New wave Chennai season
One of the worst features of the Chennai music and dance scene over the years has been the ugly distraction provided at cutcheris by the ubiquitous advertisement banners and stage backdrops, the price the audiences perforce pay for sponsorship of these concerts by business houses.
The sabhas too love to splash their names in bold print and garish colours and the result is a complete lack of aesthetic appeal. Sruti magazine is one agency that has been highly critical of such trends but its voice has rarely been heeded.
The sabha secretaries invariably blame it on the need to give their patrons visibility and mileage in return for their generous support, without which the conduct of concerts and festivals would not become viable.
In recent years, The Other Festival, Anita Ratnam's pioneering venture featuring performances from diverse streams of dance, theatre and music from all over the world, has broken away from some of our hidebound conventions of theatrical presentation, achieving an altogether refreshing new aesthetic experience. Her Arangham Trust has succeeded in persuading sponsors not to insist on banners and other promotional displays at the concert venue.
Last year, The Hindu Friday Review music festival too presented a new look festival ambience far removed from the old sabha culture.
But change invariably brings new problems with it. The sponsors have to be appeased in other ways than the tried and tested formula of gaudy banners. So we had a master of ceremonies who did a daily spiel on the grandeur of the fare offered, but not before extolling the generosity of the sponsors "who made it all possible". He coaxed and cajoled the audience to put their hands together in applause, and thought up novel ways of asking them to switch off their mobile phones. We also watched the wondrous spectacle of commercials before the concerts and during the interval - brilliantly produced and orchestrated, but not quite what the regular concert-goer expected. The Other Festival too provided similar diversions.
The day may not be far when the ad agencies of Chennai invade our sabha halls with their sophisticated, "state-of-the-art" promotionals before and after concerts. Before long we may even listen to announcements that a certain alapana or ragam tanam pallavi was brought to us courtesy so and so sponsor.
The sabhas too love to splash their names in bold print and garish colours and the result is a complete lack of aesthetic appeal. Sruti magazine is one agency that has been highly critical of such trends but its voice has rarely been heeded.
The sabha secretaries invariably blame it on the need to give their patrons visibility and mileage in return for their generous support, without which the conduct of concerts and festivals would not become viable.
In recent years, The Other Festival, Anita Ratnam's pioneering venture featuring performances from diverse streams of dance, theatre and music from all over the world, has broken away from some of our hidebound conventions of theatrical presentation, achieving an altogether refreshing new aesthetic experience. Her Arangham Trust has succeeded in persuading sponsors not to insist on banners and other promotional displays at the concert venue.
Last year, The Hindu Friday Review music festival too presented a new look festival ambience far removed from the old sabha culture.
But change invariably brings new problems with it. The sponsors have to be appeased in other ways than the tried and tested formula of gaudy banners. So we had a master of ceremonies who did a daily spiel on the grandeur of the fare offered, but not before extolling the generosity of the sponsors "who made it all possible". He coaxed and cajoled the audience to put their hands together in applause, and thought up novel ways of asking them to switch off their mobile phones. We also watched the wondrous spectacle of commercials before the concerts and during the interval - brilliantly produced and orchestrated, but not quite what the regular concert-goer expected. The Other Festival too provided similar diversions.
The day may not be far when the ad agencies of Chennai invade our sabha halls with their sophisticated, "state-of-the-art" promotionals before and after concerts. Before long we may even listen to announcements that a certain alapana or ragam tanam pallavi was brought to us courtesy so and so sponsor.
posted by Ramnarayan at 4:43 AM
18 Comments:
This is indeed sad. I can imagine how all this detracts from the concert and the music itself. I keep thinking that I will attend many concerts when I move back to Madras, but it looks like the "concert" as an entity itself is changing rapidly.
There was a time when I used to feel bad about TV cameras in the middle of the concert hall or when someone coughed or talked amongst themselves.
There are some small music producers who arrange for recordings of artists where the artist has full control over the project. This combined with exceptional recording and receiving technology might end up making listening at home a far more enjoyable experience. Of course the other alternative is for small almost private sessions as you had written about in "Jaga".
Very few have such opportunities and I think you're very fortunate that way.
One day, I hope to be able to attend a TN Krishnan concert, one day...
Lovely response. Many thanks.
