GNB style musicians today

[Carnaticworldmusic]

Hi all
Who are the vocalists who sing in GNB style today ? Other than the names I am citing below :
Trichur Ramachandran Mama
Sriram Gangadharan ji (he came up very nicely about 15-20 years ago but now completely not performing)
Priya sisters (more Radha Jayalakshmi and TRS Mama than actual GNB)
Bharath Narayanan only alapanai I would say - his kruthi rendition and other aspects of manodharmam are not like GNB at all
Bhushany Kalyanaraman Mami - also not really GNB style
I am looking for a Guru to learn in GNB style (if Trichur Mama and Kalyanaraman Mama could do it then some one else can try and learn to sing in GNB style, granted that no one can become GNB himself )

[RSR]

G N Balasubramanian -
T Chowdiah - C S Murugabhoopathi
- Bangalore
01 04 1957

uploaded by
Carnatic Connect
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https://youtu.be/HdFbJip5Two
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This concert is part of a private archive of about 2000 concerts performed by great maestros from the 1950s to the 1980s. It is proposed to upload the entire archive through this channel. Each concert has been digitally enhanced for maximum listening pleasure.

G N Balasubramanian - T Chowdiah - C S Murugabhoopathi - Bangalore 01 04 1957

Song List:

01 Varnam - Begada - Adi - Veena Kuppaier 00:00:00
02 Jaya Jaya - Nattai - Khandachapu - Purandaradasar 00:03:38
03 Pantuvarali Ragam 00:10:15
04 Comments by Chowdiah 00:12:35
05 Raghuvara- Panthuvarali-Thyagaraja- 00:13:54
06 Badalika Dheera - Reethigowla - Adi - Tyagarajar 00:25:57
07 Ye Vara Madugudura - Kalyani - Adi - Tyagarajar 00:42:32
08 Darini Telusukonti - Shuddha Saveri - Adi - Tyagarajar 01:04:22
09 Vara Raga Laya - Chenchu Kambhoji - Adi - Tyagarajar 01:30:38
10 Sukhi Evvaro - Kaanada - Adi - Tyagarajar 01:34:56
11 Ramachandram - Vasantha - Rupakam - Deekshitar 01:56:52
12 RTP - Bhairavi 02:00:06
13 Shlokam 03:15:22
14 Tillana 03:29:16
15 Mangalam 03:31:48
================================================
GNB was born in 1910 and so his age would have been 45 while giving this concert,
He passed away in 1965. at rather young age of 55.
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Radha-Jayalakshmi duo were commended as true representatives of GNB style by the veteran Chowdaiya.
Priya sisters- trained by Raadha-Jayalakshmi may be the voocalists in that line.
New entrants- may not follow as GNB style is not meant for everybody. He had a unique voice for his style .
and it is said that brugaa style is frowned upon by modern critics.

[thenpaanan]

New entrants- may not follow as GNB style is not meant for everybody. He had a unique voice for his style .
and it is said that brugaa style is frowned upon by modern critics.

Furthermore, unless one is careful the GNB style can be very hard physically on the voice. Brigas especially fast ones up and down the octave have to be sung with a certain technique that requires minimum effort. But this is not at all obvious to the listener, so someone trying to imitate the effect by listening may end up trying to muscle their way through, which can be ruinous over the long run.

The first sign of the damage is when you cannot hear the singer sing clearly in the lower register. You might have seen many a vidwan looking down when singing in the lower register but you cannot hear them very well. This may be because the voice loses its elasticity with overuse and cannot relax enough for the low notes.

In my search for proper voice technique I have not come across any voice coach who speaks to this question of how to maintain your voice for a briga-heavy singing style. If anyone has come across such coaching please share. I would be very interested.

-T

[thenpaanan]

Hi all
Who are the vocalists who sing in GNB style today ? Other than the names I am citing below :
Trichur Ramachandran Mama
Sriram Gangadharan ji (he came up very nicely about 15-20 years ago but now completely not performing)
Priya sisters (more Radha Jayalakshmi and TRS Mama than actual GNB)
Bharath Narayanan only alapanai I would say - his kruthi rendition and other aspects of manodharmam are not like GNB at all
Bhushany Kalyanaraman Mami - also not really GNB style
I am looking for a Guru to learn in GNB style (if Trichur Mama and Kalyanaraman Mama could do it then some one else can try and learn to sing in GNB style, granted that no one can become GNB himself )

Would Kunnakudi BMK fit your bill? Speaking style-wise here, I have no knowledge of the teaching aspect.

