Artists are often seen as people with big egos, difficult temperaments and low flexibility in adapting to the needs of others. The MITHAS September 11, 2011 concert presented at Kresge auditorium that featured a jugalbandi between Carnatic singing duo Malladi brothers and Hindustani Dhrupad singing duo Gundecha brothers proved that right thinking and right understanding between musicians can go a long way in producing exemplary works of collaboration. The two sets of brothers, Malladis and Gundechas,  who are experts in two different styles of Indian classical music  (Carnatic music and Hindustani Dhrupad ) formed a partnership on stage to work together towards the mission of producing  a work of art that attracted not only Hindustani and Carnatic music lovers but brought music lovers from other cultures together  under one roof to experience the power and beauty of Indian classical music.

Shuchita Rao spoke to the Malladi brothers and Gundecha brothers about their motivation to perform a jugalbandi and their impressions on Indian classical music.

Malladi brothers and Gundecha brothers , what was your overall experience singing together on stage?   Will you call this an experiment that was successful?

Gundecha brothers: Most certainly. You could call it an experiment that succeeded in its objective to take music of Carnatic and Hindustani styles to reach a wider audience in a single concert setting. We are satisfied that this collaboration was fruitful.

Malladi brothers:  Two brothers singing with two brothers (with third Gundecha brother on pakhawaj) is something unique and innovative, possibly first of its kind in our times. We are mutual admirers of each other’s respective musical styles, and a “sabhash” comes from our side when they sing “alaap” and the same thing comes from them also when we sing “raag alaapana”. Our programs are team efforts – they are not competitions or wars. Off the stage,  we go for walks and play tennis too. We chat for hours together and discuss about our individual styles and their confluence. We were indeed happy to perform with Gundecha brothers and they also feel the same. Up until now, no one from Dagar family (or for that matter any singers from dhrupad tradition) tried to sing a jugalbandi with carnatic musicians -  therefore, all credit goes to this team..

Gundecha brothers, what has been your experience working with Malladi brothers?

Gundecha brothers:  Malladi brothers  have  learned from great masters and are wonderful singers. They are intelligent and efficient. We are enjoying working with them.

Malladi brothers, when did you first meet the Gundecha brothers?  How did you get the idea to perform “together” on stage? 

Malladi brothers:  3 years ago, we sat together for about an hour at Fine Arts Society in Chembur, Mumbai  and we sang compositions in our own individual styles. It was not in a  jugalbandi fashion.  In 2010, we performed in Chennai and our concert was received very well and appreciated by musicians. Someone from U.S saw a review in the newspaper and invited us to perform in U.S. We are doing 6 concerts in U.S in this month of September. Many people have asked us “What is reason behind jugalbandi?” The truth is that people from North India rarely listen to South Indian music and vice-versa. We listen a lot to Nazakat Ali Salamat Ali, Bade Ghulam Ali Khan etc…our father’s teacher Sri Voleti encouraged us to listen to North Indian vocalists. By singing together we hope that Carnatic and Hindustani music lovers will congregate in one place and appreciate the music of the two systems.

Gundecha brothers, how did you approach the task of singing a jugalbandi?

Gundecha brothers: When we decided to sing with Malladi brothers, we put  considerable amount of thought into planning on how to make this jugalbandi effective. We listened to each other and made observations on each other’s musical content and style and discussed with them how to bring out the best of both styles. We then isolated musical movements and components that sounded similar and those that were synthesizing well when we sang together. We thought of ragas and talas that are common to both systems and came up with a plan for our jugalbandi presentation.

Malladi brothers, do you sing any musical form known as “Dhrupad” in Carnatic music?

Malladi brothers:  No, we do not have dhrupads in Carnatic music. One of the famous Carnatic composers of 18th century, Muthuswamy Dikshidar created compositions that sound like Dhrupad after having heard actual Dhrupads in Kashi…(Shri Malladi Ravi Kumar hums a dhrupad in raagam Yamuna Kalyani “Nanda Gopala mukunda….”) to demonstrate the point ! Dikshidar also borrowed several ragas from North such as Jaijaiwanti, Hameer Kalyani, Brindaavana Saaranga etc… for the purpose of creating compositions in Carnatic music.

Malladi brothers and Gundecha brothers, do you feel that there is a common source of knowledge from which Hindustani and Carnatic systems branch out?

Gundecha brothers: Hindustani and Carnatic systems do have a common source or root – the objectives are similar – music is devotional in nature, there is similarity in the principles of raag, taal, laya, manodharma etc  . What distinguishes the two systems is the difference of “vaani”, (speech/voice or the vocal style).  In Sangeet Ratnakara,  Sharangdev talks about “Desh kaaku” and ”Sthaan kaku”. It is a difference of kaaku (the manner in which speech is rendered).  Every language has its own influence on its music. There are phonetic impressions of the language on the music of the region…our music grew up with Brij and Sanskrit languages. When music developed in South India, with South Indian languages, a different flavor emerged. Vidwaans born in the two regions, North and South developed the music in their own independent own musical styles using the languages of those regions. However, the root of the music is the same.

Malladi brothers:  We agree that the source of both music systems is common. We have several common ragas - The “phrase-wise” progression and development of ragas is similar on both systems. There are some differences too. Carnatic compositions are slightly longer in length than Hindustani compositions – we have pallavi, anupallavi and charanam and Dhrupad seems to have only asthai and antara. 

Gundecha brothers, please describe how you decided to show the commonalities in the two systems of music in this concert.

