chalanata wrote:he was great no doubt. but a cello violin would have suited him best as accompaniment!
But would this not be true for almost all male vocalists today? The violin accompanying voice in Carnatic is tuned to an octave above the singer's voice for both male and female singers. If this were not true and the violin is tuned to the same pitch, you would need a viola or cello. Which one is better is a matter of taste of course. In some instances, the viola or cello may sound too close to the human voice and not provide sufficient differentiation (is this true of the veena as well?). In other instances, violin accompaniment to high pitched female singers in the upper register sounds too much like feedback.
BMK has played viola accompaniment to SSI in one precious recording that Srini Pichumani had and it sounded superb! I dont know of recordings of other vocalists accompanied by viola or cello.
Meena, Divaker
Here is what I think I hear after trying different combinations with the equalizer to enhance his voice alone:
P: gurucaraNam bhaja mAnuja gurutarAnga nAthanam (??) shrI shankaram
A: gurucaraNam bhaja mAnuja gOvinda yativarya shri tyAgasAgaram
C: kEraLa dEsha vikasitAmaNim kEvala advaita prakAshakam
sArasa sangItAdi dAyakam sarasadaLa varadadAsa pOshakam
nAthanam in the P sounds odd, but I can't come up with any thing else.
AP: Do not think the last word is tyAgarAjam - this seems to be a composition on Adi Sankara, and see no reason for the intro of either tyAgESar or tyAgarAja in here...
C: He combines kEvala advaita = kEvalAdvaita in the second sangati he sings...
Actually the violin is not a good accompaniment instrument for males. The sruthi is too low. In fact MDR's voice is 5 1/2 kattai at an octave lower, and the violin normal sruthi is about that level. It is just that Indian violinists play at about 3, and hence htey find accompanying MDR and female artistes more challenging on the fingers.
rshankar: you are right. it appears that the kriti is on Adi Sankara.
can you explain the meaning of the words, "vijatistAmaniM" and 'vikasistAmaniM" . ? i can hear clearly as 'vijatistAmaniM'.. i dont know the meaning.
in the pallavi line he sings as 'mAnasa' and in AP line he sings as 'mAnuja'.
it is quite a task to decipher the text while mdr sings. he sometimes swallows the text towards the end of the line.
Last edited by divakar on 01 Feb 2007, 11:23, edited 1 time in total.
Divakar,
I thisk DRS is correct: dvijaSikhAmaNim = the head (Sikha) jewel (maNi) of all the dvijas (people with 2 births - the first being physical, and the next being intellectual - and refers to all individuals who undergo the upanayanam/brahmOpadESam ceremony) - Adi Sankara was indeed the crown jewel of all humanity, not just the dvijas...
thanks to all for helping with the text.
it is indeed nice of you to take time in listening and getting the text corrected. wish balaji has the complete text of the same.
thanks to MDR for making us think (with his singing) about several possibilities that suit the context.
thanks for the wonderful RTP in mohanam.. My granduncle was searching for this piece for years! I never heard MDR's mohanam and never thought he sang RTPs in it. Its beautiful.
bala747 wrote:IIRC his Panthuvarali RTPs are from Mandapam concerts. Are there any RTPs he sang in them?
If this refers to the swAti tiruNAL festival, I was under the impression that maNDapam concerts usually had the rAgam-tAnam-kriti format, rather than the RTP format...
The above concert is certainly not a Navaratri Mandapam concert. The RTP in harikAmbhOji is a filler..
There is a 6 raga shlokam followed by his kApi thillana, after bhajarE rEchitta.
The third piece is emani nE nI mahima in mukhAri of subbarAya sastry
The accompanists are TNK and Raghu
my dear friends
i am one of the fondest devotees of thr great MDR. I am 67 now, and i attended almost all concerts of shri MDR and at music academy, i use to sit on the dais edge to see the way he sings. i am delighted to see chi balaji in this, i will write more once i complete reading all the msgs.
but 3 concerts, i shud share with you now.
1. at srinivasa sastri hall, when he was completing alapana of sankarabharanam, a person, instead of switching on the fan, switched off the lights. he slowly started 'budhi radu'. including that person, all were
laughing.
2. at krishna gana sabha, he started after alapana, 'marubalka', and pallavi was over. then he took sometime in his usual way but the violinist (i shud not tell the name) started 'chara chora'. he waited for some more mts and started pouring swaras which none heard so far in sriranjini, you can imagine the scene now. such a big ovasion.
3. at krishna gana sabha, i was with my brother, friends, to listen shri MDR. nice concert, but heavy rain started. my brother and one comitte member said 'we are lucky, he wil sing more songs' - i said 'he will start mangalam and in that he will give some more sangathis. it happened.
i dont know how to write, i am new to this computer, web etc. so any mistakes, pls pardon this aged man, for he cudnt control himself when he heard MDR's name. luvs
its always a delight to hear more about the great Sri MDR! one never tires reading about him (yeah and listening to him). i consider myself one of those unfortunates who havent heard him live.
dont worry about mistakes, its common to anyone writing in forums. please share more such incidents from your experience with us.
