closure musings

The music season is over at last. As I am having all the recordings/CDs/Casettes of Shri.O S Arun, his concert did not evoke much interest in me. I remember Umayalpuram Sri.Sivaraman telling the audience during the OSA concert in Dec 2004 in Rasika ranjani sabha that in his 50 years of accompanying various artists,he could vouch that the best voice he had heard was that of OSA. I think this complement is enough to OSA for his life time.

The concert of Smt. Sudha, I can say, was average. I like her guru MLV's semi classical and film songs, but not much the carnatic music. My preference is MSS and DKP only. Like TNS, sudha also indulges in giving too many brigas,which is not at all necessary. This irritates the rasikas.

Despite his nasal singing, Shri.Semmangudi had fanatic fan base. There are such rasikas for Sudha also. What else can I say?

Musings: My friend Shri. B. Manjunath of sangeethapriya opined that music is a subjective matter. I fully agree with him. What is sweet to one may be a bitter pill to another. So what ever I had written in my postings so far may be taken as a preview. The full screen might be different according to the individual taste. I can only quote a nursery rhyme which may fit the bill here.

"Some like it hot, some like it cold
Some like it in the pot nine days old"

My recommendation: Please hear the Namasankeerthanams of Udayalur Kalyanaraman,Shenkottai Hari and other bagavathars. These people give juice extracts of carnatic music, which even a lay man can enjoy.

As kaliyuga sadhanam is Namasankeerthanam, let us immerse in it fully in 2010.

With all love
SR

Sowmya

Dear friends,
Some time in 1994/95, I heard smt. sowmya.She was a budding artist then. But she had a resounding voice and a very knowledgeable friend of mine referred her as the Vasantha kokilam of the 21st centuary in the offing.

She had a little bass voice as that of vasanthakokilam, DKP, MSS and MLV. Her timbre was distinct while her fellow female artists squeaked and screached, in their usual feminine voice.

But as the years passed, the bass element in her voice also passed and faded out. One consolation is that she had retained the heaviness in her voice. OK. If not as great as the doyens, atleast she is as popular as her other contemporaries.

It seems she had taken lot of pains and did much home work to see that this folk-cum-traditional concert become sucessful. And indeed it was a great success. The response at my house was tremendous, everyone praising her effort to galactic heights.

She explained various ragas with ease and her repertoire was amazing. How could it be otherwise? Trained by Tiger Ramanathan, the cub ought to be ferocious. Well done Sowmya.

With all Love, greeting you and your family,A HAPPY NEW YEAR 2010.

SR

unni sowmya Part 2

Dear friends,
Sri. Yugi Sethu, the cine artist, during one of his talk shows with Sri. Unni krishnan in Vijay TV 8 or 9 years ago, referred Unni's voice as Velvet voice. Without any least hesitation, i also subscribe to his view. All the songs that he rendered in this concert were in keeping with the mellow nature of his voice.

Unni began his concert with the famous Tamil song of the great Divine poet Papanasam Sivan in the varali ragam KAA VAA VAA, made extremely popular by the one and the only Madurai Mani Iyer.

The inherent sympathetic tone of his voice pleaded Muruga to come. Very nice to hear. This kind of worship is called Daasyam-The servant pleading God to show grace. But it appears to me that the poet was rather worshipping Muruga by Sneham-friendship- and is demanding Muruga to come. Has MMI or TVS essayed the poet's feeling better than Unni? Or is it because of the "Gambeeram" in their voices? Even though Unni has done best, I want your opinion.

I have not heard this Krithi of Annamacharya before and this song in Lalitha instantly enticed me.

Devi neeye thunai in Kirvani was appealing. I had heard Unni telling audience once that this was his favourite raga. He has also given an excellent one hour cassette in this raga with charsur digital work station. The neraval Alaimagal kalaimagal was not good and I felt that he was unnecessarily biting these words.

Jaya TV choked his voice, intervening with unnecessary comments when he started singing on Lord Nataraja, depriving listeners from hearing one more good song? When will Jaya TV get corrected in this aspect?

A special request to Unni: Has any body threatened you with dire conquences, if you open your mouth more than one inch? When you were a judge in Asianet's Idea Star Singer,I heard you telling many contestants to open their mouth and sing, so that the power of their voice would become explicit. Just two days back, Your friends, the famous cine play back singers, K.Chitra and Subha asked a girl, who muffled her voice,to open her mouth a little bit, so that her voice could be powerful. And the result was rewarding. Please consider, as this will add further lustre to your voice and singing.

