By Deepa Ganesh
The seminar on ‘Changing Profile of Indian Music’ in Mumbai discussed the issues that music faces as the values of a society change. Deepa Ganesh reports.
Character is indeed shaped in the stormy billows of this world — this is not just about human character but also about the character of arts. In the history of any art form, there may not have been such a time when art and society led independent lives. But perhaps, there is no time such as the present, when society has such a huge bearing on the nature of art.
A recent seminar at NCPA, Mumbai, on the Changing Profile of Indian Music – organised by the ITC Sangeet Research Academy (west) with Sangeet Natak Akademi and Music Forum — the intermingling lives of art and society was discussed at length and detail, without losing sight of the real issues. Illustrating it with an evocative example, poet and lyricist Javed Akhtar in his keynote address, spoke of the folk game, in which little boys whirl over their heads strings with pebbles at their end. As the action gains momentum, the string and pebble together gather larger bits of the sky into the circles they form. “But this is a paradoxical relationship. If you break the string, the pebble will fall, and if you remove the pebble the string cannot travel. This is exactly the way music and society work, they are interdependent, but it is also important that they determine each other, without either controlling the relationship,” he explained in a typical poet’s fashion. Music and life, he said, have always existed on the same pitch in this country. “But there has been some disturbance in this process in the present, and the happy synthesis between life and music has been disrupted,” he observed.
Is technology that has changed the pace of our life responsible? “If you continue to do an alaap for 20 minutes, you think a youngster will connect with you?” he asked the gathering of who’s who of Hindustani and Carnatic music.
This is a society that demands instant gratification. “If we need to save our traditions, our arts, we need to build bridges. We have to move with the times, and we have to change with confidence. Don’t forget, soft water cuts the hardest rock,” he said, making his point.
The questions did get a bit more complex at the end of two days. Hitting the nail straight on its head in a session moderated by musicologist and sitar maestro Arvind Parikh, tabla maestro Zakir Hussain took the instant gratification syndrome further to say, “everyone wants to be entertained.” The artist is not out of this process, the musician wants to be an entertainer as well. “So we wear nice kurtas, stay in five-star suites and have turned music into entertainment. I don’t think it is a good idea to blame the young people when we ourselves have made the crossover,” he argued. Zakir Hussain has consciously decided to stay out of corporate events, and wedding concerts. “I want to do public concerts where I am in control of the event and my music,” he said. He narrated an incident that took place when he went for a wedding to Kolkata years ago. Hearing strains of the shehnai and sitar, Zakir Hussain walked to the lawns of an overcrowded wedding hall. People were having a good time eating and drinking, while the legends, Ustad Vilayat Khan and Ustad Bismillah Khan played on. That moment was so devastating for Zakir Hussain that he decided that he would never play at a wedding. While the tabla wizard stressed on the ethics and choices an artist makes, Aruna Sairam, Carnatic vocalist and vice-chairman, Sangeet Natak Akademi, said that she always sets conditions whether it is a corporate event or a wedding, ensuring that music has a definite place. Speaking in a similar tone, actor Shabana Azmi felt that the corporates could be told to behave in a sensitive manner. “You can control the backdrop and not the gentry,” said Zakir Hussain categorically.
Shekar Sen, chairperson of Sangeet Natak Akademi, endorsed these views, “You cut peepal trees. Later, proclaiming your love for the environment, you grow money plants in bottles. Poetry and music is in the DNA of this country. People may forget kings, but they remember poets and musicians.” But if the society’s aesthetics is not corrected, why should martyrdom be expected of an artist? “ “Your solution in a democratic society is not protection, but the support of the people. And your support of the people will come only when you educate them. Your real power and credibility will come from the people.” Culture, he argued, cannot be a monolith.
On yet another note, “What is purity? When does art become impure?” he asked Zakir Hussain. “I cannot give you an overview of tradition. But I can certainly speak of the last three generations — my grandfather to my father to me. You can see how it has evolved. I remember how you had once said that a good poem is one which makes you think. Good music is similar,” observed the maestro. He remembered an incident when his father Ustad Allah Rakha’s friend proclaimed Zakir’s genius by saying how his art resembled his father’s. Allah Rakha had replied: “That’s a discredit. Zakir’s music should have his genius in it and not mine.” An important aspect of tradition is continuity.”
Change therefore, is inherent in tradition itself. Music, that is marked by great character, always stands the test of time. As Zakir Hussain said, the core remains unaltered; it may come in a new package.