Demise of Shri. B. Rajam Iyer
-
ramanathan
- Posts: 223
- Joined: 06 Feb 2006, 22:36
-
srinivasrgvn
- Posts: 1013
- Joined: 30 Nov 2008, 07:46
-
vidya
- Posts: 234
- Joined: 02 Feb 2010, 23:26
My heartfelt condolences to the family. Truly a great loss to the world of carnatic music and Dikshitar Krtis ..
It was sometime in the early 1990s as a teenager when the first Dikshitar bug had bit me that I attended one of his concerts in Coimbatore. He sang girijayAjayA, bhajarE rE citta , dAkshAyaNi, a lovely Begada , a yamuna Kalyani among other songs that I first understood how Dikshitar kRitis ought to be sung. When half the world was not aware of ShrI bhArgavi in Mangalakaishiki, he was one of the few vidwans who would sing it in the 80s and 90s and his AIR programs featured it!! This was a time when names like Kalpakam Swaminathan , Rajam Iyer were only heard through the Radio. He wore both the TLV shishya and the Ariyakudi hat with such ease and straddled them quite naturally. Ever since that concert , I had been following his concerts at the Music Academy morning sessions quite a few years after that. Finally when I heard that he was arriving in Detroit via the Cleveland Aradhana I made bold to meet him. One has to thank the Cleveland Aradhana Committee for bringing the likes of him to the US though there seems to exist one Washington Concert before this! I remember meeting him for an interview with Guruguha.org in Detroit with a lot of trepidation. http://guruguha.org/bri.php
But it turned out to be such a wonderful experience meeting and talking to him. He was quite child-like in enthusiasm and demeanour and shared a lot of his early learning experiences with TL Venkatrama Iyer and how they started off with ShrI mUlAdhAra chakra, his work on the Sampradaya Pradarsini and his viewpoints on how various ragas ought to be sung. It was a privilege to hear him sing a bit of Shri mAtA Siva vAmAnke and Anandeshvarena - in close quarters which I can never forget. There were other kRtis like vAmAngasthithayA and KanakambAri that he is said to have sung and I wish someone had recorded them. His CintayamA, shrI sundararAjam, kAshi vishvEshvara, santAna rAmasvAminam, Sadhujana citta sarasijOdayam were all outstanding renditions. His immense guru bhakti and a wondrous balance of Lakshya and Lakshana is certainly impressive. He had his beliefs, was strong and uncompromising about them and lived by them. A much-misunderstood, knowledgeable vidwan and l for one will always remember him as a vidwan who lived by uncompromising standards in pathantharam, values and whose music mattered to me a lot. A great loss indeed!
Gowri Ramnarayan's pen-picture of Rajam Iyer:
http://www.hindu.com/fr/2007/05/04/stor ... 180300.htm
It was sometime in the early 1990s as a teenager when the first Dikshitar bug had bit me that I attended one of his concerts in Coimbatore. He sang girijayAjayA, bhajarE rE citta , dAkshAyaNi, a lovely Begada , a yamuna Kalyani among other songs that I first understood how Dikshitar kRitis ought to be sung. When half the world was not aware of ShrI bhArgavi in Mangalakaishiki, he was one of the few vidwans who would sing it in the 80s and 90s and his AIR programs featured it!! This was a time when names like Kalpakam Swaminathan , Rajam Iyer were only heard through the Radio. He wore both the TLV shishya and the Ariyakudi hat with such ease and straddled them quite naturally. Ever since that concert , I had been following his concerts at the Music Academy morning sessions quite a few years after that. Finally when I heard that he was arriving in Detroit via the Cleveland Aradhana I made bold to meet him. One has to thank the Cleveland Aradhana Committee for bringing the likes of him to the US though there seems to exist one Washington Concert before this! I remember meeting him for an interview with Guruguha.org in Detroit with a lot of trepidation. http://guruguha.org/bri.php
But it turned out to be such a wonderful experience meeting and talking to him. He was quite child-like in enthusiasm and demeanour and shared a lot of his early learning experiences with TL Venkatrama Iyer and how they started off with ShrI mUlAdhAra chakra, his work on the Sampradaya Pradarsini and his viewpoints on how various ragas ought to be sung. It was a privilege to hear him sing a bit of Shri mAtA Siva vAmAnke and Anandeshvarena - in close quarters which I can never forget. There were other kRtis like vAmAngasthithayA and KanakambAri that he is said to have sung and I wish someone had recorded them. His CintayamA, shrI sundararAjam, kAshi vishvEshvara, santAna rAmasvAminam, Sadhujana citta sarasijOdayam were all outstanding renditions. His immense guru bhakti and a wondrous balance of Lakshya and Lakshana is certainly impressive. He had his beliefs, was strong and uncompromising about them and lived by them. A much-misunderstood, knowledgeable vidwan and l for one will always remember him as a vidwan who lived by uncompromising standards in pathantharam, values and whose music mattered to me a lot. A great loss indeed!
