MUSIC TEMPLE ACADEMY for Advanced Studies in Carnatic Music
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MUSIC TEMPLE ACADEMY for Advanced Studies in Carnatic Music Pre-release for institutional launch, October 2015 Ramesh Vinayakam, Founder and Artistic Director Music Temple Academy 3B cedar Park Block 2, No.9 Fourth Main Road Ext. Kottur Gardens, Chennai-600 085 India We are a group of prominent musicians and scholars dedicated to working on the vast new possibilities for Carnatic music performance, music theory and education enabled by Gamaka Box, Ramesh Vinayakam's innovative new notation system. Gamaka Box is the first notation system in history to accurately and effectively capture the detailed melodic nuances of South Indian music for sight-reading and performance. Music Temple Academy offers a new curriculum for in-depth training in Carnatic music, both for resident and foreign students. And we are constantly making strides in the field of music theory, music cognition and perception by systematically documenting gamakas as they exist in the Carnatic literature. Lastly, our custom software, Sampradaya has been developed to allow professional and versatile Gamaka Box music notation and engraving for multiple uses. Our honorable patron is Shri Ram Tyagarajan, the founder of the Sri Ram group. A MUSIC NOTATION for the PRESERVATION of CARNATIC MUSIC The first and foremost mission of Music Temple Academy is to introduce a new historical view to the evolution of the tradition by recording the music with complete precision for all posterity through voluminous, detailed and, for the first time, fully coherent graphic documentation. Through this task, we provide the means to allow the preservation of composers' original ideation within the tradition of South Indian music; and hence reprioritize the composers' original spark of inspiration as a core consideration for the music's performance. The goal of accurately notating South Indian music is not new, but rather has been an ongoing strand of Carnatic thought in history since the time of the Trinity, one which has accelerated since the late 19th century. Subbarama Diksitar already attempted to do in 1902 what Ramesh Vinayakam has done, in his Sangita Sampradaya Pradarsini, using a set of different symbols, more akin to the Western notation for ornamental trills. Other great musicians such as Vidya Shankar, T. Viswanathan and Lalgudi Jayaraman have all followed suit in using a detailed notation system in the common belief that a truer picture of the music is important for the best propagation of the tradition. Ramesh Vinayakam, Founder and Director Ramesh Vinayakam was partly precocious autodidact and partly trained in both Carnatic and Western music. He has composed in the classical, devotional, cinema, fusion and experimental styles. Ramesh’s Carnatic gurus include Rukmini Ramani, and his father, veena vidwan Raghavan. He was trained in the piano by the Madras legend, Jacob John. He is a popular music director in both Hyderabad and Chennai and has even composed for Hollywood, as in the film A Common Man. His most recent hit film was Ramanujan about the mathematical genius of the 20th century, for which he recorded the soundtrack with the GermanPops Orchestra in Frankfurt and others. He has composed songs, arranged music, presented lecdems on global music and composed ringtones for Nokia. He has collaborated extensively with V.S. Narasimhan and the Madras String Quartet. He was involved in the making of Raga Rasa presented on the occasion of vidwan Lagudi Jayaraman’s 80th birthday in Chennai. Sree Ramadootam - a Sanskrit composition of Ramesh’s in Manirangu raga is often presented by Nithyashree Mahadevan in her concerts. He composed the theme song for the mega event Naada Vaibhavam organised by the Art of Living Foundation. A MUSIC THEORY for RAGA LAKSHANA Alongside the work of documentation, we are pioneering a cohesive music theory for Raga qualities. Through Gamaka Box, we've acquired cataloguing and analyzing techniques which are only possible through the system’s graphic modeling of the perception of agglomerations of melodic movements. With the various playing styles of different bani represented, a comprehensive picture of the structure of South Indian music emerges. With the advent of this knowledge, the universal appreciation of Carnatic music's highly evolved melodic logic will become even more preeminant. Gamaka Box is suited to become the foundation for a global music theory which covers all forms of monophonic composition, and whose organization, based on melodic vocal inflections, are outside the ken of conventional Western music theory. Currently the core Carnatic pedagogical material has been transcribed from a number of contrasting bani in unprecedented notational detail and clarity to form an integral part of the curriculum, such as: Sarali Varisais, Malahari, Kalyani and Kamboji Gitams, Mohana, Kalyani, Kamboji and Saveri Varnums among numerous other compositions. Dr. R. S. Jayalakshmi, Academic Head Dr. Mrs. R.S. Jayalakshmi is a renowned Vina artist and had her training under Vina Vidvans Late Sri V.Raghavan and