When the mountains of Sikkim reverberated with Dr. Mysore M. Manjunath’s violin recital

MUSIC REVIEW

SRIDHAR HEMMIGE
Carnatic classical music is a system of music predominantly associated with Southern India including the modern Indian states of Andhra Pradesh, Karnataka, Kerala and Tamil Nadu.  It is one of two main subgenres of Indian Classical Music that evolved from ancient Hindu Traditions.
The basic elements for a good foundation of Carnatic classical music are “Sruti” (the relative musical pitch), Swara (the musical sound of a single note), “Raga” (the melodic formulae) and “Tala” (the rhythmic cycles).
Typically, the songs which are called as “Kritis” are either sung by vocalist or played by instrumentalists.  These Kritis were nothing but the songs written by various saints like Thyagaraja, PurandaraDasa and ShyamaShastri who were icons of Carnatic Classical Music. In the earlier days and even now for that matter, these saints used to sing the Kritis in Temples worshipping god or in the palaces of Kings like Mysore Wodeyars, SwathiTirunal, etc.  The saint Thyagaraja always used to worship Lord Rama and hence most of his Kritis are in the name of Lord Rama.
Now, having shared the challenges and intrinsic principles involved in Carnatic Classical music, if any of the above more fundamental elements are missed, the rasikas will not enjoy the music.   Off late, while all these four fundamentals are found, the rasikas would enjoy more only when new improvements and formats are brought into the concert to create richness in the concert.
Carnatic music is usually performed by a small ensemble of musicians, consisting of a principal performer (usually a vocalist), a melodic accompaniment (usually a violin), a rhythm accompaniment (usually an Mridangam), and a Tambura, which is used for keeping the Shruti intact throughout the concert.   As lots of temples are located in Tamil Nadu, people went and settled in that State and that is the reason Madras Musical Academy was established in Chennai wherein it is a very prestigeous platform for any musician to perform and demonstrate their art once in their life time.   In fact, musicians call this platform as “Mecca of Music”.
Having spoken about the Carnatic Classical Music, there was less possibility of good Carnatic Classical Music being performed in the State of Sikkim.   To our luck, Dr. Mysore Manjunath, who is a doyen of Violin visited Sikkim and he gave Violin performance at the Sikkim Manipal University Auditorium in Gangtok, Sikkim on 13th November 2019 and enthralled all the music lovers.  It was a short and beautiful one hour programme with all the accompaniments.
To give a small background, Dr. Mysore M. Manjunath hails from a music family and his exceptional music talents were first revealed at the very tender age of 8 years.
Dr. Manjunath had perfomred in various big auditoriums like Royal Albert Hall-London to Sydney Opera house in Australia, from Common Thread Music festival in Oregon to Santa-Fe festival in New Mexico, from World Music Festival in Chicago to Esplanade Theatre in Singapore, From Federation Square in Melbourne To Oxford University. 
 While DrManjunath has enthralled audiences all over the world Dr. Manjunath said that performing music in Sikkim is very special to him in this pristine and serene environment.
His bowing technique, gamaka and manodharma kept the audience spell bound and the rasikas did not move an inch during the course of one- hour long concert.   He is ably supported by Violin on VidwanSumanthManjunath, his son and accompanied on the percussion by VidwanNishithPuttur.
Dr. Manjunath started the song VathapiGanapathimbhaje on lord Ganesha in the raga Hamsadhvani.  After his brisk and scintillating first song, he chose to play the Raga, Thana and Pallavi, the song SamajaVaragamana in the raga “Hindola”.   He played all the three speeds and it felt that whether he testing the co-artists.   But, the young budding artists’ left no stone unturned and bamboozled all the audience.  The MrudagamThani by Nikshit was simple awesome.  He concluded with two impeccable Bhajans “RaghupathiRaghavaSeetharam” and “VandeMataram”.   I could see and hear few audience members saying that they had tears in their eyes!
After the concert, the Vice Chancellor of Sikkim Manipal University, Lt. Gen. (Dr.) M.D. Venkatesh felicitated Dr. Manjunath and his group.
Dr. Manjunath, true Cultural Ambassadors of India, continues to preserve and spread the rich heritage of Indian classical music, in all its glory and he said that music has no boundaries, caste, creed or religion.