Carnatic in the Classroom

The young students had no doubt been lectured about their illustrious teacher — how Ravikiran could identify and render 325 ragas and 175 rhythmic cycles of Carnatic music at the age of two. How he belongs to an illustrious gharana like many Indian maestros. Ravikiran trained under his father Chitravina Narasimhan and is the grandson of Gotuvadyam Narayana Iyengar,fondly referred to as “the wizard of strings” by the people of Mysore and Trivandrum.

At present,Ravikiran,also a vocalist and a composer,is busy expanding the borders of Indian classical music — and the performance in Wisconsin was a part of this effort. Merging two disparate musical genres is anything but easy,he adds. Since Indian and Western classical music are based on different structures — the former is melody-driven and an oral legacy while the latter is harmony-based and written down — Ravikiran says that he tweaks things a little. “Carnatic music is one of the most scientific systems in the world. If we wish to communicate our culture with others,we must be able to reach out and do it in their language,” says the musician,who created a concept of Melharmony (a combination of melody and harmony) for foreign students.

He had the entire traditional piece of music written with Western notation,thus enabling school orchestras to perform these just as they would any Western piece. “The enthusiasm of the students was heartwarming. They asked me intelligent questions and showed interest in the chitravina,too,” he says. He was roped in for these workshops after Vanitha Suresh,a US-based music promoter,took up the initiative to introduce Indian music at the grass-root level in schools in America.

Ravikiran hopes the Indian government will do the same for students here. Pt Ravi Shankar had suggested in the ’60s that classical music be included in school curriculums. “It is imperative that the government create a macro-level system like in the US and the UK so that millions of our children can get acquainted with our culture,” says Ravikiran,who has also held meetings with Prime Minister Manmohan Singh on the issue. He was a part of the core committee dealing with music education in schools and has submitted a syllabus for classical music from Class I to VIII.

Away from classrooms,Ravikiran is planning to collaborate with guitarist Roland van Campenhout at the Europalia Festival,Belgium,this year and will present a new piece with artistes of the BBC Philharmonic in the UK in the next few months.