MALATHAHALLI:The Indira Gandhi National Centre for the Arts has started a free audio library to pass on the country’s classical and folk music traditions to future generations.
“The centre was always concerned with the documentation, research, preservation and restoration of all forms of art, whether it is music, dance, visual art, films or literature. With that in mind, we collaborate with other institutions in creating cultural repositories that the public can access whenever it wants,” says Vikram Sampath, Executive Director, IGNCA Southern Regional Centre.
R T Chair, Managing Director of TAG Corporation, has shared 1,000 hours of live recordings of Karnatak music since the 1940s with the centre.
The recordings are from Chair’s personal collection and span 30 years. The music has been digitised and then meticulously catalogued from the spools and cassettes that they were initially recorded on.
Chair also helped IGNCA develop a user-friendly software that allows music lovers to select tracks by using parameters like raga, genre and names of composers and singers. They are categorised in alphabetical order.
“He has also contributed beautiful paintings and murals featuring icons of Indian music, including one by S Rajam, from Chennai, which now adorns IGNCA’s archival centre room,” says Sampath.
Sampath and the team at IGNCA are looking to use this repository to create guided listening sessions for the public, especially for those not well-versed with Karnatak and Hindustani music.
“We are currently in the process of curating these sessions. We think this will be especially useful for students who are interested in learning about classical music, and understanding these forms of music,” he says.
Sampath has also donated his collections from the Archive of Indian Music (AIM), mainly digitised from gramophone recordings.
This collection covers Hindustani, Karnatak and folk music, as well as theatre recordings and old film music, from 1902 till the 1940s. The collection also includes speeches made by important personalities from Indian history, like Gandhi, Tagore and Subhash Chandra Bose.
“Combining my donation along with Chair’s contribution, I think we cover the entire gamut of recorded classical and folk music in India,” says Sampath.
Musicians like Chembai Vaidyanatha Bhagavathar, Shemmangudi Srinivasa Iyer, M S Subbulakshmi, N Ramani, T R Mahalingam, D K Pattamal, Ravi Shankar, Gauhar Jan, Peara Sahab, Maujuddin, Kesarbai Kerkar, Ariyakudi Ramanuja Iyengar, Salem Godavari, Bidaram Krishnappa, Veene Sheshanna, Mysore Palace orchestra, Bal Gandharva, Indu Bala, Ali Akbar Khan and more are available at the digital music archive.
In addition to the music archive, visitors can also access IGNCA’s vast visual repository of cultural documentaries and past programmes.
The library has seen quite a bit of traffic since its inauguration a little over a month ago. “We have had students from PES College coming in to work on their research projects. We also have quite a bit of the older crowd coming in to enjoy the recordings. When we recently had the North East festival, a lot of the attendees showed interest in the music archive,” says Sampath.
* The music library is open from Monday to Friday, 9.30 am to 5.30 pm. Indira Gandhi National Centre for the Arts-SRC, Kengute Circle, Magadi-Kengeri Ring Road, Near IIPM, Mallathalli, Jnanabharathi Post.
Great voices
You can listen to great artistes from the past at the library. Some choice picks: Chembai Vaidyanatha Bhagavathar, Semmangudi Srinivasa Iyer, M S Subbulakshmi, T R Mahalingam, D K Pattamal, Ali Akbar Khan, Ravi Shankar, Gauhar Jan, Maujuddin, Kesarbai Kerkar, Ariyakudi Ramanuja Iyengar, Salem Godavari, Bidaram Krishnappa, Veene Sheshanna, Mysore Palace orchestra, Bal Gandharva and Indu Bala.