TRS 1st anniversary Function@Arkay Hall on Oct 04th,2014

[rajeshnat]

TRS 1st Anniversary Function at Arkay Convention Center on Oct 04th, 2014
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It is a year since Prof Trs passed away on Oct 04th,2013. There was a small tribute and function arranged mainly by Delhi V MuthuKumar (disciple of TRS ). There were other disciples who were also there - sorry I dont know their names . I could also spot Smt Vijaya (daughter of TRS). The following artists Vidwan M Chandrasekaran,his daughter Bharathi with Kamalakar Rao and Bangalore S purushottaman had a small 90 minute concert at the end of the function . Just few notes on the proceeding

# Mohan santhanam sang a prayer song .Shree guruguha moorthini - binnashadjam . I am assuming this is a dikshitar krithi with the mudra and the raga mudra binnashadjam also there in the krithi . I have never heard this krithi,Mohan sang in an expressive style that reminded certainly his guru TRS.

# There was roughly a 20 minute audio visual presentation with very interesting anecdotes from well known carnatic personalities with lovely audio drops of Prof TRS . Starting with TRS evergreen high pitch with zero sag sangathi in sAkSAtkAra nI sadbhakti sangIta jnAna vihInulaku and looping to Mokshamu in saramathi ragam(I personally felt like I had my first glass of sathukudi juice after a week of sickness). TNS talked about TRS swara poruttam in all kinds of poruttam like sahitya poruttam , laya poruttam , swara poruttam or bhava poruttam and then out popped TRS sogasuga then mrudanga then talamu in sogasuga mrudanga talamu with swara poruttam.Cleveland VVS talked his attribute of tala and laya and out popped his madhura puri nilayE in poorvikalyani.


# Safe Ramabadran talked about his long relationship with TRS when he met him at Andhra . He talked about TRS personality - very jovial outlook and then popped poorvikalyani alapana. Cleveland VVS again talked about his bhashA gyanam (language prowess irrespective of whatever language that he sang) . Radha venkatachalam talked about his broadmindedness in teaching and how he was away from the usual routine . I think some one by Name Venkatasubramanian(some one can help me to know who he is was he a professor or musicologist) talked about trs and I liked his abbreviation of TRS TAla Raga Swaroopa and he mentioned him as modernized GNB.


# for me the goosebump moment was when TRS sang in the video a pallavi - pAghai urugu nEnjE pankaja kannanai ninaindu in bhimplas . What a concept of bhimplas and just when I was visualizing and thinking within myself eppadi pAghai uruguRar he also explained we have to sing pallavi this way and understand the bhavam of every word of the pallavi. He quipped his sishya (was that radha venkatachalam) and said the raga is a light raga bhimplas and you see how word is constructed and he said how this line can appeal for anyone who understands basic thamizh and also the raga which can easily reach laymen . At the same time he also said the tala is complex where it can appeal to the cognoscenti - so a live demo of how CM can appeal to cognoscenti and also those uninitiated. He took a jab at times we are all singing pallavi without even understanding a single word where we are concerned with always landing at the right note with a telugu pallavi in mind.

# then a slokham asatOma sarga maya ...tavasOmA jyothika maya ... om shanthi shanthi in a very emotive raga like shivaranjani(I could not spot the ragam there).That was reallly a great close to the audio visual presentation

# The whole audio visual presentation was done in 90 minutes and was done mainly By DVMK .nerkunam shankar provided great support with DVMK . Very well done shankar - you were a typical kanjira artist in doing this presentation. You came like a breeze and you were very effective. Then DVMK thanked shankar.

# Post audio visual presentation kamalakar rao spoke in person . Shri Kamalakar Rao gAru said TK Govinda rao used to call TRS as Thyaga RAja Swami , He said he knew TRS from 1955 and he dedicated all the name and glory to TRS as he was known as his stock accompaniment . TRS knew more inside of Andhra than me and he used to travel with so much enthusiasm - he recollected one famous trip where he was travelling in a slanting position from Bellary to Hassan. He treated me as his brother and he used to mingle with audience . TRS used to arrange concerts for reasonable price in andhra even big names like ssi and BMK had opp ortunities when TRS arranged their concert. Kamalakar Rao touched us with his speech.

# MC said he has played TRS from 1954 and said trs used to be a very jovial and he has arranged concerts for every one and all the youngsters were recognized by him . He said periya manasu vendum and only TRS had . Finally Bangalore S purushottaman as a youngster also thanked TRS and he said he gave a break when he paired with Dandamudi in a delhi concert in early 90's

Personally I felt the function was done with a lot of guru bhakthi . I wish to thank DVMK especially - who also said that he would like to do it year on year. (I will write about MC concert after few days). Also thanks to Maarga.in which is an organization started by violinist Delhi Sundarrajan that also did take part in giving a tribute to TRS .

