Maharajapuram Santhanam

Carnatic Musicians
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arasi
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Re: Maharajapuram Santhanam

Post by arasi »

Translated from Pasupathy's Sangeetha SangathigaL


AN INTERVIEW WITH MAHARAJAPURAM SANTHANAM

From KALKI Weekly Dated April 3, 1983
By
CHARUKESI

"Sangeetha Vidwans Need A Sangam"

On a Sunday evening, prominent musician Sri. Maharajapuram Santhanam conversed about musical matters with us for about three hours. Here are some salient parts from that interview.

RASIKA MGR

About ten years ago, I was singing at a family wedding of a film producer. MGR came to the wedding (he wasn't the CM then). Sitting in the front row, he listened eagerly to the entire concert which lasted for two and a half hours. When I looked around for someone from the family to ask if I could conclude the concert, I spotted none. So, I asked MGR if I could end the concert. He asked me to sing another couple of songs. When I finished the concert, he complimented me saying that I sing very well, adding,
"You make me very happy".

I requested him to come to the stage. "You are such a busy artiste. I am happy and thankful that you stayed until the very end to listen to me!"
"I like listening to your music. I have all your tapes. Two days ago, I listened to your national program concert on the radio. I enjoyed listening to your Arabhi and Mohanam. I have also written to AIR asking them why they do not air more of your concerts".

Many know that MGR likes CM. But how many know that he listens to rAgams keenly and appreciates them!

MY FATHER

My guru is my father Maharajapuram Viswanatha Iyer. Not a day went by when he would not pick up a kriti of one of the Trinity and discuss it. He would get steeped in it and would be in tears often.

The Tyagaraja Sangeetha Vidwat Samajam in Mylapore Madhava Perumal Koil St was built by my father. My mother wasn't interested that much in music (isn't that surprising?).

Madurai Mani and GNB, though they weren't his disciples, like Ekalavya, learnt from him. Semmangudi was his Sishya. Once, Madurai Mani asked my father: how is it that you sing a straight forward rAgA like aTANA so beautifully?
"What all kritis do you know in the rAgA?" my father asked.
"nI irangAyenil pugal Edu".

My father sang about ten kritis in the rAga for him. "To sing a rAga in detail, the more songs we know, the better-equipped
we get to be in elaborating them", he added.

My grandfather Ramaiah was a well-known land owner in Tanjore dist. He was so much into music. He sang divinely. I know of nAdaswaram players requesting him to sing sAvEri, saying that they loved the way he sang the rAgam. Thatha would sing for hours on end.
Last edited by arasi on 20 Feb 2022, 23:59, edited 2 times in total.

arasi
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Re: Maharajapuram Santhanam

Post by arasi »

IN SRI LANKA

In 1960, my father was invited to inaugurate Ramanathan (Sir Ponnambalam) College's new Musical wing. We went there as a family. I was asked to give a concert on that day. Those who heard me liked my singing. They even appointed me as the head of the department. I lived in Ceylon (Sri Lanka) for six years. More than a hundred students came to study music there. After four years of study, they graduated with a Sangeetha Ratnam degree. Prof. Sambamurthy, Sandhyavandanam Srinivasa Rao and other scholars came as examiners from India. I still keep in touch with the college.

IN AMERICA

At the end of 1981, I stayed in America for forty five days and gave 25 performances there. The duration of many concerts was four and a half hours. They brought in a novel element there. Before the start of the concert in the introduction, they would say: Sri Santhanam would sing all the requests from the audience. They would keep asking and I would keep singing!
They would listen quietly and applaud heartily. At their homes, they have collections of music cassettes and books.

A SANGAM FOR SANGEETHA VIDWANS

We definitely need an association for musicians. Many of us don't realize the importance of it. The central government's education and arts departments do offer many incentives. In taking our music to other lands, it's the northern musicians who get many opportunities. I don't see much of it happening in the south. That's why we need a proper organization to see to it that many musicians here get scholarships, grants and other perks.

Many listeners record concerts, and some even sell them. My point is, how tough this is for the artistes. Speaking of problems, here is another one, a recent incident. They had invited me to sing in Kerala. As they had asked, I had engaged the accompanists a month in advance. Just ten days before the concert, they told me that they were engaging their own choice of accompanists! I didn't like their tone either. I refused to sing. How could I dismiss/disappoint my fellow musicians that I had asked to play with me? I heard later that they had asked another vidwan to sing in my place and then changed the lead artiste to someone else! The mridangam vidwan they had arranged for me, on hearing the news, refused to play for others.
Such confusion and irregularities can be avoided if the musicians have an association of their own.

arasi
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Re: Maharajapuram Santhanam

Post by arasi »

CRITICS

Let the critics write fearlessly. Let there be no bias, though. Let them not base their views on listening to a musician just once or twice to form their opinion about their music. I don't accept that. Not that I am saying that a review should be all praises for an artiste.

