Don't sway, when you ought to stand upright

Atteeeeen-shun!!!!!

Boots stomp the ground, click themselves into place. Then, the guys stand upright, till the next order is screamed.

These smart, upright uniformed chaps are a good metaphor for vivadi swaras—straight, slim, no swaying.

Vivadi ragas seem to be making a come back—why, have made a come back—to the concert halls. Till about a couple of decades they had been banished into oblivion by orthodoxy.  Today, barring a few old-fashioned, many artistes sing vivadis in detail, and that’s damn good for carnatic music. Sanjay, Yesudas, B Kannan…are some vivadi buffs.

But in singing or playing a vivadi, the artiste has to keep in mind the metaphor—the uniformed officer standing in attention. Do a gamaka on a vivadi note, you lose the flavour of the raga.

An example of this was given by violinist Bombay Anand. Anand was accompanying veena artiste, B Kannan, at Narada Gana Sabha. Kannan played a brilliant Kanakangi alapana and it was Anand’s turn. Rather disconcertingly, the violinist kept slipping into Todi.

Where did the mistake lie? In two places.

First is technical. Vivadi notes (as everybody knows) are like the upright officer in attention. You can’t do a gamaka on them. No sway. Anand swayed on the ‘ga’ and the result was Todi.

Second is non-technical. I asked Kannan if he had told Anand the choice of the raga prior to the concert. No. Kannan told him just before the concert began.

Kannan had a nice practice session the previous evening. Anand didn’t. Had he been informed, he too would have brushed up a bit and played neatly—after all, Anand is a talented violinist.

And therein lies a lesson. Lead artistes, if they intend to play the rare, should inform the accompanyists beforehand.