MS subbulakshmi EARLY CONCERT ALBUMS-CHARSUR FOUNDATION

[RSR]

Yesterday, I happened to search for music academy concerts in the decade 1950-1960. . Almost every year , there were concerts by Ariyakkudi Iengar , Madurai Mani Iyer, Musiri, AAlathoor, MS, DKP, MLV. . Many veteran rasikas would have made tape recordings. It would be a great service to share them with the present generation. I am sure that all of us would agree. . There are great many sections and posts in this grand forum , unique of its kind, that I generally limit myself to browse only a few on ragas, vidwans/vidhushis, translation requests and such. ..I stumbled upon a brilliant post by 'advaitham' made a few years back(2010) (Charsur Paddhati M.S.Subbulakshmi Releases) on the grand work done by Charsur foundation in bringing out top qulaity CD's of M.S.Subbulakshmi concerts. ( especially of 1956). . The post made many valid points. and gave a detailed review of the 1956 concert album. and list of songs. It was indeed unique. full of famous kruthis by Thyagaraja, Dhikshithar, Shayama Sastry, and swathi Thirunal , made more famous by MS rendering
viewtopic.php?t=14052
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One does not come across many such complete concerts of that particular decade , posted in social media. or even in sites maintained to propagate the memory of greats like MS, DKP,MMI and such. 'advaitham' 's post did not have many replies. . which it richly deserved. One reason might be that it was posted in review of CDs (albums) section. It could have elicited much greater response if it had been posted in MSSubbulksmi topic also . Links might be given in many relevant sections.
I felt elated that at long last, I am able to get such a golden collection and had an opportunity to share with literally lakhs of devotees of Smt.MS of all generations , all over the world. . Unfortunately however, the CD/records industry is not very profitable these days due to social media like soundcloud and youtube. and private exchange among rasikas. thus many such companies are resorting to streaming and bit-sales. We dont even have a decent quick loading and plain catalog It deprives the rasikas of treasures from the past. Charsur foundation has the mission and reputation of preserving gems of concerts and making them available. So, I am dismayed that I can only 'listen' to that particular concert as Streamed Audio. and cannot place them in public website. It is really a tragedy. The solution is that such work should be encouraged to be made public by very generous contribution to the foundation. so that the Foundation will feel free to make works public . All the more reason, since, about 70% of all proceeds are paid to the descendants of the artistes who gave us their all.
To take a leaf out of the Open-source software field, a typical example is Apache Software Foundation and GNU/Linux. Some Linux distributions are entirely created and distributed free due the munificence of donors. There must be quite a few in this forum who are working in software industry especially in Western World. and they would testify that Apache Software Foundation is almost dominating the industry , though all its offerings are absolutely free. Great giants in the industry are backing it up by generous and anonymous contributions .
Without patrons, no work for public welfare is possible.
With thousands of very eminent, well-informed and well-placed members of this forum, it is not impossible to issue a general request on behalf of the moderators and leading contributors in this forum for a generous contribution to the foundation. ( I have a personal stake as I want that particular 1956 music academy concert of MS to be made public). Similarly , each one of us may have one or a dozen favorite artistes in mind. Copyright issue can be resolved by negotiating for a particular CD of a particular artiste. Software piracy becomes meaningless when given free. and it benefits the community. I am submitting the proposal in private to Charsur Streaming. I fervently hope that the idea of relinquishing copyright for a particular CD on payment of a stipulated ,negotiable sum, is acceptable to the Charsur organization as well as thousands of music lovers in this forum.
The idea of 'streaming music' especially of long concerts is not very practical in this present day world where as a very young friend put it nicely 'leisure has become a luxury'. I wish that Charsur takes better effort to publicize their great work. Even giant software houses thrive on advertisements .
A well-known quote from St.Mathew says it all. " Matthew 5:14-16New International Version (NIV)
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14 “You are the light of the world. A town built on a hill cannot be hidden. 15 Neither do people light a lamp and put it under a bowl. Instead they put it on its stand, and it gives light to everyone in the house. 16 In the same way, let your light shine before others, that they may see your good deeds and glorify your Father in heaven.
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Googled for Charsur and got some information. which I am sharing.

https://charsur.com/categories.php?pId=9

https://charsur.com/digitalMembership.php

https://charsur.com/albums.php?cId=30

Just sharing. Under no circumstance , should we let these treasures of the past sink into oblivion.

[RSR]

Here is the link to a nice article on Charsur Foundation.
http://www.livemint.com/Home-Page/matmO ... -musi.html Ofcourse, a bit dated now. The idea is good for upcoming artistes in carnatic music. They would realize it after a few decades. ..that all their concerts are available .
I request Charsur to reconsider their policy regarding vintage concerts in the very early decades. ( 1940-1960). These should be treated as art treasures. They should be released as CD's . The Foundation should give full details of the songs in each CD with authentic date and occasion. In the latest post ( M.L.Vasanthakumari's music) Srinath has spoken of the excellence of a 1948 song . when she was barely 18. .. There are many sites like ragam where the a rasika can hear or download the particular song of his choice in mp3 format. A simple and neat website for each song in their offering with artiste-wise classification, year-wise and with quick search facility is required.
The price tag for the download may be fixed at higher rate. I went through their terms for 20 years offering, but the need is not 20 years after this year but 50 years backward. ..the period covered by Carnatic summer book ,