Ram
My goodness, has it become as bad as that? I used to get irritated if somebody fidgeted or held a whispered conversation, too. This sounds worse. Patronage comes with a huge price, it seems.
Lol... "a certain alapana or ragam tanam pallavi was brought to us courtesy so and so sponsor" quite a thought.
but in this, the coca cola generation (or are we past that already?) we seem to have built up a defence mechanism against advertisements...
and while it is a sad development in some ways, isn't it nice to be able (and i would imagine this is possible because of ads) to pay musicians better?
Hi Ram. I truly enjoyed this piece. Though I am not a 'Kutcheri-goer', I can quite understand your anguish. But if the flow of money (and hence gaudy banners) means that the tradition of the concert and its allied beauty can be carried on longer, then so be it, right? After all, even my untuned ears would find, "This raga brought to you by..." kind-of-interlude jarring!
Lalita, Bharat, Abhinav,
Yes, it is jarring, the way some sponsors seek visibility for their products and services. The classier ones do so unobtrusively. Performers do get paid better these days but we badly need good taste all round, better acoustics, better halls, and most important of all better behaved audiences.
Ram, why better-behaved audience? I assumed that the ones truly interested are the ones that land up... or isn't that always what happens?
Didn't you know, Bharat? They talk, they sing along or whine along, they gesticulate, they keep beat lodly and imperfectly, they get up and go walkabout, and actually stage a mini exodus during tani avartanam time. The older and more knowledgeable they are the more they take the law into their hands. And I forgot, they often come in late and go out early. Some read! I once saw the husband of an instrumentalist--incidentally, I know both of them well--enter Sastri Hall at Luz some 15 minutes into the concert, walk up to the front row where he sat like he owned the place. The next thing he did was open the evening's edition of Kutcheri Buzz wide as if he were at his breakfast table, thus erecting a barrier between him and spouse. Couldn't be more at home, could he?
As annoying as it is, their money is needed to sustain the "season" extravaganza. It'd be funny if each RTP or thukkada is sponsored by some Corporate giant.
this is turning into an interesting discussion... i would just like to add, that possibly its only a matter of time.
i mean, cell phone etiquette for example, i would imagine, would naturally recede as the days go by and the craze recedes.
i mean, i can think of at least two incidents where i have been guilty of it, but now i try my best to keep it to a minimum.
so hopefully a few years down the line, as our audiences get used to the new garb in which kutcheri season exhibits itself, things would take a turn for the better...
I agree, Deepa. Music needs sponsors. It's just that if the organisers suggest ways of projecting the sponsors tastefully without interfering with the enjoyment of the music, the sponsors do agree, as Anita Ratnam has proved in her Other Festival.
Unfortunately, our sabhas put up the nost garish, mammoth banners themselves, including massive backdrops in technicolour and shiny satin or ghastly thermocole that TV cameras will flash to millions of households. Sometimes you have pictures or cutouts of buxom so-called goddesses or saffron-clad sanyasis as part of the stage decor.
Yes Abhinav, I am sure the cell phone situation will improve over time, but will the hardy Carnatic music aficionado ever give up his coffee break during the percussion solo?
"This ragam is sponsored by ..." -That's a funny one. But arranging concerts here at my university, I can tell that we need sponsors and the sponsirs should also have to be appeased. I attended the recent Cleveland aradhana and it was a simlar situation there too. But I think they did fairly better. I think this whole music season needs a rethink in terms of profesional marketing because it has a huge potential that is not properly tapped. And that should of course be unobtrusive.
Thanks for your input, but my questions is, how much does good taste cost? If the organisers have that in good measure and are willing to stick their necks out against vulgar decors, they should be able to convince the sponsors that all parties concerned can benefit from a such an approach.
Ram, Will take up your invitation. My colleague Ramesh here has been trying his best to get me to attend a concert for the last 7 years. I guess I will buckle now, this season, probably...
A lovely discussion all round. So many points raised.
Just to wish you and your family a happy Deepavali, Ram. Have a great day.
Thanks, Lalita, and happy Deepavali to you, your family and all other visitors to this blog.
Ram
Ram, A wonderful BLOG. I think it would be a good addition to add *an* email address to your profile, so ppl can send you comments in private (as well) if the situation/post demanded. Just a thought...
Done, but why are you anonymous?
Warm regards.
Ram
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