[thanjavooran]

Shri rajeshnat,
A very good coverage of the event. Really Kamalakar Rao's recollection is an wonderful tribute to TRS. Thanx.
With wishes,
Thanjavooran
05 10 2014

[Sivaramakrishnan]

Thanks rajeshnat for a rather instant review.
Well, I too could fortunately make it to the event.
Muthukumar and others deserve apprecaiation for the arrangements and the excellent tribute.
The video also included excerpts from a TRS lec dem on his celebrated RTP in Bilahari with a built-in Trikaala in the Pallavi passage.
The concert by Sri Chandrasekaran and Kamalakar Rao, long time associates of TRS was equally touching.

[CRama]

Thanks Rajesh for your exhaustive report of the event. It was a very emotionally and musically charged event. This was one event where the audience never got irked by the speeches. First, it was to the bare minimum- 2-3 minutes each. Second,there was no beating around the bush. Everybody spoke about the magnanimity of TRS, the greatness of his music, his strength in laya, his generosity in imparting music to his students. It was very thoughtful for the team to invite Kamalakar Rao and M.Chandrasekharan for the musical event- for they had been long term associates of TRS. Both have played for more than half century for TRS Sir. During the period 60s to 80s TRS-TRukmini-Kamalakar Rao was a highly successful team and have given some memorable concerts which is n circulation among TRS fans. Not to forget TRS-MC concerts. Kamalakar Rao, could not control his emotions when he spoke of TRS. M.Chandrasekharan also spoke about the precious concerts he played for TRS. BS Puruchothaman said how he encouraged youngsters. When TRS was in Delhi, he used to invite great vidwans ancomped young vidwans to Delhi and to compensate for the not so great package he could afford, he secured recording contracts for CPC and ensured that the team returned happily to their homes.

People also remembered about his presence in all the concerts- albeit very junior vidwans and vidushis and had encouraging words to say about their concert.

The prayer song sung by Mohan Santhanam in typical TRS style was a composition of Ponnayya Pillai. It had the structure of MD Kriti but it was in telugu.

Kudos to Muthukumar and his team for organizing a fitting tribute to their Guru.

[Nick H]

I wish I had known about this event.

Thanks to you both for the write-ups

[arasi]

Rajesh,

Thank you for the detailed report on the event which brings vividly to our minds the qualities of TRS. Hearing vidvAns like MC and Kamalakara Rao (gentlemen artistes) speak of him makes it even more special.

An extremely well-organized program, as you say.

You always appreciated the presence of TRS in junior artistes' concert and would write about it. His presence in any such concert was a welcome sight for rasikAs. More so to the artistes. He came all the way from Annanagar for every one of them!

Great to know it turned out to be a special evening...

[rajeshnat]

The prayer song sung by Mohan Santhanam in typical TRS style was a composition of Ponnayya Pillai. It had the structure of MD Kriti but it was in telugu.

O gosh I did not realize that even the language was in telugu . This krithi had so much of dhenuka feel to me - the raga mudra helped me with binnashadjam .

SRK or CRama or any one else,
Any luck with identifying the last slokham raga.

[CRama]

Rajesh, Your getting Dhenuka feel in that prayer song was hundred percent OK. Dhuni bhinnashadjam is the name for Denuka in the Asampoorna mela padhathi which was followed by MD and also by Ponnayya Pillai who belongs to the lineage of MD.

[Sivaramakrishnan]

SRK or CRama or any one else,
Any luck with identifying the last slokham raga.

Sorry rajeshnat, failed to note the raga of ' asato maa sadgamaya'.
may be because, the footage for this sloka -a close-up of TRS- was near-real which 'glued' me just to TRS and nothing beyond!
A great experience.

[rshankar]

Rajesh, the SlOkam is
asatOmA sat gamaya
tamasOmA jyOtir gamaya
mRtyOrmA amRtam gamaya
It was part of the prayers that we began the day with at the Kendriya Vidyalays. I wonder if they still do...

[rajeshnat]

Apart from Delhi V Muthukumar who spearheaded this function , I forgot to mention that violinist Delhi Sundarrajan and the organization maarga.in where sundarrajan plays a prominent role was also responsible for this event.

I also spotted violinist Sriram parasuram , Ramakrishnan Murthy, Deekshita (young disciple of TRS)and KS Kalidas who were there during the function. On a sidenote as I walked out at the end of the function - I had a chance to help the sabha patron Safe Shri Ramabadhran and his wife (not sure) to cross the road . I donot know him at all - for their age it is quite a task to cross the one way road in Luz :-! .

After he and his wife crossed the road he told me personally - "ellathukum mEla Osathi TRS'oda music " - the look of his eyes and the words he spoke is just on me .He need not tell that to me but he felt so intensely with TRS mama's music. Safe Ramabadran must have heard every artist under the sun and he must be hearing CM for atleast 70+ years that too he being an organizer of a sabha SAFE which promotes so many artists . I do know safe ramabadran is mad as much as TRS over GNB and I have personally told atleast 4 to 5 times TRS mAmA "YOu keep telling GNB music is great But I find your music so great too".Now ramabadran sir has told about TRS in his own words "ellathukum mEla Osathi TRS Oda music".