From April 21 to May 2 this year, Cleveland State University hosted the largest South Indian music festival outside of India — the Cleveland Thyagaraja Festival. With competitions, performances, lectures and demonstrations of Indian classical dance and music, the event unites performers of the Carnatic tradition from the U.S., India and Australia. The festival featured the ad hoc performance of artists Kum. Savita Narasimhan and Kum. Nisha Rajagopal (vocals), Smt. Ranjani Ramakrishnan of North Carolina (violin), Toronto’s Sri B. Gowrishankar (mridangam) and Sri Karthik Venkataraman of Toronto (kanjira).

Carnatic music represents the twelfth-century split between two ancient Hindu traditions: Hindustani, Carnatic’s fraternal counterpart which showcases the Persian and Islamic influences of North Indian traditions, and Carnatic, which retrospectively preserves the Indian culture devoid of foreign influences (with the exception of the impact of European tradesmen who contributed the violin to Indian music, an instrument that now plays a key role in South Indian music performances).

The players sat poised in upright positions, their legs crossed in respect to the sacred Hindu texts vocalized by the singers. Since Carnatic music revolves around the human voice and the performance of ancient Hindu scriptures, the interaction amongst the musicians displayed a passage of vocal motifs. Similar to the art of improvisation, the musicians administered their own particular musical voice within each solo, yet still honored the Carnatic music style based on the raga (modes or scales) and tala (cycles of rhythms). However, there was a slight rhythmic divide between the violinists, vocalists and the mridangam (small frame drum) and kanjira players. While the mridangam and kanjira (a large conga-like drum with two drum heads on each side, right and left, which is played between the legs) were maintaining a three, five, or seven beat rhythm cycle, the vocalists and violinist exchanged motifs steeped more heavily in raga.

The music contained moments that were alternately uplifting and surreal, as the musicians enthralled the crowd with their spontaneity and ability to listen and react to each other. Only musicians with a high level of artistic caliber, dedication and integrity can be capable of pulling off such a spontaneous expression of emotion.

I’ve already reserved my ticket to next year’s Thyagaraja Festival in advance, and I would advise anyone interested in establishing a basis in rhythm to reserve yours as well. You won’t regret experiencing firsthand one of the foundational building blocks of music.