Carnatic Vocalists Display Years Long Practice

 Hyderabad: Carnatic music can look like a world of polish and perfection from the audience, but the ongoing Hyderabad Tyagaraja Aradhana Music Festival (HTAMF) has shown another side too, the years of repetition, the hard rules, and the daily choices that keep a classical form alive.

Kamala Ramani, whose students performed at the festival, and D. Raghavachary, a senior vocalist rooted in Hyderabad’s Old City, spoke about what sustains this music when attention spans shorten and performance becomes a race.

“It is always a matter of pride when my students perform,” Ramani said, as she spoke about watching them take the stage in her place. She liked that the festival gave room to different levels of musicians.

“This organisation is doing very good work by catering to musicians at every level, from amateurs to senior artistes,” she said. The presence of young performers, she added, proves that talent is not scarce here. “Most of the performers are from the twin cities or nearby districts and towns. That itself shows there is no lack of talent here.”

Raghavachary’s memories went back to a Hyderabad that taught him discipline before it gave him choice. “My father used to teach us at night, from 10 o’clock to 1 o’clock, sometimes 2 o’clock. Whenever he got time, he would teach,” he said. There was no room for shortcuts. “Unless we perfected it, there was no compromise. So, practice, practice and practice. There is no other shortcut.”

The insistence on practice came up again and again in both conversations, though they spoke from different ends of the classroom. Ramani has taught for decades and she sees the drop-off when teenagers reach exam years.

“The problem starts when they reach Classes 9, 10, 11 and 12. Academic pressure increases and music or dance is given less importance,” she said. Parents, she felt, often allow the break too easily. “It is sad because if they continue with the art, they will actually perform better academically. This artform gives everyone the mental skill sets that are useful even in other spheres of life.”

Listening, she argued, is also what builds focus in a way schools rarely speak about. “When a singer performs, they must think about shruti, sahitya, bhava, tala, laya, and the accompanists. That means the mind is trained to handle many things together.” She wished parents saw music as more than an extra class after tuition. “Science has shown that learning the arts improves focus and efficiency.”

Raghavachary, who spoke about poverty and borrowed radios, echoed the same idea in his own language. “We did not have facilities. We had only a small radio. We were from a very poor family, so we used to borrow from friends,” he said. Listening remained his first lesson. “It won’t come simply by learning or listening. You have to keenly observe how someone is singing.”

Ramani’s worry is that the rush for speed has started eroding what Carnatic music is built on. “Today, sahitya bhava is not taken care of at all. It is getting swept away by rhythm and speed,” she said.

She also pointed to how language can turn careless when musicians stop paying attention to meaning. Improvisation also came up as a meeting point between the guru and the performer, because it is the first thing young musicians want and the last thing they earn. Raghavachary did not dismiss it.

“There should not be imitation. We should have originality. Then improvisation will come,” he said. He also framed the question as responsibility. “What the teacher teaches is one part. What is your contribution? Your contribution should be there.”

Both musicians see the festival’s role in the simple act of giving musicians a stage and an audience that will sit through a slow alapana without demanding instant payoff. Ramani summed it up through what she saw around her.

“Most of the performers are from the twin cities or nearby districts and towns,” she said again, as if to stress that Hyderabad does not need to import love for Carnatic music. It needs patience, practice, and spaces that treat music as more than a performance slot.