Everything goes still (2)

"Except the violin, which is imported from the West, the others are all original Indian instruments for Carnatic music," H.N. Bhaskar, the violinist said, "and we also adapted the way of playing violin when it joined our Carnatic music."

"The role of all the instruments is supporting the lead vocal," Bhaskar added, "It is usually the vocalist who leads and decides the general mood and structure of the whole performance, and we basically shadow the vocalist. However, improvisation takes a major part within our performance, so we don't just follow, but always have interactive conversations between the vocalist and the players, and also among different players."

Fascinating interaction

On the stage, the interaction between V.V. Ramana Murthy (the mridangam player) and Giridhar Udupa (the Ghatam player) is fascinating. Since mridangam and ghatam are both percussion instruments, the fast speed the players beat makes the scene look like a fierce competition.

"However... our improvisations must adhere to certain rhythmic patterns, which we call 'tala.' And [they] are the foundations of improvisation and composition in Carnatic music. Any Carnatic instrument players must learn those talas before learning any instrument," Giridhar Udupa said.

"Those talas contain strong logical relationships inside, which are just like mathematics," Murthy added, "When we are performing, those rhythmic patterns will be divided into certain parts, everyone in the group is in charge of different parts and also, at the same time, must connect with others very naturally."

"Therefore, as a Carnatic musician, you must have strong logical capability and statistic sense," Murthy said.

Most members from Jayashri ensemble are from musical families in India, including Jayashri herself. And many young Indians began to learn traditional Indian music from their gurus since they were in their childhood.

"'Guru,' means both teacher and guide in our religion. They not only transmit religious doctrine or experiential wisdom, but also traditional music to us by word of mouth," Jayashri said.

Now, Jayashri is the guru of two young Indian girls who followed her since they were 11 years old. They played two tanpuras as vocal accompaniment in Jayashri's ensemble.

"Even if without the plan of using music [to make] a living, as long as conditions permit, our parents in India still hope for us to learn traditional music, which has become a tradition in India. And now, there are more and more platforms and opportunities for young people to show their talents in traditional music," Chitra Poornima Sathish, one of Jayashri's students said.