#MadrasInMini | 16 and 17 | Festive, Celebratory Music of my City: Mangalya Vadyam and Chanda Melam My close friend from school got married today and it has been a great couple of days leading up to the wedding. South Indian weddings are vibrant on every front: colors, sounds and textures. This post is for the auspicious and celebratory accompaniment music found here. In Tamil culture, the nadaswaram (nada-“pleasing”, swaram-“note”; a traditional classical double reed wind instrument) is considered to be very auspicious and plays a key part in almost all Hindu weddings and temples of South Indian tradition. It is usually accompanied by a family of instruments called ‘mangala vaadhya’ (managala-“auspicious”, vaadhya-“instrument”). It’s usually played in pairs with a pair of drums called the ‘thavil’. I grew up listening to these renditions at weddings and other social events in my community, and the clarity of music and its beauty has only been a conscious reflection in the past couple of years. It is extremely nostalgic for me. The Chenda is a cylindrical percussion instrument used widely in a couple of states in South India. It is suspended from the drummer’s neck vertically. This instrument is famous for its loud and rigid sound, and is widely used as cultural and religious accompaniment to events and some dance forms. A ‘Chenda melam’ means percussion using chenda. The expert of chenda leads the ensemble; his position is in the middle. I have an extra special affinity to Chanda melam: I call it my ‘purifying music’ for when I need to shake anger, sadness or melancholy out of my system as I literally feel like it runs through my blood and bones, and shakes me to point of blankness that only acknowledges rhythm and the next beat. It was kind of cute and funny as both these ensembles were present at the wedding today (usually, it’s one or the other). It was almost a face-off competition between these two groups and I was there grinning at the happenings and dancing all the time. Even better is them thoroughly enjoying themselves! Of course, I was in internal heaven space. #Madras #ChendaMelam #MangalyaVadyam #localculture
