A small benefit performance in memory of Tanjore Ranganathan and Tanjore Viswanathan, Indian musicians and brothers who taught at the University, took place in the World Music Hall on Tuesday. Oct. 5th. The opening event in the weekend-long Navaratri Festival, the performance benefited the Jon B. Higgins Memorial Fund, which supports the University’s South Indian music and dance departments.
Former students gathered around pictures of Ranganathan and Viswanathan, singing and playing the instruments their mentors once taught.
The performers, a mixture of alumni from Wesleyan and other campuses the brothers taught at, sat barefoot on a rug and performed with such diverse instruments as the ghatam (a pot-like percussive instrument that is pressed against the performer’s bare belly while being beaten) and the kanjira (a kind of Indian tambourine).
Ranganathan and Viswanathan came from a long line of hereditary dances and musicians.
Raganathan was known for playing the mridangam, a long percussive instrument laid across one’s lap and used mainly for accompaniment.
Viswanathan was a flutist and a vocalist who received the highest award given to a South Indian musician, the Sangita Kalanidhi (“Treasure of Musical Art”) from the Madras Music Academy. He established the annual Navaratri festival at Wesleyan in 1976.
Navaratri is a major Hindu festival lasting nine nights with many music and dance concerts.
Raganathan passed from prolonged illness in 1987. Viswanathan suffered a fatal heart attack in 2002.
The concert ran a little bit less than two hours. Thirteen pieces in all were performed, ranging from late 18th century songs to the opener, which was written in the 1920s.
Higgins was a musician who both attended and taught at the University. After teaching at York University for a time, he returned to Wesleyan in 1978 as a professor of music and Director of the Center for the Arts. He was taught by Ranganathan as a student, and later went to India on a Fulbright scholarship to learn from Viswanathan. His life was tragically cut short in 1984 by a hit-and-run driver.
Audience members seemed to appreciate both the entertaining and educational aspects of the performance.
“It was nice to get the structure, so next time I’m listening to something I’ll be able to pick it apart,” said Erik Youngdahl ’10. “Usually it’s indecipherable, but now I feel like I’ll be able to really involve myself and know what’s going on.”
Michelle Garcia ’10 agreed that the performance was a helpful primer in South Indian music.
“I’m not amazingly familiar with south Indian music, but now I want to be,” she said. “It’s definitely an experience I would recommend for anyone.”
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