the Cleveland Thyagaraja Festival -- Beautiful, Wonderful, and (oh so) Exuberant

  


     This past Saturday, a friend and I had a unique and absolutely rare opportunity to experience The Cleveland Thyagaraja Festival.  
                                                    
                         

     Celebrating the ancient and beautiful art of Indian Carnatic music, the Festival is a resplendent representation of music that I found to be genuinely pure, natural, and all together breathtaking.

This video features one of the four singers we saw on Sat.  Her name is Nisha Rajagopalan, and she was overall my favorite.  The video, too, gives you a tiny perspective into Carnatic music.

The art is beyond centuries old, and in experiencing it, I was also astonished to distinguish the modern influences applied to Carnatic music versus the indigenous ones (particularly the violin which was added after the British occupation of India).  Seeing and hearing this, I came to a distinct realization of the impact of cultural exchange and history -- a feeling which was so awesome and surreal.

Here is an example.

                                               

    What appears to me to be majestic and magnificent about this music is its focus around the voice and the attempts of each instrument to replicate and support it.  Especially noticeable is the violin's role.  As a firm believer of the violin being the closest instrument to the human voice, I felt that Saturday's performances further validated this fact.

   Why is Carnatic music so focused around the voice?  The answer is that the music's tradition is steeped in divine origin -- the lyrics are based off of ancient texts dedicated to Indian (or Hindu) deities.  Some lyrics specifically reference epic tales such as Ramayana and Mahabharata.

   Not only was the music exquisite, but the performers' formal Indian attire was alluring and elegant.  Humility and grace were woven into every aspect of each performance.  The musicians never stood while performing and only sat with legs crossed in respect to the words contained in the music they were about to share.

 A world easily forgotten by a vast majority of people today, Carnatic music is a stunning and fascinating treasure waiting for anyone who is ready to embrace it.