Thiruveezhimizhalai Brothers-Nagaswara Vidwans of TNR period

Carnatic Musicians
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VISHNURAMPRASAD
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Post by VISHNURAMPRASAD »

Namaskarams,

I have heard this name from many old time musicians and fans. They are said to be specialists in rendering Krithis, patternising sangathis and introducing lots of unheard krithis in Nagaswaram. They are also the ones to start using Mridangam as accompaniment for Nagaswaram concerts. They are admirers of Ariyakudi kutchery format and gave many concerts in the prevailing formats. Needamangalam Meenakshisundaram Pillai, the most popular tavildhaar during early 20th Century had been their regular accompanist.

Does anyone have any more information about them? Photos? or Recordings?

meena
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Post by meena »

Deleted
Last edited by meena on 06 May 2008, 04:59, edited 1 time in total.

param
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Post by param »

Namaskarams,
.............
Does anyone have any more information about them? Photos? or Recordings?
Check this link

http://carnatica.net/special/photoquiz.htm

And you will find not only the photograph that you asked for but others too of various other artistes.

coolkarni

Post by coolkarni »


coolkarni

Post by coolkarni »

"S. Nataraja Sundaram Pillai
I have another beautiful set of tracks by Thirumegnanam Nataraja Sundaram Pillay (With Raghava Pillay on the Thavil.Not sure if He is the same person.
First half
http://rapidshare.de/files/21651823/01- ... 8.mp3.html
http://rapidshare.de/files/21654037/02- ... 8.mp3.html

will upload the second half later


VISHNURAMPRASAD
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Post by VISHNURAMPRASAD »

Coolkarni Sir, Thanks a ton! Listening to Thiruveezhimizhalai Brothers. (A dream come true!) Thavildhaar Raghava Pillai is none other than the great Naachiyaarkoil Raghava Pillai who was a peer to the great Needamangalam Meenakshi Sundaram Pillai.

param
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Post by param »

He is also the guru of late Valangaimman Sri Shanmughasundaram Pillai.

Kji, a wonderful treat indeed. Thanks a million.

N.R.Patanjali
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Post by N.R.Patanjali »

Does anyone has the Todi alapana recording of T.N.Rajarathnam Pillai ?
Is it possible to upload it ? thanks and regards.

kaapi
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Post by kaapi »

Thiruveezhimizhalai Subramaniyam Pillai

Image

kaapi
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Post by kaapi »

Thiruveezhimizhalai Natarajasundaram Pillai

Image

sramaswamy
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Post by sramaswamy »

Kaapi

Thank you very much for the pictures. It is so nice of you to have taken the trouble to post the pictures.The name in tamil at the bottom of the picture helped get the name correct!

rrengamani
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Joined: 16 Apr 2009, 13:01

Post by rrengamani »

coolkarni wrote:a few tracks from a concert of
Thiruveezhimizhalai Brothers
http://rapidshare.de/files/21615571/01- ... 0.mp3.html

http://rapidshare.de/files/21623371/02- ... 0.mp3.html
Dear members,

Please upload again.

RR

rrengamani
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Post by rrengamani »

Dear member,

This is very rare record, I could not d/l. Please re upload it.

Thanks
RR

coolkarni
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Post by coolkarni »

..
Last edited by coolkarni on 27 Nov 2009, 17:44, edited 1 time in total.

rrengamani
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Post by rrengamani »

coolkarni wrote:Will try and re-upload.Please give me some time.
Meanwhile any of the original downloaders can help :)
Thanks. Will wait for some more time.

RR

Purist
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Post by Purist »

I am also in the queue

coolkarni
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Post by coolkarni »

..
Last edited by coolkarni on 24 Nov 2009, 10:00, edited 1 time in total.

rrengamani
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Joined: 16 Apr 2009, 13:01

Post by rrengamani »

Thanks Mr. Coolkarni. I will d/l it to day night.

RR

Mr. Coolrarniji,
File 01. (36,7 MB)ok.
02. (51.14 MB) file could not d/l as it seems invalid file name. pl. check and correct it for easy d/l.

RR

Now ok and no problem in d/l. of both files.

Thanks

RR
Last edited by rrengamani on 27 May 2009, 09:29, edited 1 time in total.

