Dr. S. Sowmya in conversation with Baradwaj Rangan - MadRasana Conversations

MadRasana Conversations is a series where we explore the mind of an artiste.
In this first episode we have Sangitha kalanidhi Designate 2019 Dr. S. Sowmya in conversation with Baradwaj Rangan.
#madrasana #madrasanaconversations #baradwajrangan

[@shre.yas.n]

This is a great start! Thoroughly enjoyed the questions... Looking forward to a possible Sanjay Subrahmaniam interview

[@Bharathsalem]

I third this 😜😜

[@nityavaishnavi9655]

Ha ha I fourth this!

[@manasakk]

I fiffth this :-p

[@Bharathsalem]

So many guys with the same mentality... 🤪

[@SudhaParimala247]

+1

[@radhikakrishnakumar6456]

I am surprised that the core of carnatic music which is Divinity was not even made a passing mention of. Without it, words like sublime, analysis, comprehensive, creativity and the like are cold and clinical. The heart of the compositions are the composers' inner interaction with the Divine and from that inner awareness on the part of the singer emerges an outpouring of bhaava as well as something special which reaches the audience and makes the experience magical.

[@venkataramanvaidehi5181]

Exactly. Carnatic music without bakthi bhava is not music at all.

[@raghavansadagopan3905]

By bringing in divinity you are trying to put it in straitjackets. Come out of it and let all aspects of life be covered in this genre of music. Else it will not grow.

[@SuhithS]

​​@@raghavansadagopan3905 but that's the fact about it that the starting point of all these compositions was the sheer bhakti not merely musical ideas. You first look at it as science you comprehend analyse and u learn the composition. But the beauty of compositions comes out only when u are filled with bhakti and it comes when u can feel the divinity. U can learn the composition but it will be as sonorous as a metal hit by tongs. But u will be an artist only when u feel that divinity. Divinity and carnatic music are inseparable.

[@suji38617]

Whoever decided to do it B&W - a big applause.. She is a great musician,performer, scholar and an academic as well. I am sure there is an interesting line up knowing Madrasana circle. To have BR do the interview is another feature.. man Madrasana have the taste and the will to execute them .. good job guys.. I am sure Sanjay , TMK, BJ, RaGa, VijaySiva, are all going to be there ...

[@MadRasana]

Thank you so much. We were not sure about the black and white part. But I'm glad you liked it. We are gearing up for more episodes.

[@suji38617]

@@MadRasana good luck and best wishes to you all..amazing work guys.

[@sanjaygollamudi7197]

@@MadRasana when is the next week.. Its been three weeks 🥺

[@karunsai]

Good Morning, Jai Sri Krishna Thank you so much your beautifully sharing the excellent interview with the Carnatic Musical Vocal Exponent Vidhushi Ms Sowmya

[@kumar7359]

I love Sowmya's singing. Her seeing colours while singing could be a sort of synaesthesia. I am sorry to say her troubles with accompanying artists could be a lack of rehearsals and mutual respect and understanding.

[@priyaviswanathan21]

This is just wonderful! Many thanks to MadRasana for this initiative. Cannot wait to hear from a wide range of musicians.

[@Nsesh]

Excellent initiative. Thank you, MadRasana and Baradwaj Rangan! Can't wait to hear from more artists.

[@avimohan6738]

This is very interesting (especially the part around 8:30 )! Dr. Jayanthi Kumaresh always describes expanding on a Raga as being akin to a conversation with a person, i.e., that for her, ragas have "personalities." Here Dr. Sowmya associates ragas with colors. In my opinion these *mental models* are very important for people to attain more-than-amateur levels of accomplishment in, probably any art form. Looking forward to other interviews in this series, and comparing across artists. Margazhi has become so much more than a Maasam or even a festival these days.

[@divyashreekarthikeyan9306]

Expecting more Carnatic Musicians' interview. Thanks a lot for initiating

[@srikalarengarajan3119]

A very candid conversation . Enjoyed it. Got to know about the perspective of the artist towards the Art form . Great initiative. Hoping to see more from other leading musicians. Thank you BR. 😊🙏

[@mounickakarthikeyan605]

Can you please do one with Bombay jayashri!

[@blubberinghumdinger35]

Please please pleaseeeeeeee 😭

[@Sadhvi11]

What an awesome interview, wonderful questions and candid answers, sometimes diplomatic:).....revealed the intellect on both sides. All in all, it was great to know the mind of a stalwart musician!!

