As the Tamil month of Margazhi has ended and the winter music season in Chennai (that was good old Madras once upon a time) has more or less come to a conclusion, this seems to be a suitable time to visualise the scenario which is likely to materialise progressively in the near and distant future.

In this context, as a journalist I have some basic questions to ask any earnest and seasoned rasikas who might care to discuss the issue. But since I happen to be one of them myself, let me just give my own answers!

Will the winter music festival in Madras go on expanding in future?  

Most certainly, it will. A few weeks ago in this column (December 21), we had examined the main reasons for the constant expansion of the winter extravaganza in the past half-century.

A very vital factor which will cause a further and formidable transformation of the whole social and cultural environment in the next 50 years will be the rapid and relentless expansion of the suburbs, in terms of both area and population.  This will be particularly so southwards, along the East Coast and the burgeoning information-technology corridor, as well as the Grand Trunk Road.

Most of these new neighbourhoods will be economically thriving and socially energetic, and will cry out for cultural activities and infrastructure.  Carnatic music will figure prominently in their cultural agenda, and the massive winter music season in the present metropolis is bound to spread itself out to cover all of Greater Madras, becoming even more massive than it is today.

Spirit and standard

Will the festival still retain its original spirit and character in the future scenario?

I am sure it will.  As pointed out in this column on December 7, the festival is never likely to lose its basic spirit and character in spite of the tremendous changes occurring in the whole realm of Carnatic music, because Carnatic music itself has a way of surviving such extreme transformation in the environment.

And as we had noted earlier (‘Deep waters of Carnatic music,’ May 25, 2007 – >www.thehindu.com, Friday Review), the most important reason for the triumphant survival of Carnatic music is the fact that Carnatic musicians and rasikas have a way of never losing the spiritual bearings which somehow continue to run in their blood generation after generation no matter where they live and what they happen to be doing in the modern world.

Mere growth and expansion of the metropolitan set-up — no matter how far-reaching they are — will surely not affect these fundamental factors which govern the whole phenomenon of the time-tested Margazhi festival in this holy capital city of Carnatic music.

Will the increasingly voluminous music in the festival continue to be of the highest standard?

I strongly believe it will be so, for the reasons we had discussed a couple of weeks ago in the article, ‘Of volume and value’ (January 4).

It is true that the further enlargement of the winter music festival and its extension into the suburbs will put much greater pressure on the performing artists during the hectic month of Maargazhi;  but that isn’t likely to affect the determination of the artists to make their best efforts to shine during the very special season.  In fact, the higher pressure — like examination fever — is only likely to improve their concentration and enable them to perform better, and most of them are likely to achieve greater excellence at their respective levels.

Suburban scenario

What would be the ideal way of organising Carnatic music in the expanding suburbs?

When several large residential sectors in South Madras were more or less starved of Carnatic music around 20 years ago because of the increasing traffic congestion and difficulty in reaching and returning from the old established sabhas in the city, a highly enterprising and innovative amateur organiser emerged in the scene and set up an organisation which was not only accessible easily but provided a substantial series of fine programmes.

That was R. Ramachandran, alias RRC, of course. The various factors which had enabled him to succeed in this great endeavour were summarised in the article ‘An adventure called Hamsadhwani’ (Dec. 8, 2006, please find online).

Although the institution is located on the Southern fringe of the city and not in Suburbia, I do believe it is an ideal model for adoption in the fast-emerging suburban residential sectors.

Can that ideal become reality?

There can be no doubt that there will be a steady trend of ever-growing organisation in the expanding suburbs. The most likely sceanrio is that there will be a constantly growing number of small local sabhas in new neighbourhoods, as the suburban population goes on increasing.

In very large, luxurious and self-contained residential complexes which are likely to be developed in distant locations in due course, the concerned residents’ welfare societies will take up cultural activities including classical music to serve only the interests of their own members and not even those of the whole neighbourhood.

Obviously all these small sabhas and associations mushrooming everywhere will not be able to create the kind of dynamic set-up like Hamsadhwani’s ;  and there will be a constant need for establishing similar institutions integrating several large neighbourhoods in the economically and socially vibrant suburbs.

And sooner or later some dedicated impresarios of the same calibre and enterprise as RRC’s are likely to emerge in the very wide scenario, and they will adopt the basic Hamsadhwani model consciously or otherwise, modifying it to suit local conditions.  That, in my view, will be the ultimate and most impressive shape of things to come in the next 50 years.