CHENNAI: Students of Bombay Jayashri Ramnath and Sugdha Raghunathan, twins Shruti Kumar and Sahana Kumar, were initiated into music at a very young age. “Our father loved Carnatic music and he wanted us to take lessons. As we grew up in Muscat, it was tough for us to get used to it, but we loved singing,” says Sahana.
Now, they have come up with a book, The Celnatic Experience, where they talk about how 36 compositions (nottuswarams) by Muthuswamy Deekshithar are similar to popular British tunes. The book was launched as part of Chennaiyil Thiruvaiyaru and they performed with the KM Music Conservatory’s ensemble.
Shruti stumbled upon this interesting take when she was listening to one of the compositions some years back. “There are two major compositions by him which are part of the initial learning of Carnatic music — Shyamale Meenakshi and Shakthi Sahitha Ganapathim. Normally Carnatic music has a lot of gamakams. But these two had straight notes. That’s when I went back to the nottuswarams and realised they are quite similar to western tunes,” she points out.
In 2015, they joined Berklee Collge of Music, Valencia, Spain. While Sahana opted for global entertainment and music business, Shruti chose music production, technology and innovation. Muthuswamy Deekshithar was their thesis project. “We proposed to do an archival of Deekshithar’s nottuswaram compositions, which are simple classical compositions having the influence of Celtic music and composed in C major scale. We worked on seven compositions out of 36. Later, we realised there were 37. But in due course, we found a Celtic connection to all 36 compositions. That’s when our faculty gave us the idea to do a book,” smiles Shruti.
Sahana adds, “Our faculty was also so involved that they agreed to write the foreword for our book.”
The tunes were composed during the British era, and that’s perhaps the reason why there’s is a lot of western influence in Deekshithar’s compositions. “Manali Mudaliars, who were dubashs, often visited Fort St George where bands from abroad performed. They invited Deekshithar and his brother to listen to the bands. Deekshithar then thought of composing music for his own people in a language they will understand. He composed 37 songs in Sanskrit,” elucidates Sahana.
While for Carnatic music they needed the notes, which were provided by violinist RK Shriramkumar, there were limited sources for Western tunes. “We had to research more on how to represent his music in western instruments in an arrangement. Since we titled the project The Celnatic Experience, which is a fusion of Carnatic and Celtic music (Celtic because it has Irish influence) I wanted to use Irish instruments. So I brought in Celtic and western violin and also tabla and bansuri,” says Shruti.
For the book, they visited the Anna Library and also met Deekshithar’s great grandson in Coimbatore who gave them inputs. Shruti put up an arrangement at Berklee where students from 16-18 countries participated. While Sahana’s final project was to put up a show, Shruti had to take care of the technical side. Friends Riley Urich and Harini also helped them with the arrangement and the illustrations respectively.
So were their professors aware of the similarities in the tunes? “No, they were not. I had to propose my thesis with a prototype so I had recorded a few compositions. That’s when they realised and wanted to know more about it,” says Shruti. “I had to give notes to the instrumentalists and they took care of the rest. I also told them that the compositions were in C Major and they came up with such beautiful improvisations. For the show, we presented a description in both English and Spanish for the audience to enjoy.”
While they are still trying to find the similarity to the 37th composition,the twins want to launch the book internationally. “This book offers a fresh perspective for anyone who likes both western and Carnatic music. I don’t think there has been any documented evidence about the similarities until now,” claims Sahana.