{"id":50494,"date":"2017-01-03T02:29:55","date_gmt":"2017-01-03T07:29:55","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/dbsjeyaraj.com\/dbsj\/?p=50494"},"modified":"2017-01-03T02:54:51","modified_gmt":"2017-01-03T07:54:51","slug":"remembering-music-maestro-dr-mangalampalli-balamuralikrishna","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/dbsjeyaraj.com\/dbsj\/?p=50494","title":{"rendered":"Remembering Music Maestro Dr.Mangalampalli Balamuralikrishna"},"content":{"rendered":"

By Aparna M Sridhar <\/strong><\/p>\n

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Dr.Mangalampalli Balamuralikrishna<\/p><\/div>\n

‘I don\u2019t know music, I am a mere instrument’:<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n

Dr Mangalampalli Balamuralikrishna\u2019s death on November 22 took away a much loved light-heartedness and effortlessness of both being and musicality that one does not always associate with classical music. One of South India\u2019s most enduring modern day music legends, the man who never had to try too hard to be easy on the ear is gone.
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\nTo him the dichotomy between ‘light\u2019 and ‘heavy\u2019 music was artificial and pernicious. He believed that while the form of Carnatic music gave cerebral pleasure to those who had taken the trouble to cultivate the ability to appreciate it, it was emotion, feeling and lyricism that made it touch the heart. Carnatic music to him laid as much stress on bhava (feeling) as on raga and tala, and the lyric, the sahitya, was not something to be dismissed as a mere vehicle for the musical notes. As he says in his own composition in Hameerkalyani, Bhaawa Raaga Thaala samyutha smyak geetham Sangeetham (Bhava, Raga and Tala together make music complete).
\n\u201cThis obsession with the ‘lightness’ of music has resulted in such absurdities that we have reached a stage when something which has a musical appeal and which stirs the feelings of the listeners with its tonality, lyricism and bhava is automatically designated ‘light\u2019 even if it is a composition of Thyagaraja. Conversely, what is terse and unmusical and full of incomprehensible clich\u00e9s is esteemed as ‘classical\u2019,\u201d he has said. <\/p>\n

It has become fashionable today to question the traditional underpinnings of classical art forms, sometimes even lazily dismissing them as elitist legacies. But a spirit of enquiry has always been part of our oldest traditions. Balamuralikrishna, very early on, challenged what he saw as a musical system which had become ‘fossilised\u2019, at times moving neither its exponents nor their audiences – a sentiment espoused today as something new from political, rather than musical, standpoints. <\/p>\n

A strong patanthara, giving him impeccable swara, sahitya, shruthi and laya, (purity in musical phrasing, diction, pitch alignment and rhythm) along with a soft, crooning voice, laid the foundation for what was soon seen as a challenge to tradition, winning him both fame and notoriety. <\/p>\n

Born on July 6, 1930 in Andhra Pradesh, Balamuralikrishna learned to play almost a dozen instruments by the age of 12, intuitively, almost by himself – a gift perhaps from his Veena-playing mother Suryakantam, who died when he was but 15 days old. At the same time, his upbringing was also steeped in tradition \u2013 his father Pattabhiramaiah, disciple of Susarla Dakshinamoorthy Sastry, belonged to one of the three sishya paramparas of composer Saint Thyagaraja. Apart from his father, it was his guru Parupalli Ramakrishnayya Pantulu who made sure the boy from the Krishna basin found a foothold in Chennai, both ferrying the boy between Vijayawada and Chennai so often, that he never forgot the names of all the stations in-between. (He would entertain visitors and audiences sometimes by reciting all the names sing-song!).<\/p>\n

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Dr.Mangalampalli Balamuralikrishna<\/p><\/div>\n