>>i use to sit on the dais edge to see the way he sings.
hmm, lucky you, all i can remember is dozing off in my parents' lap listening to the great master singing sonorously...
Shri Sarma, it is such a pleasure reading your reminiscences of Shri MDR. I find it a special privilege to hear from those who have known maestros of the past (a bit like getting to know Rama thru Anjaneya...)
Do post more such snippets from the past - and of course music of the great mahaan!
Last edited by jayaram on 16 Feb 2007, 04:00, edited 1 time in total.
thanks a lot for yr messages. some more i cud remember now abt our great master (I am proud to be equated with sri anjaneya)
1. abt 30 yrs ago, in thugluk, some dirty (cho shud excuse) comments were made by someone, for which
there was a protest and nice caution from shri trichy Sankaran, nearly saying 'to write abt shri mdr, one shud hv music knowledge'
2. abt 10 yrs ago, i had my morning walk in beach. some of my friends asked me if i had heard some x, y
conert of some vidhwan. i said "though i love shri somu, s.kalyanaraman, semmangudi, i dont feel like rushing
to all concerts except MDR. a decently dressed old man when i said "MDR"
, he turned and said "you are right. mee too was so. i was so close to him when he was in kalakshetra..."
he is no more now (Mr natarajan) from then on, we became good friends.
3. near safire theatre, there was a short film shown to rasikas abt our MDR in 1992 feb beginning. after abt
10 yrs me, my brother and my friends had tears when we saw him in the screen singing. it was for an hour or so.
4. once in shri Padmanabha temple he gave a concert with shri Lalgudi and shri Umayalpuram. the concert
was as usual superb. one leading upanyasa ganapatigal (was he mayavaram sri sivarama sastrigl?) said
while felicitating "we have 3 great Ramaas here, and as usual shri ramanathan is showing the jeevan of the ragas, that atmanubhavam we should have.... both Lalgudi and Upuram enjoyed his talks and were with full
smiles. as usual shri MDR did all what he wud do - wear the glass, remove it, put it in the pkt. and loosening/tightning his small tuft... i use to occupy the front side, so that i can see him closely.
5. if u can listen hisrendering "manasa sanchare" - sama ragham, you are blessed. it was a radio concert abt
25 yrs ago.
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when i open this page, i feel as though i am listening him.
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before i forget, i heard that once Kalki shri sadasivam arranged a concert of shri MDR in his house, with his close friends prsent. after the concert was over, good food and Shri Sadasivam gave him an apple and said 'it is for you'. at home, when he opened the bag, from inside the apple he found a 8 gm gold coin as a special gift !
luvs to u all guruvayoorappa
i hv just gone thru some msgs at pages 7&8. letter frm shri coolkarni dt 10.1.07. very nice. once i was with shri s kalyanaraman and he said "when you are singing at a slow pace - like mr mdr, it is easy to find mistakes and when you go fast, you can cover some mistakes" . i dint study sa pa sa, i dont know in depth, but i cud
forget myself when i hear MDR's sama, kedaram, bilahari .... take for instance his 'mangalam' he will thril the audience til the end. the high pitch of mohana, 'adhi krotha surpanaga ...' i dont know why he was taken away from us in his 60s by God.
luvs to u all guruvayoorappa
3. near safire theatre, there was a short film shown to rasikas abt our MDR in 1992 feb beginning. after abt
10 yrs me, my brother and my friends had tears when we saw him in the screen singing. it was for an hour or so.
srinivasasarma: thanks for all your inputs/anecdotes about Sri MDR.
a small query: have you heard him sing the two pancharatna kritis of tyagaraja, namely, 'duDukugala - gauLa', and 'kana kana rucirA - varALi' in any of his concerts ?
i'm just curious to know.
thank you.
meena: i remember it was in film chamber hall near safire. it concisted of a speach by a g'man reg shri MDR
the way of his singing etc. with many clippings of his singing. i was told that it wud come in vcd form sortly,
but i never found i wil check up again/infm u. rgds
Sri.Devesa Bhagavathar was a Violin vidwan and my grand uncle Sri. Venketeswara Bhagavathar was supposed to be a Vainika.
We have one photo of my grandfather in the family altar and best to my knowledge, i don't think there are any recordings. We have the violin that he used to play, though not in a playable condition.
Incidentally KVN mama once told me that his father knew my grandfather. It seems he & my dad used to have music sessions & discuss about music when they were small.
thrilled to learn Sir Ramachandran, founder & secretary of Keli is working on a film- on Sree MDR
For the last 15 years, Keli in association with Prithvi Theatre has brought many forms of classical arts, including huge percussion troupes from Kerala, to Mumbai. Now Ramachandran is working on a film on M.D. Ramanathan, a Carnatic vocalist who did not get the recognition he deserved.
Last edited by meena on 07 May 2008, 01:43, edited 1 time in total.
