While violin virtuoso Dr. Lakshiminarayana Subramaniam is known
for his experimental fusion of music from cultures across the
globe, his roots are in south Indian classical music.
Subramaniam, who arrived in Los Angeles this week from southern
India, will give a free show on Nov. 5 at 6:30 p.m. in the Fowler
Museum’s Lenart Auditorium. The concert, organized by the
Society for the Promotion of Indian Classical Music and Culture
Amongst Youth, features south Indian classical music. It is the
third show they have organized since their 15-month life as a
chapter at UCLA, and the first to focus on music from the southern
part of the country.
“What Ravi Shankar has done for classical music from the
northern part of India, Dr. Subramaniam has done for south Indian
classical music,” said Natarajan Ramachandran, founder of the
UCLA chapter of SPICMACAY and an electrical engineering graduate
student.
A major figure across India, Subramaniam is known for his
Carnatic music renditions and his East-West orchestral
compositions. He has evolved classical Indian music since the
violin’s entrance into the musical arena, altering the
instrument to expand its sound.
“Subramaniam has had a major hand in making this music
more understandable to the newer generations, extending the music
and adding a lot regarding the violin,” said Ritu Bharadwaj,
a graduate research associate and member of SPICMACAY. “He
made it more expressive and technically sounding than it originally
was.”
Native to Karnataka, India, Carnatic music is traditionally
involved in a series of improvisations based on 72 scales and a
micro-tonal system with 22 notes to an octave.
“Carnatic music is a system (that) is imbued with
emotions,” said Bharadwaj. “It’s spontaneous,
melodious, emotive. It tends to bring peace and calm to a person;
it’s very soothing ““ Indian music generally does bring
that to people.”
One of the most significant aspects of Carnatic music is the
improvisational element, which is drawn from compositions based on
oral tradition.
“Improvisation is mostly entering the spontaneous realm;
it’s not written down,” Subramaniam said. “In our
tradition, and when I studied from my father, it took a lot of
patience. You were supposed to read and hear and memorize ““
and then the improvisation would come.”
Ramachandran elaborated on the improvisational technique.
“Here, the artist has decided to play a certain piece. He
is sitting in front of the audience and there decides to improvise.
All the music depends on his mood at that time and how much he can
go within in that point in time. Subramaniam has absorbed the music
so much that he is actually living it,” Ramachandran
said.
But Subramaniam’s musical process does not halt there. He
is notorious for his experimental ventures into global music, and
has amalgamated musical forms from Irish, Swedish, Danish, Chinese,
African, Japanese and Iranian music.
“I have taken a lot of influences from global
music,” said Subramaniam. “What I have been doing as a
composer is I have taken many elements (from other cultures) and
incorporated them into my compositions through a fusion.”
Subramaniam’s recognition of the classical method, coupled
with his keen experimentalism, has paved the way for the emergence
of many south Indian musicians who are on their way to revive
traditional music.
“The (people of the) new generation are becoming musicians
in India,” said Subramaniam. “Many more songs,
recordings and young artists are coming in and performing, and it
gives a great opportunity for us to expand the art form.”
There is no doubt that Subramaniam has cast an immense
influence, not only for Indian music, but global music as well.
“He’s a great ambassador for south Indian
music,” said Ramachandran of Subramaniam. “A very
introspective, meditative artist. This art form has the ability to
move or touch a person at a certain level. The history, the
evolution, the experimentation behind it gives the music the
ability to suck you into it.”