Ambience of music bemuse you as much as music itself

Sometimes spaces for music leave you bemused. The shabby ambiance, the unaesthetic stage setting, the much-to-be desired acoustics and mike arrangements seem much too divorced from the profundity and beauty of classical music itself. Why do we have such a chasm, I have often wondered and have even written about this in an earlier piece in this column, much to the expected chagrin of many an organiser who took it as a personal attack instead of introspecting and inspecting their concert venues.

Getting the right sound and the correct resonance is a boon for the musician. The contrary is a painful experience as any artiste would vouch. Usually the mikes start of all right and somewhere in the middle of the concert, they develop a sore throat and the growling begins. Or the eerie screech that rises to a crescendo in between a piece that musicians know only too well. The mike man, who usually knows not a thing about amplification of music, has to be then summoned and he fidgets around the contraption till it is momentarily fine. We still have not evolved from this heart-rending scenario though we do possess some fine concert venues.

I was awestruck by the sheer magnificence of the Ellora caves during a recent visit. That man could have chiseled such a masterpiece by hand is in itself stupendous. I entered the big Buddha cave with ample space for circumambulation. A little board that mentioned ‘music gallery’ caught my attention. A winding staircase led to the upper level of this breathtaking cave. Entry was blocked to the ‘gallery’ which indeed was a gallery overlooking the main hall below. Stone gave the entire hall a coolness that was refreshing and peaceful. I peered through the little gaps of the barricade towards the gallery. Here’s where musicians would sit and accompany the chants that happened below in the main sanctum in an erstwhile era. The sanctum was presided by a seated Buddha who epitomised tranquillity. The prayer hall had a multi arch roof which that gave the space an enduring grandeur. The colonnades separated the main hall from the designated area for devotees to walk, meditate and chant. Monks chanting within the recesses of this serenity and accompanied by a retinue of musicians seated in the gallery above. Thus, it must have been several centuries back, I imagined, taking a ride back in time.

Lost in my thoughts, I suddenly heard the most sublime chants emanating from the vast hall. The Buddha peacefully looked on. Surely my imagination had trailed off several hundred years back. The chants continued, their resonance filling the stone-protected space and rising, slowly billowing. It was completely enchanting, to say the least. Was I in a reverie? And from behind the columns, I beheld a group of monks who emerged, chanting and singing as they went around the Buddha. The stone walls threw back the most enthralling sound, that got magnified over the arches and came back again to inhabit the prayer hall. Spellbound, I waited another five minutes to listen to this music that left one in a trance. With the music orchestra on the gallery, it must have been an aural delight of the highest order. Such finesse in acoustics several hundred years back, that we still struggle to achieve.

Dr Vasumathi Badrinathan is an eminent Carnatic vocalist based in Mumbai. She can be contacted on vasu@vasumathi.net