Carnatic Music, it is open source
Few weeks ago, an announcement by young Vidwan T.M.Krishna to withdraw from the famous Chennai December season shocked a lot of rasikas, stirred a controversy in the (English) media, a few murmurs in the corridors of Sabhas. So far it has not shown any signs of becoming a great controversy to hit the Carnatic Music scene since the Tamil Isai controversy in the mid-twentieth century. Chennai music season, though a political by-product of Independence Movement, survived on the strength of great musicians, waned a little over 70s & 80s, revived in the 90s, and developed in the last two decades as one of the largest global cultural festival. The revival since 90s, explosion in the number of Sabhas, increasing number of day long concerts, great number of young performers, good amount of money have been a result of few things – one large corporate sponsorships, NRI money and enthusiastic crop of young artists from India and a few NRIs. One of the complaints Krishna makes is abou...