Bach's 48 & S. Balachander's Melakartas

These two are the towering achievements in Western Classical Music & Indian Carnatic Music respectively.

The musical octave being divided into 12 semitones, there will be 24 scales if both major & minor scales are reckoned. Johann Sebastian Bach composed a set of Preludes & Fugues in each of the 24 scales in 1722. Twenty years later, he composed another set of 24, making in all 48. They were named "The Well Tempered (tuned) Klavier (keyboard instrument)" & helped to popularise equal temperament over just temperament. Instead of being mere academic exercises, they turned out to be supremely varied artistic creations, known as  "The Keyboard Player's Bible." Svetoslav Richter's set is widely acclaimed.

Carnatic (& Hindusthani) Music also has broadly 12 semi-tones in an octave. A melakarta raga has seven notes (included in the 12 semi-tones). Keeping the fourth (Madhyama) & the invariable fifth (Panchama) constant, by permutations & combinations, one can obtain 36 melakarta ragas for Shuddha Madhyama & another 36 for Prati Madhyama ragas, making a total of 72 melakarta ragas. Veena maestro S.Balachander decided to record all 72 melakarta ragas in alapana & thanam only, omitting the pallavi. In spite of hurdles posed by the record company, he successfully managed to complete the project (spread over 12 vinyl LP records) between 1971-76. A project of this magnitude had never been attempted by an Indian musician & they remain a connosieur's delight.

Planning Behind S. Balachander's Recording of Melakarta Ragas

The 72 Melakarta Ragas comprise 36 Shuddha Madhyama (F) Ragas & 36 Prati Madhyama (F#) Ragas, the latter differing from the former only by substituting Prati Madhyama for the Shuddha Madhyama of the former. Examples are Dheera Shankarabharana (Bilawal in Hindustani) & Mecha Kalyani (Yaman in Hindustani) differing only in the fourth.

Further these 72 are divided into twelve chakras, namely Indu, Netra, Agni, Veda, Bana, Rutu, Rishi, Vasu, Brahma, Disi, Rudra & Aditya. The 12 chakras each contain different combinations of the second & third notes in the purvanga (first half) & the sixth & seven notes in the uttaranga (second half) of the raga, the natural fourth being common to the first 36 & the sharpened fourth for the second 36, the first & fifth being common to all.

The vainika has arranged the ragas on each LP so that they belong to different chakras to provide variety but share the same Madhyama so that ragas having different Madhyamas do not appear on the same LP. Also some ragas are presented mainly in Alapana & some in Tanam, to make them listener-friendly.

Gustav Mahler & Children

Gustav Mahler was one of the few composers who used Children's Chorus in his symphonies. 

In his third symphony, in the fifth movement ("What the Angels tell me") the children's Chorus enter singing "Bimm, Bamm" accompanied by bells. In the fourth symphony, though children's voices are not used, a soprano sings about a child's view of heaven. 

In the eighth, "The Symphony of a Thousand", in the first part "Veni Creator Spiritus", a Gregorian Chant in Latin, children sing "Gloria sit Patri Domines" (Glory be to the Lords) & in the second, set to the final part of Goethe's "Faust", they sing "Ich spur soeben." (I am just tracking).

In 1904, he composed "Kindertotenleider" "Songs on the death of children", despite his wife Anna's pleading not to tempt providence. In 1907, his daughter Anna, aged four years, passed away due to scarlet fever, justifying her mother's premonitions.

Four Great Polymaths

Hildegard of Bingen (1098-1179) was a Benedictine nun, who became an Abbess. She had mystical visions, including that of "The Cosmic Egg" which is strikingly similar to the Hiranyagarbha of the Rigveda. She was also one of the first composers in the Western Classical Music canon who composed "Symphonia". In the recorded classical music repertoire, hers is the earliest name. She created a new language, Lingua Ignota. She also wrote "The Book of Simple Medicine", a compendium of knowledge on herbs, trees, animals, gemstones, metals & rivers, in each case showing the use of these natural objects for human health & well-being & "The Book of Compound Medicine", dealing with the human body, health & the cure of ailments.

