Aug 22 2026 to Aug 22 2026 7 p.m.

Where

Bangalore International Centre

7 4th Main Rd, Stage 2, Domlur 560071

Event Description

How do you fill a temple town with music, outdoors, with no electricity?

The answer is a two-and-a-half-foot cone of hardwood with a double reed, played with circular breathing so the sound never stops. Paired with the tavil, a drum of comparable force, the periya melam, the big ensemble, was built to be heard across a moving procession, over crowds, in open air, for hours.

This listening session spotlights the nadhaswaram, the mangala vadyam, or auspicious instrument, not merely an accompaniment to a sacred occasion but understood as a fundamental part of what makes it sacred. The families who played it, the Isai Vellalar, were classified under the Sudra varna and considered ritually polluting, even as no temple ceremony could proceed without their music. When the microphone arrived in the mid-twentieth century, the acoustic problem the instrument was built to solve disappeared. T.N. Rajarathnam Pillai, the tradition’s greatest player, responded by redesigning it, a longer body, a lower pitch, tone for carrying power.

The session aims to help listeners hear gamaka, the sliding ornamentation that gives a raga its identity, most audible on the nadhaswaram’s fretless pipe, and traces the instrument’s global cousins, from the Turkish zurna to the Chinese suona, closing with Sheik Chinna Moulana, the Muslim vidwan from a three-century lineage who became Asthana Vidwan at Srirangam and Tirupati.

Recordings are drawn from the Archive of Indian Music, Smithsonian Folkways and other archival sources, with acknowledgement from the stage.

BIC’s Listening Room Sessions are an opportunity to come together, listen to and discover new music, refine old tastes and share influences, stories and memories.

In collaboration with:

Deep Notes is a platform cultivating listening literacy — curated listening experiences, contextual music discussion and cultural dialogue. It works from the position that listening is a practice that can be taught, and that attention is a skill worth building deliberately.

Venue: Library
Facilitator

Goutham Iyengar
Music Curator & Founder, Deep Notes
Goutham Iyengar is a music curator, arts manager, and A&R professional, and founder of Deep Notes, a platform cultivating listening literacy through curated listening experiences and cultural dialogue, built on the position that listening is a practice that can be taught. Its research-led sessions span jazz, blues, Indian classical, psychedelic rock, and music from across the world. He has worked across international cultural institutions, independent venues, and the startup ecosystem, and programmes events at Ram’s Musique, a Bangalore vinyl store. He is also co-founder of Flowt, a platform for coffee and cultural experiences.