THE SUBBULAKSHMI EPOCH IN KARNATIC MUSIC
T. S. PARTHASARATHY
The Subbulakshmi epoch in Karnatic music commenced more than
four decades ago. One of the outstanding figures in the sphere of music in
post-Independence India, Subbulakshmi has perhaps done more to enrich her
country’s musical heritage than any one else in her generation. Few musicians
have endeared themselves to the large mass of concert-going and music-loving public
as much as Subbulakshmi. A classical musician’s appeal is to the limited few
but the great mass of people turn away from him. A popular star may have a
fantastic following among the masses but may be anathema to the Pundits.
Subbulakshmi’s reputation cuts right across such musical boundaries. It is not versatility
but a measure of the range of her talent. She can satisfy the most exacting
demands of a Mylapore audience as well as sway mammoth gatherings in Delhi or Jullunder.
Her reputation today can be compared to that of Om Kulsum’s
in the Middle East. Neither has a world reputation like Yehudi Menuhin but in
their own spheres, both have left stronger imprints. Subbulakshmi has taken the
music of India around the world as an embodiment of her country’s greatness.
She is known in Pakistan, Ceylon, Nepal, Malaya, Burma and the Africas and
wherever there is an Indian community like Mauritius and Fiji. Her voice has
been heard in the U. K., in Europe, in the U.A.R., and in America. Her success
is based on a number of factors–an enchanting voice, a natural talent,
versatility, character and the humility to learn at all times and from all
people. Finally, that indefinable gift in her which few possess and which alone
transforms song into memorable music.
Her unquestioned supremacy in the music field is neither
an accident nor a fortuitous coincidence. Prodigious effort, supported by a
whole set of gifts bestowed on her by God, and a mighty stream of musical and
artistic elements have gone to the making of her art. Wonderfully assimilating
and adapting, she pressed them into service for her purposes. Acquaintances
with new forms of musical art and new individualities have been the experience
of her development. The results are an incomparable melodic richness and taste,
with a spiritual flexibility, and an assurance and clarity that have no equal
in the realm of Indian music.
Exceptionally musical from her childhood and gifted with
an uncommonly fine soprano voice, her precocity was in evidence before she was
ten. It was an age of giants in the music field in South India and hers was a
home where musicians and votaries of music gathered. Subbulakshmi commenced her
singing career by providing vocal accompaniment when her mother, the celebrated
Shanmukhavadivu of Madurai, played Veena concerts. She soon started giving
full-fledged vocal recitals of her own and within a few years, she was a front
rank concert artiste in her own right.
Her marriage with Mr. T. Sadasivam in 1940 marked the
beginning of a new and purposeful chapter in her life as well as in her career
as a musician. Realizing her almost unlimited potentialities for development,
he, with his fostering care and guidance, helped her to cultivate her art to
its full possibilities. Subbulakshmi is blessed with a voice that reminds one
of the words of a Neapolitan music critic about Enrico Caruso, the world-famous
Italian tenor. “His is a voice with which Apollo (the God of Music) blesses a mortal once in a
millennium. Blessed are they who are fortunate to be his contemporaries.” But
its wealth had to be assessed and its timbre and volume harnessed to produce
music that will satisfy the high-brow critic and provide joy to the
common man. Her repertoire was enlarged to make it rich and varied and the
musical versions of compositions checked for their classical purity and
authenticity. Subbulakshmi sings songs in seven or eight languages including
Tamil, Telugu, Sanskrit, Kannada, Malayalam, Hindi and Bengali and the
enunciation of each word of the Sahitya had to be made perfect. But there was
no uncertain groping after perfection and every exercise was only an attempt to
improve on the results achieved.
Subbulakshmi’s devotion to music can only be described as
a ‘Tapasya’ which connotes much more than the commonplace expression ‘dedication.’
Her repertoire grew richer over the years and every piece sung by her became
the song of the season, If he took up a new piece, its structure was studied,
its Sangatis analysed and the composition was finally moulded into her own
characteristic style till it shone
like a polished gem. The eagerness of a
student has never left her and
even today she is receptive to new compositions and new Ragas with an
insatiable curiosity.
Once a piece was reconstructed in her way and sung, it
caught the imagination of the music-loving public. It was ‘Bhavayami’ in one season and ‘Srirangapura vihara’
or ‘O Rangasayi’ in another. The chiselled version, bearing the stamp of ‘M S’
on it, became the version sought after by all. Musical ideas flowed into her
from various sources and she responded to them all with some side of her genius and absorbed them in her
composite style.
In 1941 the Sadasivams were proceeding to Calcutta from
Bombay where Subbulakshmi was to play the role of Narada in the Tamil film, “Savitri”.
They broke their journey at Nagpur and spent an evening at Sevagram, where
Subbulakshmi had the privilege of singing a few Bhajans in Hindi before Gandhiji. In subsequent years Subbulakshmi had
sung on many occasions in the
presence of Bapu. In September 1947 Gandhiji expressed a desire to hear his
favourite Meera Bhajan, “Hari Tuma Haro” sung by Subbulakshmi. The song was
recorded by Subbulakshml at Madras and flown to Delhi on October 2. Mahatmaji
heard the song that evening which happened to be his birthday. In the Tamil
film, “Savitri” Subbulakshmi had sung a Sanskrit Bhajan, “Bruhi Mukundeti,”
composed by Sadasiva Brahmendra and this became the rage of South India for
quite sometime. Earlier Subbulakshmi had played leading roles in two
Tamil films, “Seva Sadan” and “Sakuntala” flooding them with music of memorable
sweetness.