Gowri Ramnarayan's pen-picture of Rajam Iyer:
http://www.hindu.com/fr/2007/05/04/stor ... 180300.htm
Last edited by vidya on 04 May 2009, 09:18, edited 1 time in total.
-
arasi
- Posts: 16873
- Joined: 22 Jun 2006, 09:30
Vidya,
My first thought on hearing the news: why didn't I persist while I made those calls to him so that I could have spoken to him when I was in India? I was hoping to go see him in Chennai at the end of this year to make up for the missed call...
Vidya, as you say, B. Rajam Iyer was a treasure house of MD's compositions and of many other composers. He came from great gurus. A successful performer, he was not. He was not endowed with a great voice either. Still, he was a storehouse of CM.
He sang at our wedding, Sethuramaiah on the violin and Madurai Krishna Iyengar playing the mrudangam. I still feel guilty for being the playful child I was when he taught us. My aunt, sister and cousins were serious about learning when my attention wandered. Inspite of my wayward ways, I am amazed at the way he somehow made me grasp the beauty of those krutis which I still remember in their splendor.
Though I had left India and barely had the time to visit him for a long time, my mother would tell me that he often asked about me.
Then, when he came in the eighties (?) to Amherst as a visiting professor, we met again. I was very fond of his wife and when we went to his concert there, she was her sweet self as ever, and in that bitter cold, in that very large kitchen with very few utensils, she had cooked a meal for us and others who came from afar to hear him.
'Did you have to fry appalams too?', I asked. It was touching when she said, pointing to my husband: mAppiLLai (he already had his own mAppiLLai, after all these years!) mudal mudal vandirukkiRAr!
Rajam Iyer's karuNA nidiyE tAyE that he sang in Amherst moved me. On our way back home, a song in Bauli, 'kadiravan mennoLi' came to me.
B.R. introduced me to Prof. David Reck as one of his best students! I said, 'the worst, and a truant one at that'.
After we started going to India every year, I met him several times in his house. His wife Amrutavalli was an endearing soul. On my insistence, she came to Bangalore with him for his concert in Malleswaram Sabha. He also gave a concert at our home. He had a special place for my uncle VVS in his heart who was asked by Ariyakkudi to find tuitions for his student who had just arrived in Chennai.
'I was worried, but VVS found me a job within twenty four hours!', he would exclaim.
I remember being part of his SrImantam in his old Mylapore house, his mother and father, KVN as well. Eating lunch, sitting by Ari who was lively as usual.
My maiden name starts with the letter B. He would say to me when I was a child: pArttiyA? nIyum B.R, nAnum B.R, bEsh!
I saw the best side of him. I cannot claim him as my guru because I was not a serious student, but he thought I was.
He was a strong-willed man, difficult too, I have heard. As fo me, I carry my childhood memories and my encounters with him and of his good wife in the recent past.
We had a long conversation after I heard that Amrutavalli was no more. Then I saw the vulnerable side in him. He was lost without her.
A couple of years ago he gave a lec-dem at Parthasarathy Swamy Sabha on Rama Natakam. He was very pleased to see me there. Wish I had stayed on. Wish I had reached him on the phone and had chatted a while...
May his soul rest in peace...
