Semmangudi Srinivasa Iyer

ragam-talam · Post by **ragam-talam** » 08 Jul 2009, 15:15

Sathej - thanks for that quick response! I am told SSI chats a bit during the concert; hope that's also been recorded in this version.

Sathej · Post by **Sathej** » 09 Jul 2009, 03:55

Yes, its been recorded

Everything from 'Naan enna cinema artiste a?' when flooded with requests presumably, to 'Besh Sowkhyama Iru' to Lalgudi when he stresses on a particularly nice phrase during Mukhari Swarams

Sathej

ragam-talam · Post by **ragam-talam** » 09 Jul 2009, 17:49

sathej, I listened to the complete concert, and yes his 'pEchu' is so nice to hear. I feel the occasional chats by these vidwans adds an intimacy to these concerts. It brings back that 'moment' to us so well.

srinivasrgvn · Post by **srinivasrgvn** » 09 Jul 2009, 20:52

Well fellow rasikas,
I hunted, hunted and hunted to finally find out that SSI has never even hummed Simhendramadhyamam. That is quite sad. =(
I don't know why certain artistes just completely skip a raga! Simhendramadhyamam is a mela raga, although not that popular. I don't know why SSI never sang this raga! Is TMK singing it? Does anybody know?

arunk · Post by **arunk** » 09 Jul 2009, 20:54

Although not sure if I have heard it from him, I am fairly certain SSI would have sung the Swati Thirunal krithi rAma rAma guNasIma (it is a fantastic krithi)

Arun

visaalam · Post by **visaalam** » 09 Jul 2009, 20:56

ragam-talam wrote:Can someone provide a pointer to the famous Airport concert of SSI, if it's available in the public domain. If not publicly available (and not copyrighted) please upload if you have it with you.

Also, can you provide an item list of this concert?

Many thanks in advance.

http://sangeethamshare.org/gvr/SSI_Conc ... t-concert/

srinivasrgvn · Post by **srinivasrgvn** » 09 Jul 2009, 21:01

arunk wrote:Although not sure if I have heard it from him, I am fairly certain SSI would have sung the Swati Thirunal krithi rAma rAma guNasIma (it is a fantastic krithi)

Arun

No Arun,
I've searched widely. I couldn't find even 1 track. I will be very happy if you could find it. Thanks! =)

cpblog · Post by **cpblog** » 10 Jul 2009, 02:03

Dear Rasikas,

Please hear 'Biranbrova' from SSI with Chowdiah and Shivaraman from vintage 1965 at
http://chowdaiahandparvati.blogspot.com/

If you have any comments on this piece or on the other ones posted (thus far), or on the text in the blog please reply to the email in the blog.

We'd appreciate your thoughts as we find ourselves sifting through half a century of music from a collection of private performances by almost all the great ones!

vasanthakokilam · Post by **vasanthakokilam** » 10 Jul 2009, 04:39

cpblog, thanks for sharing all this info. The Chodiah web site is coming along great with some great audio. It is funny to hear SSI joking around and casually calling out to srikantayya, just as he begins Biranabrova

johnlovescm · Post by **johnlovescm** » 10 Jul 2009, 08:09

srinivasrgvn wrote:
arunk wrote:Although not sure if I have heard it from him, I am fairly certain SSI would have sung the Swati Thirunal krithi rAma rAma guNasIma (it is a fantastic krithi)

Arun
No Arun,
I've searched widely. I couldn't find even 1 track. I will be very happy if you could find it. Thanks! =)

SSI has not sung Rama Rama gunaseema. This kritis of ST was tuned by HMB. Most / ALL of SSI's renditions of ST kritis are those tuned by SSI himself.
There seems to have been some controversy on HMB being removed as the Principal of ST College and SSI taking over. Not sure if that has got anything to do with SSI not having rendered that kriti.

cienu · Post by **cienu** » 10 Jul 2009, 08:29

arunk wrote:Although not sure if I have heard it from him, I am fairly certain SSI would have sung the Swati Thirunal krithi rAma rAma guNasIma (it is a fantastic krithi)

Arun

I dont think so. Infact MS learnt this krithi from Musiri.

arunk · Post by **arunk** » 10 Jul 2009, 08:43

thanks johnlovescm and cienu: My "fairly certain would have" was obviously a presumption and the idea behind that presumption is proven wrong by the data given by johnlovescm i.e. that I presumed he would have tuned it

- I stand corrected.

