Subject: Happy Birthday, MS! [Sep 16, 1990]
Newsgroups: soc.culture.indian

Today is the 74th birthday of that enchanting singer of Carnatic
Music, M.S. Subbulakshmi. In a musical career spanning almost six
decades, she left an irreversible impact on  Carnatic Music in
particular, and Indian cultural scene in general.  It is difficult to be
"objective" about MS's artistry or make a rational assessment of
her impact. While appreciation of any art probably defies rationality,
for MS's singing, it often boarders on "fandom."

MS is one of those rare breed of musicians who seems to cross
regional and linguistic boundaries in India with effortless ease, and
touch the listener with her "bhava." I have come across people who had
extremely little exposure to carnatic music, but are ardent admirers
of MS Subbulaksmi.  Whether she sings a Meera Bhajan, an Annamayya
Kirthana, a Syama Sastry krithi, or the Kamakshi Suprabatam, an
Ashtapadi or the Bhaja Govindam, she brings her own natural style to
the rendering and in the process leaves her unmistakable stamp on that
composition.

She is known for her zest for expanding her musical horizons. The
galaxy of her mentors reads like the who is who of the Indian
classical music, and her ever expanding repertoire spans a multitude of
composers and languages.  She had single-handedly popularized several
composers, not to mention specific compositions; her rendering of
Tallapaka Annmacharya krithis in the Balaji Pancharatna Mala series
lead to a serious renewal of interest in that great antediluvian
composer who seems to have been even more prolific than all the
Trinity combined; and her more recent "Sankara Sthuti" and "New
Classicals" introduce some very contemporary composers.

It is often said that the most palpable characteristic of MS's music
is its "bhakthi bhava"--devotion. To single out one artist for this
characterization, in a musical tradition based overwhelmingly on
spirituality and devotion --  is no trivial matter!  When she sings "loka
janani, naa pai daya leda?" in Devi Brova Samayamide, it is no longer
Syama Sastry imploring Kamakshi, but MS beseeching her own creator
(which the listener has the fortune to witness).  It often comes as a
revelation that one may, as one grows old, reformulate ones notions of
"asthitwa", swinging between the concrete theism of a personal
god and skeptical agnosticism of secular humanism, and yet
continue to find the conspicuous devotion in her singing an intensely
uplifting experience.

I have been told by my purist friends that MS is not as "creative" as
some of the other maestros of carnatic music, and that she is often
"over-rehearsed". That may be so (and on the rare occasions that you
find the same raaga in two of her recordings, you do get the feeling
of intense deja vu), but in her case that hardly matters to me.

To me, MS's singing evokes a wholistic sense of time and place. Some
of my sweetest reminiscences include passing through coastal Andhra
villages on a home bound train in the wee hours of the dawn and catching
the strains of Bhajagovindam or an Annamacharya Kirthana wafting
from some wayside tea stall or a dilapidated temple. A sense of
contentment, if only for a fleeting moment, as the journey continues.

-rao
[Sep 16, 1990]

---------
   "Maitreem bhajata akhila hridyethri
    aatmavadeva paraanapi pashyatha 
    Yuddham thyajatha, Spardha thyajatha
    Thyajata  paresha kramamakramanam
    Janani pruthivee kaamaduhaste
    Janako deva sakala dayalu
    Damyata datta dayadhwam janatha
    Shreyo bhooyat sakala janaanaam"

              -From a benediction written by Sri Paramacharya of Kanchi
               for M.S. Subbulakshmi's 1966 UN concert.