Commemorating the centenary of the doyen TR Mahalingam, popularly known as Flute Mali, Museum of Performing Arts (MOPA) organised a 3-day exhibition and celebration on his life and music. On the inaugural day of this celebration, Viduṣī Sikkil Mala Chandrasekhar presented a concert in tribute to the Mahāvidvān.

She was accompanied by Bombay Śrī R Madhavan on the Violin, Neyveli Śrī R Ramkumar on Mṛdaṅgam and Śrī DV Venkatasubrmaniam on Ghaṭam. The concert was both a musical learning experience and a lesson on various small intricacies of Mali sir’s music and how it has impacted further generations.

The concert was a tribute to his music with respect to the pieces presented. The concert was presented at 5-kaṭṭai (Śruti G). The Viduṣī stated that generally music on the flute is presented at a lower pitch, but Mali sir presented his music in the characteristic higher pitched flute which became synonymous with him. She explained that traditional Carnatic flute concerts are presented only with one flute and all octaves are played with it. As the shruti becomes higher, the flute’s length and spacing between the holes in the flute decreases, making it more difficult to play in comparison to a lower-pitched flute. But this was an aesthetic choice made by him for acoustic reasons according to her opinion, as modern acoustic arrangement would not have been available in temples and small spaces where he began his career as a youngster.

The concert began with a grand rendition of Viribhōṇi, with the combination of the high-pitched flute and iraṇḍām kālam playing creating an electric atmosphere from the start. This varṇa is also famously known to be learnt and played in 3 speeds, by Mali sir on his own, in his childhood. After this rendition, the Viduṣī took some time to explain about his techniques and innovations. I have tried my best to explain it below.

Flute as an instrument was not played solo or as the main instrument till Śrī Sarabha Sastri brought it to the forefront, which was carried on by Palladam Śrī Sanjeeva Rao. This technique used straight fingering i.e. the fingers would not cross each other while moving between the holes of the flute. This music would be a very straight-note based approach. Mali sir as a child could not use his small fingers for this style of playing and hence started innovating using the cross-fingering technique, where the fingers would cross each other to move between the holes while playing. This opened up a lot of scope for gamaka-playing. She also explained that Tiruppamburam Śrī Swaminatha Pillai, who belonged to a Nāgasvaram-playing family but took to the flute as his main instrument, moved the style of flute playing more and more closer to the sustained note-playing and anusvara techniques of the Nāgasvara bāṇi, which Mali sir took further by moving the style as close to vocal music as possible.

There was also an interesting point about using the body to produce gamaka-s on the flute. Similar to the voice, the flute also requires blowing from the nābhi but without controlling the breath through the vocal cords, it is brought to the pipe of the flute and then controlled using the fingers. Consider a rāga with Antara Gāndhāra (G3) – Śuddha Madhyama (M1) combination (such as Śaṅkarābharaṇam, Nīlāmbari, Khamās etc) – the kampita gamaka between these svara-s will have an oscillation on the Madhyama, which when we try singing naturally will lead to an oscillation of our head. Similarly, while playing this gamaka on the flute, an oscillation of the head helps in producing the gamaka. Another example is lifting the head while playing high octave notes that we can see Nāgasvara artistes doing, the same head movement is required in flute as well. It was Mali sir who brought these ideas into playing, which has now taken a prominent role in learning the instrument.

The next piece of the concert was Santānagōpālakṛṣṇam in Khamās. The Ālāpana completely eschewed the usage of Kākali Niṣāda (N3) except at the very end when she played that note, leading to a lot of āhā-s from the audience. 

This was followed by a beautiful Kāpi Ālāpana. As a student of music, I have listened to Mali sir’s renditions of ‘Mīvalla Guṇadōṣam’ n-number of times on online platforms. This ālāpana by Mala ma’am – be it the phrases used, or the long sustained notes, or surprise notes appearing and striking the audience – was a most appropriate tribute. This was followed by a quick rendition and svaraprastāra in Mīvalla.

‘Evari Māṭa’ in Kāmbhōji formed the centre piece of the concert. In the course of explaining, she mentioned two points which were demonstrated succinctly, especially in this piece. One was the strength of the blowing which Mali sir was trained in by his father, by using heaps of sand found in the beaches of Nagapattinam, where he was brought up. The other was how he shifted to the corresponding lower octave of an upper octave saṅgati to avoid the screechiness of the high-pitched flute, also adding a certain magic when the transitions keep happening. 

A short rendition of ‘Gōvardhana Giridhara’ in Darbāri Kānaḍā was followed by a brief ālāpana with lot of atypical phrases and the jāvali ‘Sāramaina’ in Behāg. As the song flowed, sudden flourishes at multiple points led to a lot of exclamations from the listeners. The concert concluded with a very traditional Ponnaiah Pillai Tillānā in Śaṅkarābharaṇam.

The Viduṣī mentioned that three great flute players of the recent past – Mali Sir, Viduṣī-s Kunjumani-Neela (Sikkil Sisters) and Vidvān N Ramani were all related to each other through their grandparents, and the fact that each of them established themselves with their own styles and identity of music shows the immense scope of the vādya and vidvat.