Sublime..

“I tell you: one must still have chaos in one, to give birth to a dancing star. I tell you: ye have still chaos in you.” Thus spake Zarathustra. Im not so sure about the dancing star part, but yeah I definitely have chaos in me, and that’s what makes life worth living.
The shakti foundation percussion concert happened at the music academy in Saturday. Having misled me with promises of making it to the show, my dad found himself too caught up with work to make it there finally. Missed him quite a lot during the concert, coz it was really his kinda stuff. Hes always drumming on the sofa, table, steering wheel, everywhere. And, he knows more about the intricacies of carnatic music than I do. It was a brilliant evening, with Ganesh & Kumaresh on the violins, Ustad Zakir Hussain on the tabla, Vikku Vinayakram on the Ghatam, Selvaganesh on the Kanjira, Taufiq Qureishi on the drums. Each was a genius on his instrument and all of them made their instruments speak. The violin has always been a very expressive instrument, but to think of a percussion instrument being so expressive was a new experience. The Kanjira which looks deceptively small and simple can make a beautifully resonant and highly individual sound when in the hands of a maestro like selvaganesh. The tabla needs no words of praise, ive always thought it was the best percussion instrument ive ever heard and Zakir Husain’s fingertips work like magic on the tabla, making it go deeply bass as well as the more usual lightning quick beat sequences. Qureishi was also pretty damn good with the drums, also playing a pretty neat sequence with his mouth alone. Vikku vinayakram was as usual sheer genius and even involved the audience in a war of beats. the sequence based on the raga Hamsadhvani and the other sequence based on a raga i don’t know the name of but which is one of my favorites(the song endhal nenjil neengadha thendral needhana with kamal in it is based on this ragaa) were quite outstanding. The climax thought was simply wonderful, with each artiste playing a short sequence related beautifully to the sequence played by his predecessor, the sequences getting shorter progressively till each was playing a single note and then a huge ending with them all playing simultaneously.. there aren’t any words to describe the sheer sublimity of the whole thing.
Got back home to watch a replay of a coupla concerts, one by ARRahman and the other in aid of the tsunami. This concert got me thinking about how music is truly pure when it’s a set of instruments playing and how a human voice more often than not seems to dilute the purity of the tones when it is combined with the instruments. But this is also not always true, as I remember some people like Pandit Bhimsen Joshi and MS whose voices added to the purity of the music and you felt like the instruments were detractors to the overall effect. All said and done, the fact remains that music is one thing that gives this pointless existence some meaning. In the words of Menuhin,
Music creates order out of chaos: for rhythm imposes unanimity upon the divergent, melody imposes continuity upon the disjointed, and harmony imposes compatibility upon the incongruous.