Vijei Abinandan and Apayakaran enthralled audience

Chelvatamby MANICCAVASAGAR

The carnatic vocal arangetram of Vijei Abinandan, son of S Visvanathan and Shanthi Visvanathan and Apayakaran, son of R S Jegatheeswaran and Vasugy Jegatheeswaran and students of Arunanthy Aarooran MA (Music) was held at New Kathiresan Hall, Colombo 4 recently.

Professor and head of Indian Music, University of Chennai was the chief guest while' 'Kambavaarithy' E Jeyaraj was the special guest and 'Sangeetha Vidvan A K Karunakaran, S Shanmugaragavan and 'Sangeetha Bhooshanam' Nesapoopathy Nagarajan were guests of honour.

Vijei Abinandan and Apayakaran are the grandsons of legendary late Shanmugampillai and late Vijalakshmi Shanmugampillai.

Shanmugampillai was one of the prominent musicians of Sri Lanka and had performed as station artiste for the Sri Lanka Broadcasting Corporation for more than 40 years. S Visvanathan, father of Vijei Abinandan is a well-known TV personnel. 'Kalasoori' Vasugy Jegatheeswaran, Apayakaran's mother is an internationally recognized dance teacher.

Music is a universal language without any barriers of race, caste or creed, that not only entertains but gives solace and consoles those depressed as well. The great dramatist Shakespeare says, The man who hath no music in himself, nor his moods concord with sweet sounds, is for treason, stratagem and spoils, let no such man be trusted.

Indeed, music soothes all and it is believed to be an art form created by God touches the senses of every living being to raise the power of appreciation of humans physically, mentally and spiritually. Hence, it is often regarded as a form of meditation. The rhythmic folk-music of our ancestors kept every aspect of their day's toil a pleasure.

Indian classical music can be broadly divided into two major parts, one is Hindustani classical music and the other is representing the carnatic classical music of South India.

Further, Hindustani music is manushya music meaning human with its mass appeal, while the carnatic music is Deiveeka connoting 'divine and transporting music'.

The North Indian classics has withstood the fury of several invasions of the Arabs and Moghuls and the innumerable political upheavals. Hence, it was highly influenced by the external forces. But, the South Indian classical music has not been to such vicissitudes and political disturbances.

The credit for having regulated and set up the 'Pathali' system of carnatic music concert singing, really goes to the doyen of carnatic music, the late Ariyakudi Ramanuja Ayangar.

He set up a time schedule for a music concert and regulated the items to be presented at the music concert.

The accompanying music instrumentalists V Jambunathan (Miruthangam), S Thibaharan (violin), Kalaivarithy P Pramanayagam (kanjeera), Ratnam Ratnathurai (moorsing and gatam) and Selvi Sangeethana Jambunathan (thambura) have done their part to the greatest satisfaction of the audience. The comperes for the night were A R B Loshan and Srimathy Irene Bastiampillai.