In the past in the Carnatic music scene, one could easily identify the bani or school like Ariyakudi Ramanuja Iyengar, Maharajapuram Santhanam, Semmangudi Srinivasa Iyer, Madurai Mani Iyer, my guru and father Dr. S. Ramanathan, and several others.
Today when I listen to the youngsters, I wonder if I hear a particular bani. Honestly, no, I don’t. Every one of these students has a guru that he/she studies with, but at the same time modern technology gives them ample chances to learn from a variety of musicians. The fact is, one could learn any desired song from any one of the old schools. For an upcoming musician this results in not having his own school or style.
Is it good or bad, only the future will tell.
Several years ago, after one of my veena concerts in Chennai, an old gentleman came backstage; he was an ardent fan of my father. . He said that he was disappointed because I did not sound like him. It upset me a lot.
My mother Gowri was a great listener and critic.Her comments were valued by everyone including my father. When I told her about the comment , she said, ‘No need for tears, Geethu! Your father studied with Tiger Varadachari, Ponnaiyya Pillai, Sabesa Iyer and several others. But he adapted theirs ideas and created his own style. Now people recognise the S. Ramanathan school and appreciate it. You should strive for the same’.
Her words made me think a lot. Yes, appa had created his own bani, but not in one day. It took him years . That gave me hope. I had never seen him sitting to practice . (May be he did so in the early years of his life). When he taught, he would share a few special phrases of a raga like Saveri sung by his teacher Sabesa Iyer, who was known for his expertise in the same. Sometimes he would demonstrate the hand gestures of Tiger Varadachari and how he would use falsetto in the upper register. He would teach us rare kritis that he had learnt from Valadi Sri Krishna Iyer who was called ‘Kirtana Kudir’. Besides these, I had not really heard him imitating any of his teachers.
But there was one advice my father loved to give to his students: ‘The more input, the more output’.
He encouraged us to listen to anything and everything we could lay our hands on and develop the ability to distinguish the good from the bad (like a ‘anna patchi’, a swan which could remove water from the milk) and this task could only be accomplished under the guidance of a teacher. We had the pleasure of listening to so many concerts happening not only in the vicinity , but would also travel long distances on weekends for the same. When we lived in Madurai, we would take buses to nearby towns to attend concerts.
Understanding my interest , as a guru, my father gave me complete freedom to explore the veena. He never insisted on me repeating his meetu. Instead, he allowed me to come up with a technique of my own . I am grateful to him for having given me this freedom. And I realise that this approach is what helped him blend styles of maestros to come up with his own.
Going by the devotion, passion and hard work of the past masters, I come to the conclusion that the young musicians of today can be the creators of the schools of tomorrow such as Sangita Kalanidhis T.N. Seshagopalan, and Sanjay Subramaniam.
