Accessing AIR Recordings

[vijaykrishnan]

Is it possible to get old recordings from AIR (Coimbatore/Trichy stations)? Please advise.

My grandfather Udumalai. T. Mayilswamy was one of the senior disciples of Palani Subrmaniam Pillai. While he was extremely talented and skilled, he wasn't largely popular, but he was admired by several mridangam artists and fellow musicians for his techniques and style.

I am desperately looking for some of his AIR recordings. He played mostly in Coimbatore and Trichy radio stations.

Thanks,
Vijay

[ghanshyam144]

Namasthe Sir,

Yes you can ask the particular station to Broadcast the recordings and you can listen as scheduled by the station.I guess they will definitely oblige.But regarding getting a copy of the recording i have no information.

Thanks & regards,
Ghanshyam
9620377737

[mahavishnu]

AIR has been very unresponsive re: this issue. I am told that they have recorded over/deleted a lot of tapes from the archive during days of funding cutbacks in the 70s and 80s; I sincerely hope this is not the case.

[rshankar]

Yes, and the same may also be the case with Doordarshan (an inappropriate name, given how shortsighted many of their policies have been) as well.

While cut backs may be the official reason, I think much of it can also be blamed on the sheer ignorance of people in power at the AIR and Doordarshan offices.

[munirao2001]

AIR recordings are their reserved copy rights. They are directly releasing selected popular artists recordings in CD's. They also enter in to agreement with Saregama for the releases. They are digitizing the recordings. Rasikas desiring to hear a concert of artists should write and meet program executive and station director of the Radio station where the original recording is made and stored in their library. Meeting the librarian for verification of availability is helpful. AIR has archive at New Delhi. It would also be helpful to check with the Director (Archives) on the availability of recordings. Marketing Department of AIR is inefficient and unprofessional. Attitude, policy, decision making, budgeting and allocation of funds by the Central authorities are also unprofessional in this issue.


munirao2001

[Sivaramakrishnan]

AIR Chennai has released CDs of several recordings from their archives. These are available for sale at the Radio stations all over Tamilnadu.

[pattamaa]

this link may be useful to buy AIR archive

http://allindiaradio.gov.in/Profile/Pages/Archives.aspx

[sivachinta1965]

Dear Rasikas

Bring recordings under RTI
Siva

[Meera]

AIR like most govt.run setup is highly apathetic.They simply repeat the same recording of the past masters and I have never heard many of them like BRI.I heard VVR is a dy.director as well as Prapancham Balachandran.Rasikas
may make a representation.

[Sivaramakrishnan]

There was a special event at AIR Chennai a couple of days back for release of CDs of old recordings. The programme was announced well in advance. ( I cudnt attend however).

[RSR]

Why should AIR 'sell' the music? Why can't they just place all the songs in their website with protection? These days, one reads of allocation of funds in thousands of crores for many projects. Even a small fraction of that money will make CM recordings available to all easily. In concept, it is like 'nationalizing' the writings of great authors in literature.

[Nick H]

Why should AIR 'sell' the music?

And how much would they get for it if they did. What is the revenue looking like for sale of carnatic music these days?

I don't think there is a revenue issue here at all, because they are getting nothing, and it has little real economic potential for them anyway. So, to make it freely available would indeed be a contribution to art, culture and tradition. But it would cost them something in cash and effort to do so.

[Pratyaksham Bala]

These provide some indication of the basics - the volume, efforts and the cost :-

AIR Madras
http://www.thehindu.com/todays-paper/tp ... 211221.ece

AIR Tiruchirapalli
http://www.thehindu.com/features/metrop ... 133574.ece

[RSR]

I went through the list of songs with AIR provided and getting a printout for closer study. . Most of those songs are after 1965. and a few before that year do not specify the year . As the links in #19 indicate, an effort is under way to digitize all the treasure ( the first article in #13 is very nice) . Commendable, But is there any harm in immediately creating a website from which people can download the songs and adding the songs once in a week? AIR can begin from a base year and expedite the work. They can even appeal for public donations. but distribution should be absolutely free. No advertisements and videos to conserve bandwidth. Google shows the way. ( but let us not follow their practice in all aspects). If we wait till the project is cokmpleted, it may take an eternity.
. Film music has almost made the present generation of school/college students and young professionals almost ignorant and hostile to CM . 90 % think that it is feudal and reactionary. Merely nationalizing literature has not really served the purpose except in urban centers. The books and music should be placed in the web and the sites URL should be made widely known to the youngsters. The number of websites offering lessons on software topics absolutely free is mind-bogging. There is a huge downloading activity by students ( thanks to free laptop and cheap pen-drives) of film songs and even entire films.
That much of enthusiasm should be created among the students for classical music too, both old and new. It is rather difficult to make it free for the concerts of current musicians from economical angle but no such problem for doyens of classical music of yore.

[K Nagarajan]

In the list of concerts made available commercially as seen in the link below,
who are the accompanying artists for the RTP in Nattakurinji by the Alathur Brothers, the first item in the list.

http://allindiaradio.gov.in/Oppurtuniti ... 0Final.pdf

Can anyone who has this album please share the information?