When music is meant for the divine, the artiste sings in the early hours of dawn, in a temple bathed in darkness, faintly illuminated by flickering oil lamps. The idea is to have the listeners and the musicians focus on the music. And this idea which took shape in the form of the Ekantha Sangeetha Seva in 2019 is VVS Murari’s, violinist and music entrepreneur, and the son of the legendary violinist V.V. Subramanyam. “Even the accompanists are very mindful about the volume at which they play so that they don’t overwhelm the main artiste”.
And true enough, everyone that is gathered is focused on the music. The main artiste can’t see the audience because he or she sits facing the deity. The audience can only see his or her back and barely see the rest of the musicians because it’s still dark. So, for the person attending the concert the experience is truly surreal. What you see are almost silhouettes and what you hear in the quiet of the morning is just music. None of the audience even as much as whispers for fear of distracting the musicians. So, anyone looking for a unique concert experience embedded in the flurry of the music festival of December or Margazhi Music Festival should go down to the Raghavendra Mutt of Mylapore. Very unlike the concerts which take place during this season in the numerous sabhas in bright light and to which audiences throng for various reasons with music being just one of them, the Ekantha Sangeetha Seva offers music for the sake of music.
Aisinganote 