[@kkamesh9866]

Very nice attempt. Speaking on an abstract concept like music is difficult but both Baddy as well as Soumya were very articulate exploring many nuances of the music and the artist. Great initiative.

[@MadRasana]

Thanks Kamesh

[@sumanagowda]

It was an interesting conversation to listen to. And the black and white concept was indeed "sublime" . It had an "ethereal"aura. Am no connoisseur of carnatic music. But I really enjoy listening to it. In fact, I start my morning by listening to her rendition of vathapi ganapathim! She dresses very elegantly, and as a woman I would have loved to get a peek at what color Saree she was wearing and a closer look at jewelry :-)😊

[@rukmanimanian3103]

Beautiful and valuable interesting Conversation Ias alover of carnatic music enjoyed a lot Thank you MadRasana

[@ramamothi9821]

Nice. Waiting for many more interactions like this with musicians

[@vanishree9065]

Thanks a lot Madrasana for the new series 💐💐 👏🏻👏🏻

[@shreyasn3078]

what akka is experiencing is Nadayoga. A form of meditation by itself! Blessed she is.

[@shuaibahamed393]

Just passing by the comments and realised theres a whole classical singing community on the Internet. Came for Baddy, got to see another world filled with raw singer names You'll, keep it low and authentic, dont commercialize and lose the beauty of true classical singing community. Just a humble request :)

[@blubberinghumdinger35]

Smart as a whip, Baddy! Love it. Eagerly awaiting more such conversations. ♥️

[@anerudhnarayanan3253]

Awesome interview and the questions are just super nice and looking forward to this series from BR

[@nityavaishnavi9655]

Awesome series, excellent listening to both..please feature Bombay Jayashri, Jayanthi Kumaresh, R K Shriram Kumar, Amritha Murali, Sandeep Narayan to name a few....and many more!! Thanks!

[@MadRasana]

Thank you. Glad you liked it. Thanks for your suggestions.

[@anulakshman2025]

Also Panthula Rama , Saketharaman

[@nityavaishnavi9655]

Also P Unnikrishnan, Nithyasree Mahadevan

[@dharmaprakashnatarajan7405]

Beautiful interview Bardwaj..kudos to you and sowmya ji

[@dr_spacepirate]

waiting for my thalaivar, Shri Sanjay Subramanyam!!!!!!!!

[@jay6645]

science !.. how science ? colors !... how/why colors ? Man, I love these questions from the interviewer. (other potential interviewees watching this, Theriyame color nu solliraadengo yarum).

[@rameshkrishnan5651]

Synesthesia is a condition in which individuals experience atypical responses to certain types of stimuli, in addition to the typical responses elicited by those stimuli. For example, a synesthete may perceive tastes when seeing certain shapes or might perceive colors when seeing achromatic letters.

[@ganeshsubramaniam2254]

Nice start, Baddy, Mahesh and team - keep them coming!

[@sreenidhiramakrishnan5118]

This one is so beautiful!❤

[@Youtuber69863]

Lovely chat. Thanks to both.

[@Youtuber69863]

Wonderful interaction. Very informative.

[@vibha.arvind]

Lovely initiative- always waited for a good interview/ conversation series with Carnatic Musicians!

[@nacashok]

I'm curious to know. Sowmya madam talks about swaras, ragas and other technical aspects that are awesome, but doesn't bhakti have a huge rule to play in carnatic music?

[@pradeepprad]

Very good pointer by you. Bhakti is the central fount from where the true & soulful & a very moving music springs. Such music not only takes the artist, but even the listeners towards what can be called 'the God' feeling.

[@ashrithharith3474]

That shows the shift in the mindset over time. Music has become outwardly - we better come to terms with that.

[@raghavansadagopan3905]

Come out of this mindset, let the music start celebrating life not just bhakti.

