That rather striking picture of the Spur Tank, Egmore was taken in 2008 by V. Ganesan, staff photographer of The Hindu for the book Four Score and More: The History of the Music Academy, Madras , which I co-authored with Dr. Malathi Rangaswami. I felt it then and I reiterate it now — there ought to be a marker somewhere on the banks of the tank to indicate that this was where the December Music Season was born, for it was here that the All India Music Conference was held between December 26 and 31, 1927.
The tank was, of course, much larger in area then, some of it having no water. It was in the dry bed that the Congress Party was permitted to conduct its annual all-India session. Several other events were to be held in conjunction, and one among these was the music conference. A series of tents was erected to house these meets and the whole area was soon dubbed Congress Nagar. To prevent any running over by trains, for the tracks of the South Indian Railway Company ran across the tank, the city’s first overbridge was erected here and delegates were encouraged to use it.
The government, inimical though it was to the very idea of the Congress, viewed the music conference in a more kindly light. The Museum Theatre was given free of cost for the lecture sessions. The concerts were held each evening at the Spur Tank. Top-ranking musicians from outstation were provided accommodation in tents. From the writings of The Hindu’ s columnist Suganthy Krishnamachari we know that the orthodox elements were lodged and fed at her ancestral house — Lady Napier’s Villa in nearby Purasawalkam.
The Music Conference commenced on December 24, with the singing of national songs by Kamaladevi Chattopadhyay. Dr. U. Rama Rau, Chairman of the Madras Legislative Council, welcomed the gathering. Dewan Bahadur Suryanarayana Murthy Naidu of Cocanada declared the conference open. Pt. Vishnu Digambar addressed the gathering in Hindi and then C.R. Srinivasa Iyengar spoke on the objectives of the conference. At 3.00 pm the next day, Sir C.P. Ramaswami Iyer inaugurated an exhibition of music artefacts.
The conference and concerts went on for five days. There were the usual conflicts and controversies that mark the season even today — scramble for tickets that were not easily available, claims of supremacy between Carnatic and Hindustani artistes, cries of under-representation of women, and a threat of a walkout by Chembai Vaidyanatha Bhagavatar when he found out that the organisers were going to pay less than market rates to his young mridangam accompanist — Mani from Palghat. That boy would become a star later, as did another debutante: Subramaniam from Madura, aka Madurai Mani Iyer.
But perhaps the biggest star to emerge was the Music Academy, which was born from the Conference. From 1929, the Academy began holding a December Music Conference, which, over the years, burgeoned into the Season we know of today, featuring several sabhas and many artistes.