TODAY

Young people are frequenting concerts now. They appreciate music a lot these days. Two days ago, a young girl doing her Plus2 came to me and said: I am learning to play the veena. Could you please hear me play? She did play and my wife just sat there listening to her, with tears in her eyes.
There certainly is a lot of interest and enthusiasm among the young folks today in listening to and learning classical music.

TIDBITS

Santhanam wakes up at five in the morning. Until six, he reads books on music. Then he teaches his sons Ramachandran and Srinivasan till about nine. He then teaches other students. This is his routine when he is in Chennai. Most evenings, he goes to the cinema with his wife. They both are movie fans.

He started learning music from his father since 1942. MV was not keen on his son in becoming a musician. He wanted him to be well-educated and be well-employed thereafter. The son wasn't keen on that. When students came to learn from the father, he would sit with them and learn. He started entering music competitions and winning prizes.

Santhanam doesn't plan his program before he gets on stage. He believes he is popular and successful because he sings many new songs in his concerts. He finds it worthwhile to establish a rapport with his audience. Concerts will succeed only if the vocalists and instrumentalists make it happen as a team work, he says.

Many old film songs are based on CM. For CM to gain more listeners, it's worthwhile to introduce more of it 'lightly' into the movie songs, he feels.

On Tanjore turf, famed for its music and the arts, Maharajapuram is situated between Mayavaram and Kumbakonam, a quarter of a mile away from Narasinganpettai.

rajeshnat
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Re: Maharajapuram Santhanam

Post by rajeshnat »

arasi wrote: 20 Feb 2022, 22:24
Many old film songs are based on CM. For CM to gain more listeners, it's worthwhile to introduce more of it 'lightly' into the movie songs, he feels.

How true of Shri Santhanam to say that . That is absolutely true, how do you demystify and build a big funnel and take a huge count of first time listeners in.

Personally i have just talked with him once in NGS ramarao kalyana mantapam. He sang a revati thillana , i was not sure of the raga then , I asked him Neenga paadinadhu revati ragama ,for which he said aaman paa , Then an elderly lady was there he was talking with her . One occassion amman paa is the only answer for the only conversation that I had with him. I think the year was 1988, 1989 or 1990 dec season.

Thank you arasi for your lovely writeups. Hear the song sung and composed by the same Maharajapuram Santhanam

https://youtu.be/4hwJw9Vazbo?t=24

Pasupathy
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Re: Maharajapuram Santhanam

Post by Pasupathy »

arasi wrote: 20 Feb 2022, 20:26 Translated from Pasupathy's Sangeetha SangathigaL

AN INTERVIEW WITH MAHARAJAPURAM SANTHANAM

From KALKI Weekly Dated April 3, 1983
By
CHARUKESI

"Sangeetha Vidwans Need A Sangam"
Thanks, Arasi.

For some pictures and the original article in Tamil, those interested can see

http://s-pasupathy.blogspot.com/2020/05/1543-232.html

vinodnn
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Re: Maharajapuram Santhanam

Post by vinodnn »

I'm an ardent fan of Santhanam. I like the masculinity and "gAmbheerya" in his voice (in the 80s). At the same time, I beg to differ on some of the points mentioned. I had been unfortunate to listen to any of his concerts live. Based on my observation after listening to many of his concerts available here and there, I would like to express my difference in some aspects.
arasi wrote: 20 Feb 2022, 20:26 "To sing a rAga in detail, the more songs we know, the better-equipped
we get to be in elaborating them", he added.
For example, if I take any of his 50 concerts, I can confidently say the following points :
1. In most of the cases, the varna would be Nera nammithi, vanajAkshi or intha chalamu. There are a lot of other varnams which he could have sung in a rotation, right?
2. Same case for the variety of rAgAs he had sung, the variety of krithis in a specific rAga or RTP. For example, in bEgada, I heard him sang mainly the PSI krithi anudinamunu kAvumayyA and once vallabhAnAyaka. I am not telling like he should have done just like what Sanjay Subrahmanyan is doing. Sanjay is an extreme personality where his passion drives him to explore rare krithis of a large number of popular and unpopular composers.