[@sarathycpv]

This is really thoughtful. Thankyou MadRasana 💛

[@SrividyaRavi]

Thank you so much for this wonderful interview! A very helpful learning material! Requesting to continue such series with legends like Sowmya ma'am and the prodigies of today's Carnatic world like Mahesh Raghvan sir, Praveen Prathapan sir (The Flute Guy), Sid Sriram sir, Madhu Iyer ma'am, Saibruntha Arunthavashanmuganathan ma'am and other such musicians. Would like to learn how in the age when professional education entry dominated some parts of the society/ world that could have entailed in some 80's/ 90's kids having to shift focus to academics these musicians managed both their education and passion well balanced and have gained in-depth knowledge in Carnatic (or other classical forms of) music. They are also adept in the technical front. Determination and love for music is definitely a key, but would like to hear about their way of learning and practice. This young set of talent seem to be promising to take the Carnatic music art form that is so rich to the future and help preserve and spread it.Their share of experiences and advice/ suggestions would help the 80's/90's and very much the 2000's and future kids to pursue their love for an art despite academic pressure and that which would be a soul medicine throughout life for themselves and also something they could share with the world. Thank you so much once again! All the best!

[@arunsreenivasan2074]

None of the young people mentioned are prodigies of Carnatic music. In fact a lot of them aren’t even that major in the music scene in Chennai. They have their other fortes but calling them prodigies of Carnatic music is a disservice to Carnatic music.

[@KeerthanaR22]

Very interesting! Thanks for starting this!

[@kshirjag3540]

One with Dr. Jayanthi Kumaresh please..!?

[@ranjanichandu]

Yes !

[@ajithbharatvaaj7764]

Yes

[@ajithbharatvaaj7764]

Pretty please!!

[@AnSingAm]

Yes!

[@preethyivenkatesh3472]

Yes!

[@adithyasundar6476]

Nice conversation. Please do more such conversation. Preferably end with some composition - humble suggestion

[@MadRasana]

Thanks for the suggestion. We will keep that in mind. But we just let the Conversations take it's own path.

[@adithyasundar6476]

@@MadRasana yeah yeah got that. We expect more such conversations to happen.

[@simba8073]

The greatest of great MD Ramanathan was not conferred Sangita Kalanidhi because he refused to sell his self respect or pull strings. Like every Padma award nowadays the Kalanidhi award is procured by not some meritorius. Sowmya has long list of honours like judge on super singer for some three seasons her doctorate is on temperature effect of mrindagam output. Very interesting indeed.

[@vasukinagabhushan]

In western music, audience accept whatever music performers sings.

[@archmurali1108]

This was so awesome.

[@jrc120412]

Fantastic questions🔥

[@akhiljoban]

If you could kindly add English captions that’d be greatly appreciated!

[@pkrishnamurthy19]

Ma'am, Thank you for the candid chat

[@abimanyusrikanth8758]

Please please do one with Sanjay Subramanyan

[@vijayakrishnanaganoor9335]

What an interview!!

[@Uthrasampath]

You should include a ‘Rapid fire’ 😊

[@angelsun5799]

Very enlightening

[@MadRasana]

Glad you liked it. Check out other Conversations as well in this series.

[@jayaramj9630]

Do one with Sanjay subramanyam.

[@shamanthnag1]

The interview could be more scientific, more about music and the perspective on music. A musician's interview should be more intellectual than a trivial one and its the responsibility of the interviewer to bring it out, and its possible only if the interviewer is musically sound, a film critic can't handle it, unless he atleast does a shallow home works. I would elaborate on the point where she speaks on seeing colours which is something associated with 'perfect pitch' and how she imagines the same colour every time and if she hears the same ragam in her head when she sees the colour somewhere in a saree shop? Etc,. What a great interview it could have been with such a renowned and experienced artist with more intellectual questions on philosophy and science rather than a commoner's question??

[@kdbulls]

She talks about audience judging and coming with pre-convinced notions, but she has been condescending of participants and ruthless when being a judge. What goes around comes around lady!

[@chinni032]

Well! There is a difference between being an audience and a judge. As audience we go to enjoy the music but as a judge you have to pick the best performer among the participants of that day. One has to ruthless while judging to bring out the person who can set an example for others. Thats the job of a judge. And if someone goes to the concerts with pre-conceived notions then they are called critiques. Strictly speeking, we neither fall into audience nor critiques because we sometimes we shut every possible pre-conceived notions and enjoy the music as it is and at times we jump into that analytical space and become a staunch critique. It is all about how we perceive, isn't it?

[@laxsneha]

An audience doesn't need to have knowledge before making any comment, but a judge definitely needs to have the knowledge before making any comment. This was such a poor example of karma

[@abilashdeepak9057]

Baddy we want one with TM Krishna...

