Another concert

Last Thursday night there was a concert in the temple here at Aranmula, for free of course. It was a performance by Santosh, the singing teacher at VKV, who has become a good friend of mine. He has an amzing voice. It was traditonal Carnatic music, which includes a lot of what we in the West might think of as singing in the cracks - notes between the notes that we use in western music. The singer sings a note (eg , the note of C) and bends it, kind of like my keyboard does when you turn the knob to change the pitch of a note. It also invoves the voice doing a lot of gymnastics which in the west would be seen as very strange and unbeautiful. Carnatic music is an acquired taste for the western ear, but I have learnt to love it. Santosh sings with passion and conviction.
He was accompanied by Subhash, my mridangam teacher. They have a long history of performing together and are long time friends, and it is through Subhash that Santosh got the teaching job at VKV. Also accompanying Santosh was Sharji. He is the wood carving teacher at VKV and also a good friend of mine. Some years ago Sharji decided that he wanted to learn Carnatic music, because as wood carving teacher at VKV he was surrounded by Carnatic music lessons. So he learnt mawsing (Indian Jew's harp) with Subhash as his teacher. There was also a violinist playing at the concert.
Many of the VKV students were in the audience, as well as some of the VKV staff. Not only was it wonderful to hear such beautiful and moving music, it was such a delight to see our teachers / friends on stage. Always in a Carnatic music concert, towards the end of the performance there is a piece which includes a percussion solo. Whatever percussion instruments are being used will each have 2 times of improvised soloing, within the confines of the talam timing pattern, and the singer keeps the talam clapping pattern going throughout it. So Subhash on mridangam and Shaji on mawsing both had 2 long, magical solo pieces. Then the fun starts because the mridangam plays an 8 bar pattern, and the mawsing immediately picks it up for 8 bars, reflecting but not necessarily exactly copying what the mridangam played. This interaction of 8 bars continues: 8 bars maridangam / 8 bars mawsing. Both instrumentalists are improvising at this stage, but there has to be an interaction between the 2. And it's a kind of a challenging game - the mridangam 8 bar pattern is saying to the mawsing "Can you match this?" After some rounds of this 8 bar game, then the mridangam plays 4 bars, followed by 4 bars of mwasing, etc. Then it becomes 2 bars, then 1 bar, then half a bar, and then the mridangam, and mawsing play together, developing a huge dramatic crescendo, until the singer and violin come back in to finish the song on a huge high. It is a very exciting part of a Carnatic concert. I was excited to watch Subhash, my teacher, soloing in full flight, his hands seemingly hardly touching the mridangam, they were moving so fast.
At my mridangam lesson on Friday I told Subhash how much I enjoyed the concert, and told him it reminded me how lucky I am to be his student. As I was saying this, I was embarrassed to find myself quite emotional, with tears in my eyes (which I hope he didn't see). He looked at me with a big grin, and then said "If you every day practicing hard, you can make concert on stage" Santosh told me some time ago that Subhash has great plans for me, and I know he believes that I can make my arangetram. So I am determined to come back next year, with mridangam my main subject (2 hours lessons a day) and hopefully I'll be good enough to perform.