My heartfelt sympathies to his daughters, theirs, the grandchildren, his brother Vidwan Krishnamurthy and the rest of the family. I do not know if there are any great-grand children. Amrutha will be ready to welcome him in the other world: unga aNNAvukku vennIr koNDu varEn...
My first thought on hearing the news: why didn't I persist while I made those calls to him so that I could have spoken to him when I was in India? I was hoping to go see him in Chennai at the end of this year to make up for the missed call...
Vidya, as you say, B. Rajam Iyer was a treasure house of MD's compositions and of many other composers. He came from great gurus. A successful performer, he was not. He was not endowed with a great voice either. Still, he was a storehouse of CM.
He sang at our wedding, Sethuramaiah on the violin and Madurai Krishna Iyengar playing the mrudangam. I still feel guilty for being the playful child I was when he taught us. My aunt, sister and cousins were serious about learning when my attention wandered. Inspite of my wayward ways, I am amazed at the way he somehow made me grasp the beauty of those krutis which I still remember in their splendor.
Though I had left India and barely had the time to visit him for a long time, my mother would tell me that he often asked about me.
Then, when he came in the eighties (?) to Amherst as a visiting professor, we met again. I was very fond of his wife and when we went to his concert there, she was her sweet self as ever, and in that bitter cold, in that very large kitchen with very few utensils, she had cooked a meal for us and others who came from afar to hear him.
'Did you have to fry appalams too?', I asked. It was touching when she said, pointing to my husband: mAppiLLai (he already had his own mAppiLLai, after all these years!) mudal mudal vandirukkiRAr!
Rajam Iyer's karuNA nidiyE tAyE that he sang in Amherst moved me. On our way back home, a song in Bauli, 'kadiravan mennoLi' came to me.
B.R. introduced me to Prof. David Reck as one of his best students! I said, 'the worst, and a truant one at that'.
After we started going to India every year, I met him several times in his house. His wife Amrutavalli was an endearing soul. On my insistence, she came to Bangalore with him for his concert in Malleswaram Sabha. He also gave a concert at our home. He had a special place for my uncle VVS in his heart who was asked by Ariyakkudi to find tuitions for his student who had just arrived in Chennai.
'I was worried, but VVS found me a job within twenty four hours!', he would exclaim.
I remember being part of his SrImantam in his old Mylapore house, his mother and father, KVN as well. Eating lunch, sitting by Ari who was lively as usual.
My maiden name starts with the letter B. He would say to me when I was a child: pArttiyA? nIyum B.R, nAnum B.R, bEsh!
I saw the best side of him. I cannot claim him as my guru because I was not a serious student, but he thought I was.
He was a strong-willed man, difficult too, I have heard. As fo me, I carry my childhood memories and my encounters with him and of his good wife in the recent past.
We had a long conversation after I heard that Amrutavalli was no more. Then I saw the vulnerable side in him. He was lost without her.
A couple of years ago he gave a lec-dem at Parthasarathy Swamy Sabha on Rama Natakam. He was very pleased to see me there. Wish I had stayed on. Wish I had reached him on the phone and had chatted a while...
May his soul rest in peace...
My heartfelt sympathies to his daughters, theirs, the grandchildren, his brother Vidwan Krishnamurthy and the rest of the family. I do not know if there are any great-grand children. Amrutha will be ready to welcome him in the other world: unga aNNAvukku vennIr koNDu varEn...
Last edited by arasi on 04 May 2009, 20:36, edited 1 time in total.
-
erode14
- Posts: 726
- Joined: 21 Jan 2007, 21:43
A sad news. Condolences to his disciples and family.
The very first time I heard his music was at Erode, a relay of his concert during december season, from AIR coimbatore. He sang a very nice endharO.
I have heard many concerts of him with UKS sir at perambur sangeetha sabha and other places. I am a fan of his "puLLi kalAba mayil" too.
The very first time I heard his music was at Erode, a relay of his concert during december season, from AIR coimbatore. He sang a very nice endharO.
I have heard many concerts of him with UKS sir at perambur sangeetha sabha and other places. I am a fan of his "puLLi kalAba mayil" too.