Purist
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Post by Purist »

Many thanks Coolji. A rare piece indeed.

varsha
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Re: Thiruveezhimizhalai Brothers-Nagaswara Vidwans of TNR period

Post by varsha »

Bumped into a 5 hour track by Thirumegnanam Nataraja Sundaram Pillay.By the looks of it, it does not look like two disparate tracks fused by technology . Wonder how could they have played like the way they did , for 5 hours !!
If there are volunteers to listen carefully , decode and give me a list of what they have played , I can upload the 275 mb track.
To give you a glimpse , I have clipped a 45 mt part here , with an unusual Viriboni ( to my ears ) and an exotic kapi narayani

https://www.mediafire.com/?094q137b90ir1ek

cheers

Purist
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Re: Thiruveezhimizhalai Brothers-Nagaswara Vidwans of TNR period

Post by Purist »

@varsha. "If there are volunteers to listen carefully , decode and give me a list of what they have played , I can upload the 275 mb track."

Most welcome ,I offer to do it .

varsha
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Re: Thiruveezhimizhalai Brothers-Nagaswara Vidwans of TNR period

Post by varsha »


mahavishnu
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Re: Thiruveezhimizhalai Brothers-Nagaswara Vidwans of TNR period

Post by mahavishnu »

Varsha-ji: The Thirumegnanam track was beautiful.
I couldn't help noticing the excellent tavil accompaniment. Do you know who the tavil vidwan was?

varsha
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Re: Thiruveezhimizhalai Brothers-Nagaswara Vidwans of TNR period

Post by varsha »

thanks mv :)
nachiyarkoil ganesan
colombo concert

semmu86
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Re: Thiruveezhimizhalai Brothers-Nagaswara Vidwans of TNR period

Post by semmu86 »

varsha wrote: 12 Feb 2017, 06:53 nachiyarkoil ganesan
Varsha Ji--- Thanks a bunch. Thavil was so beautiful, thought it was the Great Nachiyar Kovil Raghava Pillai till i saw your post.

shankarank
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Re: Thiruveezhimizhalai Brothers-Nagaswara Vidwans of TNR period

Post by shankarank »

varsha wrote: 11 Feb 2017, 09:35 If there are volunteers to listen carefully , decode and give me a list of what they have played , I can upload the 275 mb track.
To give you a glimpse , I have clipped a 45 mt part here , with an unusual Viriboni ( to my ears ) and an exotic kapi narayani

https://www.mediafire.com/?094q137b90ir1ek

cheers
The SankarabaraNam song is mariyAdagAdura - here is the vocal version: https://youtu.be/lFGYURJg5d0?t=875 - food for many exams in early 90s.

Back to the Nadaswaram - Swarams @ rAgamu tAlamu rakti Bhakti Gnana - at a tantalizing 2 talli in mEl kAlam reckoning. And they do it with kArvai (elongation) than a sollu (syllable) to reach the take off!

Reminds me of the vEda Siro of Brinda Mukta in the old Hindolam posted by varsha mahOdaya

shankarank
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Re: Thiruveezhimizhalai Brothers-Nagaswara Vidwans of TNR period

Post by shankarank »

varsha wrote: 11 Feb 2017, 09:35
https://www.mediafire.com/?094q137b90ir1ek

cheers
The kApi nArayaNi - hitavu mATalento bAga balkitivi - the bAga is taken atItam couple of times by shortening the time for "lentO" - with a long kArvai. cinnadu perisu (shorten-lengthen) on the laya to bring more ruci.

Something Sri lOkanAtha Sarma discusses here :
http://www.thehindu.com/chennai-margazh ... 735403.ece - Sarma said a singer can prolong deerga aksharas, and must not resort to meaningless splitting of words
As regards modern kutcheri being a craft and Mridangam oriented - that is lack of true sAdhakam more than anything else. Another topic for discussion.

RaviSri
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Re: Thiruveezhimizhalai Brothers-Nagaswara Vidwans of TNR period

Post by RaviSri »

The Tiruveezhimizhalai Bros had a younger brother Kalyanasundaram. The latter was a disciple of Kanchipuram Naina Pillai and learnt from him several Thyagaraja kritis when Brinda-Muktha and Chitoor Subramanya Pillai were also learning from Naina. Kalyanasundaram used to visit his village regularly, stay there for a few weeks and sing the songs he had learnt from Naina Pillai. That was how the Bros got their Thyagaraja repertoire. Naina Pillai once attended a marriage at a zamindar's in Thanjavur district. The Bros were engaged to play the nagaswaram for the marriage functions. Naina also had a concert there. When Naina heard the Bros playing Thyagaraja kritis one after the other, that too, in his pATAntaram, he was surprised and asked the Bros how had they come about it. The cat came out of the bag. Naina was stunned and he remarked, "What an ingenious way to learn music"!

