How about listening to the immortal poetry of Mahadevi Verma, Nirala, Shivmangal Singh Suman, Dharamvir Bharti, and Dinkar set to music? Delhi-based singer Chinmayi Tripathi has launched an initiative—The Music & Poetry Project—that pays tribute to the greatest legends of Hindi literature through a musical album based on their timeless poetry. The 27-year-old’s album has been produced through a crowd-funding campaign.
Says the spunky singer, “I have composed the music and performed, too. The album has a few poetry recitals as well by veteran actor-singer Piyush Mishra.”
The first song—Khushgappiyan—has just been released. And every month there will be a new release from the album, promises Chinmayi.
She had always been into writing and composing songs and was doing her own music with her band ‘Spice Route’ for the past three years. So what prompted her to come up with this album? “Our popular music by and large is devoid of meaningful lyrics. And people rarely have patience to read good literature. I thought what if I can compose some of the poems I like into songs—poems that are musical and relevant for our times,” she says.
The Vishnu Prabhakar Award and BritishYouth Awards recipient began exploring poetry from the point of view of music. Soon she came across a treasure trove of relevant writing that could be strung together in music. And, The Music & Poetry Project was born.So, how was it working with the maverick Piyush Mishra? “Oh, it was a dream come true. He is phenomenal and someone I have always looked up to. I am fortunate that he agreed to collaborate for this album,” she says.
Chinmayi believes that the audience is ready for such an album and thinks that people are open to listening to different kinds of sounds. Her target audience is anyone from age three to 60 years. She says both kids and corporates have given her good feedback. As an afterthought, she adds that she would love to perform more at college festivals.
Talking about the theme of the album, she says, “It mostly covers poems of Chhayavaad (era of Neo-romanticism). The recurring themes are freedom of spirit, love for nature and freedom of expression. The songs have been composed and produced in such a way that there is a lot of influence of classical and folk music.”
Sharing how crowdfunding is the way forward for independent artists, she says it gives a lot of like-minded people a platform to show support. This support encourages artistes who think out of the box to achieve their target, she says.
Wishlist
Chinmayi says she will be truly overwhelmed if she could ever collaborate with Shubha Mudgalji—one of her all-time favourite artists. Besides, she would love to collaborate with Prasoon Joshi.