I would add that GNB's appeal to me personally was his very cerebral approach to the music, bringing immense creativity balanced with a strong esthetic sense. His brigas are secondary to me. Regardless, I think teaching/cultivating his thoughtfulness in music is even harder, if not impossible, to teach.

-T

[shankarank]

Smt. Raji Gopalakrishnan gave a delectable concert in Cleveland ( I will do a write up in that thread once I form the list and everything). Even with a voice that is not same as that of her prime 20 year back, she executed the hallmark , what one could call , the daaTTu transitions, that I think Smt. MLV and Thanjavur Sri Kalayanaraman do effortlessly. I have also observed Sri TVR do the same in many of his exquisite Alapanas - e.g the Latangi one few years back @Arkay.

Sri Sundaram opined that she blends the music of TMT, MLV, Kalyanaraman so well.

Would this qualify as a GNB school hallmark? This bold , at will, attempt at daaTTu everywhere? So it may not be just Brigha after all!

What I find also is, she has a disciplined and rigorous approach to kriti rendition, along with the verve that is characteristic of TMT.

[RSR]

GNB is a very special case.
In his home environment at Triplicane, Chennai , he had the unique privilege of listening to discussions sprinkled with vocal renditions by illustrious vocalists , who were guests to his father's home. ..( To the best of what I have read, there were no lady vocalists in such gatherings).
As a young boy, he picked up CM just by observing and listening to stalwarts of that period. ( 1920-1930). As a playful and talented boy, he would try to sing the kruthis that he had heard , at break-neck speed, with jovial glee much as MMI would sing his swarams with joyful abandon. - (who was two years junior to him).

MMI as we all know came from a familly of very erudite musicians. --Madurai Pushpavanam was his paternal uncle and his father was a renowned musicologist. and atleast for a few early years, MMI was a student in the music school run by Harikesanalloor Muthaiah Bagavathar.

The other vocalist in that trinity, SSI had very rigorous training - from MVI. - and MVI was known for his soft-corner for HM . Each had his own distinct style. Over-simplified categorization may be, GNB-MMI-SSI, as speed, swaram, and (?)---a moderate mixture with emphasis on aalaap and kruthi rendering. with bhaavam, if his throat allowed him to.
GNB 's primary training was not as a concert performer, while the other two were certainly groomed in that milieu.
GNB was more of a student of English literature and classical music singing in his own jet-speed was more a hobby for him, and his unique style captured the mind and hearts of youth and seniors of that era.
Not that he did not have any formal music teaching., He did have some training under Natesa Iyer , a disciple of Manambuchavadi, a young cousin and disciple of Thyagaraja swami himself., and some diploma in Carnatic music. - but all this was secondary.
Actually, he was a self-taught musician and vocalist. who relished and reveled in the felicity of his pliant voice , equally to the delight of his young listeners and to the dismay of the orthodoxy of 'gamakam' and grammar-bound seniors who frowned upon this flagrant violation of tenets of musicology. as they understood,
As he grew up into adulthood and world of popularity, he studied the science of musicology more and more and of his own volition, understood the essence of music of his seniors like Chembai, ARI, MVI and Musiri.
By 1945, in his 35th year, he had become an impeccable scholar deeply immersed in the science of music.
Alone among the famous vocalists, he ventured into COMPOSING kruthis of his own too. and as a matter of principle, never rendered his own kruthis in his concerts but taught them to disciples , hand-picked by himself.
So his disciples were not encouraged to mimic his style but learn in depth what he had to offer from his deep study over decades. Actually, he dissuaded his disciples to emulate him but to develop one's own style. --depending on their innate ability and voice criterion.
As a personal observation, his way of rendering was always breezy -light-hearted in a non-critical sense- especially in his records. Not much of bhaavam. but bordering on light-music. His scholarship and versatility came out only in concerts, especially in his later years. So, we dont find any true replicas of GNB among his disciples.

The music framework is same but each vocalist has to create his own style by individual effort and assimilation.

It may so happen by a freak of chance that some may have a voice like a famous vocalist but each creative artiste is unique gift to the community whatever be the field and it is not good to aspire to be 'sedulous'.
Only the science of music can be taught by the teacher but not the individuality of rendition, which may either grow or go down as age creeps on us inevitably.
In the present times of technology, it perhaps is better to be a rasika than a performer.
As a rasika, we are free to enjoy the bliss of the best in everything but as a performer, we tend to focus on the self. missing out what is wonderful , outside our ;ego' - self.
Somebody asked in one of the threads in this section- 'how can I sing like MMI' -- the simple ansswer is - 'NO. YOU CANNOT'. but you can be yourself and great.