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“Learning should be a source of joy” – V.V. Sadagopan on Music education

Audio source: singing by the author | Find details for “78RPM – V V Sadagopan” on Archive.org >>

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It is a curious irony that we, who claim to “hear” our music,¹ are less sensitive to tone quality than the Westerner who “sees” his music. Happy exceptions apart, musicians and listeners (especially of the South) are usually satisfied with some illusory pleasure, and do not care for the aesthetic joy – rasa – that music should give.

Text credit (excerpts seen above and below): Spirals and Circles by V.V. Sadagopan (1980) published in Sruti Magazine (print ed., Issue 9, July 1984), p. 7

Read the full book
Sadagopan, V V: Author Srirama Bharati: Editor, “Spirals and Circles: An Organismic Approach to Music and Music Education of V V Sadagopan, edited by Srirama Bharati,” MusicResearchLibrary, accessed October 22, 2024, http://musicresearchlibrary.net/omeka/items/show/3501.

Music-Education_VV_Sadagopan_Sruti_July_1984_p7_OCR Download

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Viravanallur Vedantam Sadagopan was born on January 29, 1915, in an orthodox Vaishnavite family and spent his childhood and youth in Tirunelveli. He was a graduate and pursued a parallel vocation in music. He had his musical training under Namakkal Sesha Iyengar and Ariyakkudi Ramanuja Iyengar and became one of the most sought after musicians in the 1930s. At the height of his musical career he entered films and was hailed as Rudolf Valentino of the Indian screen. […]

VVS’s compositions include kritis, keerthanais, ragamaligais, padams, kili kanni and a series of Tirukkural keerthanais, wherein the Kural forms the pallavi and is elaborated in the anupallavi and charanam. As a music composer he has left behind a lasting legacy. […]

Music education for children became his passion and mission in later years. He called his integrative scheme of music education Tyagabharati, a term he had coined to epitomise the ideals of Tyagaraja and Subrahmanya Bharati. In this he struck an entirely new path, composing nursery rhymes in Tamil and Hindi, set to simple lilting tunes. […]

However the elders, comprising his friends and well wishers often stood perplexed, unable to comprehend the new role that this musical giant had donned. On April 10, 1980, he left Delhi by train, for Madras. He was seen alighting at Gudur, the next day. He has not been seen ever since. Rumours of sighting him in Varanasi and the Himalayas and consequent searches have yielded no results.

The mantle then fell on his devoted disciple Srirama Bharati, a visionary in his own right [who] passed away at a young age […]

“Children should grow with joy, courage and freedom and a discipline born out of these attributes. The fundamental principle is joy, suggestion must be the method, the emphasis should be on the imaginative and creative experience of music and teaching should follow a “flow-form-flow” spiral.
VV Sadagopan was clearly in favour of lakshya (aesthetic perception) over lakshana (intellectual abstraction) at school, college or university.” – T.K. Venkatasubramanian in “VV Sadagopan – An educator with a mission”, Sruti Magazine >>

Learn more about Singer, actor, writer and composer V. V. Sadagopan (The Hindu, 4 March 2005) >>

How is joy realised according to ancient authorities? There is more to emotions such as their causes including spring, flowers and moonlight as explained by Dr. V. Premalatha >>

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Here the author probably alludes to a metaphorical interpretation of karnātaka sangītam (today’s “Carnatic music”), one not to be taken literally even if invoked by some of his peers: understood as “classical music (sangītam) that surprises or haunts (ata) the ear (karna)” [↩]

“Bhava” and “Rasa” explained by V. Premalatha

“Rasa is realised in from the combination of the sthāyibhāva (permanent and dominant emotional mood) with the vibhāva-s (the objects of emotions such as the hero and the heroine, and the exciting causes such as the spring, flowers, moonlight and the bower), anubhāva-s (the external manifestations of emotions such as the movement of the eye-brows, glances and smile) and the vyabhicāribhāva-s (accessory moods) which come and go helping in the manifestation of the rasa). Bharata mentions eight dominant emotional moods, or sthāyibāva-s, that may be aroused by a dramatic representation into the state of aesthetic pleasure. These are rati (love), hāsa (laughter), śōka (sorrow), krōdha (anger), utsāha (energy), bhaya (fear), jugupsā (repugnance) and vismaya (wonder); the rasa-s corresponding to these are respectively called śṛṅgāra, hāsya, karuṇa, raudra, vīra, bhayānaka, bībatsa and adbhuta. Later writers accept a nineth rasa called śānta corresponding to the sthāyibāva of nirvēda (detachment). Really the rasa or the aesthetic pleasure derived from literature is one and the same in all cases; the division into various rasa-s is based on the difference in the sthāyibāva-s which contribute to the rasa- s. This rasa is a condition produced in the spectator, is a single feeling and a pleasurable one”. (p.286- 287 Indian Theories of Meaning, by K Kunjunni Raja)

Dr. V Premalatha, Department of Music, Central University of Tamil Nadu, Thiruvarur , “Rasa and Kāla of Rāgas, by V Premalatha,” MusicResearchLibrary, accessed October 22, 2024, http://musicresearchlibrary.net/omeka/items/show/2287.

