Collector of Music Concert Records Sri C Narayanan

[Shyamala Rangarajan]

The Article on Sri C Narayanan, a connoisseur & collector of Carnatic & Hindustani Music concert recordings, that appeared in THE HINDU Friday Review today indicates the tremendous contribution of the person by archiving and sharing thousands of concerts with organisations (including the Music Academy) and individuals. Interestingly, Sri Narayanan says that one of the first beneficiaries of his collections and sharing is Sri T.M. Krishna !!

[rajeshnat]

http://www.thehindu.com/arts/music/article3554209.ece
He is indeed a very nice gentleman,few occasions where we traveled back in my car , Shri C narayanan has offered many of his collections. He also conducts few concerts every year in the name of his father at ragasudha hall

[VRV]

I met Narayan Chettiar for the first time about five years ago. His personality and passion for Carnatic music definitely precedes him. After a cup of chai he rekindled stories of the past that was very captivating.

If listening to yester year greats is in your agenda, getting to know Narayan Chettiar is a must. The man is relentless in the pursuit of acquiring and sharing all his music.

Thank you Narayan.....


Vinod Venkataraman

[bilahari]

Rajesh, thank you for the link. Sri Narayanan seems to be a true rasika!

Shyamala, that entire quote beginning with TMK is sardonic. People who live in glass houses...

[msakella]

Extremely glad to know about Sri. C. Narayanan, a connoisseur & collector of Carnatic & Hindustani Music concert recordings, who is striving hard in his own way to keep our art in tact and also give it away to individuals and organisations like the Music Academy, Chennai. Entire music field must congratulate him for his yeoman service to the art. To tell the fact, mainly, the Vocalists will be more benefited by this treasure.

But, most unfortunately, even though many modern audio and video gadgets are available in plenty, either the individuals or the organisations of Chennai, the Global music centre for Karnataka music, never cared to make videos of the respective finger-techniques of the instrumental-stalwarts for educational purpose for the benefit of our aspirants. Pitiably, even the stalwarts never thought of in preserving their specialised finger-techniques for the posterity. Ultimately, just like the kids who are compelled to live on the roads due to their irresponsible parents and elders, all our aspirant-kids are put to enormous loss in this respect, even though we have very great stalwarts in instrumentalists. Even though any controversial person like me dares to write this kind of paradoxical posts our people have become so thick-skinned that they don’t get affected at all and nothing positive happens in any case. amsharma

[varsha]

Unfair to drag TMK into the issue. Given his pedigree , and access to great recordings , I cannot think of what stuff he might have taken from this gentleman . Or even whether he asked for it . This whole subject of owning music has been rendered meaningless with the explosion of material available . For all I know this gentleman could not have heard all this 60000 hours he has collected .And whether the type of collection is above scrutiny in the glass house of copyright .
What really matters is whether

both the artist and the collector benefited from listening
both share the same idea of the value of this , a hundred years down the line .
both share the same idea of recording todays performances , for posterity sake .
both believe that while the past can be an exciting guide ( much like history ) , the true spirit of celebrating life is to live the moment in todays performance .

In the concert of Vinayak Torvi yesterday for Prakrithi at Kalakshetra , The dazzling notes of Kamod and a small peep into the Agra Style in Jaijaiwanthi Alap was far more appealing than all the ones I have heard before .Simply because it was something that was produced before me . For me.

Much of TMKs appeal against recording or photographing might have to do with coaxing the listener to enjoy the present , rather than commercial interests. And that is why I call this unfair

[harimau]

He also conducts few concerts every year in the name of his father at ragasudha hall

The total number of concerts he has sponsored, if memory serves me correctly, is in excess of 180. And that is when a banner saying "Al. Ar. Chockiah Chettiar Memorial Concert" is put up because it would say 173rd Concert or something like that indicating how many concerts have been held in honor of his father.

He sponsors concerts through a variety of organizers, not just Raga Sudha Hall.

The most recent one was at "Sri Parvathi" sponsored by Music Education Trust of Sri TRS featuring Hemmige Prashanth. That was followed by a dance program about 2 weeks later at P S High School's Dakshinamurthy Auditorium.

[harimau]

Shyamala, that entire quote beginning with TMK is sardonic. People who live in glass houses...

Mr Narayanan Chettiar was merely stating facts and was not being sardonic. Maybe you were looking for the word 'ironic'.

[harimau]

Unfair to drag TMK into the issue. Given his pedigree , and access to great recordings , I cannot think of what stuff he might have taken from this gentleman . Or even whether he asked for it . This whole subject of owning music has been rendered meaningless with the explosion of material available . For all I know this gentleman could not have heard all this 60000 hours he has collected .And whether the type of collection is above scrutiny in the glass house of copyright .

What you read in the paper is not necessarily the entirety of the conversation between the reporter and the subject. Things are edited out by the reporter, the sub-editor, etc. So, "The Hindu" might have been satisfied with picking just one name, TMK's. Do not blame it on Sri Narayanan Chettiar.

As to TMK's pedigree and his access to great recordings, one has to keep in mind that musicians like GNB, Alathur Brothers, Musiri, Chembai, Mudicondan, Madurai Mani Iyer, etc., had passed away before he was born. So, one can question how he got access to those recordings if in fact he has them. Considering that none of them was his guru, he could not have obtained them legitimately through a guru-sishya relationship.

The same thing almost applies to Semmangudi mama's recordings as he had almost stopped performing by the time TMK had become a serious musician.

Maybe we should call the copyright police for a raid on TMK's house!