Arun

cpblog · Post by **cpblog** » 10 Jul 2009, 14:29

vasanthakokilam wrote:cpblog, thanks for sharing all this info. The Chodiah web site is coming along great with some great audio. It is funny to hear SSI joking around and casually calling out to srikantayya, just as he begins Biranabrova

Thank you! Vasantakokilam. Your words help to inch forward each day.

Incidentally, Mr. Srikantiah is a great music lover, critic and a treasure trove on every one of our Vidwans, whose friendships he enjoyed for years. Though advanced in these years, himself, I am hoping that he will come forward to these posts, one of these days.

-CPBlog, Princeton, NJ

cpblog · Post by **cpblog** » 10 Jul 2009, 14:39

srinivasrgvn wrote:Well fellow rasikas,
I hunted, hunted and hunted to finally find out that SSI has never even hummed Simhendramadhyamam. That is quite sad. =(
I don't know why certain artistes just completely skip a raga! Simhendramadhyamam is a mela raga, although not that popular. I don't know why SSI never sang this raga! Is TMK singing it? Does anybody know?

Dear Srinivasrgvn...definitely calls for research...but, if MMI vibrates with you you can hear the latter's brillliant rendering of this raaga with a masterful Chowdiah and some really hot drumming by a young Umayalpuram Shivaraman at http://chowdaiahandparvati.blogspot.com/.

I hope its OK with all members here to mention MMI in an SSI post?

srinivasrgvn · Post by **srinivasrgvn** » 10 Jul 2009, 16:11

Thank you, cpblog.
I will definitely listen to it and tell you! =)

kaapi · Post by **kaapi** » 10 Jul 2009, 20:04

SSI had sung natha jana paripAlaka in simhendramadhyamam in one of the 33 rpm records released possibly in 1936. The Alapana ,song and the swaras occupied both the sides. I have also been told that he had sung pallavis in SM during the "war time". He possibly sang very little of simhendramadhyamam during the period from which we have the recordings, ie. late fifties onwards.
But SSI invariably sang a raga or krithi for a period of 8 to 10 years and then switched to to a new set of ragas/ krithis. For instance while he sang chEta Sri in dwijAwanti during the fifties, during the sixties and seventies it was invariably akhilAndeswari. During the sixties and seventies he rarely sang pattividuva rAdhu which was one of his magnum opus in the earlier period.

srinivasrgvn · Post by **srinivasrgvn** » 11 Jul 2009, 07:51

Ha! I am very happy to know that SSI has sung Simhendramadhyamam. That is enough for me. My favorite star has sung it. It is okay if I can't hear it! =)

SangithaRasika · Post by **SangithaRasika** » 16 Jul 2009, 21:22

Does anyone have Gajavadana (Todi) and Bhakti biccamu (Shankarabharanam) sung by SSI ? I have that as one concert without any title but all the songs in this concert that I have is incomplete ? I request if somebody can please give me the details of this concert and point me to, if available on Sangithapriya ? Other songs in this concert (as per my CD) Chakkani Raja, Marubaari, Poorvikalyani (it stops after aalapana).

Thank you,
SR

Aditto · Post by **Aditto** » 23 Jul 2009, 19:46

Can anyone tell me the names of the ragas in the ragamalika section at the end of a RTP in Purvikalyani by SSI available in sangeethapriya??

kapali · Post by **kapali** » 25 Jul 2009, 21:14

iam not able to get SSI's Purvikakalyani RTP IN sangeethapriya though I tried my best

VK RAMAN · Post by **VK RAMAN** » 25 Jul 2009, 21:20

here is one available:
http://www.ecse.rpi.edu/Homepages/shivk ... index.html

go to edit and select find and input "purvikalyani" you will get SSI manodharma

Aditto · Post by **Aditto** » 26 Jul 2009, 01:04

@kapali sir

http://www.sangeethapriya.org/MainItem/rtps/rtp3.html

here is the link for that RTP

kapali · Post by **kapali** » 26 Jul 2009, 06:41

Thanks for the link for SSI's poorvakalyani RTP. Enjoyed the RTP. The ragamalika swaras are in the ragas---Kedaram, Kedaragowla, Kannada, Varali and Surati.

ragam-talam · Post by **ragam-talam** » 21 Nov 2009, 12:24

Semmangudi's Tribute to Kerala
Lovely!

