10th Feb 2019
Excerpts from Arunji's address to the music Conservatory:
“What we pass off as animal sounds and chirpings of birds, do in fact, contain the treasure of music. For instance in the sapta swaras, Sa (Shadja) originated from Peacock and Ri ( Rishab) from the Buffalo; Ga (Gandhar) from the Goat and Ma (Madhyama) from the Stork and so on. Such sound vibrations from Nature influenced the formation of ragas which in turn could impact nature as well as seen when Tansen lit the diyas in his Emperor’s Court by invoking Raag Deepak. When the temperature began to soar high, he commended his daughter to sing Raag Megh Malhar which brought down the showers and doused the fire.
Muthuswamy Dikshithar from the celebrated Carnatic Musical Trinity brought rains for the parched lands and thirsty throats in Ettayapuram with his rendition of Raag Amritvarshini. Mozart's diary confirms that he purchased a starling as a pet after hearing the bird sing snatches from his Piano Concerto!
We recall the several satsangs when during our renditions in praise of Karthikeya, scores of peacocks would dance away spreading their feathers; otherwise naughty and restless monkeys would sit quietly in meditative state when Ram dhuns were sung.”