What was it about his music that made crowds throng his concerts and others disdainful? His fame went beyond the ken of Carnatic music \u2013 he composed music for 28 films, acted in five films, sang 300 film songs, apart from his 450 compositions in Carnatic music. With over 18,000 concerts around the globe in a career spanning eight decades, he was awarded the Chevalier of the Ordre De Arts et Des Lettres by the French Government and the Best Global Singer award by the German government as well as India\u2019s second highest civilian award, the Padma Vibhushan. His impact on music went beyond performances to creating new audiences for Carnatic music, in his administrative roles in the 1960s first as programme director of AIR Vijayawada and subsequently AIR Chennai, Principal of Vijayawada Music College and as member of the Thyagaraja Aradhana Committee at Thiruvaiyaru.<\/p>\n

Criticisms came from a deeply conventional mind-set unable to accommodate his mercurial spirit, putting it down as self-indulgence and eccentricity. He explored obscure and esoteric ragas. His experiments with rare ragas and creation of new ones with only three or four notes, irritated his critics and at times confused his fans. In his younger days, he would also frequently sing either unfamiliar compositions or his own, both no-no\u2019s in the world of South-Indian classical music. <\/p>\n

But Balamuralikrishna knew exactly where the problem lay and was unfazed about nailing it. \u201cCarnatic music today is subsisting mostly on 30-40 ragas and about a dozen of them are subjected to detailed treatment. Is this all the ‘glorious heritage\u2019 of Carnatic music?\u201d Only three musicians have composed songs in all the 72 mela ragas and Balamuralikrishna did this at the age of 18. Asked if these songs were spontaneous, he would say that he intentionally composed them so as to explore possibilities in ragas usually ignored. <\/p>\n

In 1978, when he was conferred the Sangeetha Kalanidhi award by the Music Academy in Chennai, his profile in a souvenir released for the occasion mentioned that he had ‘created new\u2019 ragas. A musical hullabaloo followed when veena exponent S Balachander said no musician could claim to ‘create\u2019 new ragas as they already exist in ancient texts of Indian music. Four years later at theBangalore Gayana Samaja, on a bright Bangalore November morning, he composed a song in a new raga and called it Dore Raga after veena maestro Doreswamy Iyengar, who was in the audience and who had suggested the base scale. He said, \u201cGentleman, you have witnessed the creation of a Raga. I do not know whether it is to be found in any text of music, because I have not brought any books nor did I consult any. You have witnessed a raga created before you, as also a tala.\u201d <\/p>\n

The decades of saadhana, the deep relationship with music stood him in good stead till the end. Even in the last couple of concerts, with his body and mind failing him, he could still be as switched on as ever as soon as the drone of the tambura came on\u2026and those arresting notes would soar towards the audience. \u201cI don\u2019t know music, music knows me, I am an instrument,\u201d he once said to me. When I first met him, in my youthful enthusiasm, I told him \u201cSir, I listen only to you and to MS Amma (M.S. Subbulakshmi),\u201d and there was a phase when that was true enough. He grinned and gestured as if to say, \u201cof course, who else?\u201d <\/p>\n

It is to Balamuralikrishna that a new generation of both musicians and audiences can turn to, for inspiration and a model for growth, revitalisation and a wider appeal for classical music \u2013 all from within the traditional fold itself. At a time when there are many who would shatter it all, robbing Carnatic music of its foundations, this is perhaps his most important message. In many ways, he has already played this role in his decades-long career, by first paving the way for an entire generation of Carnatic musicians to sing with a fresh, modern appeal. Carnatic music needs it to happen again. <\/p>\n

(The author is editor, Saamagaana The First Melody, a classical music magazine.This article appeared first in the Economic Times of India Times)
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By Aparna M Sridhar ‘I don\u2019t know music, I am a mere instrument’: Dr Mangalampalli Balamuralikrishna\u2019s death on November 22 took away a much loved light-heartedness and effortlessness of both being and musicality that one does not always associate with classical music. One of South India\u2019s most enduring modern day music legends, the man who …<\/p>\n

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