He pointed that if we listen to concerts of the past even in tape recordings, we enjoy a perfect balance of vocal, violin, mridangam and upam (also Thambura) despite pathetic microphone systems by today’s standards. I recall TNS mama making a point of past concerts. He would play it one way for Ramanuja Ayyengar, another for (Alathur) Brothers, another for Semmangudi, but he was able to be in sync with each of their music. PRP: Mani Thatha’s playing for Lekhana would be very different for different musicians. These takeaways are very important, especially in the context of the present-day musicians, whose primary goal on stage seems to be to increase their respective microphone volumes. It was not about the voice or string or the beat, it was the unison of all that created good music, which was of paramount importance to each one on stage.
Whether it was a violinist or mridangist or vocalist, everyone on stage believed in creating good music far beyond projecting their individual prowess. This balance existed in my grandfather’s art, more generally, stalwarts of the past. While pleasing the audience is very important, as an artist, you also must earn the respect of your co-artists for your vidhwath.
For my grandfather, it was also about ‘what can I learn from my co-artists and what can they learn from me’ while on stage, and his central contention was that a good artist should inspire the other coartists. PRP: I can only guess: the general focus obviously is about his legendary talent and how his name was synonymous with mridangam. I find this story extraordinary because even when he was that old and had already achieved so much, my grandfather always had it in him to ‘self-check’. After 10 days he called my aunt, demonstrated to her this new pace he had practiced, and asked her if what he played matched the speed of the mridangist she mentioned about. For the next ten days, he woke up earlier than his usual time to practice fast phrases on the mridangam.
My thatha was inspired by this information. She said that the mridangam artist who had accompanied the vocalist in the concert played at a speed hitherto unheard of. During one of her visits to our house, my aunt (Lalitha Sivakumar) told my thatha (grandfather) about a concert she had listened to the previous evening. There is an interesting anecdote that I can recall to elaborate on this point. PRP: While there are several qualities that I can think of in this regard, such as his professionalism, sincerity, the dignity he strived to bring into the field, his research acumen and so on, the one striking feature that amazes me was his aspiration for perfection and constant self-improvement.
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