A mix of Carnatic and Celtic
The sisters who are now one of the most recognisable names in city's Margazhi circuit are still students of the renowned vocalist A.S.Murali.
While Western music trinity that includes Bach, Beethoven and Mozart are celebrated throughout the world, the same is not the case with their contemporaries Thyagaraja, Muthuswami Dikshitar and Syama Sastri known as the ‘Trinity of Carnatic Music’, even though both forms deserve an equal audience and have striking similarities. In an attempt to revive this long-lost musical treasure and reach it to a global audience, twins Shruti Kumar and Sahana Kumar have produced a novel music project called The Celnatic Experience.
“The title, The Celnatic Experience was coined by the two of us, because we wanted to emphasise on the commemoration of Carnatic music and Celtic music. So this started as a project during our Masters study at Berklee College of Music in Valencia, Spain. The Celnatic Experience is an attempt to document the works of Muthuswami Dikshitar, notate them in staff notations and archive those using international musicians,” say the twins who are also popularly called, The Muscat sisters.
The project comprises of a coffee table book, an illustrated children’s book, a sing along CD and an audio CD with international musicians which has been mixed by Berklee alumni along with Shruti and mastered by Riley Urick, who has worked with world famous musicians like Akon, Lady Gaga, etc.
“These compositions are not similar to the usual Carnatic compositions by Muthuswami Dikshitar — these are simple compositions all in Sanskrit and have similar tunes compared to the Western ones. Like some tunes are similar to the British National Anthem and nursery rhyme ‘Twinkle Twinkle Little Star’. It’s cognitive learning and it will definitely help children to get into Carnatic music,” says Sahana Kumar, when asked about the illustrated book and the sing along CD for children. The coffee table book and children’s book contain the stories of the evolution of music, basic elements of Western music, Carnatic music, brief biography of the composer (Muthuswami Diskshitar) along with staff notations and Carnatic music notations.
They have presented this due to their predilection towards this field of art and this genre of music. “The faculty members liked it — after we finished our initial project and got good feedback from public there, once we performed for them and many wanted to buy it. That’s when we got an idea of coming up with a coffee table book on how the music came about and also added our CD in them,” Shruti adds, talking about the time when they realised the potential of the project.
The artists also wish to demystify the notion that Carnatic music is only for intellectual audience and present it in an innovative style, highlighting the similarities between Western and Eastern scales also serving as a platform through which people can appreciate this different style of music.
The sisters who are now one of the most recognisable names in city’s Margazhi circuit are still students of the renowned vocalist A.S.Murali. “Our dad was very interested in Carnatic music and it was all that we had heard during our childhood. We started learning Carnatic music from Sudha Ragunathan when we were six years old. We were also fortunate to get guidance from Bombay Jayashri after relocating to Chennai in 2006. And now we are learning from A.S. Murali,” reveals Sahana Kumar about their studenthood under eminent musicians.
As a new note in their musical journey begins with this project, the sisters also wish to conduct various workshops in south India and also at other cities across the world with Indian music fans.