Ragjay · Post by **Ragjay** » 21 Nov 2009, 21:56

ragam-talam the last ragam in the garland of ragas in the ragamallika swaras is narayanagowla and not suruti. bye Raghavan

kapali · Post by **kapali** » 29 Nov 2009, 18:32

dear Sri Raghavan, I listened to the RTP item again today and reconfirm that the last ragam in the garland of ragas is Suruti and not Narayanagowla

krishna212001 · Post by **krishna212001** » 15 Dec 2009, 13:04

srkris wrote:There was a topic dedicated to Semmangudi, which I observe now, has miraculously disappeared.

Anyways, this is a nice picture of the Pitamaha with Lalgudi and TVG

Any Guesses on who is sitting parallely near to TVG ?

I think it is T.M.Thyagarajan.

Regards
Krishna

nrswamy · Post by **nrswamy** » 08 Feb 2010, 20:33

Can anyone please help me to get his 1968 Music Academy concert. If commercial or non-commercial where can I get?

Thanks.

cienu · Post by **cienu** » 09 Feb 2010, 13:24

krishna212001 wrote:
Any Guesses on who is sitting parallely near to TVG ?

I think it is T.M.Thyagarajan.

Regards
Krishna

The 2nd person from the extreme left (as we view the picture) is V.K.Narayana Menon who at that time must have been the Director General of AIR. (The picture of the 1st person at the extreme left is not visible clearly)

The accompanist who is not playing the Tambura , I think is PSN.

vganesh · Post by **vganesh** » 09 Feb 2010, 14:14

@cienu The 2n person...... it looks more like Guruvayoor Durai. But what a photo of Sri LGJ?. He must be in his teens....

cienu · Post by **cienu** » 09 Feb 2010, 14:25

vganesh wrote:@cienu The 2n person...... it looks more like Guruvayoor Durai. But what a photo of Sri LGJ?. He must be in his teens....

I am certain that it is the late V.K.Narayana Menon, who also subsequently went on to become the Chairman of The Sangeetha Natak Academy. LGJ must be in his early 20's I think. Lovely picture

Notice that the Mridangam does not have a mike

nrswamy · Post by **nrswamy** » 17 Feb 2010, 19:27

Dear Bhava786
Did u upload 1968 MA concert? If yes plz give the link. I want particularly 3 songs ie Enduku, Marubalha,Todi RTP only from this concert. Please help me.

If anyone having this concert kindly upload please... My mail id is nrs1968@gmail.com.

Thanks

cpblog · Post by **cpblog** » 19 Feb 2010, 14:31

Posting of the full full 1975 concert of the Pitamaha in "Parvathi", Mysuru with Lalgudi Jayaraman-Vellore Ramabhadran-V.R. Krishnan. This is contained in a second tribute to Vidwan Lalgudi Jayaraman with (1) a very recent picture of Lalgudi and his wife (2) some solo pieces of his unforgettable violin http://chowdaiahandparvati.blogspot.com/

varadharajan · Post by **varadharajan** » 29 Apr 2010, 20:36

I was one of the lucky few, who was fortunate enough to get some musical drops from the ocean of semmangudi mama's music. My tutelage under SSI mama was the result of the deep friendship between my dad and SSI mama ( they were friends right from their childhood days at kumbakonam) more than that of merit. An ample testimony to their friendship was that they both passed away on the same day (31.10.2003) though my father was younger than SSI by an year. I literally grew up in a musical atmosphere, not a surprising thing those days for a thanjavur jilla brahmin family, my father was an amateur kanjira player and my mom could sing very well.
My father had a job with the postal dept and that took us all over india. Once when in trivandrum, i had voiced my desire to dad about learning from SSI mama. Dad was not too sure whether he would take me on, but decided to give it a try. He used to call SSI as "cheenu anna" ( inspite of strong protests from SSI to not use the honorific of anna). Much to his and my happiness, SSI readily agreed to take me on. And those 2.5 yrs were most memorable to me even though i hardly learnt 3-4 krithis from SSI.

cmlover · Post by **cmlover** » 29 Apr 2010, 20:42

Good going Varadarajan
Tell us about interesting events during that tutelage...SSI was in his vigorous prime..Do you remeber his attempts at tuning Swathi kritis?

