They won’t let the music fade away

What is an oboe? Or how about a tuba? If your answer is a befuddled, blank expression, Narayan Swamy, conductor, Bangalore School of Music Chamber Orchestra and music teacher at Frank Anthony Public School (FAPS) has been witness to such reactions for decades now. “How can people be interested in something they have no clue about?” he retorts to the question about the popularity of Western Classical music in the city.

Even at Bangalore School of Music (BSM), where he is the director, many parents first ask if their child can learn saxophone, because that’s the only instrument, they perhaps know of, he speculates.

That’s exactly why his music lessons at FAPS mean he carries a different instrument to class each time. “I show up with a trombone to class, for example,” he says. And it’s a technique that has worked. Not only does FAPS have one of the best brass bands, it has also played with the Calcutta Symphony Orchestra.

But there’s always a lengthy waiting line of students eager to join in, he adds. For the man called ‘NS’ or Maestro, the journey with music began when he was two years old and starting learning Carnatic music. But it was at his school, St Joseph’s Boys’ High School, that his desire to play an instrument came to the fore.

“I must have been about 10 years old and the instrument I picked up was the piccolo in the school band. It’s a difficult instrument and shouldn’t really be given to children,” he says. Even after decades, he’s quick to attribute his motivation to the teachers in St Joseph’s. “Father Rodriguez, Father Arthur Rasquinha and Father Hilary Perera encouraged me to take up Western music,” he says.

The most important lesson, however, is to listen. “‘Your first teacher is your ear’, I tell the students,” he says. It is very important, therefore, to “cultivate your ears,” for music, he
emphasises. Music also teaches humility. “Music is progressive and you never know enough. When you listen to the works of the great masters, you begin to understand how little you really know,” he says.

Despite the Maestro’s effort and dedication to music, he laments the lack of finding people who can play wind instruments, an important component of many great compositions. Finding sponsors is yet another difficult task, he acknowledges.
But whatever maybe the impediments, a few like NS and those at the BSM are determined about one thing — they won’t let the music fade.