His flourishes were legendary, his compositions innovative and his charisma irrefutable so much so that his style (bani) of singing has now become almost synonymous to learning
Carnatic music
. On his 107th birth anniversary on Friday,
GN Balasubramaniam
(1910-1965) was remembered as the performer, composer, teacher and most importantly a thinker who strived to find new avenues of exploring a raga or a kriti but within the tenets of tradition.
“My guru GNB would always ask us to understand the
science of music
. No two renditions of a raga were similar for him. He would add and change it around to create something new,“ recollected Trissur V Ramachandran, at the remembrance concert for GNB at
Bharathiya Vidya Bhavan
.
His daughter Shubashree Ramachandran who presented various ragas and kritis like “Saraswathi namosthuthey“ of GNB believes the legendary singer's fast paced style of presenting swaras and brigas and elaborate ragas still holds its appeal.
“Today, the tempo has slowed yet I prefer the pace which is challenging to me as an artist,“ said the 39-year old who has grown up lis tening to this style of mu sic from her parents Ramachandran and Charumathi, a disciple of MLV .
But those who are not from the school are also deeply impacted by the man who brought intellectualism, style and democratisation to Carnatic music. Padma Bhushan K J Yesudas, recounting his brush with GNB, said, “The sangatis and music used to flow from him like an ocean. It needs immense patience and practice to learn his style which sounds scintillating but is extremely complex.”
A discerning listener can clearly reckon how a singer's style is. Critics say if it is GNB bani it has to be inherited, assimilated and internalised gradually .
“GNB and his most illustrious disciple MLV are the hero and heroine of Carnatic music. They remain so popular that present-day singers imbibe their style unknowingly. Some like Sanjay Subrahmanyan acknowledge that they are inspired by him, but for many others it is a style that they heard as a child and naturally took to it,“ says music critic VSV.
The trap in being inspired without the training is that it ends up being an imitation, warns Yesudas stressing on the need to take in the spirit and the essence of GNB.
Forgetting the creativity of GNB's improvisation is probably forgetting the idea of the man that he was, says VSV .
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