I read about this interesting incident, and wanted to share with you.
Maha Vaidyanatha Ayyar and Coimbatore Raghava Ayyar:
This contest took place during the reign of HH Ayilyam Maharajah of Travancore in the year 1872. Raghava Ayyar (1824 – 1878) was born in Vadaseri near Nagercoil. He was a disciple of Parameswara Bhagavatar (1815 – 1892). On account of his long stay in Coimbatore, he came to be called Coimbatore Raghava Ayyar. He was a court musician in Trivandrum and settled at Haripad.
On the day fixed for the contest, all the musicians assembled at the Ranga Vilasam Palace at 2 PM. The accompanists on the occasion were Mahadeva Bhagavatar (violin), Kalyanakrishna Bhagavatar (veena), Seturama Rao (mridangam) and Somasi Bhagavatar (mridangam).
Coimbatore Raghava Ayyar sang Sankarabharana raga elaborately and gave an admirable exposition of the pallavi Vinavayya Panchanadisa. His music lasted for three hours. The audience reassembled at 7 pm. Maha Vaidyanatha Ayyar in his turn sang the Kalyani raga and followed it up with the pallavi Taraka brahma svaroopa.
The contest was continued the next day. Thodi raga was elaborated and the pallavi Emati matladitivo Rama was expounded.
Maha Vaidyanatha Ayyar then expounded Kharaharapriya raga and sang a pallavi in it. (This raga was not quite familiar to the musicians of Trivandrum at that time). The words of the pallavi were Chakkani raja margamu lundaga.
Raghava Ayyar’s music was after the Ghanam style, while that of his opponent was after the Nayam style.
The Maharajah was equally impressed with the extraordinary skill, creative talents and high attainments of both the Vidvans. He was not able to decide as to who was the superior of the two. He ordered for presents of equal value consisting of pairs of golden bangles, laced shawls, etc. to be brought and gave the presents simultaneously to both the musicians. He held the two plates containing the costly presents one in each hand and asked the two musicians to come and stand before him. He gave the presents which he had in his right hand to Maha Vaidyanatha Ayyar and the presents which he had in his left hand to Coimbatore Raghava Ayyar. The presents were given simultaneously.
Some court musicians asked him why he gave the presents that he had in his right hand to Maha Vaidyanatha Ayyar. The Maharaja immediately remarked – “Both are equally great. But still we must show courtesy and regard to the musician who had come from outside Travancore. For this reason, I gave the presents that I had in the right hand ot Maha Vaidyanatha Ayyar and the presents that I had in the left hand to Coimbatore Raghava Ayyar. No other discrimination was sought to be made by me.”
- From History of Indian Music by Padma Bhushan P Sambamoorthy, Musicologist, 1982.
Look at the professionally competing musicians and the magnanimous behavior of Maharaja. Those were the days of great people and their humble behavior, where healthy competition existed.
Monday, January 30, 2006
1. Music is the life giver
“Knowledge of the science of music conduces to bliss divine” – Thyagaraja.
Welcome to this weblog and I pray that all of you be blessed with health, wealth, peace and prosperity from now on, forever.
Let me start this post with an invocation song by my beloved, Maestro Ilaiyaraaja. One of Raja’s beautiful Kalyani songs was Janani Janani from Thai Mookambigai (1982). One can easily sense his utmost bhakthi and efforts taken to perfect the Sanskrit pronunciation. I am presenting here the concert version of this song from his Italy concert (July 2004).
I started this page basically to share with you the songs and music I enjoyed, mostly by Maestro Ilaiyaraaja. So, I thought it fit to welcome you to this page, with Raja’s own music. This was the opening song in his live concert, held in Chennai in October 2005. Let us also welcome the Maestro.
Next, we come to Raja’s favourite genre – singing praise of Mother (see photo here). The song is Amma sonna aariraro from Solla Marandha Kadhai (2002). There is a specialty in this song. Here, in the first charanam, Raja praises the sacred womanhood. In the second charanam by Vijay Yesudas, a husband sings his love for his wife who is pregnant now. Vijay’s voice resembles closely to Raja’s. I tried to pick the best lines from Raja’s own lyrics here, but failed. You hear and decide it for yourself. Maestro’s flute breezes through your nerves.
Maestro once said that Carnatic music is scientifically the most developed music system among others. Let us hear a song sung by Sudha Raghunathan. This is set to Khamboji raga (lyrics here). She sings about Kuzhaloodhi manamellam kollai konda Kannan. Let’s get immersed in the song. The lyrics are here.
No one can deny that Maestro has succeeded in taking the classical music (be it Indian or Western) to our masses. He has perfected this art to such an extent, that the fusion is so seamless in his songs, until somebody knowledgeable points it to us.
This film Ellam Inba Mayam (1981) had a situation where Kamal (hailing from a poor class) gets married to a rich girl and comes to stay in their bungalow, with all his near and dear. They naturally start singing in a folksy base and Raja cleverly bases the tune on a carnatic raga (Bilahari). The lyrics are in funny Chennai slang and brings smile in our faces. Music creates a celebratory mood. The original pallavi is from the Carnatic song Ra ra Venugopala (its also hinted at the start of the film song). Those interested to learn notes for this song can see here.
