Thirupampuram Swaminatha Pillai

[rbharath]

Any recordings or incidents or anecdotes about this musician welcome.

[divakar]

photo taken from
http://carnatica.net/special/photoquiz.htm
i think it is Trichy Sankaran on the mridangam.


Tiruppamburam Swaminatha Pillai was a perfectionist and his anchor-like rhythmic precision had no parallel. After unveiling his portrait in a Madras sabha, Mali said: "It was only Swaminatha Pillai who introduced madhyama kale playing on the flute and I took a leaf only from him."
Source:
http://tamilelibrary.org/teli/tnmusic1.html

The Tamil lsai movement and other influences led to a revival of interest in Muthutandavar in 1941-42 and the late Tiruppamburam Swaminatha Pillai set to music 60 of his kriti-s in wellknown and apoorva raga-s after some discussion and these were published later by the Annamalai University (1967, 3rd edition). These did not include his pada-s, but did include several nindastuti songs.

Swaminatha Pillai's tunes however, do not seem to have been fully adopted. Madurai Mani sang Sevikka vendumaiya in Andolika, instead of Abhogi, Professor S. Ramanathan sang Aarukkuththan teriyum in Devamanohari instead of Natabhairavi and M. S. Subbulakshmi sings Aaraar aasaippadar in Nadanamakriya instead of Sankrabharanam. The changes were made probably because Pillais tunes were suited primarily to performance on instruments.
Source:
http://www.chembur.com/carnatic/page06.html

[divakar]

"The solitary exception was Sattanur Panchanada Iyer who taught Dikshitar kritis to several Nagaswara vidwans including Tiruppamburam Natarajasundaram Pillai. Natarajasundaram Pillai, published fifty kritis of Dikshitar in notation in 1936. His sons, Sangeeta Kalanidhi Swaminatha Pillai and Sivasubramanya Pillai followed him. Swaminatha Pillai brought the Chaturdasa ragamalika kriti of Muthuswami Dikshitar into kutcheri-paddhati."
Source: http://carnatica.net/special/dikshitarsishyas.htm

i think the reference in the above paragraph is to Sri T. N. Swaminatha Pillai.

Sri T. Viswanathan (flute), Sri S. R. Janakiraman (vocal), Sri T. K. Govinda Rao (vocal) are some of the shishyas of Sri Swaminatha Pillai.

http://www.ethnomusic.ucla.edu/archive/brown.html
in the above link, Tape Index 392 refers to a concert of Swaminatha Pillai recorded in 1961.

A concert of Sri. T. N. Swaminatha Pillai (an AIR 1951 Recording) is available in Sri TVG's folder of sangeethapriya
http://www.sangeethapriya.org/~tvg/265. ... %20PILLAI/
the fourth song in the above concert is
"Ivaraku jUcinadi - SankarAbharaNa - tyAgarAja - Adi"

Kji, any other recordings of T. N. Swaminatha Pillai (flute) available with you ? just curious.

[coolkarni]

divakar
other than the one you mention , I have the following.
will upload shortly
01-Sobillu-Jaganmohini
02-Sarojadalanetri-Sankarabaranam
03-Telisirama-Purnachandrika-Thani
04-Neethucharana-Simmendramadyamam
05-Vakaladi-Behag06-Thiruppugazh

[raju54]

divakar
late Sri Seergazi S.Govindarajan also a disciple of Sri T.N.Swaminatha Pillai- Sri Seergazi used to include many of Muthuthandavar krithis in his concerts especially Sevikka vendumaiya in the raga aboghi.

[raju54]

divakar
mridhangam artist in the photo looks like late Chitoor C.K.Shyamsundar.

[meena]

Deleted changed my mind

[divakar]

Kji,
thanks. nice to know you have some recordings. no hurry.

meena,
good find. havent tried lastname combinations to get more results.

photo link removed

rajuji,
my guess of the mridangist stems from the first and last photos in the following link
http://mdramanathan.com/p_concerts.htm

[sankirnam]

...and of course that is Alangudi Ramachandran playing ghatam in the first photo

[coolkarni]

divakarji

Here it is

http://rapidshare.com/files/28752863/Th ... 05.2003.mp

[rbharath]

Thanks for all the info.

I am also told, he was a seasoned vocalist and preferred teaching his students in vocal only. any chance of recordings of his vocal?