varadharajan · Post by **varadharajan** » 29 Apr 2010, 20:48

One thing which will never cease to amaze me about SSI mama is his sincerity towards the art, towards his rasikas, towards his disciples( no matter whether the disciple is senior or junior or from a wealthy/ordinary family).. Once i took my grandson to him on his birthday to get SSI's blessings. Mama apparently had a concert the next evening and was scanning his book. My grandson who turned 9 yrs old then asked "thatha you have sung so many concerts. Why do you keep revising them?". SSI mama never took that question in an "alatchiyam" way and answered it with all his humility. "See , its not like that. Every concert is like an exam. You should satisfy all the rasikas who take pains and come to listen to you and i should also revise the old songs too in case i get any requests. I cant say i forgot them" ..
Though am sure my grandson wouldnt have appreciated the enormity of these words at that age, i got another proof of why SSI mama was so great and that his music will continue to enthrall all of us till the mountains and the seas in this world continue to be there.

varadharajan · Post by **varadharajan** » 29 Apr 2010, 21:01

cmlover, semmangudi mama in the late forties and the early fifties ( if i remember right) was just recovering from an extremely painful throat operation. He was not singing much during that time and was mainly reviving and tuning the works of swathi thirunal,assisted by T.M.Tyagarajan. One interesting thing which happened is ariyakudi iyengarval was in trivandrum for a concert and the maharani invited to him to the palace and was asked to sing. He started singing a swAthi thirunAL krithi in Arabhi( sorry i forgot the name, do i faintly remember a pAhi parvatha?? ). I was too young then , around 15-16 and i used to go with SSI mama to the palace. The most fascinating aspect of that day was, SSI was asked to join in by iyengArvAL and they both sang kalpanaswarAs one after the other. A lovely experience.

SSI revered iyengAr's music to the hilt. He used to say often "PAAtu nu onnu Padina, avar mAdhiri pAdanam da".. He always hung a large photo of iyengAr in his drawing room, which he used to look up every now and then for inspiration till his last moments.

cmlover · Post by **cmlover** » 29 Apr 2010, 21:37

I too know the proverbial humility of SSI, sincerity to disciples and the regard for tradition since he refused to cross the ocean in spite of tempting requests. His devotion to royalty was equally proverbial. He did venerate ARI as much as he did his guru MVI. In fact I believe Pahi Parvatha the superb Swathi was tuned by him. KVN has rendered it in a magnificent way which epitomizes Arabhi!
Thank you for the reminiscences and do share more as and when you recall. I am expecting MKR to start a thread on SSI and MS shortly. You can join and contribute your share...

rajeshnat · Post by **rajeshnat** » 29 Apr 2010, 22:15

shri varadarajan and natarajan(new joinees who got tutored by semmangudi mamA) , both of you please get going on this semmangudi thread. It would be nice if you also have time to catch up this thread there are few interesting anecdotes and lot of thoughts put about semmangudi mAmA , a truly great vidwan .

varadharajan · Post by **varadharajan** » 30 Apr 2010, 10:14

Dear Rajeshnat, i did go through this thread and was very happy to see the kind of interest and information people had towards semmangudi mama and his music. I also saw an interesting discussion about the "Airport concert", which i can say was one of the best ever carnatic music concerts, not only of semmangudi mama alone. I attended that concert live and it was somewhere near tambaram air base in chennai. Am not sure about the year though i think it is somewhere around 1967-68. They had a kind of air drill that day and that was one of the reasons so many aircraft sounds were heard.
I can surely say, that semmangudi mama was in the peak of his voice and music in the 60's and the 70's and to a lesser extent in the 80's. Some of his best concerts always had Lalgudi anna and Trichy Sankaran with him. ( though i shall write about them in relevant threads). The SSI-Lalgudi-Sankaran was a GOD made combo. The "dinamani vamsa", "mArubalka", "ksheenamai", "samAnamevaru", "the short and sweet khamas alapana which he sang preceeding "idadhupadham thooki" still rings in my ears. I frankly believe that semmangudi mama's thukkadas like "idadhupadham thooki", "navasiddhi petrAlum" , let alone go to the likes of "mArubalka and ksheenamai", had so much more music than today's musicians

rajeshnat · Post by **rajeshnat** » 30 Apr 2010, 13:19

varadharajan wrote:Dear Rajeshnat, i did go through this thread and was very happy to see the kind of interest and information people had towards semmangudi mama and his music. I also saw an interesting discussion about the "Airport concert", which i can say was one of the best ever carnatic music concerts, not only of semmangudi mama alone. I attended that concert live and it was somewhere near tambaram air base in chennai.

