Interesting talk by Sri V Sriram on Madras as a centre of music

[kvchellappa]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yHA1NFVjBc8

[shankarank]

Watched it partly - Lot of patrons being spoken about. One thing that caught me, was about people whining about paying tickets. And we talk about commercialization in music. We all know the boundary when things are crass commercialized and when money support is demanded to sustain the art.

As regards commercialization itself, it needs to be done with sensitivity - so people treat the art as a treasure.

I watched with interest this one: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W6fINA9amQk - where she talks about the challenges of traditional music and her take on how the old has to view the new.

I would say, the first day my Grandfather had to buy rice from the shop, he had so much feeling about it.

So far then , he had land in silaiman ( near the keezhadi excavation site enroute Madurai-Ramanathapuram), and he mentioned even when the lessee gave 7 bags ( down from 15 or so), it was lakshmIkaram - to the point of tears.

Food(Annam) was commercialized for him that day!!! Pasi vandiDa pattum parandiDum!

[thanjavooran]

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[/b]Lec by shri Sriram
on Arkay convention centre.
08 04 2018 Sat 10 . 00 hrs

The program started exactly at 10 00 hrs and the hall was full even before the commencement of the Lec. Some of the interestings points I coluld note down though the event was a direct web cast.

Invocation song by JB Keerthana .
Thevaram by Gnanasambandhar . Mattitta

Dr. Sundar in his introductory speech mentioned that his association with J Vaidhyanathan is more than 40yrs.
As a student of DKJ has seen him as a boy playing around and also listening to the teaching session.
JV is not only youngest to Mirudhanga Vidwan to receive Kalai Mamani award youngest to perform in AIR too.
This family is continuously receiving 1962 DKP, 1987 DKJ . now JV
Chitra Veena Ravi kiran's father honoured JV with a shawl who was present in a very colourful attire.
JV in his acceptance speech mentioned that the whole credit goes to TKM and also to his family members.
After every concert the next day DKJ will ask JV to perform the same way the percussion artiste played for the concert and will sing the pallavi , Niraval and swaraparsatharm etc. JV was to accompany his father for all the concerts for playing Tampura. Every time stalwarts played he will turn aside to observe how the Pallavi is handled.
The entire Lec was with Audio Visual .
Shri Sriram in his 140 mits presentation touched many interesting topics by playing audio clippings at appropriate places.
While praising the women Harikatha Artistes of golden era, mentioned that the present performances can never be recognized as HK.
All clapped at this comment.
QMC was the first institution to include CM in its curriculum.
Anantha Lakshmi Satagopan was the first lady artiste to give a complete concert in AIR after a thorough check up of the studio by her grandmother the previous day.
Her concert was also first to come on Gramaphone records.
Suguna mami , Dr. Narmadha were few to identify as audience.
Dr. Sundar finally thanked the Shri Sriram and the whole show came to end.
Dr. Sundar reminded the Rasikas about the end of the function since all were sitting tight shackled to their seats.

My observation

In total the whole lecture was excellent with lot of anecdotes and was quite interesting because of Audio Visuals
To my surprise there was a mention about Perambur Sangeetha Sabha as the second oldest, first being Parthasarathi swamlyl Sabha. There was a mention about the the then Secretary shriman Sethuraman also as regards to sanmanam to ARI.
Though the whole show was under Live Web cast yet my interest did not prevent in sharing with the forum. As usual corrections are invited on the notes jotted down with poor hearing capacity.

Thanjavooran
09 04 2018

[kvchellappa]

Sir, It is a treat to read like a vimarsanam after a concert.

[MaheshS]

It was a brilliant talk / presentation.

He played a clip of C Saraswathi Bai, the pioneer! W.O.W. He mentioned that the Music Academy refused Sangitha Kalanidhi for her just because she was a woman.

Tit bits about Bangalore Nagarathnamma, she was way ahead of her times! After listening to his talk yesterday I baught his book The Devadasi And The Saint: The Life And Times Of Bangalore Nagarathnamma.

Ananthalakshni Sadagopan's grandmother visiting AIR studios to make sure she wasn't sitting close to accompanying artists made him relates his best AIR anecdote about a female North Indian artist, which was hilarious . Also mentioned that AIR anecdotes itself merits a book on its own. I hope it comes to fruition soon!

Interesting to note, that he said, Madras was actually Tamil, and Chennai is Telugu.

Also touched upon the "patrons" of Carnatic Music, who hosted greats from Saint Thyagaraja to Patnam Subramania Iyer.

First carnatic book published with notation, the Sangita Sampradaya Pradarsini.

Apologies for the bullet points, at one point I stopped taking notes. I will have to listen to this again and take some detailed notes. Fascinating!

[thanjavooran]

Shri Mahesh,
Very good write up. Bring out more. I missed meeting you at the venue since the hall was full.
with wishes,
Thanjavooran
10 04 2018

[sureshvv]

Mods... Please merge with viewtopic.php?f=2&t=31057

Moderator note: Done

[shankarank]

There was a mention about the the then Secretary shriman Sethuraman also as regards to sanmanam to ARI.

That story of Idli packets as sanmAnam for ARI was doing its rounds from punalUR - the first major one into Kerala via Sencottah. For them that would have been priceless, as rice to escape inter state taxes then would go stacked in odd places in the train. Now with gauge conversion in progress, it should be one of the picturesque routes once completed.

https://www.bcmtouring.com/forums/threa ... ion.71663/

[Charu Venkat]

First carnatic book published with notation, the Sangita Sampradaya Pradarsini.

Um, No.

It was the Sangeetha Sarvatha Sara Sangrahamu.

[sureshvv]

Mahesh forgot to mention "with Western Staff Notation".

[MaheshS]

First carnatic book published with notation, the Sangita Sampradaya Pradarsini.

Um, No.

It was the Sangeetha Sarvatha Sara Sangrahamu.

Sorry, I should have said, first carnatic book published with notation AND also talked about how SSP got to be written, where he narrated the story of how AM Chinnaswami Mudaliar was instrumental in persuading Subbarama Dikshitar.