I heard there was a secret chord
that David played and it pleased the Lord,
But you don’t really care for music do you.
It goes like this the fourth the fifth,
the minor fall and the major lift
The baffled king composing hallelujah
Here is Rufus Wainwright playing ‘Hallelujah’ in the movie ‘Shrek’.
I have grown up listening to carnatic music. Everytime i sit down with my books, ‘Aaa..AAAA…AAAHH….Sa Sa Re Re Ga Ga..’ will come booming from my neighbour’s window. I used to hate it. But, over the last few years, Ilayaraja,A.R.Rahman, Pink Floyd, Coldplay and Slingshot have redefined the way i respond to music.
I think the biggest farce in the history of music is the ‘Institution of Carnatic music’ which bred the oft repeated phrase ‘Sangeedha gnyanamae theriyadu’ or ‘You have no knowledge of music’ or other comparisons to a donkey sense of smell etc. The carnatic music fraternity is responsible for its own death, decay and destruction. The singers themselves were humble, but the critics and the others who started looking down on any other kind of music just ruined it. ‘Ahangaram’, they say.
Music is the most beautiful and selfless of all love. Imagine, farming at 52 degree C somewhere in Kenya or India, with a other farmers, humming your favourite folk song. There is beauty in all forms of music. Rock, Folk, Carnatic, Hip-Hopp, Jazz, Blues, Country, Metal…Carnatic music is different as it is rigorously structured and scientifc. If you have heard of Robert Schumann’s ‘Traumerei’ (Titan Soundtrack), it is an excellent demonstration of ‘Fibonacci series’. Carnatic music and Western Symphony, (My knowledge in this aspect is hearsay) are very theoretical.
Music is about how you feel. It is about your senses, the way they respond. It can be structured, but that is not the only way. Music is tribal and rudimentary at times. It is simple. It is good that you want to handout Nobel prize for Economics, but if those people are creating structures and theories which are things we do not need and will not work, then i guess we should ask them to shut the F*** up. The same goes to the guy who says ‘The ragas of carnatic music are so beautiful and to imagine the kind of music you listen to?’.
Carnatic music, is really beautiful. A foundation with the Ragas and Swaras will help you in picking up tunes while singing and playing. It needs to adapt. It needs to bend some of its rules to travel globally.
Why? Its our responsibility to spread the knowledge we possess. In exchange for other forms of music.
So what should you do? Go out there, learn an instrument or take up singing. It gives you totally new dimension. i remember when i was in college there were loads of them who had learnt an instrument at some point in their lives. Joseph with the Guitar, Daniel with the keyboard, Jhanu with the guitar and so on, but only a few still had the passion to follow it even as a hobby. I just have a gut- feeling this will count in the long-run. Then there the other who picked up the guitar or the drums to learn it. I didn’t put in the effort.
But, today, i know the CDEFGABC of music. These alphabets are definetly worth learning.
Tags: Hallelujah, Keyboard, Music, Rahman
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