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About a year ago, two classical musicians sat down to share the
greatness of the stalwarts of Carnatic music. Those predominant
seven whom they thought they should pay tribute to are the
ever-inspiring musicians of the Carnatic music world.
Giving shape to the idea, Bombay Jayashri and T M Krishna
authored ‘Voices Within’, the coffee table book that describes
interesting aspects of the seven stalwarts of Carnatic music:
Ariyakudi Ramanuja Iyengar, Semmangudi Srinivasa Iyer, M S
Subbulakshmi, Palghat Mani Iyer, G N Balasubramaniam, T N
Rajaratnam Pillai and T R Mahalingam.
‘Voices Within’ is portrayed in a way that it
interests people of different tastes. It is not for information
but for perspectives, says the duo. “The book is a result of our
intense desire to find ways of giving back something to an art
that has been our passion, our livelihood, our life breath,”
says Bombay Jayashri.
The book is enhanced by many pictures of
these stalwarts - many rare ones in the case of M S Subbulakshmi
and G N Balasubramaniam - details of their concerts and the
notations they had written down.
The book gives information in an intelligible
manner and also covers the technical aspects of the stalwart’s
music. ‘Voices Within’ makes the reader connect to the music
world as there are quotes from the authors, statements,
perceptions and experiences with these music practitioners.
The book portrays a traditional era in a
modern version and reaches out to the public. The style of
writing is very simple and that makes it easy for readers to
comprehend the nuances of the art.
The only minor disadvantage of reading
‘Voices Within’ is some of the difficult music-related words
used in the book which would go over the heads of those who are
not in the same loop.
But even that fades into the background when
one reads this most engaging book.
Anantha
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