Needamangalam Meenakshisundaram Pillai was the stock accompanist for the brothers. A must in their concerts was the kriti, 'chEtulAra sringAramu' (in bhairavi). Needamangalam used to insist on their playing this kriti as it would be very grand in the Naina Pillai tradition. After Needamangalam passed away, the Bros refused to play 'chEtulAra' forever, despite requests, saying, without Needamangalam Ayya, playing this kriti was of no use.

BTW, Nachiyarkoil Raghava Pillai was the son-in-law of Needamangalam.

semmu86
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Re: Thiruveezhimizhalai Brothers-Nagaswara Vidwans of TNR period

Post by semmu86 »

varsha wrote: 11 Feb 2017, 09:35 with an unusual Viriboni ( to my ears )
Beautifully unusual it is, rather :) Normally we would have the entire varnam sung in madhyama kAlam and then in proportionate mEl kAlam. Very rarely you would get to hear a tri kAlam in varnam and thisram in it these days, unless you go to concerts of some "great" musicians like Smt Seetha Narayanan.

Coming back to this, they have played it so beautifully playing the kEEzh kAlam, madhyama and mEl kAlam in one single avarthanam spontaneously. TRS Sir once told this to be the source of inspiration behind his famous pallavi "daSaratha thanayuni maravuku manasA", where all 3 kAlapramANams come one after the other. It needs repeated listenings starting from the varnam, to fathom the depth and mastery required to execute the varnam in this fashion, than in the one mentioned earlier.

knrh05
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Re: Thiruveezhimizhalai Brothers-Nagaswara Vidwans of TNR period

Post by knrh05 »

varsha wrote: 11 Feb 2017, 20:29 Purist
Thanks in advance
https://archive.org/details/Thirumegnanam3
Announcement (00:20)
Varnam-Bhairavi_Ata (13:08)
Mariyadagadura-Sankarabharanam (15:12)
Sarasasamadana-KapiNarayani (12:22)
Alapana-Thodi (04:30)
Song-Thodi (45:53)
Alapana-Kambhoji (45:49)
Thavil (46:16)
Pallavi-Kambhoji (40:57)
Kanakasaila-Punnagavarali (10:02)
Song-Kanada (11:52)
JagadishaPancha-Nadanamakriya (11:24)
Thavil (17:46)
Thavil_contd (11:19)
Vallikanavan-Senchuruti (04:00)
KavadiChindu_Magudi (08:46)
EnglishNote (01:32)

I was able to identify couple of songs in the end but the Thodi and Kanada songs are still a mystery!

varsha
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Re: Thiruveezhimizhalai Brothers-Nagaswara Vidwans of TNR period

Post by varsha »

knrh05 , RaviSri , Semmu , Shankarank and all the rest.
Thanks So much.

RaviSri
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Re: Thiruveezhimizhalai Brothers-Nagaswara Vidwans of TNR period

Post by RaviSri »

On December 12th 1956 Rajaratnam Pillai died. He had very much coveted the Sangita Kalanidhi title, but the first Nagaswara vidvan to preside over the MA conference and receive SK was Tiruveezhimizhalai Subramanya Pillai and that too in 1956. The shadow of that temperamental genius's passing over to the other shore hung over the MA. In his presidential speech Tiruvweezhimiozhilai paid an unusual tribute to Rajaratam. He said, "Rajaratnam vAdyathiula mezhukkaDachu vAshichArnA, matravargaL adai sheidAl sariyAga varAdu" (Rajaratnam used to plug the Nagaswaram holes with wax. That does not mean anyone can do it). To produce the correct swaras and minutest anuswaras, the genius used to plug wax in the instrument's holes.

Purist
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Re: Thiruveezhimizhalai Brothers-Nagaswara Vidwans of TNR period

Post by Purist »

@knrh05 - thanks for the list, a job I was in the process of doing.Got stumped at Thodi :? spent time in trying to figure
out and Kanada too was puzzling.

@varsha - what a veritable treat it was listening Thzm Bros, mind boggling, amazed at their absolute control
over the instrument. A style (of their own)I am coming accross for the first time. Thanks a TON :D

shankarank
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Re: Thiruveezhimizhalai Brothers-Nagaswara Vidwans of TNR period

Post by shankarank »

knrh05 wrote: 17 Feb 2017, 05:31 I was able to identify couple of songs in the end but the Thodi and Kanada songs are still a mystery!
Could the Todi be kOti nadulu danushkODi ? The sahitya and tala meTTu matches! could this be a different kanchipuram? version? ;) . Nice try eh? :lol: Don't know of any Adi tyAgaraja at this pace!

