Ready reckoner to your maestros

Amaan and Ayaan Ali's 50 Maestros, 50 Recordings is a guide to the masters of Indian music, and comes with a superb CD compilation of their music

Twins Amaan and Ayaan Ali Khan's smartly packaged book about Indian musicians showers adulation on their famous father Amjad Ali Khan while remaining respectful about his most formidable peer Ali Akbar Khan.

50 Maestros 50 Recordings looks so good that music lovers will find it difficult not to pick it up. But don't worry, at Rs 350, it's a worthy buy, if only for the music CD that comes glued to the last page. The book isn't bad either. It gives you a quick overview of the deities in the Indian classical music pantheon, and is sprinkled with some refreshingly candid personal observations.

Insiders and music lovers curious about artistic rivalries are likely to quickly flip to the pages about Ustad Amjad Ali Khan and Ustad Ali Akbar Khan, two of the most celebrated sarod maestros of our times, to see how the authors (also sarod players) have managed the comparison.

"What can you say about an icon whose very name means music to you? What do you write about a man for whom the world is music and music is the world?" they say of Amjad Ali Khan, while they mostly list out the occasions when they met Ali Akbar Khan, and finally balance it all out with "He (Ali Akbar Khan) left behind a legacy that is priceless. His teachings, his musical genius and his calibre are unparalleled."

But then, if they don't gush about Ali Akbar as they do about dad, they aren't always afraid to express their opinions either. They refer to Sharan Rani's claim that the sarod existed since 500 BC as "baseless" and having no historical or musical evidence. The sarod, they say, evolved from the Afghani rabab, and was modified in India by one of their forefathers. They praise the role of the guru, and say only a guru, and no formal institution, can produce a great performer.

Happily, Carnatic music is well represented in the book. No one will dispute the inclusion of Semmangudi, D K Pattammal, M S Subbulakshmi and Balamurali, but the exclusion of such giants as G N Balasubramanyam and K V Narayanaswamy will be noticed. Also, among violinists, the choice of L Subramaniam over Lalgudi Jayaraman is likely to evoke scepticism. But then, to be fair, it is never easy for musicians to write about musicians and make lists, and Amaan and Ayaan have pulled off a small miracle by compiling music of such sweep. Their writing is clearly aimed at the non-specialist, and can sometimes look sketchy. The introduction to Indian classical music shows journalistic ease. The choice of pieces is well thought-out (for example, Bhimsen Joshi's 1968 recording is intensely beautiful).

The book dedicates two to four pages to each musician, giving biographical details, and placing them in the context of the authors' own musical discovery. This is a representative way of introducing young people to the wonderful world of Indian classical music, and publishers Harper Collins combine marketing pizazz with a genuine desire to spread the art. An additional attraction is the photographs the book brings together. Getting copyright permissions from multiple record labels couldn't have been easy. Amaan and Ayaan write a brief note on each of the tracks in the albums they have culled their gems from, helpfully pointing in the direction of further listening and exploration.

With its colourful, classy cover, 50 Maestros 50 Recordings will definitely adorn your bookshelf. You'll enjoy the music, and hopefully, so will your kids.

Zany new proverbs on Twitter

The trending topic 'modern proverbs' is inspiring tweeters to tweak age-old aphorisms to sound funny and contemporary

For two days, Twitter was awash with gems of urban wisdom. The trending topic "modern proverbs" inspired tweeters to attempt variations on old proverbs and create zany new ones.

An example of the first variety is "History repeats itself" becoming "History retweets itself."

Many proberbs borrow from the vocabulary of tech, and social networking. "Give hashtag where hastag is due" takes off on "Give credit where credit is due," replacing 'credit' with the hash sign used by tweeters to recognise and promote an exciting topic. "What's in a user-name?" is a variation on Shakespeare's ubiquitous line "What's in a name?"

Television and popular culture are other big influences, as in @jhunjhunwala's witty proverb "Actions speak louder than Words but Arnab Goswami speaks louder than actions and words."

Thousands of 'modern proverbs' had appeared on the micro networking site before the tide started ebbing on Wednesday. Many tweeters were Indian, but they were not a majority as they were when the Nithyananda scandal broke.

