Dandamudi Rammohan Rao

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reethigowla48
Posts: 94
Joined: 12 May 2010, 09:25

Dandamudi Rammohan Rao

Post by reethigowla48 »

Hi all Laya fans,
I am copying my post (abridged) in Vidwans and Vidushis here, since it might be of interest to people here. Anyone who has known Dandamudi Sir closely, please post about him, his playing and anything you feel will be interesting. Also please throw in your opinions/insight about the thani below.
MSAkella Sir: Have you known Dandamudi Sir personally?

It was only recently that I heard Dandamudi Sir's thani in youtube (for Voletti) in misrachapu.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UpvnblSNa4Y
I was then so much attracted to his unconventional intepretation of misrachapu, which sounded very much akin to Pazhani style. Later I confirmed for myself that he was indeed one of Pazhani's direct disciple. IN the thani, till the mohrai he doesn't even play the conventional misra chapu(6+4+4 splitting of 14 maathrais); instead he plays the misra nadai (7+7 split of 14), which I think is the mastermind of Pazhani. And the thisram is played as 7+7+7 instead of the obvious 3+3+3+3+3+3+3. This kind of thisram is there in Tanjore school too, though I have not heard anyone playing it on stage.
Very humbling experience--makes me realize my ignorance about such relatively unkwown geniuses!!

To repeat, I am ashamed of myself that I never got an opportunity to listen to this genius or understand his works while he was alive. Just pity the whole Chennai politics and propaganda mechanisms which make famous a selected few of the mridangists (as well as other musicians) while several others from other states like Andhra, Kerala etc remain totally unknown to the world. For example I have seen Palghat Raghu being glorified as someone who 'brilliantly' amalgamated the Tanjore school and Pudukottai school (Of course, I myself am a great PR fan; and this is not to dishonor him). But I think unless we put in efforts to appreciate people like Dandamudi for playing the authentic Pazhani school in its pristine form and acknowledge their contributions, there is no meaning in glorifying the other mridangists like PR for the re-interpretations and amalgamations of Pazhani school

Other mridangists from Andhra I can recall of are: Yella Somanna, Yella Venkateswarulu, Kamalakar Rao, Venkayla Narasimham (all of them are reasonably known), Mullapudi Lakshman Rao (Very much unknown, and his contributions alone are known to constitute the Mullapudi school of mridangam)
Last edited by reethigowla48 on 16 Feb 2011, 08:47, edited 1 time in total.

msakella
Posts: 2127
Joined: 30 Sep 2006, 21:16

Re: Dandamudi Rammohan Rao

Post by msakella »

Dear brother-member, reethigowla48, Yes, I have reasonable acquaintance with the great Mridanga Vidwan (Late) Shri Dandamudi Ramamohanarao of Vijayawada. He served as Staff Artist-Mridangam in All India Radio,Vijayawada for more than 40 years. No doubt, he is one of the gems of all the Mridanga Vidwans in our country came out from the music-desert, Andhra Pradesh. As I was also a Lilliputian-mridangist between the age of 3 and 10 years, I have a very little knowledge of Mridangam having not learnt from anybody but developed on my own. I was very fortunate for having participated along with him in many concerts as Violin-accompanist. His playing of Mridangam is entirely different with all others and always well disciplined, majestic and educative both while accompanying and playing Tani inspiring one and all. As a person also he is most unassuming, very nice and very easily accessible to anybody. Just two days back only I came to know about the sad demise of him and yesterday evening only I could contact Mrs.Sumathi Ramamohanarao, a Top-grade Mridanga Vidushi and also our old student, and convey my heart-felt condolences. If you are interested in having his Mridangam-tanis I can spare a little of them to you. Having learnt a very little, mostly of my ‘kanakku’ (already furnished in the sub-thread, Easy Muktayis-their utilisation in Svarakalpana under the main thread, Tala & Laya of this forum) belongs to the Mullapudi School of Mridangam. Chi. Mullapudi Shreeraama Murthy, a Top-grade Mridanga Vidwan retired as Staff-Artist-Mridangam from All India Radio, Vishakhapatnam is also a rare gem of all the Mridangists came out of the same desert of music, Andhra Pradesh. amsharma

reethigowla48
Posts: 94
Joined: 12 May 2010, 09:25

Re: Dandamudi Rammohan Rao

Post by reethigowla48 »

Dear Akella Sir,
Thank you very much for writing your remembrances on Dandamudi Sir. I would definitely be glad to get his thanis from you.
I missed out Chi. Mullapudi Shreeraama Murthy's name while listing the mridangists from Andhra. Thank you for pointing it out.

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