The beauty of a bandish

Artistes at Spic Macay’s convention repeatedly showed how lyrics can enhance the music

Listening to some of the classical music performances held as part of Anubhav-3, the online convention of Spic Macay to celebrate India’s 75th year of Independence, one realised the importance of compositions in the context of refining the mind and spirit that takes place in the pursuit of raag-vidya. Access to the timeless compositions of the Carnatic Trinity from childhood is a blessing for Carnatic musicians. It develops their understanding of the sahitya and the inherent emotion in them. This could enhance their musical expression when they undergo training. This was proved by vidwan T.V. Shankaranarayanan and violin exponent A. Kanyakumari.

Similarly, the bandish (composition) is one of the most intriguing devices to sum up a raag through musical and lyrical nuances. . It is easy to distinguish between a singer whose approach to music is academic and one who goes beyond grammar and syntax to embrace the beauty of the lyrics. Besides systematic training, an aspiring artiste should keep his ear open to all kinds of music — folk, classical and semi-classical. The performances by Begum Parveen Sultana, vidushi Ashwini Bhide Deshpande, Pt. Venkatesh Kumar and Prof. Ritwik Sanyal reiterated this strongly.