The very first song that made you a CM Rasika

[ajaysimha]

I choose this topic to understand the vivid tastes of the rasikas.
And to cherish those moments we became CM rasikas without even our knowledge

The very first song that made me a CM Rasika is :
"Rangapura Vihara"
especially the crisp recital by MSS.

[musi]

Maaravairi Ramani by Ranjani Gayatri

[sureshvv]

Dr. BMK's Nagumomu when I was 15.

MS's Bhogeendra Sayeenam when I was 35.

[SrinathK]

nannu pAlimpA by Maharajapuram Santhanam is the earliest thing I can remember.

But apparently before I could learn to remember, it was Lalgudi's mOhanam and hindOlam jugalbandhi with Amjad Ali Khan.

[RSR]

My first exposure to classical music ( or if you prefer, semi-classical music), was through the absolutely divine songs of Smt.MSS in Tamil Meera film. in 1946 , when I was 4 years old. , thanks to a loudspeaker company opposite to our residence. At that age, only the tunes captivated me. A decade later, I came to appreciate the lyrics by Kalki. (We lost a poet in Kalki almost equal to Barathy.) and the ragams ( even today, after 72 years, I am hunting for the exact ragam of two songs .)
Incidentally, these songs also are best examples for music score, and orchestration ...by S.V.Venkataraman.
and also a gentle primer to HM too! Who am I to speak of Smt.MSS rendering? Who can improve on that?
To me, these are the bench-mark songs for the respective ragams. ...Perhaps, I am stuck up there for ever. Not apologetic.
1) murali mohana (kapi)
2) kaatrinile varum geetham ( misra jonpuri)
3) enathu uLLame ( chenchurutti)
4) Giridhara gopala-( mohanam )
5) yadhunandhana ( tilang)
6) charaacharam (..unaiye enathuyir..?) (ragam?)
7) maravene eNNaLilume ( paraj) said to be based on a javaLI
8) arnaga un mahimaiyai ( behag) ( did we lose a matchless harikatha exponent? )
9) maraintha kooNdil irunthu (KAMAJ)
10) udal uruga ( viruttham) ( classic) ( poorvikalyaNi, sahana, naadhanaamakriya)
11) andha NaLum ( sindhubairavi)
12) engum niraithaye ( hindustani bairavi?)
13) janaardhana ...suraasurar paNi paadha ( madhyamaavathi? classic)
All the songs can be heard in
https://sites.google.com/site/homage2ms ... amil--1945
( thankfully, saregama have placed all the Meera songs in public domain)

[VK RAMAN]

My first exposure came at the age of six through my appa who did Dakshin Sampradaya Bhajan. Now that is a money making profession.

[HarishankarK]

I was first exposed to carnatic music in West Mambalam Ayodhya Mandapam - myself and my aunt were passing through for buying vegetables when my aunt Sudha Raghunathan singing and decided to stay for a while - she did a harikamboji and kalyani alaapanai and sang Rama Nannu Brovara and Eta Vunara one after the other.
Till such time I never knew abt carnatic music - my dad used to play records but I never bothered. That Eta Vunara was a turning point in my life.

[Aditto]

Kanjadalaayataakshi by MSS !

[pramodh]

Sobillu by GNB

[K Nagarajan]

My exposure to CM is by listening to concerts broadcast over AIR, Trichy in the 1960s;
particularly 'isai kadambam' in which songs from EPs and LPs by stalwarts will be played.

My first experience of listening to someone on stage was in a street play (therukkoothu) on the life of Nandanar;
the artist was Kothamangalam Seenu who played the role of the brahmin (vethiyar) against
MM Mariyappa who played the role of Nandanar.

[RSR]

I have already given the light classical songs which captivated me in age 4. Six years later, I loved 'classical songs like 'brocheva ( kamaj) and 'ennaganu (panthuvarali) as records in radio both by Smt.MS... It is very difficult to chose only one singer and one song. So, I should add DKP's ''sangeetha gyanamu'' (danyasi) and 'thookkiya thiruvadi ( sankarabaranam). All in radio only.

