What makes every artiste's music unique? Sushumna Kannan looks for answers
What makes every artiste's music unique? Sushumna Kannan looks for answers
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Sublime: Gayathri says the veena is an instrument that takes on the breath of the player |
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This is possibly what art critics mean when they use the word "genius", unable to say if 'everything is craft' and therefore learnable as well.
One's breath, one's personality, one's way of being in this world contribute to the music one makes, and very concretely at that. Gayathri also told us that there are breathing practices she engages in and that she realises when her "breath stops", which she regards as necessary for her music.
"Although for three hours at a concert, one cannot actually hold one's breath, there are practices that when perfected amount to the same," she says. So, contrary to everyday expectations, breath is what needs to be "stopped" in order to create. In moments of full preoccupation and utter concentration, I realise I am not breathing. This runs contrary to the injunction "breathe, deeply" when in a worrying situation. Or do these two understandings arise from the same premise? I need more space to think this through than is available here, so that's for another article. If there is no breath, there is no artiste, is it not? Who then is creating the music?
And is this not true for all acts of creation as well? And even all actions as such? Is this what musicians indicate, when they give all credit to Saraswati? But if breathing in a certain way (or stopping the breath) is learnable, then is Gayathri's sound or genius learnable too, without us becoming her? Perhaps not.
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I find myself falling in love with the high-pitched clear-twanged veena or the base-sounding deep-voiced one. My week has begun on a lovely (musical) note!
The writer is with the Centre for the Study of Culture and Society (CSCS).
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