What I can see is shri Santhanam was almost following what his father was singing in his concerts. His children also seem to follow more or less the same, repeating the same pattern of compositions.

Pleasing the audience is important, but I wonder how trying a different rAga or composition altogether can be catastrophic.

Kindly note that there is no pun intended.

arasi
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Re: Maharajapuram Santhanam

Post by arasi »

Your post started me thinking. Yes, to this day there are musicians who stick to a set of songs when they are on stage. Why? They may have their own reasons. The ones which occur to me at this moment are:

Their school is such where however well-versed they are in many kritis in a particular rAgA, like their gurus, they sing the ones that their gurus popularized. In some instances, what their gurus guru popularized! Santhanam's father's favorite thing to do was to every morning open pages of collections of kirathanas and sing many in one rAga in a row. So, they had no dearth of songs to sing at all. This repetition of kritis on stage is not specific to the Maharajapuram school. We still see it in other schools. Ah, then there are other factors. Could be any one of the following reasons or more.

They might think: The listeners EXPECT this.
Even if I sing a different one after getting it perfect, since they expect me to sing the classic one, will they be disappointed if I don't sing it? On choosing a different one, AM I going to be confident enough to give it my best?

Expectations from the audience and that of their own--are what they have to deal with.

Then, how hard are they prepared to work on it?--is another question. To find old nuggets, love them and take time to get them stage-ready, hoping but not needing immediate approval. This does not come under the category of playing it safe.

I am glad to see that things are changing. Modern singers are venturing into unfamiliar songs and rAgAs in their concerts. They don't play it safe in that aspect. We benefit by listening to many unknown gems that way.

CM is getting to be more challenging now because of all this, and they seem not to mind. Younger the generation, bolder their approach. At least, it seems to be that way to me.

One other point: what percentage is it--of the concerts which are available today of the hundreds of concerts Maharajapuram Santhanam gave--for us to make a fair assessment of how repetitive he was?

Sundara Rajan
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Re: Maharajapuram Santhanam

Post by Sundara Rajan »

It is very true that old school vidvans had limited repertoire, as did most Nadaswaram artists. However, you could note and enjoy their different presentations of the SAME raga or even the SAME composition on different occasions. This was particularly so in the case of Madurai Mani , Alathur Brothers, GNB,. But in the case of Ariyakkudi or Maharajapuram Viswanatha Iyer I could even predict what comes next. Things started changing with arrival of Youngsters like Balamuralikrisna, Madurai Somu and the like. Current crop of vocalists dare to explore new compositions, unfamiliar carnatic ragas, Hindustani ragas, which is welcome change. Present Carnatic concert stage has many middle aged and new young vidvans that will take the genre to great heights.

arasi
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Re: Maharajapuram Santhanam

Post by arasi »

Sundara Rajan,
Thank you for your post. I realized that I had not mentioned Balamurali and Somu after I posted.
Balamurali was even more visible (audible!) to us in the fifties because of his program Bhakthi Ranjani early in the morning on the radio from Vijayawada, I think. His voice, bhAva and the exotic rAgAs! Waking up at dawn was a must, to get ready for college and gather in the hall which had a radio and the warden's permission for a few of us to gather and listen to the music which was like ambrosia/amritha varsha! Even the rAgA, I first heard it from him in his angelic voice then.
Somu, I heard him at Tamizhisai when I was even younger and was taken by his spontaneity and emotive exuberance.

Coming to think of it, whatever MMI sang, GNB did, along with the excellence of proven songs, surprises came too, with some not much heard songs. I think of DKP too. How many tamizh songs she sang! How many Dikshithar kritis too! The few concerts I do remember of MV, I found them simply charming...I bet his repertoire was vast (and the son's too?).

Now, back to whether the young ones interested in this thread are going to make it a point to bring some statistics about how often new songs were introduced in old concerts!

vinodnn
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Re: Maharajapuram Santhanam

Post by vinodnn »

Thanks to Arasi and Sundara rajan for your valuable thoughts.

If we look at Santhanam's contemporaries like DKJ, SKR, BMK, Nedunuri, KVN or MLV, I think they all had a vast repertoire.

If we look at Semmangudi who was a disciple of MVI never tried to copy his guru.

