With his rich experience of Carnatic concert Music Palghat Mani Iyer the Great Mridangam Vidwan, in an interview presents his frank comments on the contemporary standard of classical music.

In his opinion, Ariyakudi Ramanuja Iyengar combined in him all the virtues of an ideal gayaka. He is firm in his view that the lowering of the pitch is the basic reason for the poor showing by the performing vocalist.

The outlook for classical Carnatic vocal music is bleak with not a single artiste available who can be counted upon as a hopeful asset. In fact, vocal music may soon disappear from the concert scene if the present trends of the musician to sing to extreme low srutis in complete disregard for the need to acquire compelling virtues of tone, timbre continues. this trend and the pursuit of dubious musical substance are affecting even aspirants gifted with voice and talent and misleading them into frittering their energies in unproductive channels.

this view is strong and pessimistic, some may feel, but coming as it does, from Palghat Mani Iyer, the Mridangam Maestro who has witnessed concert music and played for it for over five decades now, it has to be accepted as a timely warning from a deeply concerned and experienced mahavidwan who knows what he is talking about.

According to him, the mike is the culprit, luring the classical singers away from the painstaking path into lethargic comfort and low and lacklustre pitches. they desperately seek the amplifications, rebound creating a false atmosphere in the concert platform in which it is difficult for clarity to survive. The realisation crystalised into his resolve some years ago to play only in mikeless concerts, said Mani Iyer in an interview.

Only solution:

The only solution is for the vocalist to train themselves to sing to higher pitches. He would recommend a "2 kattai" sruti as the minimum. The argument that the size of the audience rendered the mike necessary was unconvincing to one who had seen larger audiences and keener listening in the mikeless era.

Mani Iyer listed three artists with outstanding voices: Ariyakudi Ramanuja Iyengar, Chembai Vaidyanatha Bagavathar, and M.S.Subbalakshmi. He had played for the two men singers. They had sung straight to the audience for years and know the art of relating themselves to their listeners and establishing rapport with them. When the mike came it was inconsequential for they continued to sing as they always did with their customary power, vigor and zest.

These qualities and the artistry that attracts the audience marked violinist Rajamanikkam Pillai’s accompaniment too. He surmounted the handicap of small tone with these assets, Mani Iyer, said vividly recalled an instance in the mikeless era when Rajamanikkam Pillai won a longer applause from the massive audience than the main performer by most effectively counted movement of swaras. Those were days when the concert platform was low and eager rasikas could be seen very close to the performer resting their elbows on its edge.

Samparadaya:

A very reticent person whose thoughts are rooted in the past from which he seeks inspiration, Mani Iyer was induced to discuss tradition and speak out his views. Tradition or sampradaya converted usage and practice and in classical music it meant the form and structure and presentation in which music had been handed down as a fine art meant to win the appreciation of the people. There was no point in discussing any tradition which did not find favour with the public which was unrelated to it.

Sampradaya had built in resistance to unwanted assertion and a knack of shedding them and surviving only the best and the tested. It was a disciple that throw more on Bhakti than on the brain, more than sanctity (Saanidhya), gained through repetitions (like the vedas) than on egoistic experiments. Intelligence had a place, but it had to be regulated by the sense of surrender which bhakti implies.

Sadhana of the known trusted and proven music with dedication, brought its own rewards by way of ripening the voice and refining expression in presenting it in conformity with discipline and dignity. Imagination was inherent in the freshness of color and creative impulse with which the old was presented. The kalpana or manodharma which stemmed from the individual desire to be new and novel was misleading, meaningless and often times "absurd". Unrelated to discipline it became more licentious than responsible.

Mani Iyer is very practical man and the discussion suddenly took a turn from the theoretical to the concrete. Sampradaya implied an impersonal approach and a well knit and integrated style. It needed the grace of God to be endowed with it and serve music as an example. Ariyakudi Ramanuja Iyengar alone, in his view, epitomized all the virtues of the ideal "gayaka".

Maharajapuram Viswanatha Iyer was also a considerable artiste and could, on his day, transport his rasikas to ecstatic heights. Mani Iyer made a particular reference to his sloka singing in ragamalika. But Viswanatha Iyer was not a consistent performer.

Ramanuja Iyengar’s strong point was his extraordinary consistency. He could also strike splendid form on occasions, but his general form was steady and dependable and ruled out the chance element. He was never guilty of singing with his eyes closed. He sang looking at the audience, feeling its pulse and aware of its responses. He was not interested in exciting or thrilling his listeners but in thoroughly satisfying them with judiciously selected programs and well proportioned excellence in interpretation of the varied concert material.

Mani Iyer was emphatic that Ariyakudi Ramanuja Iyengar personified Sampradaya. His style could not be characterized as the "Ariyakudi style" in the same sense one referred to the styles of G.N.Balasubramaniam or of Semmangudi Srinivasa Iyer. They were personal styles which found use for the nagaswaram inspiration.

Ramanuja Iyengar’s expression was ideally vocalist, completely natural, full of elegance without affectation or mannerism and conforming to all the requisites prescribed for the perfect gayaka. any good voice used naturally to create clean classical music would automatically kindly thoughts of Ariyakudi Ramanuja Iyengar, Mani Iyer said.

Ramanuja Iyengar’s repertoire was matchlessly wide and in todi alone he could render nearly 40 great songs. He did not pursue rare ragas which would perplex the public but pleased them with the masterly concise quality of his versions of known and major ragas. Three minutes was enough for a solid and satisfying version of Pantuvarali and there was no empty stretching beyond that.