If that is right, they seem to play pongucu Sri raghunAthuni in lower sthayi and shift to higher sthayi for pogadE tyAgaraju. And swarams guess at rangani kAvEri (lot of makudam as they entered that second lane of caraNam) :mrgreen:

varsha
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Re: Thiruveezhimizhalai Brothers-Nagaswara Vidwans of TNR period

Post by varsha »

thanks Purist . Will treat you to just one more concert :)

sankark
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Re: Thiruveezhimizhalai Brothers-Nagaswara Vidwans of TNR period

Post by sankark »

Purist wrote: 18 Feb 2017, 16:42 @varsha - what a veritable treat it was listening Thzm Bros, mind boggling, amazed at their absolute control
over the instrument. A style (of their own)I am coming accross for the first time. Thanks a TON :D
Amen to that. Just been listenting to that viribOni repeatedly and haven't moved on. The one avartana tavil between opening viribOni phrase and the full fledged viribOni itself is so good.

--deleted text--

Purist
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Re: Thiruveezhimizhalai Brothers-Nagaswara Vidwans of TNR period

Post by Purist »

@ varsha. " thanks Purist . Will treat you to just one more concert :)

I know am asking for too much, yet most welcome. :)

knrh05
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Re: Thiruveezhimizhalai Brothers-Nagaswara Vidwans of TNR period

Post by knrh05 »

knrh05 wrote: 17 Feb 2017, 05:31 Song-Kanada (11:52)
JagadishaPancha-Nadanamakriya (11:24)
The Nadanamakriya song is likely the Kshetagnar padam, Paiyyada rather than Jagadisha pancha. The tune is the same but the gait fits Paiyyada much better. Also, according to youtube, the Kanada song is Sree Shanmugha. I still cannot place the Thodi song but am not yet ready to buy into the alternate kotinadulu tune :-)

K Nagarajan
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Re: Thiruveezhimizhalai Brothers-Nagaswara Vidwans of TNR period

Post by K Nagarajan »

I have heard Sri.Tirumeignanam Natarajasundaram Pillai's music is full of laya intricacies.

By the way, Sri.Tirumeignanam Natarajasundaram Pillai and
Sri.Tiruveezhimizhalai Natarajasundaram Pillai of the Tiruveezhimizhalai brothers
are one and the same person?

I have this doubt for many years.

semmu86
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Re: Thiruveezhimizhalai Brothers-Nagaswara Vidwans of TNR period

Post by semmu86 »

Even I have this doubt for, geographically, Tirumeignanam is near Thirukkadaiyur (Nagapattinam district) in the Sirkazhi- Mayavaram belt, while Tiruveezhimizhalai is near "KodavAsal", when you go from Kumbakonam towards Nachiyar Koil- Thirucherai road. So I presume both are different.

varsha
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Re: Thiruveezhimizhalai Brothers-Nagaswara Vidwans of TNR period

Post by varsha »

https://archive.org/details/Thirumegnanam4
RaviSri wrote
A must in their concerts was the kriti, 'chEtulAra sringAramu' (in bhairavi). Needamangalam used to insist on their playing this kriti as it would be very grand in the Naina Pillai tradition. After Needamangalam passed away, the Bros refused to play 'chEtulAra' forever, despite requests, saying, without Needamangalam Ayya, playing this kriti was of no use.
second krithi in this concert

shankarank
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Re: Thiruveezhimizhalai Brothers-Nagaswara Vidwans of TNR period

Post by shankarank »

As regards mariyAda gAtura in SankarAbaranam in the first concert posted Thirumegnanam3 - I forgot to mention that their entry into mariyAda goes beyond arudhi the first two times - establishing majesty via musical verve ( when they pick kAdura from somewhere in the middle).

This gets me through the daily slow commute with traffic jams.

rshankar
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Re: Thiruveezhimizhalai Brothers-Nagaswara Vidwans of TNR period

Post by rshankar »

gAturA - should be k(g)AdurA.

K Nagarajan
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Re: Thiruveezhimizhalai Brothers-Nagaswara Vidwans of TNR period

Post by K Nagarajan »

Refer post #23

https://archive.org/details/Thirumegnanam3

In the announcement, the artist is identified as TirumeignAnam TP NatarAjasundaram (Pillai)
who may be a different person than one of the Tiruveezhimizhalai brothers having the same name.

rajeshnat
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Re: Thiruveezhimizhalai Brothers-Nagaswara Vidwans of TNR period

Post by rajeshnat »

Lovely writeup in The Hindu dated March 19,2020 . The imagery of mayavaram - mayuranathaswamy where nagaswaram musicians play for 3 to 4 hours is so good each taking a melam for an utsav. I wish i was born 50 years before , I would have got all the raga bhava in each of the utsavams

https://www.thehindu.com/entertainment/ ... 107092.ece

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