“Sitting down to write a piece of music is a foreign concept to me. To me, the music just floods my senses, and I can hear the instruments play to form a melody,' says L Subramaniam.

As the violin reached for his shoulder and became an extension of himself, making melodies at the slightest movements of his wrist, notes rose and fell in tandem with his eyebrows.

The crowds fell silent as violinist L Subramaniam’s music flooded the ground in front of the historic Red Fort, drowning every other sound in its intense unspoken emotions.

Subramaniam was in New Delhi for the recently concluded 9th edition of Bhilwara Sur Sangam, organised by the LNJ Bhilwara Group earlier this month at the Red Fort. 

The evening went from the fervent beats of Subramaniam’s ‘Indian Express’ composition to his son and fellow violinist Ambi’s ‘Midnight Musings,’ that hung heavy in the evening air like a lament of a lover scorned and so on to the rapturous rendition, 'Spanish Wave,' combining the festive flamenco beats with Indian classical raga. 

Wordless but not without soul, Subramaniam’s music reflected upon the faces as a smile would flutter in one corner of the crowd, a twinkle of a tear in another.

The notes of pain and joy in his music come from a deeply personal space as the process of writing music has been akin to an “emotional journey” for Subramaniam throughout his career, he told Firstpost in an email interaction.

“Sitting down to write a piece of music is a foreign concept to me. To me, the music just floods my senses, and I can hear the instruments play to form a melody. There have been countless instances where I’ve composed music to match my emotional journey,” the 74-year-old said.

It was such an instance when Subramaniam wrote 'Fantasy,' after the death of his mother and his "hesitance to write any kind of music was peeking through."  The constant exposure to the Vedic chants during the 13 days of 'preta-karma' inspired him to write a composition dedicated to her.

“The music that I wrote for her was inspired by those chants, but not only did I convey my pain in that music, I also expressed my father’s grief about losing his spouse.“

He wrote another such piece after the passing of his father and teacher, legendary violinist V Lakshminarayana.

Subramaniam believes to be able to connect with emotions and reflect those in one’s music resonates with the human experience. 

The Padma Bhushan violin virtuoso holds a medical degree, which he says helped him compose music, gain an alternate perspective on acquiring knowledge, and break the predefined boundaries of a particular form of art.  “The subjects that I’d submerged myself in, be it Biology, Anatomy, and especially Psychology, helped me compose my music across a wide range of genres. 

“Judging and critiquing a piece of art presented in front of you is a very scientific process. So is knowing the limitations of a particular form of art, and breaking past those limitations is something I’d learned from my days in medicine."

The violin maestro was joined by an exceptionally talented group of musicians, including his son and fellow violinist Ambi Subramaniam, and guitarists Alwyn Fernandes and Keith Peters among six others on keyboard, mridangam, tabla, and drums.

It was at the age of six that he first took to stage for a concert in Sri Lanka, where his father was a visiting professor.  Over the last 68 years that Subramaniam has performed publicly, he has shared the stage with some of the biggest names Western classical music, including Lord Yehudi Menuhin, Stéphane Grappelli, Stevie Wonder, and Jean-Pierre Rampal to name a few.

Even after a countless number of collaborations with Western classical music legends, having written compositions by "weaving ragas into orchestral symphonies," Subramaniam would choose Indian classical music if he were to go back to his training days.

“ Playing classical music is all about being in that headspace that brings about a sense of spirituality and piousness. The rich history of our music, along with the significance of the Vedas in its conceptualisation, has helped me build my foundation no matter what genre I have delved into. 

“Weaving ragas into orchestral symphonies has been an unparalleled experience. If I were to go back to my training days, I would choose classical music time and again,” he said.

Talking about the younger generation of musicians, Subramaniam feels there is a lack of dedication as a lot of musical aspirants are more focused on the right instrument, and not enough on practising it.

“Things used to be a little different when I was practising. People dedicated their whole lives to practice, and it wasn’t just a one or two-year tryst with music. It was a journey, one that involved practice, dedication, and eventually performing on stage till they’d gained some notoriety,” he said.

It is the music events like Bhilwara Sur Sangam and Lakshminarayana Global Music Festival, he said, that give a platform to aspiring musicians to judge their talent from a global perspective.  “We’ve been conducting the Lakshminarayana Global program, wherein a student is judged by their practical prowess. We’re also designing a broader scope of education by training students in Global and Indian Classical Music. So by performing at the Bhilwara Sur Sangam, we are encouraging people at all stages of their music careers to look at the global performance aspect of music,” Subramaniam said.

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