Music appreciation made easy

Hello!

Natya Veda – This is how Brahma calls Natya Shastra. Natya was first performed in the festival of 'Flagstaff boosting' of Mahendra. They performed the war between Asuras and Devas, in which the Devas won. The same trend is followed until today in movies with a hero and a villain, and the hero succeeding in the end. The ‘Malignant spirits’ (Vighnas) watching the performance started creating obstacles. They disturbed the stage manager which led to a lot of commotion. Indra, with his ‘Banner staff’ (Jarjara) beat them to death. More security was needed to conduct performances like this. They decided to erect a 'dramatic hall' endowed with all good characteristics. Each Deva was assigned to safeguard different areas of the Dramatic hall. Each actor or actress performing also had a body-guard. The main characters were the Hero, the Heroine and the Jester. Also Brahma pacified the 'Vighnas', so that, the performance can continue without any further obstacles. More to come in the 1st chapter of Natya Shastra in my next post. 

Entertainment!! Pass time!! Important part of everyone’s life. What are the most wanted entertainments of today? We all know the answer for this question. Movies, Television and Internet. Listening to music also is mostly related to Movies. In sports and games cricket alone leads, while the rest of the games take the backseat.

I am not against TV or movies. I do enjoy them just like anyone else. But, we must keep one thing in mind. There are better ways of entertainment if we put little more effort from our side. Most of the people refuse to watch classical dance or hear classical music, giving the reason, they don’t understand. But the real reason being, not ready to learn. To enjoy Classical music or dance, people need to put a little effort from their side to understand the art form, which is not needed for most of the movies or TV programs.

What is the effort we need to put? Let me first take Carnatic music in particular. The best way to start, is to hear simple songs of composers tuned in popular Ragas. Then try to relate that song’s tune to any movie song you know. You can talk to a friend of yours who has more knowledge in Carnatic music to find out more details about that particular raga. Do listen to it regularly. By the end of one month you will be amazed with the knowledge you have gained. Lot of options are available in the internet itself.

This week’s update

In Mangayar Malar – a bi–monthly magazine in Tamil, a small information said that composers ‘Arunachala Kavi, Muthu Thandavar and Mari Muthaa Pillai’ are called ‘Pithamahas’ of Tamil Music. There were others who were as great as the above mentioned ones. Oothukkadu Venkata Subbhiyar, Gopala Krishna Bharathi, Papanasam Sivan, Periyasami Thuran, were a few to be mentioned, who contributed a lot towards Tamil Carnatic Music.

Read my Post every Saturday. Bye.