Tip: find more in-depth studies here: http://musicresearchlibrary.net >>

“Music Research Library is a collection of publicly accessible and downloadable electronic resources related to Indian Music organized into various collections. These include manuscripts, articles, books, periodicals, source texts and teaching resources.”

“The fundamental principle is joy” – Music education pioneer VV Sadagopan

World Children’s Day (20 September) is UNICEF’s annual day of action for children, by children, marking the adoption of the Convention on the Rights of the Child.

Children’s rights are human rights. But in too many places today, children’s rights are under attack.

On World Children’s Day we make space for children and young people to raise their voices on the issues that matter to them. By prioritizing children’s rights and participation, we can help to build a better future for all. | Learn more: https://www.unicef.org/world-childrens-day

Beyond performing competence: Students set to become good teachers and informed citizens as well

By S. Sankaranarayanan in Sruti (1998) | Excerpts that remain relevant today:

Observations on the teaching of music at the Rotterdam Conservatory, Holland:

Along with theory and history of music, the students [at the Rotterdam Conservatory] also acquire knowledge of ancillary aspects such as voice modulation and the reading and writing of notation. However, weightage is given to performing competence. […] As a means of widening their musical horizons, the students are encouraged to have exposure to other systems of music as well. […] Training in teaching methods is also imparted to the students so that they can become good teachers.

Along with music, the students are given a wide ranging and comprehensive liberal education so that, at the end of the course, they become not only competent musicians and/or teachers but informed citizens as well.
Dr. Suvarnalata Rao, Research Scientist at the National Centre for the Performing Arts (Mumbai)

Role of Research in Music Education

The lakshya sampradaya of music which is passed from guru to sishya gets altered when music is performed in a recital. This happens because of the elements of ‘entertainment’, such as indulgence in virtuosity or novelty for its own sake, and playing to the gallery. Because many performers also happen to be teachers, such changes, subtle and not so subtle, that creep into the recitals also influence the teaching, including the course content of contemporary music education. Only a researcher can observe and point out such deviations to the artists, as no performer can be his own critic unless he has a bent for research which is rather rare. It is for the practitioners either to accept or not to accept the researcher’s findings. However, to be effective, a researcher (and for that matter, a musicologist or critic too) should be be able to perform, though not necessarily as a concert performer; otherwise his opinion would carry little weight.

[Commentary by S. Sankaranarayanan: It should, however, be remembered that, firstly, theory is not an unalterable entity and, secondly, theory itself is a codification of practices, though quite often it is one generation behind the latter. Fortunately, music has an admirable tradition of accomodating change].
Dr. N. Ramanathan, [former] Head of the Department of Indian Music at the University of Madras

Read the full report: https://sruti.com/articles/spotlight/teaching-of-indian-music >>

What of the future? New electronic gadgets produce “mind-blowing” noises in the name of music, and there is a new breed of tunesmiths and song mongers. All this will however be a temporary aberration. People like Semmangudi have ensured this.

G. Dwarakanath in “Setting high standards of purity” (Folio Music November 29, 1998) | PDF-Repository >>

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Flow | And what about rhythm? – Let’s go on a musical walk!

Here’s a delightful “flow-exercise” of a different kind: nadai in rupaka tala

nadai composition in rupaka tala — Source: A rhythmical composition (*nadai*) in rupaka tala
The Oxford Illustrated Companion to South Indian Classical Music
(Table 22, p. 226)
**Audio**: listen to a similar version: Excercise in Rupaka tala by
TR Sundaresan | More >>

South Indian music has a vast repertory of compositions known as nadai (Tamil “gait, walk”) most students of south Indian rhythm (laya) should be familiar with; this one transcribed at the home of vidvan T.K. Ramakrishnan busy teaching a mridanga lesson with his voice, ears and hands while watching an important cricket match (multitasking being far from alien to Carnatic musicians of his calibre): true to Mahatma Gandhi’s ideals music cannot, should not be separate from daily life. Music always has been the art most suitable to familiarizing people from diverse backgrounds with other human pursuits. In short, “true music is created only when life is attuned to a single tune and a single time beat“. Or even more poignantly:

I have a suspicion that perhaps there is more of music than warranted by life […] Why not the music of the walk, of the march, of every movement of ours, and of every activity?
Mahatma Gandhi in a letter to Rabindranath Tagore’s son
Rathindranath Tagore – quoted by Gopalkrishna Gandhi (p. 568):
The Oxford India Gandhi: Essential Writings

Tip: a set of preliminary tala exercises (including rupaka tala) is found here >>