ‘Listen, please don't eavesdrop’ ( http://newindianexpress.com/magazine/article181259.ece)” to his efforts in “making changes in the kutcheri format”.

Here are a few examples from scores of such instances:

• Thodi varnam (Kanakangi) as main piece @ Mylapore Fine Arts Club (2011).
• Khamas Varnam (Mate Malayadwaja) as main piece @ Nada Sudha.
• Consider this portion of one of his concert lists: Alapana in Kambhoji, Sahana & Dhanyasi followed by Talli Ninnu Nera - Kalyani (main piece) - Dec 2012 @ Krishna Gana Sabha.
• @ Music Academy - Jan 2013: List of renditions…..

          1. Bhairavi Pada Varnam (Mohana En Meedil).

          2. Nagalingam Bhajeham (Dikshithar composition) - Shankarabharanam 

          3. Dalachina Varu - Dhanyasi.

          4. Alapana - Ataana followed by Tiruvatriyur Thyagarajan.

          5. Alapana - Kalyani, Surati & Anandabhairavi.

          6. Teliyaleru Rama - Dhenuka.

          7. Marubari Talalenura - Khamas.

          8. Taniavartanam. 

          9. Viruttam - Thandai Thayum in Thodi, Kambhoji, Sriragam.

        10. Varugalaamo Ayyaa - Manji.

We see in the list above that there are so many alapanas. After Kalyani, Surati and Anandhabhairavi, one would expect a ragamalika RTP in these three ragas. A rasika can be easily be disappointed if an artiste moves on to another composition abruptly.

Let’s take another example. May 2013 @ Abu Dhabi (part list):

6. Dhanyasi Alapana-stand alone

7. Arabhi - Taanam followed by Chala Kalla (Arabhi - Thyagaraja) followed by Tani.

Here, the catch is that a great Dhanyasi alapana was not followed up with a kriti in Dhanyasi itself.

The problem in this is not something related to the kutcheri format. It is all about completeness of the concert. A kutcheri otherwise would be more balanced because:

• It would have a mix of short, swift as well as detailed renderings.
• There will be proper focus on a raga, and a single raga can be brought with much of variety (for example, alapana, kriti, niraval & swarams).

There was news that a similar attempt by him in one of his (Music) Academy concerts had the audience to get up and walk off.

So, it is better he “tones down on all these kind of changes”.

However, some of his other initiatives can really be appreciated. Varnam as a main piece is a really a welcome step. Once he rendered Nattakuranji padavarnam (Sami Naanundan Adimai), a masterpiece of Papanasam Sivan once in Narada Gana Sabha (concert organized by Sivan Arts Academy) as one. Herein, there was a very detailed alapana followed by the varnam. Niraval was in charanam verses (Nataraja Deva Sachhidananda). The sahityam verses corresponding to the chittaswarams of this great padavarnam were utilized very well by the artiste in the niraval to be interspersed with the main charanam verse (Nataraja deva…..) as fulcrum. This added the much needed variety to the rendition and gave him lot of scope to sing a detailed niraval. This also showed us a way of presenting varnams better. So, in this way, the change was a welcome one.

Another one is nirval and swaram in mangalam. Rasikas were in for a pleasant surprise when he started niraval and swarams in “Rajeeva Nayana Tyagaraja….”, the concluding verses of the mangalam “Pavamana”. So, mangalam got the treatment of a complete composition in this way. He should have taken inspiration from this (Sangeetha) Kalanidhi speech of Vidwan Ralapalli Ananthakrishna Sharma in Music Academy (visit https://sites.google.com/site/rallapallisharma/Home/presidential-address).

"Peer Pleasure" - Views on Sanjay:

A part of his views on Sanjay Subrahmanyan expressed in The Indian Express was interseting; especially those on Sanjay’s tryst with Hindustani ragas (Here is the link…. https://fbcdn-sphotos-e-a.akamaihd.net/hphotos-ak-ash2/552417_10151276136009052_570926907_n.jpg.

None of the ragas borrowed from Hindustani music have gamaka embellishments and still sound to be scales Sindhubhairavi, Yamunakalyani and Behag included. So, ragas like Patdip and Ragesree can also be explored; well it may take more time for these ragas to be accepted. This pursuit of Sanjay’s did not spark a debate or a furore.

The last word:

All said and done, TMK longs to bring in change through innovations, definitely a musician to revere.

Rasikas in the coming days might expect him to bring in more smooth and stable innovations with focus on making it a soul pleasing and searching means. He would surely continue to create value.



- Shridhar (marggoindia@gmail.com).