With Love
SR

Unnikrishnan Sowmya Part 1

Dear friends,
I propose to give my review on the concerts of Shri. Unnikrishnan and Smt.Sowmya in 3 parts. This is the 1st one.
Before reviewing the concerts of Shri. Unni krishnan and Smt. Sowmya, it would be befitting to give a briefing on their Guru,Dr. S.Ramanathan, a great soul, who relentlessly shared the abundant knowledge he gained over years, munificently with the factory of disciples he produced,two among the gems, are the above ones.

I passionately remember him for the many Tamil songs he popularised, the chief among them being'Yarukku thaan theriyum"in the raga Deva manohari and also the hither to unknown or very very rarely sung raga,Lalitha.I had not heard this before Ramanathan sir.

As Sowmya rightly remembered and paid tributes to him during the folk round,I also tearfully, remember this great, simple soul,for the extraordinary contributions he has made to carnatic music

A brief biography of Dr. Ramanathan

Birth: April 8th, 1917 at Tirukoilur (Velavanur)

Parents: Subramania Shastri & Pattammal

Initial tutelage: At age 7 from Tirukoilur Ramudu Bhagavatar & Manalurpettai Subramania Dikshitar

Gurus: Tanjavur Ponniah Pillai, Tiruvaiyaru Sabhesa Iyer, Sattur Krishna Iyengar, Madurai Subramania Iyer, Tiger Varadachariar

Advanced Learning: Valadi Krishna Iyer, Devakottai Narayana Iyengar

Education: Sangita Bhooshanam from Annamalai University; Ph. D. (Ethnomusicology) from Wesleyan University, CT, USA for his dissertation on Silappadikaram.

Noted scholar, researcher and teacher. Author of several papers, treatises and monographs. Associated with B. Rajam Iyer in the Tamil production of Sangita Sampradaya Pradarshini. Dean, Visiting Professor, Principal and Research Director in various institutions

Proficient vainika

Concerts and music marked by bhava, deep understanding of sahitya. Emphasis on classicism and chastity of original music and lyrics.

Titles: Sangita Kalanidhi (1985), Isai Perarignar (1981), Sangita Kala Sagara, Swati Tilakam and so on.

Sishya Parampara: S. Sowmya, P. Unnikrishnan, Savitri Satyamurthy, Geetha Ramanathan Bennett, etc.

Passed away on March 19th, 1988 at Chennai

I am giving the following Tamil song "AAdidum Arase" rarely heard krithi composed by Dr. Ramanathan sir,sung during the dance performance of his grand daughter. Enjoy

Aruna Sairam

Dear friends,
                     You would have by now listened to the concert of Smt.Aruna sairam either directly through Jaya TV or through the upload of Shri. Manjunathji at Sangeethapriya.

Doubt has arisen in my mind whether my listening ability underwent any depreciation or the quality of MMU or the performance/interest of the artists participating therein is fading. From the beginning till yesterday, the quality of all concerts was not even comparable to last year MMU. Or is it my hallucination?

Whenever any one sings any krithi, our mind automatically begin to probe for the one we had  heard as the best.When Aruna sang Ehi annapurne-the punnagavarali, I could not but recollect the one better sung by Vijay Siva with all the emotions of the raaga. Similarly,Unnai Allal-Kalyani was no where near the one rendered with all its nuances by Sri. Maharajapuram Santhanam.

Smt. Aruna knows that her strength is in singing Uthukadu and Abangs. I don't comprehend why she avoided both, this year. I am happy that she elevated the lady, who inspired her to concentrate on Uthukadu krithis, to sit behind her twinging thambura.

The Bengali song in Durga is not appealing and not music to ears. When the songs in languages we do not know seem Greek, French and Latin to us, the introduction of a Bengali  piece is amusing. Should Aruna impose such things on us?  Please don't blame that I am not a nationalist.

So what is left for us this year? The one sung in the last in Kadhakudhukalam was lilting and was her only best rendition this year, I think. We seek best from You, Aruna.  All the best.
SR.
NB: You would have read my 1st posting wherein I had raised a query on Guru/Acharya. I received an authentic answer. It may be of interest to you too. Refer Below an article.

http://www.sssbpt.org/Pages/Prasanthi_Nilayam/therevolutionoflove-sundayspecial-27dec2009.html

Yours lovingly, SR