Leonardo da Vinci (1452-1519) is primarily known as the creator of "Mona Lisa" & "The Last Supper". But he was very much more than that. The noted physicist, Fritjof Capra, in his books "The Science of Leonardo" & "Learning from Leonardo" has explained lucidly, his various other achievements. These include his pioneering studies in Fluid Dynamics, Geology, Botany, Anatomy, Mechanics &  Aerodynamics. More importantly he was probably one of the first to adapt a systemic, holistic view of life as opposed to the Cartesian separation of body & mind.

Benjamin Franklin (1706-1790) is well remembered as one of the founding fathers of the USA. He was the youngest son of his father's 17 children. To the end of his life, he identified himself as a "Printer". But as Leonardo above, he was infinitely more than that. His life is chronicled by Walter Isaacson in "Benjamin Franklin - An American Life", the definitive biography & in "A Benjamin Franklin Reader", an annotated, comprehensive selection of his writings. Franklin initiated the admirable Public Library System of USA & was the first to install street lighting. He also held the top post office job. Some of his scientific inventions are bifocals, copperplate press design, lightning rod, storage battery & urinary catheter.

Rabindranath Tagore (1861-1941) was the youngest of the 13 children of his father. He was primarily a poet & was the first Asian to win the Nobel Prize for Literature for his collection of poems "Gitanjali". He was also a writer, playwright, composer who pioneered a new musical form called "Rabindra Sangeet" (after him), philosopher, painter & educationist who started the Vishwabharati University in Santiniketan. Films have been made based on his stories by both Satyajit Ray & Tapan Sinha. Ray, in addition, has made a one hour documentary on Tagore, which, in Ray's words, "was a back-breaking job & took as much time as two or three feature films!"

Paragons of Supreme Love

In Sophocles' "Antigone", King Cleon prevents his nephew Polynices' body being given a proper burial because he had rebelled against him. Polynices has two sisters, Antigone & Ismene. Though Ismene is inclined to obey her uncle, Antigone protests in these memorable lines:

One husband gone, I might have found another,

Or a child from a new man in first child's place,

But with my parents hid away in death,

No brother, ever, could spring up for me.

Such was the law by which I honoured you.

So she gives him a proper burial & sacrifices her life.

In George Eliot's "The Mill on the Floss", the siblings Tom & Maggie are very close, which continues into adulthood. When during a flood, Tom is entrapped in a building, Maggie takes a boat to rescue him, but both are washed away. "In their death, they were not divided" says Eliot.

In a story in Mahabharata, the legend of Savitri & Satyavan is recounted. In spite of knowing Satyavan's impending early demise, Savitri marries him. When the God of Death arrives, she impresses him with her previous austerities & argues with him successfully for a boon of Satyavan's life.

Here it is to be noted that "sibling bonding" as exemplified in the first two cases is no less strong than the "marital bonding" in the third.

Rabbit World - Utopian or Dystopian?

Even though in real life, rabbits appear cute, cuddly & immensely lovable, in fiction, only the "The Little Grey Rabbit", created by Alison Uttley, portrays her as a lovable, caring mother figure, who lives with & takes care of her friends Hare & Squirell. The books are illustrated by Margaret Tempest & beautifully produced.

In the Uncle Remus stories by Joel Chandler Harris, the Brer Rabbit character has almost no redeeming virtues. He is vicious, sadistic & revengeful, going out of his way to cheat, bamboozle & otherwise harm his fellow creatures, mostly his natural predatory enemies, Brer Fox & Brer Wolf. Even Enid Blyton, the famous children's author, wrote many books on Brer Rabbit, one of which was correctly called "Brer Rabbit's a Rascal" which couldn't be more correct!

In Richard Adam's "Watership Down", some rabbit warrens (General Woundwort's) is shown to be organised like a human police state, with plenty of violence & cruelty. Even though the structure is classically inspired by Homer & Virgil, the military background of the author comes to the fore, when he describes the forays, attacks & battles between rival rabbit groups.