[ajaysimha]

another experience of me as kid was
for the very first time i heard Bhavayami Raghuramam
many ragas, swara passages, sounding sanskrit lyrics, plus my granny's explanation of ramayanam along with song.
this made me a CM rasika

[espras]

Thyagarajaswamy's Margahindolam kruthi 'Chalamelara' somehow appealed to me no end as a nine year old youngster. Even today, the recording of the song that I hear in the dulcet voice of Nedanuri is very moving to me.

Quite soon, my parents made me listen to Semmangudi's rendition of 'Marubalga'. That was a great turning point.

S. Prasanna.

[arasi]

Espras,
chalamElarA is one of my very special songs too from childhood, along with OrajUpu jUCEti nyAyamA?
Looking at the posts, see how( but for mOhanam), most favorites are out of the way rAgAs--as much as we love our tODis and kAmbOdis and other major rAgAs later on. In a way, we can also see how some seem drift into CM from listening to film music based on solid CM rAgAs. Like mOhanam, KalyANi is a familiar rAgA too to be drawn to, thanks to the old movies...

[vgovindan]

arasi,
I came to CM appreciation very late in life. This song inspired me to what music should be - soulful, purposeful. I have not been able to overcome my obsession till now -

https://youtu.be/ATBNyaWxTr4

[MaheshS]

another experience of me as kid was
for the very first time i heard Bhavayami Raghuramam
many ragas, swara passages, sounding sanskrit lyrics, plus my granny's explanation of ramayanam along with song.
this made me a CM rasika

My grandma used to sing Enakku Un Irupadam rather than Bhavayami. Used to say this was more popular till the "plate" came out! Rarely heard now a days, another ragamalika gem telling the Ramayana!

[RSR]

My grandma used to sing Enakku Un Irupadam rather than Bhavayami. Used to say this was more popular till the "plate" came out! Rarely heard now a days, another ragamalika gem telling the Ramayana!

Great!
Is it the MSS ( earlier) version
https://sites.google.com/site/homage2ms ... iru-patham
or the DKP version from the Ramarajyam (tamil) film?
Can I get DKP mp3?

[sridhar]

Though bavayami raguramam sung by MSS caught my attention and drew me towards carnatic music (before that only Ilayaraja's music), it was GNB's dAriNi telusu konti, which I heard from a oriental records album that I bought in a trip to Pitttsburgh balaji temple in the eighties, that cemented me to carnatic music. Even today that suddha savEri alapana is haunting.

[mdr_fan]

MMI's Maa Janaki in a cassette that had Sarasa Sama dana, English Note, Sarasamukhi, etc.

[RSR]

adding one more @11-> N.C.Vasanthakokilam 'thanthai thaay irunthaal ' in shanmugapriya.
The lyrics, ragam and rendering are superb, It was very popular record in early 1950's and still is!
https://sites.google.com/site/ncvasanth ... nmukapriya

[ajaysimha]

one more add-on is: duggani embudu durjana sangha-purandaraDasar

when i was a kid of 4'th grade ,I remember listening to radio in the morning hours,
usually in it used to dasara padagalu program ;
where i listened this song and appreciated its inner essence as a kid.
it was in ragam senjurutti and vocals was by BMK
which is unforgettable for me

i recently remembered this incident and found this song on sangeethapriya , and cherished those moments
<http://www.sangeethapriya.org/fs_search.php?q=duggani>

[ajaysimha]

My grandma used to sing Enakku Un Irupadam rather than Bhavayami. Used to say this was more popular till the "plate" came out! Rarely heard now a days, another ragamalika gem telling the Ramayana!

I became fan of Arunachala KaviRayar's compositions after i herd the melting , honey-soked lyrics of
Yaro ivar Yaro-bhairavi(this was from GrandMom's suggestion to listen)
Vittuvidada seethayayi-kedaraGowla

[MaheshS]

My grandma used to sing Enakku Un Irupadam rather than Bhavayami. Used to say this was more popular till the "plate" came out! Rarely heard now a days, another ragamalika gem telling the Ramayana!

