Keeping alive a musical legacy

Be it the musician-king Swathi Thirunal or gypsy composer Shadkala Govinda Marar, Kerala always had a rich musical heritage and geniuses, who enriched it further with their compositions. However, the number of Carnatic composers from Kerala diminished over time, owing to the growing inclination towards other musical forms, increasing tendency to appreciate western music or pure ignorance of our musical legacy. Violinist-cum-classical music composer, Trivandrum R Mahadevan, is one of the last few Carnatic composers of our times. Not only is he a violinist, who has accompanied legends like Dakshinamoorthy, Neyyattinkara Vasudevan and many accomplished singers like Dr K Omanakutty and T K Govinda Rao, he also has more than 100 Carnatic music compositions to his credit ��� especially in rare ragas. The musician shares with us his thoughts about the changing times in arts, his 32-year-old musical journey and more. You are one of the few musicians in Kerala who does Carnatic music compositions.Why aren���t many musicians taking this path in the current times?An in-depth knowledge about the parameters of Carnatic music and a passion for the same coupled with the ability to pen lyrics is a prerequisite to compose in this discipline, which is rarely found now. Legendary musicians have always termed the ability to do all of these as a God given gift. Now, there is a general view that enough has been done in Carnatic already. However, like the little squirrel that tried to do its bit in building Rama���s bridge, I am keen to make my contributions to music and believe that there is still a lot of space and scope for a Carnatic composer. The lyrics of my compositions have so far been in Tamil and Sanskrit; I am thinking about trying out Malayalam too.What is your approach to music, and what is the kind of reception that you have received from musicians?Many musicians like Dr Omanakutty and even younger Carnatic talents keenly follow new compositions, provided the quality is good. Omanakutty teacher often sings my compositions, velava vadi velava, in the kunthala varaali raga. In 2008, I performed my compositions for 10 hours without a break at the Surya festival.As a composer, I am quite keen to experiment with rare ragas, both in Carnatic and Hindustani music. For instance, I started off penning varnas in Malayamaarutha raga, for which there aren���t many compositions found in texts. A thillana I composed is in Hindustani raga jog, for which there are not any corresponding ragas in Carnatic music.You hail from a family of vocalists and yet you are a violinist.Ours is a musical family. My father, though an amateur singer, was a vocalist at AIR for 38 years. My mother is also a music teacher. My father���s younger brother, Prof Subramania Sharma, is my first guru. While I loved vocal music, I could not sing much in the high octave. However, my uncle could sense my talent and advised my family to guide me in taking up music seriously. I started learning violin when I was in Class VIII. I have also trained under Dr L Subramaniam and still visit Bangalore to train under him, whenever time permits. Though violin is what I concentrate on as a performer, I am also teaching vocal music at Government Model Boys School, Thycaud.We had a lot of classical music included in films in the past. Has Carnatic failed to strike a chord with generation next?If Carnatic music gets included in films these days, I am sure that they can leave a good impact on the audience, regardless of age. People are looking for variety in music these days, be it in the form of songs in the olden style or other genres. For instance, the song Ottakku paadunna��� sung by Vaikkom Vijayalakshmi in the film Nadan has been a hit. I don���t think that it would have gained such a success if it was released, say, 10 years ago. I feel listeners embraced it due to the nostalgic and musical quality of the song. Same goes in the case of Carnatic music too, which has always withstood the test of time.