As to whether Sri Narayanan has listened to his collection in its entirety, I cannot think of a more irrelevant comment; it is like asking if a librarian has read all the books in the library!

[kalyani_ragam]

With the advent of the internet and file hosting sites like rapidshare, yousendit, sharefile etc, I am sure more than a 6000 gb music would have been shared by 2 selfless individuals Raju Asokan and Kulkarni through the Sangeetham and rasikas.org.
Most of the members in this rasikas.org/sangeetham site are beneficiaries of their contribution of these 2 individuals which is priceless.
And many many of you would not even had a clue that this much of archive was available. But for these 2, I am sure these would have been under lock and key / treasure chests with a few collectors and would have been rotting
Unfortunately they are like the 'Less Recognised Artists' as termed by many. And so musch so that they do not get recognised by the media/members of this forum !!
The media report says Narayanan has been sharing for the last 4 years but these 2 gentlemen have been sharing for many years now and providing music based on requests to many.

[appu]

The media report says Narayanan has been sharing for the last 4 years but these 2 gentlemen have been sharing for many years now and providing music based on requests to many.

Kalyani_ragam

Thank you for highlighting the yeoman service of our very own Coolji and Raju Ashokan. I am sure you do not mean that this other gentleman, Mr. Narayan went looking for recognition by getting an article in the Hindu.

Many a times people in the forum will interpret otherwise and a genuine act will end up in a mud slinging battle. I personally have benefitted by the genorosity of Kulkarni and am sure in some roundabout way would have received some music from Raju too.

Here we are all winners and are very thankful for the efforts put out by all.

Aparna

[rshankar]

Kalyani_ragam,
Thank you for your post; a recognition that is long overdue. In addition to the yeoman service they performed by providing clips of yester-year greats, they (and Kji in particular), have opened the eyes, ears, and minds of rasikas around the world to genuine talent that is outside of the tried and tested pool. Examples for me include the gems from AP, Smts. Manda Sudha Rani and Pantula Rama. I do feel that the airplay these artists received from Kji's uploads played a role in how their talent is now recognized everywhere...

[kalyani_ragam]

Many a times people in the forum will interpret otherwise and a genuine act will end up in a mud slinging battle.

Aparna

That is due to not understanding the issue in the right sense and having a convoluted thinking

[msakella]

Yes, I am also benefited by a lot of music given by Shri S.Nageshwaran and Shri Kulkarni. But, at this old age, as I can only enjoy this music but do nothing, I took this opportunity to make it more useful to the true aspirants.

Here, it is important to mind the aspirant’s needs, which are, in general, overlooked, than the needs of a mere listener. In general, a listener enjoys the music and, if he is also generous, passes it on to others to make other also enjoy the same. In such case it is only for enjoyment. But, as a professional teacher and a Violin-accompanist, in particular, I was compelled to learn the technicalities, at this age, to segregate the music with the knowledge of the computer. Thus, as the music was not in an order, it took two years to segregate it by making folders of each concert along with the list of items, cutting the Raga-portion of both the main artist and the Violinist along with the Mridangam-tani separately and keeping all of them in different folders of each of the artists for the aspirants’ use. Thus, I have brought out folders with hundreds of Ragas of each individual artist and been giving them in instalments to my disciples on some conditions to fulfil some tasks like writing the Varnas & Ragas in symbolised notation, playing the Varnas on a single string in high-speeds, rendering of all the 28-special-rhythmical exercises and teaching them to all their students etc., etc. By all this audio, video and other aids of music I have brought out, unlike in any other institute on the globe, the standards of all the 90 inmates of our music-institute, Svarabhangima, have amazingly and remarkably gone up.

If all other organisations or Sabhas also do things in the same manner, we can ably feed our kids efficiently and sufficiently in making them giants in respect of our music. amsharma

[Ragjay]

Varsha makes a ridiculous comment on the article.I have been an avid collector myself and I have collected from late sixties.I know the pain one has to go through and the expense involved.But for great souls like these the available recordings of old masters in circulation would not have been possible.I value my collection and share it with a limited circle.One such great collector Mr.R.Krishnamoorthy recently passed away.He very seldom shared his recordings and I know for a fact a lot of musicians have benefited from his largesse.His collection is simply mindblowing and quality of recording is very very good. Such flippant remarks about collectors ,collection and talking of pedigree of musicians leaves a bad taste. Ragjay

[varsha]

Apologies to all music collectors . This looks more like a lawyers fraternity
Let us lighten the mood with this track . Of someone who gave more than what he received .
I continue to salute the likes of Narayanan , and others mentioned here . What is being perceived about my post was not the intention of my posting . If the larger issue has not reached the reader , it is my mistake in drafting .Will try better next time .
http://www.mediafire.com/?9tqmnlz79kdmnhs
cheers

[CRama]

Ragjay, You have written that Mr.R.Krishnamurthy passed away recently. Are you referring to the I.T practitioner who was living in Mahalingapuram

[Pratyaksham Bala]

Mr. R. Krishnamurthy:-
http://www.hindu.com/thehindu/mp/2003/0 ... 150100.htm
and
http://www.hindu.com/mp/2004/05/06/stor ... 510200.htm

[CRama]

P.Bala The Krishnamurthy referred in the Hindu article is another Krishnamurthy settled in Tripunithura, an ardent worshipper of MDR who annually conducts MDR Festivals. There is another Krishnamurthy who was staying in Mahalingapuram. Both are my good friends. After confirming who has passed away recently, I will post more about them.

[Ragjay]

Sir yes he is the IT practitioner. of Mahalingapuram, Chennai Ragjay