Stamp of Dignity

Mani Aiyar’s assessment of Ramanuja Iyengar has to be viewed against the background of the fact that he has played for all other top musicians too. He had been playing for Chembai Vaidyanatha Bagavathar, earlier, and his admiration for Ramanuja Iyengar started on their very first encounter when the glories of his voice and the music of form, substance a lively tempo which he created with it, swept him off his feet. It was voice with an equal volume and appeal in all the areas it traversed a style with a stamp of dignified carnatic captivation and proportion turning all through his music. This captivation conferred a unique class of Hindustani color songs like Vaishnavo Janato, and Nandakelala. He could programme judicially to suit the condition of his voice and strike form even on a bad day.

The Mridangam Maestro that he had derived greatest enjoyment and experience from playing for Ramanuja Iyengar, who was also the embodiment of professional etiquette. The sadness that he was no more still remained with him, though the years had rolled on. Musiri Subramania Iyer was musician whom Mani Iyer would rate second only to Ramanuja Iyengar. He had the unique capacity to secure the applause only on the song rendering alone.

Mani Iyer recalled his first encounter with the formidable Kanjivaram Nayana Pillai when the musician sang a Pallavi concealing the count. Mani Iyer’s resourceful artistry won over the vidwan and on the next occasion the proceedings wee more open. Mani had a good word to say about the musicianship of late Ramnad Krishnan, but he felt sorry that he was not a full throated singer.

Mani Iyer had accompanied the Alathoor Brothers in many thrilling concerts. The strong voiced partner was no more and Alathoor Srinivasa Iyer was singing alone. His voice though small, was more firm and sruti aligned, his vidhwat as substantial and his exposition was lucid and steeped in Carnatic taste. While the vocalist must uphold the dignity of the vocal music tradition, Mani Iyer was of the view that Carnatic instrumentalists should create music approximating to vocal excellence. Violinist Papa Venkatramiah was unique in this respect and acquired a style of vibrant substance and beauty which became the envy of the vocalist. The great Nagaswaram player Rajarathnam also in his finest moods sought to capture the grace and essence of vocal music in his plays.

Violinist Rajamanikkam Pillai was unique as an accompanist. Dwaram Venkataswami Naidu who did not share this secret of accompaniment had stuck a separate path for himself as a soloist. He was gifted with an excellent technique of bowing and creating pure melody but mixed Hindustani color also in his art.

Mani Iyer spoke with feeling on the personality of Pudukkottai Dakshinamoorthy Pillai and the thrilling bouts between his mridangam and his kanjira. those were the days when they did not wait for the thani to be given. It was taken by the two at will.

Mani Iyer recalled an occasion when he had to leave the concert platform to catch a train. Dakshinamoorthy Pillai kept the kanjira aside and started playing the mridangam and created such an effect of subtle beauty from the even very simple sounds of rhythm that he stood rooted to the ground quite a while forgetting that he had to leave. Of his contemporary violinists, Mani Iyer commented, Lalgudi Jayarman as an artiste with a considerable vidhwat and intelligence who also know the secret of audience interaction. His weakness was excess play. T.N.Krishnan had profited a lot by his association with Ramanuja Iyengar and the "Papa" influence in his playing indicated that he had looked into the well of happiness and gained some insights.

Mani Iyer had blazed a new trail as a Mridangam artiste and many follow him without producing the same result. Asked about the secret of its unique and matchless quality and the ideology and technique from which his excellence springs, he was quite reluctant to speak except to advise that his style need not be followed. It was his great love to be a singer more than a mridangist and perhaps, it was this overpowering passion for music, that had enabled him intuitively to grasp the vocalist art and get his rhythmic artistry to flow with the song.

He declared, that he loved playing for songs, and Thani was not important. He remembered how he had once got so lost in the experience of Ramanuja Iyengar’s exquisite singing of Enthanine (Mukhari) of Thyagaraja and the niraval and swaras for the song at "Kanulara Sevinchi" that he refused to play the thani offered after it. Thyagaraja to him, the foremost of the musical trinity and his compositions mattered most. Dikshathar and Syama Sastry came next in importance.

Mani Iyer agreed that purity of Patanthara was disappearing in song rendition these days and liberties were being taken in the name of embellishments. Sarva laghu was the prime factor in swara singing. He said and paid tribute to Madurai Mani Iyer’s excellence in this aspect. He reminded that this vocalist had never resorted to the thadhimkinathom finale.

Mani Iyer was unhappy that excessive mathematical calculations ruled swaras singing today and that the liveliness of precision of natural rhythm were losing ground. these calculations belong to the domain of the percussionist and better left to him by the vocalist; Mani Iyer jocularly remarked that a vocalist could even trip him in a toughly contrived and pre-meditated pallavi, though of course he could always manage to do something resourceful to hold his own.

Asked about upa-laya vadyams, he said, they were losing their distinction. Umayalpuram Kothandarama Iyer was among the last to play the Ghatam with the authentic style of beats, related to it.

Mridangists Palghat Raghu and Umayalpuram Sivaraman among the Mani Iyer’s disciples and he had good words to say about the skill and intelligence of these artistes.

In a passing reference to contemporary vocalists, Mani Iyer said, M.D.Ramanathan had wasted his gift of a rich voice, by deliberately going in for an extremely "thaggu" sruti. K.V.Narayanaswami had changed his style, but the influence of his guru Ramanuja Iyengar could still be seen in his clear singing in the top octave.