Inherent aptitude, first-rate training at the hands of great maestros and razor edge intellectual acumen are the attributes that have won for Shrimathi R. Vedavalli an uniquely special position in the world of carnatic music. Apart from a kind of unique tutelage at the hands of Sangitha Kalanidhis Madurai Srirangam Iyengar at first and Mudicondan Venkatarama Iyer later, she had the advantage of teaching at the Music Colleges at Madras and of musical explorations galore for the Music Academy and other institutions like All India Radio, University of Madras and Sabhas on a wide cross-section of themes, besides lecture-cum-demonstrations on the compositions of the Trinity, Pallavi Singing etc. In fact, one is made to wonder how such a wide gamut of musical presentations, differing from each other in theme, range and appeal, could be encompassed by a single person. There have been many prodigiously gifted talents in the musical field but none or probably very few, can stake for themselves a claim for such a vast variety of achievements, over and above the achievement in the concert field. The beauty is that all these top honours seem to sit lightly on the modest, almost demure, unflappable, lady.
The Indian Fine Arts Society, Madras has honoured itself and the great classical traditions of Carnatic music by honouring her with the precious accolade of “Sangeetha Kalasikamani”.
We live in times when traditions are hardly respected and are yielding place to artificial, new fangled and pseudoscientific music. The citadels are being stormed by the so called ‘avant garde’ elements and rasikas are being swept off their feet, if not bemused, by this tremendous onslaught on things held sacrosanct for generations. In such a context, the rock-like unswerving adherence by Prof. Vedavalli to tradition and classical values cannot be adequately comprehended. As a writer has it: “What makes music classical is that it survives - it has an inherent integrity and communicative power that gets passed on from person to person ...........classical music is mute for its own sake, more complicated and less immediate than a pop song. It generally is more sophisticated in composing techniques and demands more of a listener to get the full experience”.
Smt. Vedavalli is also one among those who, despite every attainment one can ask for in music embarked on the fabled career, only to watch it trail off in the vagaries of the profession and the public’s insatiable hunger for celebrity of sorts. But to her great credit, despite her partially fulfilled expectations of a great artistic career, she was guided by the disciplined purposefulness, the inspiring delights and the humanistic benefactions of music, in her career, undeterred by the absence of top dazzling rewards, pecuniary or artistic.
As a mature artist, she has always known that a vocal performance is a test of capacities between what the composer has created and what she can perform. In the argot of performances, she, too, has ‘wrestled’ with the weighty kritis of Muthuswamy Dikshitar or Shyama Shastri and come up with illuminating lecture-demonstrations stamping them with her own individual ability. The rasika could detect in them signs of her arduous concentration devoted to comprehending the magnum opus, its aesthetic structure, style, its emotional content etc. Such displays have often been intuitive as well as intellectual. Smt. Vedavalli could at the same time, respond to the imperatives of aesthetics and originality, flowing from her vast erudition. In her case, one does not have to come across the narrowing of perspectives that often shrinks the professional as well as the human horizons of practitioners.
A critical listener of her concerts can see that she has not taken to music for the psychological satisfaction of applause like so many others less equipped than herself, who thrive on ceremonial or public acclaim. Nor is she affected by the cynical adage that ‘one is only as good as one’s last performance’.
Her raga Alapanas are based on Mudicondan’s speciality singing long winding phrases encompassing at a time many notes of the raga (a style attributed to that giant Konerirajapuram Vaitha and also to Trichy Govindaswami Pillai). She has no use for the short, staccato snappy phrasings of these days. For that very reason, her raga pictures are more rounded and faithful to the ‘bani’. Her Kirthana renditions adhere well to Sampradaya, to the versions handed down by her great gurus. And as for pallavi, one does not dare underrate a diligent student of Mudicondan in this strenuous sector of Carnatic music.
In discussions
on various aspects of our music, her stand is always logical and clear,
supplemented by a rare knack of elucidation in chaste Tamil. To sum up
Smt. Vedavalli’s credentials for both performing and discourses in Carnatic
Music are variegated, impressive and compelling of unstinted admiration.
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