Gundecha brothers: We have explored commonalities from many angles. We looked at ragas common to the two systems such as Mohanam and Bhoopali, Malkauns and Hindolam.  Our taal structures are also similar. We sing compositions in 12 beat cycles and they sing such compositions too. We, dhrupadiyas,  sing with the habit of keeping taal with our hands like the Carnatic musicians.  The percussion instruments Mridangam and Pakhawaj are in a sense, similar.  In Raagam-taanam-pallavi, their “raagam” matches our alaap, their pallavi is our sthaayi, their  taanam matches our “jod” . We also learned some Carnatic compositions and they learned some Dhrupads in Sanskrit. We also composed a few items; they did it in Carnatic style, we did it in Hindustani style. We did not try to imitate each other because then our unique flavors would be lost. We improvised in our own individual styles.  It seemed to us that our blending was very smooth.

What are the contrasting aspects in the two systems and how did you maintain and show the contrast when you performed on stage?

Gundecha brothers:  Ornamentations in the two systems are different. We have meend, gamak and aandolan  ornamentations (Shri Ramakant Gundecha demonstrates “aandolan”  ornamentation by singing it in both styles to show contrast…) and the Carnatic system has it too but each system carries its own beauty. Carnatic music does have certain amount of improvisation in their “neraval” movement but it also has some very structured patterns , such as in their sargams. There is no pre-conceived structure of improvisation in Dhrupad. It is totally spontaneous. Our voice projections are different. In Dhrupad  voice is invoked from different parts of the body – naabhi(belly/stomach), hriday (heart), kunth(throat), naasik(nose), mastak(forehead). In certain musical movements it is important to project voice from belly, in others, throat plays a more important role. We need to synchronize the projections at certain times. We use voice projection to suit the need of the raga, the composition and also the bhaava(expression) prevalent in the composition .

We found one aspect interesting – Malladi brothers sang in sargam. Dhrupadiyas do not sing sargam but has a corresponding musical movement -  “jhaala”. We transformed our jhaala to suit the sargam that they sang. Members of the audience got very excited about this exercise and applauded us by rising from their seats and clapping in the middle of the concert.

 Malladi brothers, what aspects of Hindustani music  appeal to your musical sensibilities?

Malladi brothers: We find that basic shruti foundation in Hindustani music is very solid and gives good training in voice culture.  As we have been always interested in Hindustani music, it helps us maintain perfection in shrutis. We should always try and adopt good things from other systems of music.

 Malladi brothers and Gundecha brothers, How do you feel about dhrupad style of singing without any harmonium/violin/saarangi accompaniment?

Gundecha brothers: Even though Dhrupad does not need saarangi or violin accompaniment, Shri H.N. Bhaskar’s  accompaniment was very able. Our brother Akhilesh on Pakhawaj and Shri Narayanan Neyveli  on Mridangam, played extremely well. In the “Taani-avarthanam” section of the program, Shri Neyveli Narayanan’s recitation of Mridangam syllables(konakkol) and then playing them was excellent.

Malladi brothers: We feel that Dhrupads should adopt an instrument like saarangi or violin for their support in the program. Pakhawaj is a beautiful instrument whose sound production matches our Mridangam but style of playing style does not match. Mridangam maestros have a different method of accompanying. Gundecha brothers may be able to sing with Mridangam quite easily. We can conceive pakhawaj accompanying us in our “neraval” sections.
 
11. Malladi brothers, the sensitive treatment of shrutis or microtones and the manner in which Gundecha brothers navigate through the various different shades of musical notes using their voices is an important feature of their  music. Do you feel that your music and treatment of shrutis is similar to how the Gundecha brothers  navigate through shrutis?

Malladi brothers: Yes, our treatment of shrutis is similar. We come from a musical family that was trained in a very traditional manner. Our father Sri Malladi Suri Babu was a disciple of legendary musician Sri Voleti Venkateswarulu, who was known as Andhra’s Bade Ghulam Ali Khan. Right from the beginning of our career, we have been singing Hindustani bhajans so it was not that difficult for us to adapt to Gundecha brothers style of singing.

12. Gundecha brothers, What benefits do you see coming out of this partnership of singing with Malladi brothers?

Gundecha brothers:  In the audience we found a pre-dominance of Carnatic music lovers and 10 to 15% of listeners were non-Indian. People told us  after the concert that they were very happy to be exposed to great Dhrupad music and will now start listening to Dhrupads.  This partnership  allows us to spread an awareness of Dhrupad to a wider audience.

13. Malladi brothers, did you feel a sense of satisfaction after your performance with Gundecha brothers? Could you please describe the feeling in your own words?

Malladi brothers: Yes. We felt very happy after the concert. We like perseverance of Gundecha brothers on stage. They treat ragas in a very disciplined manner. In Telugu, we call this “Madi” …They maintain purity of ragas just as it is done in Carnatic music. They have very good coordination and they harmonize very well. There is cogency between the brothers.  At a recent concert, Ramakant Gundechaji sang “Rama nee samaanamu evaru”…in raagam Kaafi very well. The audience liked his rendition. In Vishakapatnam, India, in August 2011, I sang Hindustani Megh while my brother sang corresponding Carnatic raga Madhyamavati. Rasikas loved the concert and told us that they are beginning to appreciate the differences as well as the commonalities between the two systems.  Hindustani lovers should learn to appreciate Carnatic music and the same holds for Carnatic lovers – they need to listen to Hindustani music. Our classical music should henceforth become known by one single name:  “Bharatiya Sangeet”, or “Indian music”.

Concluding notes:

Henry Ford said "Coming together is a beginning, staying together is progress, and working together is success." The idea of bringing Dhrupad and Carnatic music to one platform was indeed an innovative one and MITHAS team deserves accolades for bringing a memorable concert to Boston.
 

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