Like the Trinity in Carnatic music (Thyagayyar, Muthuswami Dhikshitar and Syama Sastri), the Trinity in the Western world could be Bach, Mozart and Beethoven). Their timelines are as below
Saint Thyagaraja (1767 – 1847) – brightest epoch in the history of Carnatic music
Muthuswami Dhikshitar (1776 – 1835) – an all rounder and great scholar
Syama Sastri (1762 – 1827) – composer in major ragas and master of laya
Johann Sebastian Bach (1685 – 1750) – devoted to religion and music
Ludwig von Beethoven (1770 – 1827) – revolutionary of his times
Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart (1756 – 1791) – what a short life for a legend!
Raja was very much inspired by these musicians. We can say one of his most favorite composers was Bach, whom he admired a lot. He has mentioned about Bach in many of his interviews. The piece you will hear now is one of the famous from Bach’s Orchestral Suite No.2 – its called Badinerie (means a light-hearted piece). This tune is now made famous through Nokia ringtone. It contains flute, strings and continuo (bass). You can feel Raja using such flute play in many of his background scores and songs, some times giving a pastoral feeling. Notable are the 2nd interlude music of Manjal nilavukku (Mudhal Iravu – 1979) and 2nd interlude of Kadhoram lolakku (Chinna Mappillai – 1993). More on these Masters, from me later.
Note: I dont know an easy way to host the songs here. So, I have created a Yahoo Groups here to save the songs. You need to get registered here and download the songs from the Files section.
Welcome to this weblog and I pray that all of you be blessed with health, wealth, peace and prosperity from now on, forever.
Let me start this post with an invocation song by my beloved, Maestro Ilaiyaraaja. One of Raja’s beautiful Kalyani songs was Janani Janani from Thai Mookambigai (1982). One can easily sense his utmost bhakthi and efforts taken to perfect the Sanskrit pronunciation. I am presenting here the concert version of this song from his Italy concert (July 2004).
I started this page basically to share with you the songs and music I enjoyed, mostly by Maestro Ilaiyaraaja. So, I thought it fit to welcome you to this page, with Raja’s own music. This was the opening song in his live concert, held in Chennai in October 2005. Let us also welcome the Maestro.
Next, we come to Raja’s favourite genre – singing praise of Mother (see photo here). The song is Amma sonna aariraro from Solla Marandha Kadhai (2002). There is a specialty in this song. Here, in the first charanam, Raja praises the sacred womanhood. In the second charanam by Vijay Yesudas, a husband sings his love for his wife who is pregnant now. Vijay’s voice resembles closely to Raja’s. I tried to pick the best lines from Raja’s own lyrics here, but failed. You hear and decide it for yourself. Maestro’s flute breezes through your nerves.
Maestro once said that Carnatic music is scientifically the most developed music system among others. Let us hear a song sung by Sudha Raghunathan. This is set to Khamboji raga (lyrics here). She sings about Kuzhaloodhi manamellam kollai konda Kannan. Let’s get immersed in the song. The lyrics are here.
No one can deny that Maestro has succeeded in taking the classical music (be it Indian or Western) to our masses. He has perfected this art to such an extent, that the fusion is so seamless in his songs, until somebody knowledgeable points it to us.
This film Ellam Inba Mayam (1981) had a situation where Kamal (hailing from a poor class) gets married to a rich girl and comes to stay in their bungalow, with all his near and dear. They naturally start singing in a folksy base and Raja cleverly bases the tune on a carnatic raga (Bilahari). The lyrics are in funny Chennai slang and brings smile in our faces. Music creates a celebratory mood. The original pallavi is from the Carnatic song Ra ra Venugopala (its also hinted at the start of the film song). Those interested to learn notes for this song can see here.
Like the Trinity in Carnatic music (Thyagayyar, Muthuswami Dhikshitar and Syama Sastri), the Trinity in the Western world could be Bach, Mozart and Beethoven). Their timelines are as below
Saint Thyagaraja (1767 – 1847) – brightest epoch in the history of Carnatic music
Muthuswami Dhikshitar (1776 – 1835) – an all rounder and great scholar
Syama Sastri (1762 – 1827) – composer in major ragas and master of laya
Johann Sebastian Bach (1685 – 1750) – devoted to religion and music
Ludwig von Beethoven (1770 – 1827) – revolutionary of his times
Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart (1756 – 1791) – what a short life for a legend!
Raja was very much inspired by these musicians. We can say one of his most favorite composers was Bach, whom he admired a lot. He has mentioned about Bach in many of his interviews. The piece you will hear now is one of the famous from Bach’s Orchestral Suite No.2 – its called Badinerie (means a light-hearted piece). This tune is now made famous through Nokia ringtone. It contains flute, strings and continuo (bass). You can feel Raja using such flute play in many of his background scores and songs, some times giving a pastoral feeling. Notable are the 2nd interlude music of Manjal nilavukku (Mudhal Iravu – 1979) and 2nd interlude of Kadhoram lolakku (Chinna Mappillai – 1993). More on these Masters, from me later.
Note: I dont know an easy way to host the songs here. So, I have created a Yahoo Groups here to save the songs. You need to get registered here and download the songs from the Files section.
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