Thank you sri varadharAjan, i remember posting long time back about the airport location , few believed calcutta , few believed it was in a sabha in ghatkophar in mumbai and few of them inclusive of trichy sankaran clarified which was put by some forumite (i think venkatpv)that it was tambaram.
If possible you and shri natarajan can also dig few photographs if you have any of them and possibly post it here too along with any memorable anecdotes.

cmlover · Post by **cmlover** » 30 Apr 2010, 17:45

A capital suggestion!

varadharajan · Post by **varadharajan** » 30 Apr 2010, 18:43

Dear Rajeshnat, i infact had a good collection of photos clicked along with semmangudi mama which unfortunately got damaged during our shifting to Delhi. I still have a couple of pics though, but in a very dilapidated state which i will try to see what best can be done about it and put it up here.

cienu · Post by **cienu** » 01 May 2010, 09:45

varadharajan wrote:Dear Rajeshnat, i infact had a good collection of photos clicked along with semmangudi mama which unfortunately got damaged during our shifting to Delhi. I still have a couple of pics though, but in a very dilapidated state which i will try to see what best can be done about it and put it up here.

Most damaged pictures can be brought back to life. I would request you to retrieve the pictures and have them see by restoration experts.

varadharajan · Post by **varadharajan** » 03 May 2010, 14:33

Cienu, yes those have been given for appropriate action. Lets see what best can be done about them. Continuing with some of my recollections about the great man and his music. After moving over to Delhi, i became a part of a small group which used to organize concerts at AIIMS and also in the famous "malai temple" in south Delhi which boasts of a significant Tamil population. It was then that i had the honour of hosting many greats like SSI, KVN, MDR, T.K.Rangachari, Kalyanaraman, Lalgudi anna, MSG, T.N.Krishnan, Umayalpuram Sivaraman, Vellore Ramabhadran, Trichy Sankaran etc.. Once we had invited semmangudi mama along with T.N.Krishnan and Vellore Ramabhadran. TNK and VR decided to leave to chennai the night after the concert as they had some concerts couple of days later, but mama preferred to say for a day as he found the journey a bit tiring. I then offered him to drive around to some local places of interests only to find my 12 yr old son yelling "Taj Mahal" "Taj Mahal". I told no way as mama is already tired and cant travel so far.

Mama then cajoled me saying let us not cheat the poor boy and asked me to go ahead and make the necessary arrangements. We started early next day morning, had darshan at vrindhAvan temple and halted for breakfast at mathurA. While coming out of the sanctorum of the mathurA temple, out of nowhere, a very old typical north Indian sAdhu whom you can see on the banks of The Ganges @ Haridwar approached SSI and told him that he had heard about him but unfortunately never heard him sing. Semmangudi mama thought nothing about sitting down in the prAkhAram of the temple and sang "Sri krishnam bhaja mAnasa", preceeded by a thOdi AlApanA. The sAdhu immensely pleased, gave a packet of vibhuthi to mama and blessed him. After that Semmangudi mama often used to tell me that he had a long standing desire to worship Lord KrishNA at this temple and that it got fulfilled because of you and that the sAdhu was none other than the Lord himself.

I can only wish after all these years, that technology was advanced then and that i had a walkman or a mp3 player that time to record those unforgettable moments.

cmlover · Post by **cmlover** » 03 May 2010, 20:42

Thanks for that inspiring story. The devotion of SSI is legendary since he sings these lyrics with genuine bhava and commitment. I have heard about him having an emotional breakdown while singing some of the Swati kritis!

sreecons · Post by **sreecons** » 04 May 2010, 06:33

Many thanks for sharing that story with us.

kunthalavarali · Post by **kunthalavarali** » 31 May 2010, 00:36

I am not sure if the following two Dikshitar's krithis sung by SSI is on Sangeethamshare:

1: srI pArthasarathy in yadukulakAmbhOdhi and
2. Ni sAti daivamu lEni_Sriranjani.

If any one is interested I will be glad to upload them.

srinivasrgvn · Post by **srinivasrgvn** » 31 May 2010, 18:56

Sorry for bumping in but 'nI sAti deivamendu' is a specialty of Sri.D.K.Jayaraman!

I am unable to hear any other version! But, I have not heard SSI's rendition. It is quite promising though.

rshankar · Post by **rshankar** » 01 Jun 2010, 03:31

The CD 'guru guha vANi' has this SrI ranjani composition among other MD compositions rendered by Smt. MSS.

rasikas.org

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