Academy keeps a promise
V. SRIRAM
| The Music Academy and the Tag Corporation have embarked on a unique exercise of making a rich collection available for listening. The digital library opens today. |
The collection has been built up by Mr. Chari over three decades.
BOON to music LOVERS: The entrance to the library (below) and the interior with Rajam’s painting adorning the wall.
Eighty years after its founding, the Music Academy is fulfilling one of its original objectives – that of forming and maintaining a library of music. With the inauguration of the TAG Digital Listening Archives at the Music Academy, Carnatic music rasikas will have a treasure trove of music at their disposal, all available at the touch of a finger on an electronic screen at the Music Academy premises.
Over the years, the Music Academy has steadily built up its archives. Recordings include concerts held under its auspices, lecture-demonstrations and speeches. In addition several private collections, including most notably, that of The Hindu’s G. Narasimhan’s, which was perhaps one of India’s finest, have been donated to the Academy.
But these have never been available to the public except for a brief while in the 1980s when through an arrangement with a private label, excerpts of concerts during the season used to be released as commercial tapes.
Of course, recordings of Music Academy concerts of various stalwarts have regularly done the rounds among music collectors and some are also available on the internet.
Past committees of the Academy have regularly spoken of their intention to get on with cataloguing and digitising the collection, but it is only now that intentions are being translated into action.
The process begins
The process of converting into digital format of around 6,000 hours of music has begun at the Music Academy.
Coinciding with this is the decision of R.T. Chari of Tag Corporation, to make available through the Music Academy to the public, around 6,000 hours of music available in his collection. These comprise 2,000 hours of music by late maestros, 1,500 hours of music by senior artists of today, 1,000 hours of performance by junior artists, 1,000 hours of special thematic concerts organised by Mr. Chari and others and 500 hours of lecture demonstrations.
None of these are commercially available recordings. The collection has been built up by Mr. Chari over three decades and comprises recordings of programmes he has organised and also recordings that he has sourced from other collectors.
The Music Academy and the Tag Corporation have embarked on a unique exercise for making this music available for listening.
The erstwhile exhibition space in the Academy premises, which used to house an art gallery, has been made over to the archives. In an aesthetically done up listening chamber, ten touch screen kiosks link up to a central server which houses all the music. The entire set of equipment, costing around Rs.15 lakhs, has been donated by Ramu Endowments, a charitable trust run by Mr Chari and his brother R.V. Gopalan in the memory of their father.
All other facilities, by way of furniture and lighting, costing a further amount of Rs.10 lakhs, have also been donated by Tag Corporation. The data-entry and digitisation have been done by employees of Tag Corporation.
User friendly
The software, created by Giri Trading, Chennai, allows for searches artist-wise and song-wise and provides details of raga, tala, composer and artist.
In addition, it allows listeners to select a full concert, opt for excerpts from a concert or build a bank of songs from various concerts by various artists and then listen to them, one by one.
The Academy has not yet made public the rules and regulations to be followed for usage of this listening archives. It is obvious that this will be a reference library with no downloading, copying or borrowing of music as such activities will be in violation of copyright laws.
To start with, around 1,000 hours of music will be made available. Further digitisation will go on till the middle of 2009 by which time, the entire Chari collection and the Music Academy’s archives will be in the server which has a capacity to hold around 15,000 hours of music. The Academy will enhance this capacity should the need arise.
The archives will be inaugurated by S. Rajam, artist, musician, musicologist and senior-most member of the Experts Committee of the Music Academy, today (December 12). The acting U.S. Consul General Frederick Kaplan will be the chief guest. Visitors to the Academy during the Music Season will be able to access the archives on an experimental basis. The listening facility is expected to be fully functional by February 2009.
A friendly staff will be in place to assist those who are unfamiliar with computer screens.
Visitors are welcomed by a large painting, executed by Rajam, depicting various composers through the ages. The air-conditioned area, with the portraits of the principal awardees of the Music Academy gazing benignly at the listeners, promises to become the gathering place for all Carnatic music lovers very soon.
And with Ariyakkudi, Musiri, MS and their likes singing into your ear literally, there is very little left to ask for!
(The author can be contacted at srirambts@gmail.com)
HIGHLIGHTS• 6,000 hours of music to be made available by February, 2009
• 10 touch screen kiosks link up to a central server
•The software allows for search by artist and song
• Large painting of various composers by Rajam add value
• The software provides details of raga, tala, composer and artist’s details
• It allows listeners to select a full concert or just few songs
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