A world-renowned Indian violinist, composer, and conductor, Subramaniam, helped us trace the evolution of music listening and shared memories of the simple life of his boyhood years in Chennai.
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Fleeing Sri Lanka With Nothing But Violins in 1958
The anti-Tamil pogrom in 1956, also known as the Gal Oya riots, gained momentum when Subramaniam was just a young boy, and two years later, his family was forced to flee Jaffna, where they lived at the time. Unfortunately, they left in such a hurry that they did not have time to take all their belongings. Subramaniam recounted how they fled with nothing but clothes on their backs and violins in their hands in a previous interview.
They returned to India and settled in the city of Chennai, which had become the capital of Tamil Nadu only two years ago, in 1956. Chennai was bustling with action back in the mid-50s. More labourers were migrating from villages in the hope to find work in the city, and the middle class were employed in government posts or private firms, while the few rich already had telephones in their homes. It also had a lively music scene. Therefore, Subramaniam’s father soon began teaching Music. Subramaniam, too, received regular and unwavering training from his father, and during his free time, he explored the beaches of Chennai — his boyhood Eden.
“I grew up when Chennai was still Madras. We didn’t have many recreational activities back then, but we found simple joys in mundane things. Walks to Marina beach with my father was one of my favourite activities as a child, and I loved the time shared with my family over simple home-cooked meals. Unfortunately, these moments of togetherness are slowly disappearing from our lives nowadays, as we are all so concerned with our virtual presence and are always distracted by our phones,” said Subramaniam.
“Some of the greatest saints like Shankaracharya lived in our country, and even today, if you travel to those ancient temples in the Southern states, you get a glimpse of that ethos. If you sit quietly in those spaces, you gain perspective; their thousand-year-old history inspires you. Places like these make me proud to be an Indian. Because I perform abroad quite often, I have been advised to take up American citizenship many times, but there isn’t anything that would make me give up India,” added the musician.
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Purab Aur Paschim
As Subramaniam grew up, despite his keen interest in playing the violin, his parents insisted that he completed his studies, and therefore, he finished his MBBS degree and got himself registered as a doctor before embarking on the United States (California)to do a masters in Music.
“Those days, the music profession was not viewed as an economic prospect in India, and to be honest, the perception was also partly true. Unless you worked in the All India Radio or a college or school as a teacher, you could not be sure of what your future may be. So people generally didn’t want to deal with this uncertainty and wanted something more financially viable so that they can settle down in life, get married and have children,” recalled Subramaniam, and then added that he wasn’t willing to settle.
Subramaniam said that the US was, as it is still, seen as the land of possibilities, and even during his college years, many Indians migrated to the United States in the hope of a better life.
“In the west, the approach to Music was very different from what it was in India. They had big composers, the orchestra culture was on the rise, and there were dedicated schools for Orchestra members. They could learn to play any instrument they liked. In India, no such resources were available. While the remuneration for such gigs was fairly decent in the US, in India, the Orchestra scene was so new that it was impossible to make a living out of it,” he pointed out.
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However, the lack of resources did not hold Subramaniam back.”I had a problem understanding people’s accent in California, and a lot of rich kids from Hollywood were there. I also felt very homesick and wanted to finish everything and come back to India. Therefore, within nine months, I finished all my required assignments and works, but I had to wait one extra year because the master’s certificate was handed only after the end of two years. So, I stayed back and worked there as a part-time faculty,” Subramaniam shared.
How Technology Impacted The Process of Music Making
Subramaniam said that as India advanced, the way music is made and listened to also changed over the years.
“As a stage composer, in the 70s and 80s, I had to physically write in a notebook each and every note for all the instrument players. Needless to say, that it was a difficult and tedious job, and I was relieved to see that change with the advent of computers in our country,” said Subramaniam.
Although Rajiv Gandhi brought computers to India in a bid to modernize the country in the early 80s, Subramaniam wasn’t introduced to the new tech till much later, when his wife, Kavitha Krishnamurthy, showed him how to use it to make Orchestra music notes.
“There are several softwares available now, which reduces the amount of time required to write a score for the Orchestra. So, what typically took somewhere around three to six months to be handwritten back in the days, can now be done in a week’s time, and one can even edit mistakes in these softwares, which is such a relief,” he explained.
Apart from Orchestra, technology also impacted the way we make Music, pointed out Subramaniam.
“Previously, a collaboration between two artists meant in-person meetings, going to a studio and recording, and then mixing separate instruments. It was an elaborate and intricate process. But, due to the lockdown, what has happened is we have learned to collaborate from different geographical locations, bridging the distance between us physically, and we have done several projects in this way, which shows how digitization has revolutionized music-making,” he said.
What has also changed is the way we listen to music. The evolution of music listening technology has been relatively quick, and within a decade or so, old technology has been replaced by a new one.
From LP records used in the ’50S to cassettes, and the CD — there had been a variety of options previously, but with free online streaming, most of this technology has been replaced.
“I agree that in a digital age everyone is downloading and streaming music, but that doesn’t mean other forms have become obsolete,” pointed out Subramaniam and added that even today people show up with old LPs and vinyl at concerts to take his autographs, which means that just because these technologies aren’t popular with the masses doesn’t mean they have gone out of style.
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