1944 saw a landmark in her career when she sang before
the All-India Music Conference at Bombay in the presence of an audience which
consisted of every musician in India that mattered. Her reputation had now been
enlarged into a nation-wide one.
It was the Hindi version of the film ‘Meera’, released in
1947, that projected her personality before
millions of men and women of India. Commending Subbulakshmi to the people of
the North, Sarojini Naidu described her as the “one great woman artiste in India
who moved the hearts of millions by her songs. It may not be known to many that
the golden voice is an instrument of great causes.” By the end of 1972, Subbulakshmi
had given over 1500 performances,
250 of which were benefit concerts in support of public causes giving them financial
help to the extent of sixty lakhs of rupees. Kasturiba
Memorial Fund, the Mahatma Gandhi Memorial Fund, the Ramakrishna Mission, the
Kamala Nehru Hospital Fund and the Tyagaraja Centenary Fund were only a few
among the causes in aid of which the enchanting voice sang. A cause dear to the
hearts of South Indian music lovers was the erecting of a fitting memorial to
the Trimurti of Karnatic music, Tyagaraja, Dikshitar and Syama Sastrl at
Tiruvarur where, by coincidence, all the three were born. An influential
committee was formed to implement the project and with the aid of finances
raised by Subbulakshmi’s concerts, the houses in which the three composers
lived have already been acquired for conversion into monuments.
‘Meera’ also revealed that she was the unsurpassed singer
of Bhajans in the country. Her repertoire of Bhajans was enlarged to include
those of Surdas, Tulasidas, Narsi Mehta, Sadasiva Brahmendra and Narayana
Tirtha. Even the classical pieces sung at a Karnatic music concert are
invariably devotional in character but Subbulakshmi includes uncommon
compositions like the ‘Bhaja Govindam’ of Adi Sankara and a benediction
specially compos by the present Kamakoti Acharya to be sung by her before the
United Nations. In 1972, she regaled the International Sanskrit Conference held
at Delhi with a concert entirely comprising Sanskrit compositions.
The honours and awards she received were but a natural
corollary to her rising stature in the music world. In 1954, she received the ‘Padma
Bhushan’ title and two years later, the President’s award for classical
Karnatic music. Her trip to Europe, in 1963, to participate in the Edinburgh
International Festival brought her in touch with great personalities like Lord
Harewood and Om Kulsum, the prima donna of the Arab world. U. K. does not have a
sympathetic ear for Karnatic music but the response to Subbulakshmi’s
performance from the audience and the critics came as a surprise to the
organisers of the Festival. Critics waxed eloquent about her technical
virtuosity and emotional absorption in the music, not to speak of the ‘appealing
timbre’ of her voice. Her music was recorded by the B. B. C. and there were
special recitals in London and later in several European cities before she returned
home.
Subbulakshmi’s concert under
the auspices of the United Nations in October 1966 was a great experience to
herself more than to the august audience consisting of representatives of many nations
of the world. This unique performance, the only one of its kind in the annals
of the United Nations, was followed by recitals at fifteen centres in the
U.S.A. and a number of private concerts. American audiences are more familiar
with Indian music, particularly instrumental music, but the ‘spell’ cast by Subbulakshmi’s vocal
recital was unexpected. Critics went ecstatic at what they called ‘musical wizardry’
and described the music as the ‘peak of educated and pedigreed singing.’
A different kind of honour, but a coveted one by Karnatic
musicians, was conferred on her by the
Madras Music Academy when it ejected her as President of its Annual Conference
in 1968 and made her a ‘Sangita Kalanidhi’. Her presidential address before the
learned body was characteristic of her utter humility and was full of
sentiments of gratitude to those who made her what she is today. It also
contained precious advice, baled on the ripeness of her art and her unrivalled
experience, to the younger generation of musicians.
The Ramon Magsaysay Award (1974) for public service
recently won by her came as the crowning event in her dedicated life. These
awards, named after the late Philippine President, are Asia’s version of the
Noble Prize and are given annually in recognition of greatness of spirit in
service to the people. From this angle, it is perhaps the one honour she would
cherish most.
‘M. S.’ is intensely religious by nature and apart from
her recordings of devotional music, she has recorded Stotras like the
Suprabhatam of Lord Venkateswara and the Vishnu Sahasranama donating the
proceeds to deserving cause. In recent years, practically all the collections
from her concerts in many parts of India are gifted away to local causes.
Behind these achievements, stupendous by any standards, lie
a childlike simplicity and an artless nature that take all honours in their
stride. It is a blessing that she was not lured into the latter-day craze for
breaking away from tradition into uncharted areas of improvisation. At 57, she
continues to be the perennial student, seeking still greater perfection in her
art and searching for deeper and more enduring values in music which has become
an inseparable part of the very core of her being. Dccades of ‘Nadopasana’ has turned
her into a spiritually evolved person and her music today is no longer the mere
functioning of the larynx but the expression of the hidden soul within. There is
no divorce between her life and her art; song is Sadhana.