subbudu,
here is my take on the genres of musics of tamil nadu.
Every society has various forms of music to express itself in a finer form.
The folk music and dances are colourful, and involves group participation and cheer. The same communities have a different form of music, often termed ‘classical’, and which usually transcends communities and spans a multitude of communities.
For example, the bhangra is primarily a Punjabi farmer group dance, where as the Hindustani classical can span from the borders of Afghanistan to burma border. It is essentially a music of the courts of north india. the punjabis might pay obeisance to hindustani classical but when they hear a bhangra, everyone of them jumps up and turns the lightbulb.
sad to say, tambrams do not treat our folk music with the same respect that they have built for carnatic music, as a rule. and broadly generalizing.
Similarly tamil nadu from Chidambaram spawned bharatanatyam and the accompanying music, which we now know as carnatic music. It is as tamil as one can get. And would have remained tamil based, had not the trimoorthies changed the course towards Sanskrit and telugu. I don’t know about previous generations, but starting from the 1960s, every tambram household female had to undergo a course in carnatic music + instrument.
This increasingly became a ‘must have’ certificate in the marriage market. Along with this popularization, I feel, came a sense of elitism and exclusivity, whereby carnatic music came to be identified with tambrams only much to the agony of pillais, naidus mudaliars and such, who in the past have contributed as much if not more to the enrichment of this class of music, but were increasingly shunned by the newly upwardly mobile establishment.
The music academy of madras is THE epitome of this Brahmin domination. The membership overwhelmingly is Brahmin, as is all the decision making folks. The title ‘sangeeta kalanidhi’ is much coveted, and behind its awarding is as much politicking as for a nobel prize in literature. Ie not everyone is on par with MS or Ariyakudi, and still have been a recipient of one.
for some it came very late in life, like papanasam sivan, who was destitute and could not afford to pay for a taxi, and stood in the rain in the bus stop opposite the music academy, holding the coveted ‘sangita kalanidhi’. Noe of the tvs, hindu or simpson elite or their chelas ever thought of giving this man a ride.
The tamil folk music has been the disliked and mocked step child of the carnitcos. at best it can be termed as been 'benignly ignored'. Whereas the carnatic music thanks to the staffing of AIR, not only encouraged the music, but also guaranteed financial security through grading and full time employment.
even hindustani music does not get this amount of patronage from air.
Therukoothu, Karagam, kudhiraattam, oppaari, villuppaatttu and many such folk genre, hence languished and in fact were dying due to lack of patronage. Surprisingly even the dravdian reformation did not contribute muchly to the revival of folk arts, the way it should have, in my opinion.
these are no better or no worse than carnatic music. all have tamil roots and seeped in the soil of tamil nadu.
Rather belatedly the tamil nadu government has recognized the importance of the various music genre, and haave included in its accolades the music of the masses of the villages. And fittingly so. It is the right thing to do.
I think there is no shame in someone who is versed in oppaari being given as much recognition as someone in carnatic music.
Atleast a tamil could understand the oppaari and feel with it, where as something in telugu or Sanskrit, is beyond comprehension of many folks like me, who do not understand and who equate it Koran chant of the muslims or latin chant of the Christians. Divine? Maybe. But not life. Not of life. That is how I see it.
One might want to ask karuppaayi how she felt about her late recognition? Who knows? Folks practising the folk arts have every reason to feel deprived of their entitlement, because their champions did not man the key positions of all india radio when it was started.
My own wish is to make tamil the primary language of carnatic music concerts. Anything that could be sung in telugu or Sanskrit, could be done as well in tamil. We have a huge history of music right from the sangom age.
It is a shame that all such is ignored, or given a ‘bit’ chance in today’s concerts, even though I was told that artists like sudha or jayashree, sing a few more tamil songs than the men. i feel atleast 75% of a katcheri should be in tamil.
Barring that, I would rather buy a ticket to a karuppayi concert any day to anything organized at music academy.
Thank you.
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