Here are some I liked:

@mansigrover History retweets itself

@avinash_y Every day is a monday except saturday and sunday

@creatitwitty: Accents speak louder than words

@krishashok: The leopard cannot change his spots, unless Photoshop is involved

@vinod_raman: Tweet to live, but don't live to tweet

@eJeremy: Give hashtag where hashtag is due…

@Jhunjhunwala: Don't judge a book by its cover ,download the free PDF and then judge it

@jhunjhunwala Actions speak louder than Words but Arnab Goswami speaks louder than actions and words

@darshanp82: Love thy neighbour's Wifi connection.

@sujayendra: For every action, there is an equal and opposite government program

@The_Prachi: i m in a good shape. round is a shape.

@vinod_raman: Too many hooks spoil the blog

@boredtech: He who hath smelt it, surely must have dealt it

@sandsekh: make love, not mms

@c_aashish: One man's meat is another man's jail term under Section 377.

@shahstruck: "Man proposes, and woman disposes of his income".

@dharmeshg: If at first you don't succeed, go to the 'Help' menu

@OMGhumor: Tweet others the way you want to be tweeted.

@telljeeves: Roaming was not billed in a day

@teatattler: Google helps those who can't help themselves

@johnnypixel: Life will give you many challenges. Much of which can be outsourced to India

Cerebral music on violins and cello

The Madras String Quartet played Thyagraja and Vyasaraya, setting off the beauty of South Indian music against Western harmonies

The Madras String Quartet presented some fine, cerebral music at a three-day festival that concluded in Bangalore on Sunday, February 28.

Led by violinist V S Narasimhan, the group played 45 minutes of Western classical music, and followed it with half a dozen Karnatak compositions, adapted to the quartet style. Understandably, the southern Bangalore audience was more tuned to the second part of the concert, and responded with respectful applause after each composition.

If you are familiar with film music in the southern languages, there’s no way you could have missed hearing Narasimhan, even if you have never heard of him. He has played the lead violin in hundreds of films. His work with Ilaiyaraja, especially, ihas won him a following among more informed music lovers.Besides Narasimhan, the Madras String Quartet comprises V R Sekhar, B J Chandran, and Hemantraj Muliyil.

The quartet was formed in 1993, and has performed across India. If younger music lovers in Bangalore haven’t heard about them, it could be because the Madras String Quartet is no youth band, and they don’t play rock... Their music calls for serious listenership, and is a sure delight for anyone with even a passing familiarity with Indian and Western classical traditions.

At Sunday’s concert, they alternated slow compositions with brisk ones in the first part of their concert. They specialise in the music of the 18th and 19th centuries, particularly Haydn, Mozart, Beethoven and Schubert, and it would have helped if they had announced the names of the compositions they played.

The first composition they played in the Indian section was the simple Raaravenugopabala in raga Bilahari. With its happy, major-scale appeal, it energised listeners, and many started humming along (not such a good thing, since some were off-key!). The quartet then went on to play complex compositions of Muttuswamy Dikshitar and Thyagaraja, and concluded with the Vyasaraja composition Krishna nee begane baaro in raga Yaman Kalyani.

For most of their work, they kept the grammar of the raga intact, but in some passages, like in Evari bodha in raga Abhogi, they introduced harmonies using notes outside the raga. That sounded a bit too radical for ears tuned to the tonal restraint of Karnatak music. Overall, the performance was acoustically satisfying, showcasing genuine, sensitive musicianship. It sounded lovely most of the time, even if one detected a couple of uninspired moments.

The quartet’s music is niche, definitely not something less rigorous musicians can pull off. Narasimhan played most of the leads, and the others played shorter solos. Everything was notated, which means that it didn't have the improvisational expansiveness of a conventional Karnatak concert.

Sekhar’s cello had a seasoned, mellow feel, and his touch was exquisitely delicate. (Incidentally, he is the son of the Carnatic violin wizard Kunnakudi Vaidyanathan). Together, the four musicians played authentic, grace-oriented Carnatic music, setting off its beauty against the harmonic richness of the Western classical idiom. It was beautiful.