NAVYA C
Instrumental Greats
in Carnatic Music
The world of Carnatic music is quite vivid
and versatile not just in terms of vocal
performers, but also with wide range of
instrumental players. The genre was
essentially much with the lead vocal performer
and accompanying instrumental artists in
the background. Veena in particular was
elaborately used for its grandeur, royal nature
and the convenience of playing sliding notes
effectively. The lead percussion instrument
was mridangam, kanjira and ghatam along
with morsing. But as times passed by,
Carnatic music adapted many instruments
from global arena as well and embraced
them as their own. For example, a western
classical instrument like violin was adapted
convincingly to Carnatic music and became
one of the lead instruments as well. Some of
the greatest solo Carnatic violinists include
L.Subramaniam and Lalgudi Jayaraman.
Interestingly, another western instrument
like mandolin had striking sounds that emote
so perfectly for Carnatic music. However, the
sliding notes (gamakas) is quite a challenge
for a mandolin artist to play. But legends
like U. Srinivas brought a star status to the
instrument by using electric pick up, beautiful
expression and proved time and again that- the
instrument’s sounding depends on the expertise
of an artist. The expertise of U.Srinivas was
so brilliant that many people still believe
that mandolin is a Carnatic instrument!
The modern age of Carnatic music also
witnessed a Jazzy instrument like Saxophone
was adapted to Carnatic music by popular artist
Kadri Gopalnath. He made the instrument
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sound appealing, and breathtaking with the
play of notes. Another biggest advantage and
challenge with playing Carnatic music on an
instrument is to present the musicality along
with the bhava aspect of the composition.
These two need to be done at the same instance
and that leads to much universality of the
attempt. The instrumental greats over the ages
have brought up some miracles to Carnatic
music with their ease of experimentation
and striking imagination. The passionate
instrumental players are also imbibing
western music concepts such as harmonies
into Carnatic music. A great example of this
is fantastic violin duo Ganesh-Kumaresh who
are one of the leading performers currently.
Another impressive happening is the Carnatic
instrumental performers exploring the likes
of Rock and Roll, Jazz, and Blues by bringing
it to the Indian audience. Guitar Prasanna in
particular has been doing this with tremendous
ease and perfection. He brings up the beauty of
a Saint Thyagaraja composition by seamlessly
moving to a Jimi Hendrix number thereby
enthralling the audience. Rajhesh Vaidya
on the other hand, has made Veena not just
royal but also contemporary and trendy by
playing it with new techniques and mastery.
All in all, the direction and dimension of
Carnatic music has expanded tenfold with the
advent of much instrumental players all over
the field. We need more such experiments and
choice of funky instruments to reveal the beauty
of Carnatic music. Isn’t this enough to say that
music is universal- irrespective of the genre?