-
Nick H
- Posts: 9472
- Joined: 03 Feb 2010, 02:03
Condolences, to you Arasi, to his family, students and associates.
Although I met him briefly some years ago, I cannot claim to know him at all, but Arasi's tribute leaves me feeling as if I did.
As is said in England (I don't know about here). he was a "good age", but having lost my mother at 89 (a "very good age") I know that that is absolutely no consolation at all for those that remain behind.
Although I met him briefly some years ago, I cannot claim to know him at all, but Arasi's tribute leaves me feeling as if I did.
As is said in England (I don't know about here). he was a "good age", but having lost my mother at 89 (a "very good age") I know that that is absolutely no consolation at all for those that remain behind.
-
MaheshS
- Posts: 1186
- Joined: 02 Feb 2010, 22:36
Very sad news indded 
In 1998 I had an opprtnity to have a word with him. Dr Srivatsava was organising Dikshitar themed concert in Srinivasa Sastry Hall for aout 10 days IIRC. I went for all of them and throughly enjoyed the series. Rajam mama [when I called him sir he said, mamane kupdu vayasachu .] was there for all days, so was VVS and TRS. To hear the chatting about the nuances of Dikshitar krithis is unforgettable.
The day before TNS had sung Akshayalingavibho as the main, M Chandrasekharan was on the violin and T K Murthy was on the mridangam. Amazing concert, though he did not sing the usual neraval in Badari Vana Mula. Since Kivalur is my Grandma's birth place, I asked Rajam mama about the krithi. 15 minutes expaining the beauty of the krithi still leaves me breathless, and an impromtu nerval at badari vana mula for a couple of mins. How I had the guts to goto a senior Sangeetha Kalanidhi and dare ask him a trivial question I do not know. But glad I did. In the end he even said, chinna payyan ni Dikshitar mela ivlo intersta, eppo venumnaul dobut irundha kelu therinja varayum sollaren [You are a small boy but you have interest in Dikshitar, if you have any dobts ask me, I will try to explain as much as I can].
May he rest in peace.
In 1998 I had an opprtnity to have a word with him. Dr Srivatsava was organising Dikshitar themed concert in Srinivasa Sastry Hall for aout 10 days IIRC. I went for all of them and throughly enjoyed the series. Rajam mama [when I called him sir he said, mamane kupdu vayasachu .] was there for all days, so was VVS and TRS. To hear the chatting about the nuances of Dikshitar krithis is unforgettable. The day before TNS had sung Akshayalingavibho as the main, M Chandrasekharan was on the violin and T K Murthy was on the mridangam. Amazing concert, though he did not sing the usual neraval in Badari Vana Mula. Since Kivalur is my Grandma's birth place, I asked Rajam mama about the krithi. 15 minutes expaining the beauty of the krithi still leaves me breathless, and an impromtu nerval at badari vana mula for a couple of mins. How I had the guts to goto a senior Sangeetha Kalanidhi and dare ask him a trivial question I do not know. But glad I did. In the end he even said, chinna payyan ni Dikshitar mela ivlo intersta, eppo venumnaul dobut irundha kelu therinja varayum sollaren [You are a small boy but you have interest in Dikshitar, if you have any dobts ask me, I will try to explain as much as I can].
May he rest in peace.
-
narayan
- Posts: 385
- Joined: 05 Oct 2008, 07:43
My small reminiscences. Him teaching ananda natana prakasam to a whole bunch of us, probably at the tail end of the same U.S. visit that Arasi has referred to (in 1989, perhaps), after his stint at Amherst. That kedaram is slightly offbeat and he did take care to preserve one or two non-standard phrases. Second, his singing of Mamava pattabhirama at a friend's wedding, in Bangalore some years later. A striking personality, for sure.
-
ragam-talam
- Posts: 1896
- Joined: 28 Sep 2006, 02:15
Condolences. A great master has passed on.
Here's a concert of BRI - http://sangeethapriya.org/Downloads/brajam/1/
Memorable music. He will live on in rasikas' hearts.
Here's a concert of BRI - http://sangeethapriya.org/Downloads/brajam/1/
Memorable music. He will live on in rasikas' hearts.