R.Pichumani Ayyar. She also learnt special compositions like Padam and Javali from Smt. T. Muktha. She has been performing Vina concerts in All India Radio and Television as B-high graded artist for several years. She was on the faculty of the Department of Indian Music, University of Madras, from 1977 to 2004. In that time she was superviser for dozens of doctoral students who have made crucial contributions to the field of musicology. Her M.Phil. dissertation entitled "Raga lakshanatthil Aarohanam - Avarohanam" (Tamizh) (Aarohanam-avarohanam as the characteristic of a Raga) has been published as a book in December 1999 by. The subject of her Ph.D. thesis was "Subbarama Dikshitarin Sangita-sampradaya-pradasini-yil Vilakkappattulla Gamakangal" (Tamizh) (Gamakas explained in Sangita-sampradaya-pradarsini of Subbarama Diksitar). She has also presented Research Papers and Lecture-Demonstrations at various conferences throughout India and world wide. She has been the editor of numerous volumes brought out by the Madras Music Academy among many other publishers. A MUSIC CURRICULUM for BOTH PRESERVATION and RENEWAL Our ultimate goal, which follows logically from the foregoing, is to enhance music education both in India and internationally. The Gamaka Box system functions as a powerful aid to aural training and memorization in Carnatic music (but not, by any means, a replacement). In Vinayakam's presentation at the Madras Music Academy, musicians successfully imitated the styles of musicians from other bani besides their own, only by sight-reading. Gamaka Box is destined to instill a new awareness and flexibility in Carnatic musicians who make it a part of their artistic practice. Gamaka Box also allows musicians outside the Carnatic tradition to learn how to play the music in an authentically in a fraction of the practice time which it has hitherto required. Ramesh Vinayakam has demonstrated how a Western musician with no previous knowledge, could, by means of Gamaka Box, sing a raga correctly after a couple hours. While reading from the notation, professional Western classically trained musicians like Jeremy Woodruff have gained an ability to render ragas in an authentic manner in a short time, and, with practice, were even able to do the unimaginable: sight-read specific ragas correctly with little or no foreknowledge of that raga. Jeremy Woodruff, Head of International Education Dr. Jeremy Woodruff, completed his Ph.D. at the University of Pittsburgh, studied composition at the Royal Academy in London with Michael Finnissy from 1999–2001 and Non-Western Composition at the Conservatorium van Amsterdam 2002–2004. He is currently Academic Head of Preparatory Department and Composition Faculty at the KM Music Conservatory in Chennai, India. Previously he lived in Berlin since 2004 where he was Co-Director at the Neue Musikschule Berlin teaching composition, music theory and electronic music. Jeremy has given guest lectures and seminars on sound, Indian music and new music at many institutions including at the UdK Berlin, Goldsmiths University and Carnegie Mellon. A forthcoming book, The Music Theory of Protest, will be published by Errant Bodies press in 2016. He has been commissioned by Percusemble Berlin, and by the Deutsches Kammerorchester Berlin, among others. His writings have previously been published by Klangzeitort (Berlin) Errant Bodies Press, Interference: A Journal of Audio Culture, Journal of Sonic Studies and by Verlag für Moderne Kunst (Nürnberg). His scores are published by Neue Musik Verlag Berlin. CORE ASSOCIATE FACULTY P. S. Narayanaswamy, vocal Puliyur Subramaniam Narayanaswamy was born in Konerirajapuram, Thanjavur in Madras Presidency. He learnt music from Tiruppambaram Somasundaram Pillai, T. M. Tyagarajan and later PSN came under Sangita Kalanidhi Mudikondan Venkatarama Iyer, and then under the gurukulavasa system, he joined Semmangudi in the early 1950s. PSN had started giving concerts, both public and through All India Radio, at the age of 15. It is interesting to note that no one else from his family took to music; his brother is an engineer and sister a medical practitioner. Pichai moved over to Chennai in the second half of the Fifties and soon established himself as a classy concert artiste and a teacher of high order. Blessed with a powerful voice, Narayanaswami absorbed the special aspects of the music of all stalwart musicians of the last century, carving out a style of his own, even though the Semmangudi style was clearly perceptible in his renditions. He has had the privilege of being accompanied by stalwarts of the last century such as, violin maestro Pappa Venkataramaiah and mridangam Palghat Mani Iyer for his concerts. PSN's own students, who have made a significant mark on the concert platform, comprise a large number. This list consists of not only vocalists but also violinists and other instrumentalists. He was awarde Padma Bhushan by the Government of India and Sangeetha Kala Acharya by the Madras Music Academy. V. V. Subramaniam, violin V. V. Subramaniam is a stalwart performer who was trained by the legendary singer guru Chembai Vaidyanatha Bhagavatar.