[@avimohan6738]

Indeed! That will be an interesting interview as well. Hope he talks about how he's the Carnatic concert format ( *starting* the concert with Tanam, etc.). TMK ftw.

[@mohancharlu9153]

As much as I love the concept, the initiative and the execution of this series premier, I do have some criticisms which I hope will be considered when making future episodes. Please do talk about the bigger issues of Carnatic music. Not just the intricacies and nuances and the finer details. Please go into the real ugliness of how the artform has been and is being practised and also the really big challenges ahead. Issues like the ones you just barely touched on in this interview like purity . Others that should really be discussed are Elitism , lack of diversity in audience, content, musicians , formats, concert spaces; market stagnation, Caste , gender, aging audiences, discrimination among musicians and instrumentalists , the me too movement, religiosity of the music, it's ugly history of sidelining the devadasi and isai vellalar communities, lack of significant contemporary, secular, and relevant compositions in the concert repertoire, lack of significant outreach programs or school education programs , dismal collaboration with other Indian and international music, nepotism, etc etc Please give much more time to such useful discourse rather than discussing superficial topics like musical grammar, training , music season etc etc You are a great critic and you've been so honest and critical with movies. Please do the same with carnatic. It's about time we break these so called hallowed walls of Carnatic. As much as people love to believe that this is God given music, its not. And I can see why people think that, because the music itself is so unimaginably beautiful. But it is man made and as with everything man made, it is deeply flawed. I love this music to death, but it has a difficult past, present and future . Unless we get real, we won't see our beautiful southern music flourish . I hope I didn't offend you and that you will view this constructively. Cheers 😊 PS- I know this sounds so TMKesque 😝but he does have a point and it certainly explains his popularity and his success in alleviating to some extent, a few of the issues I've mentioned.

[@vishakasuresh8550]

Awesome 😍😍

[@Uthrasampath]

This is great.

[@shreyasn3078]

the black and white thing is not at all good! it feels like an investigation rather than an interview. pls make it colorful. Like our music.

[@Gowtham.D]

Please give a thought on Trichur brothers. Will b a super hit

[@balakrishnanr6089]

very interesting,illuminating and interesting ! saipremi

[@avsendhilkumar]

கடேசி வரைக்கும் பாடவே இல்லை. what a kodumai sir இது ?

[@padmashankar5571]

Very nice. But, if you are non Tamil, you will miss the some important aspects.

[@adithyasalem5621]

True

[@malavikapillai3766]

Please do one with Flute Jayanth!

[@7jishnu]

Did baradwaj rangan part way with filim companion 😥😥

[@girishm5880]

Smart Lady

[@rampandian521]

Bombay Jayashri pls..!

[@AK-cf6sj]

Can you do one with Arivu from Castless Collective? I know you won't but still putting out the word.

[@narayananraghunathan2849]

Aum

[@narayananraghunathan2849]

Shambho

[@shaili237]

So interesting. Wish she would not keep lapsing into Tamil, one misses lots! Also wish the interviewer would hone in when an interesting concept is touched upon, instead of flitting fast from subject to subject. Good to explore let the flow happen lead to something else....

[@raghavansadagopan3905]

Why cant she lapse into Tamil. That's her language. I respect her for that. Do you take up with all the English news channels where both the media journalist and the soeakers lapse into Hindi?

[@bharathbhaskaran6710]

Criticism about critics😅😅😅

[@bharathmurali712]

Vague. I started disliking BR as he stopped being critique.

[@rajeshwardoraisubramania7138]

Then without grammar even donkey braying could claim it to b music.

[@nalaventhanarojunanveloo6893]

Aruna sairaam

[@Kuruvi777]

Never

[@gullapallisarada]

Interview in tamil

[@raghavanv3274]

Why don't this interview not in colour even after madam described about the colour much?

[@nairanjith]

Ha ha.. yes

[@arunachalamparthasarathy18]

A very average interview with plaintive questions. Did not pique my interest at all

[@venkatabharghavp6838]

I am unable to understand Tamil better make the conversation universal.

[@adithyasalem5621]

It is in English only with little tamil.

[@raghavansadagopan3905]

Sorry, she is a Tamil, she has done it spontaneously. Do you object to Hindustani musicians lapsing into Hindi or Urdu?