CHENNAI: When Indian artistes go abroad to perform, one of the requirements is to visit the auditorium at least two hours prior to the ring up the curtain for a sound check. The process involves a technician who carries a tablet and moves to different parts of the auditorium checking the quality of sound on the graphic equaliser so that every person, sitting in every nook and corner of the auditorium will have the same acoustic experience.
In contrast, when our beloved artistes are performing within India, they would arrive at the auditorium more than an hour in advance keeping a sound check in mind; however, the technicians handling the audio system usually will turn up only 15-20 minutes before curtain raise.
Often, quite some time of a performance would be eaten up by sound check. In this reality, MadRasana set out to change the concert experience and has become the talk of the town this margazhi. To understand the story behind their novelty, CE attended one of their concerts.
Mahesh Venkateshwaran, a successful corporate innovator, has been an ardent rasika of Carnatic music from a young age. After retiring, he founded MadRasana to showcase the classical musical tradition in an intimate setting. Since its inception, Mahesh has been exploring various spaces in an effort to promote artistes as well as enhance audience experience without diluting traditions.
He shared, “I initially began by surveying what kind of Carnatic music people listened to during their workout in the gym to produce content for their specific needs. Then, concerts featuring seven artistes were specifically curated to record songs in various speeds — slow, medium, and high, keeping the durations of songs to exactly five minutes. This resulted in the MadRasana Workout Series.”
In this way, Mahesh kept pushing the boundaries of how tradition and technology can be married to promote and create new audiences. He is also among the first ones in the world to bring a full Carnatic concert in binaural format. While his experimentations continued involving acoustics, he was still not happy with the ‘live’ concert amplification format. He was looking for a more pristine way of connecting the audience to the tradition.
Acoustic experience
Like Mahesh, Sashi Kumar, chairman of Asian College of Journalism (ACJ), has been a devout follower of Carnatic tradition. He has grown up listening to Semmangudi, Chembai, MLV, MD Ramanathan and of course MS amma. He too has experienced disappointment and has felt let down that the right kind of technology was not being utilised that will lift the ‘live’ concert experience for a rasika.
“I have observed that irrespective of how much an auditorium invests in the amplification systems, the delivery of the artistes barely reaches the audience. Many times the amplified sound ends up three times higher from what it started out in the beginning of the concert,” he said.
To break down the gravity of sound in music, it can be said: if the silence between two letters makes a word, and the relationship between two words makes poetry, then the travel between two notes makes music. Given that sound and its movement is a nuanced system that can enhance the experience and appreciation of music; Chennai, which is hailed as the Mecca of Carnatic music, lacked an acoustic auditorium. Thus, when the Asian College of Journalism wanted to build an auditorium, Sashi knew exactly what would be right for the city and its cultural audience.
“The idea of how an auditorium itself can lend to an acoustic experience came when I chanced upon a blog of Sanjay Subrahmanyan, who had shared his experience of performing in an acoustic space in London,” said Sashi. He also shared how Ramani Ramakrishnan, the acoustic expert and retired professor of Toronto University, who has worked for NASA and had also designed many acoustics theatres in Latin America, had graciously rendered his services for the auditorium as pro bono when he came to know that the hall was going to be named after MS Subbulakshmi. Now that’s how the name resonates among rasikas!
Festival experience
Mahesh, who was still experimenting, conducting live Carnatic concerts in cinema halls to take advantage of the screen, the ambience and the acoustics, rejoiced on hearing the news of the acoustic auditorium. He conducted his 5th edition of MadRasana Festival in the newly built auditorium of ACJ. During the 6th edition of the festival, the finale concert alone was presented to the audience unadulterated with pure sounds. This year, he managed the entire festival, convincing all the performing artists to perform for a full house without gadgets and gizmos.
A Gen Z who attended one of the concerts said, “This is my second visit to Chennai during Margazhi. As a student of Carnatic, I come to listen and take back as much as I can. The acoustic experience in the MadRasana concert was definitely unique.
My first reaction would be the discipline that the people attending the concerts showed. When it comes to the quality of the sound reaching the ears, it was surreal. I felt I was amid them. The sound of music I was hearing being in the audience was similar to what I have heard as a performer on stage (without a monitor).”
Having attended one of MadRasana’s concerts, adding to the young lady’s observations, I felt a connection being established instantaneously with the performers. But I am more curious to see if I will be able to go back to the amplified concert formats simply because it may now come across as impersonal and unidimensional.
As votaries of Carnatic music, it is not surprising at all for Sashi and Mahesh to feel so passionate about sound as sound is akin to time and defines the primordial quality of space. Every knowledge tradition was designed aurally for this very reason; and, every tradition specifically focussed on creating an ‘ideal’ that would become synonymous to the practitioners of a community, giving the region its unique cultural identity as well. The villages and cities carrying the GI tags is one way to understand this. In the context of performance space, Kerala Kootambalams are an ideal which is known for their traditional architectural design complying to acoustic sensibilities.
Strangely, a cultural city like Chennai that has been boasting of conducting the Margazhi festival, the longest cultural event in the world for several years now, to give its rasikas a ‘live’ concert with acoustic experience only now, is difficult to fathom. As much as the intent and will of the people involved in making it happen this year is no small feat, the irony will remain — how little the art of sound, its design and engineering have been explored to support the Carnatic society. Looking ahead, more skilled technicians who can handle the amplification systems would be something to reckon.