-
VK RAMAN
- Posts: 5009
- Joined: 03 Feb 2010, 00:29
[img=FluxBB bbcode test]http://www.sivasakthimusic.co.uk/images ... 006/56.jpg[/img]
May his soul rest in peace and music become immortal. I did not get any other picture of this legend.
May his soul rest in peace and music become immortal. I did not get any other picture of this legend.
-
Sam Swaminathan
- Posts: 846
- Joined: 04 Feb 2010, 08:45
A great man and musician....may his soul rest in peace. I had the previlege of sharing the same dias with him recently in Jan 09 when he was being coaxed to travel to Cleveland to accept the honour. He was looking pretty tired on that day. But his enthusiasam and his interest in any thing music was still there and his small speech on that occassion was to the point and full of substance. He will be sorely missed. My sympathies to his family and shishyas.
-
thanjavooran
- Posts: 3049
- Joined: 03 Feb 2010, 04:44
-
semmu86
- Posts: 960
- Joined: 03 Feb 2010, 09:39
what a wonderful musician he was...I can still recollect the childish enthusiasm and the humility with which he was putting thalam sitting in the first row during my mrudangam arangetram (for he was the chief guest for the programme) , and the appreciative and supportive speech he gave after the thani.. My heartfelt condolences..
Arvind..
Arvind..
-
ramanathan
- Posts: 223
- Joined: 06 Feb 2006, 22:36
-
Nick H
- Posts: 9472
- Joined: 03 Feb 2010, 02:03
-
VK RAMAN
- Posts: 5009
- Joined: 03 Feb 2010, 00:29
nick H: I got it after googling. Where this picture comes from :
www.sivasakthimusic.co.uk/.../brugges2006/56.jpg
www.sivasakthimusic.co.uk/htmls/gallery.htm
You are right on; it is from U.K.
www.sivasakthimusic.co.uk/.../brugges2006/56.jpg
www.sivasakthimusic.co.uk/htmls/gallery.htm
You are right on; it is from U.K.
-
srkris
- Site Admin
- Posts: 3497
- Joined: 02 Feb 2010, 03:34
My condolences.
A few articles on him:
http://www.hindu.com/fr/2007/05/04/stor ... 180300.htm
http://www.hindu.com/2005/12/12/stories ... 070800.htm
http://www.hinduonnet.com/thehindu/fr/2 ... 310500.htm
http://www.hindu.com/fr/2003/12/26/stor ... 370800.htm
http://www.hindu.com/ms/2006/01/04/stor ... 160300.htm
A few articles on him:
http://www.hindu.com/fr/2007/05/04/stor ... 180300.htm
http://www.hindu.com/2005/12/12/stories ... 070800.htm
http://www.hinduonnet.com/thehindu/fr/2 ... 310500.htm
http://www.hindu.com/fr/2003/12/26/stor ... 370800.htm
http://www.hindu.com/ms/2006/01/04/stor ... 160300.htm
-
mahavishnu
- Posts: 3341
- Joined: 02 Feb 2010, 21:56
-
thenpaanan
- Posts: 671
- Joined: 04 Feb 2010, 19:45
narayan wrote:My small reminiscences. Him teaching ananda natana prakasam to a whole bunch of us, probably at the tail end of the same U.S. visit that Arasi has referred to (in 1989, perhaps), after his stint at Amherst. That kedaram is slightly offbeat and he did take care to preserve one or two non-standard phrases. Second, his singing of Mamava pattabhirama at a friend's wedding, in Bangalore some years later. A striking personality, for sure.
Could you hint or elaborate what those non-standard phrases are?
Thanks
Then Paanan
-
narayan
- Posts: 385
- Joined: 05 Oct 2008, 07:43
This may be too minor to write about, but one that I can remember in Ananda natana prakasam is in the opening of the charanam, where the swara for "gangadharam" was something like "R,,R,MGS,," without lingering on the R in the descent. "SRG,S,," is common in Kedaram but not "R,MGS,,". For what it is worth.
-
Narayani R
- Posts: 1
- Joined: 01 Jul 2009, 12:11