I am slowly beginning to appreciate Carnatic Music. The other day, my mother and her music troupe had a group-singing on the Pancharatna Keerthanas by Thyagaraja
I enjoyed the rendition of the music. In fact, it got me thinking on the nature of Carnatic music and the structure of its 'key deliverables'.
The most striking characteristic that came across was the consistency of structure that these compositions maintain. It struck me as very mathematical.
You are given a sub-set of Swaras from the 7 musical notes - and the entire composition is a collection of complex permutations of exactly the same subset.
It is amazing how the consistency is maintained throughout the whole song !
Probably, there are very few music forms in this world which have this immaculate structure built into them.
Pop music, on the other hand - is a collection of totally random musical notes - where the listener can make NO correlation to any antecedents or consequents of one particular section of the song. But hey, I do like pop music too !
So, that brings me to propose that appreciating a particular genre of music over another has entirely to do with your state of mind at that point of time. For Carnatic music, you need to be in a relaxed, calm state - almost completely switched off from nagging thoughts and worries. Here the music is akin to medicine administered in minute doses - giving the 'patient' a world of time to heal !
Visually, Carnatic music should look like this :
kkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkk
kkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkKLkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkk
kkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkKLMkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkk
kkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkKLMNkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkk
kkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkKLMNOkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkk
Notice how the music slowly SWAYS into different sets of musical notes without abrupt jumps. I would ascribe this pattern to Old Hindi film songs too.
Now, Rock music is propably at the other end of the spectrum ( Imagine substituting all the 26 letters of the alphabet into the above pattern - and throw in some Chinese characters too !! ) But again, I need that music when I am bouncy and jumping ( say , I won a zillion bucks in the lottery :) ).
Different moods, different music. That's what makes life interesting . For those with the perception that Carnatic music is for the older generation -
Hey You ! Carnatic Music Roxx !
Sunday, March 18, 2007
Tuesday, March 6, 2007
Media's lack of Morality ?
Recently, 280 youths in Pune were arrested by police during a "rave party" - and it came out big in the news. Within a couple of days, a popular news channel - let me call it '168' :) ( 24 * 7 ) organized a "debate", ostensibly to get different 'perspectives' on the incident. So, here was a debate going on with the Police Inspector who conducted the raid and another 'dude' ( forget his name, but he comes on such debates all the time - always supporting the wrong side ! ). So, let me call him the Crazy Stupid Dude - CSD.
The '168' news reader was the moderator.
Here's how the arguments went :
...
...
CSD : The police just want to hog media attention. These things are happening everywhere.
They don't have the guts to arrest the big fish ( aka politicians, film actors ) ....
...
...
What was that !? Look at his argument :-
"Because you can't catch the big fish, you let the small fish go ?!! "
Jeez - and then the '168' correspondent takes a que for his argument and tries to bring the heat on the police inspector ! Really ! I was very annoyed. Here we have a police force cracking down on an illegal activity and instead of applauding / encouraging them , we try and find SOME STICK to beat them with ??
I find this a clear instance of abuse of the Right to Free Speech. Observe how CSD coolly uses the phrase , "..don't have the guts .." . Somebody should tell CSD to show a little bit of respect to the set of people who are trying to make his life safe so that he can have a good night's sleep daily. ( Believe me, it requires guts )
Okay , don't get me wrong - I am not saying that the country's police force is full of honest, incorruptible people - there will always be bad eggs here and there. In fact , there might be many...BUT , that doesn't mean we talk so lightly about them - and more importantly when they have done their duty !!
Which brings me to ask whether media was right in holding a debate like this. Tomorrow, the Supreme Court may give a ruling against a psychopath who probably murdered lots of innocent people and there you see media playing God by being the moderator and giving a 'fair chance' to the guilty party. With a million Indians watching the show, there is bound to be some people who will turn in favour of the guilty , especially if we have people like Mr.CSD who can speak impressionably.
My point is just this - after watching the program - you MIGHT begin to wonder whether the police were right after all. Now, there will always be two sides of a coin - so if we keep highlighting the wrong side - what should become of our sense of morality ?
In their enthusiasm to show 'both sides of the coin' , the media seems to find it "fashionable" to look at it from the criminal's perspective. And that is exactly what scares me .....
The '168' news reader was the moderator.
Here's how the arguments went :
...
...
CSD : The police just want to hog media attention. These things are happening everywhere.
They don't have the guts to arrest the big fish ( aka politicians, film actors ) ....
...
...
What was that !? Look at his argument :-
"Because you can't catch the big fish, you let the small fish go ?!! "
Jeez - and then the '168' correspondent takes a que for his argument and tries to bring the heat on the police inspector ! Really ! I was very annoyed. Here we have a police force cracking down on an illegal activity and instead of applauding / encouraging them , we try and find SOME STICK to beat them with ??
I find this a clear instance of abuse of the Right to Free Speech. Observe how CSD coolly uses the phrase , "..don't have the guts .." . Somebody should tell CSD to show a little bit of respect to the set of people who are trying to make his life safe so that he can have a good night's sleep daily. ( Believe me, it requires guts )
Okay , don't get me wrong - I am not saying that the country's police force is full of honest, incorruptible people - there will always be bad eggs here and there. In fact , there might be many...BUT , that doesn't mean we talk so lightly about them - and more importantly when they have done their duty !!
Which brings me to ask whether media was right in holding a debate like this. Tomorrow, the Supreme Court may give a ruling against a psychopath who probably murdered lots of innocent people and there you see media playing God by being the moderator and giving a 'fair chance' to the guilty party. With a million Indians watching the show, there is bound to be some people who will turn in favour of the guilty , especially if we have people like Mr.CSD who can speak impressionably.
My point is just this - after watching the program - you MIGHT begin to wonder whether the police were right after all. Now, there will always be two sides of a coin - so if we keep highlighting the wrong side - what should become of our sense of morality ?
In their enthusiasm to show 'both sides of the coin' , the media seems to find it "fashionable" to look at it from the criminal's perspective. And that is exactly what scares me .....