Carnatic music’s strong youth brigade

With a formidable line-up of young talent, the future of Carnatic music holds out a lot of hope

Anxiety about the future, familiarity of the present and nostalgia about the past is a favourite parlour game in the classical arts world, especially Carnatic music. In politics there was the anxious refrain of “after Gandhi, who?” In sport it used to be “after Gavaskar, who?” or “after Pele, who?” Yet succeeding generations have unfailingly thrown up personalities, who have equalled or scaled even greater heights than their illustrious forebears and left an indelible mark on history.

But then where would we be, that too in the thick of yet another Covid-tainted Margazhi, without a bit of nostalgia, a bit of anxiety and a healthy dose of optimism about what the future holds? Contemporary public memory about Carnatic music generally tends to start with the era of recorded live concerts, which means the generation of Ariyakudi Ramanuja Iyengar, Maharajapuram Viswanatha Iyer and Musiri Subramania Iyer. Old-timers still harp on their music and the individual quirks that made each of them so distinctive. Yet, as great as these giants were, the generation that succeeded them is generally accepted to be the one that marked the golden era of Carnatic music as we know it today. An era dominated by the likes of Semmangudi, G.N. Balasubramaniam and Madurai Mani Iyer and, more importantly, the rise of female superstars D.K. Pattammal, M.S. Subbulakshmi and M.L. Vasanthakumari. It was also the era of bold path-breakers like Balamuralikrishna and staunch aesthetic stalwarts such as Brinda-Mukta. And instrument wizards like T.R. Mahalingam, T.N. Rajarathinam Pillai, and Palghat Mani Iyer. Towards the late 1980s and early 1990s, as this generation walked gently into the sunset, there was a lull marked by justifiable concern in the fraternity about the future of the art, assuaged by the likes of T.N. Seshagopalan and Sudha Ragunathan.

But the last 20 or so years have taught us that another brilliant generation that made its debut in the early to mid-1980s not only continued the tradition but was instrumental (pun intended) in the explosive growth and popularity of the art. Combined with the easing of travel and a tectonic shift in communication technology, this generation, comprising the likes of Neyveli Santhanagopalan, Vijay Siva, Sowmya, Sanjay Subrahmanyan and Bombay Jayashri, was able to intelligently bridge distances and geographic boundaries for both performance and teaching.