Great!
Is it the MSS ( earlier) version
https://sites.google.com/site/homage2ms ... iru-patham
or the DKP version from the Ramarajyam (tamil) film?
Can I get DKP mp3?

The MSS version on your site is what she used to sing. I have not heard the DKP version at all, would be nice to hear.

[RSR]

.....
The MSS version on your site is what she used to sing. I have not heard the DKP version at all, would be nice to hear.

AVM dubbed Ramarajya (Hindi-Marathi film) in 1947. It was a great hit then . All the original tunes were retained among them 'veeNa madhura ..'*(Beemplas) by Saraswathi Rane ( daughter of Ustad Abdul Karim Khan). Randor Guy's note on the Tamil film may interest you.
http://www.thehindu.com/todays-paper/tp ... 022237.ece
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celebrated Carnatic musician D. K. Pattammal sang ‘Enakkun irupatham ninaikka ...', narrating the main events of the Ramayana. As she sang, the events were shown on screen in silhouette, a novelty in cinema then. Pattammal sang in ragas Kedaragowla, Shanmughapriya, Bilahari, Dhanyasi, Mayamalawagowla and Mohanam.
(This song was made famous years ago by another icon of Carnatic music, M. S. Subbulakshmi, in a gramophone record brought out by ‘Broadcast' which had the Rising Sun as its logo. This recording company was owned by the well-known jewellers of Madras of that era, Surajmals.)

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In my school days, it was the DKP song that was in everybody's mind as it was from a nice film. The Hindi film is available in youtube but tamil version is not.
https://youtu.be/L47I-4l8YZs ( baaratha desamathin NaareemaNiyin ...)
famous and moving song by Lava and Kusa. . .,
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Trying to get the DKP classic.

[ajaysimha]

When we get nostalgia of DKP amma's songs
We cannot stop remembering eppadi padinaro.....
And her huge collection of diksitar krthis..... Plus
One more favs is nenje nenai anbe RTP in jaganmohini..

[mohan]

Living abroad we had a small collection of Carnatic LPs when I was young. The MSS 3-LP concert album which featured EnAti nomu phalamu (bhairavi) was a treasured set and I guess this got me into Carnatic music, especially the manOdharma aspects. Some other favourite records included Lalgudi Jayaraman & Srimathi with Palghat Mani Iyer (rAma katha) and a rare Ayyalore Krishnan LP (he has sung sogasujUda, Sri krishnam).
Later was fortunate to get cassettes of some old recordings of GNB, MDR, etc.

[bilahari]

T.N. Krishnan playing marivEragati in Ananda bhairavi.

[talalaya]

Around 1968, When I first heard Semmangudi Srinivasa Iyer @ Ayodhya Mandapam with Lalgudi and Trichy Sankaran. The "samAnamevaru" that he sang and the thundering Thani Avarthanam that followed. Got a taste how beautiful Karnatak Music and Kharaharapriya can be and became a life long fan of Trichy Sankaran.

[Sivaramakrishnan]

M D Ramanathan singing 'O Jagadamba' (Anandabhairavi) at Trichur Vadakke Samooham Hall in 1963 made me an instant rasika.
I was a boy of 6 then and sitting on the floor with my parents in the audience (no chairs then). I just remember MDR's opening take of the Pallavi which was stunning. He also sang Kedaram alapana (for Paramananda natana) with incredible Mandrasthaayi prayogas.

Later for several years I had the fortune of listening to him at the serene Trivandrum Navaratri Mandapam.

[ajaysimha]

M D Ramanathan singing 'O Jagadamba' (Anandabhairavi) at Trichur Vadakke Samooham Hall in 1963 made me an instant rasika.
I was a boy of 6 then and sitting on the floor with my parents in the audience (no chairs then). I just remember MDR's opening take of the Pallavi which was stunning. He also sang Kedaram alapana (for Paramananda natana) with incredible Mandrasthaayi prayogas.

Later for several years I had the fortune of listening to him at the serene Trivandrum Navaratri Mandapam.

yes, I do agree nobody else can handle "Mandrasthaayi" sancharas as handled by M D Ramanathan
especially the enchanting reetigolwa by MDR, which are among unforgettables