Coming to his song selection, as I said already, one's courage to try new ones is a factor. Given his rich voice, many krithis would have been hits.
After hearing one amazing HarikAmbOdhi AlApana from his 1982 KGS concert with amazing accompaniment by Lalgudi and Ramabhadran, I had been looking for his HarikAmbOdhi AlApana, but in vain so far. Though he sang many HarikAmbOdhi krithis in his concerts, none of them had the AlApana.
Again this is the case of his Bhairavi too.
But there is some amount of satisfaction in his madhyamAvathi, which has been a feast to my ears.
There are numerous examples to narrate, which I fear would be lengthy.
Love for one's voice doesn't mean that everything in that is perfect.

arasi
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Re: Maharajapuram Santhanam

Post by arasi »

"Love for one's voice doesn't mean that everything in that is perfect"

Agreed, vinodnn :)

arasi
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Re: Maharajapuram Santhanam

Post by arasi »

From Dr. Pasupathy's Musical Morsels (in Tamizh LANGUAGES Forum)
From KALKI magazine's special Music Season issue of December 1989

TITLE TO SANTHANAM--SEMMANGUDI'S JOYFUL MOMENT...

There was some excitement that afternoon at a Sivagnanam Street house in T.Nagar, Chennai. A car stopped at its gate and with a tambura in hand, Semmangudi stepped out. Santhanam emerged from the house excitedly to receive him. Semmangudi delightedly feted him with a huge rose garland. Santhanam prostrated before him and offered him sweets. For a moment, it seemed as if the two pearls were floating in a vast sea of musical experience.

In the background, the portrait of Maharajapuram Viswanatha Iyer looked as if he was smiling upon them, acknowledging the achievements of those two disciples of his.

Semmangudi reminisced on the years of his gurulula vAsam: IyervAL considered me as his own eldest son. When you were an infant, I used to carry you around as an older sibling in the family. Now, you are going to be a Sangeetha Kalanidhi! I am thrilled that you are going to be the sixth one in this musical lineage to get the award. The first one was Umayalpuram Swaminatha Iyer. Then, his student, your father Maharajapuram Viswanatha Iyer, The third was me, his disciple. Fourth and fifth were T.N.Krishnan and T.M. Thyagarajan. Now, the sixth, Santhanam!

His merits are obvious. By long years of singing with his father and by virtue of his own merits, Santhanam has evolved so.
That too, the way in which he has grown in the past fifteen years is unbelievable. He now is a vidwan of both janAkarshaNam and dhanAkarshaNam (a magnet for rasikAs and monetary gain). I am also happy that his sons Ramachandran and Srinivasan are continuing the tradition. I've heard that often children of supreme vidwans do not get to shine as much. Your family is an exception to that rule. I am thinking at the moment of what Rajaji said about home schooling. How meaningful it is!

The Trust that Santhanam started in his father's name is doing wonderful things. I pray to God that his good work grows and flourishes...

Pasupathy
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Re: Maharajapuram Santhanam

Post by Pasupathy »

Thanks, Arasi, for the translation.

Here's the original Tamil article by Charukesi in Kalki ,( 17 Dec 1989 issue), with some pictures.
https://s-pasupathy.blogspot.com/2020/06/nnnn-j.html

rajeshnat
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Re: Maharajapuram Santhanam

Post by rajeshnat »

well done pasupathy sir and great translation by arasi. In 1989 i was not that keen on knowing about sangeetha kalanidhi title . i think that year in Nungambakkam cultural academy santhanam sir had his concert which i attended . at the beginning there was an award where a big Kol and a kreedam was given to santhanam by NCA acknowledging the sangeetha kalanidhi. Certainly the biggest star and karanakaratha for me to personally hear CM is maharajapuram santhanam.

ram1999
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Re: Maharajapuram Santhanam

Post by ram1999 »

Sundara Rajan wrote: 06 Mar 2022, 05:03 It is very true that old school vidvans had limited repertoire, as did most Nadaswaram artists. However, you could note and enjoy their different presentations of the SAME raga or even the SAME composition on different occasions. This was particularly so in the case of Madurai Mani , Alathur Brothers, GNB,. But in the case of Ariyakkudi or Maharajapuram Viswanatha Iyer I could even predict what comes next. Things started changing with arrival of Youngsters like Balamuralikrisna, Madurai Somu and the like. Current crop of vocalists dare to explore new compositions, unfamiliar carnatic ragas, Hindustani ragas, which is welcome change. Present Carnatic concert stage has many middle aged and new young vidvans that will take the genre to great heights.
Not sure if the repertoire was limited. Definitely not! They perhaps sang a set of kritis over and over again - perhaps due to liking of those kritis or the concert opportunities were fairly limited as compared to what it is now (both sabhas / venues / concerts / festivals).

I remember reading articles about Chembai - an interview in which he says that he used to sing a few kritis as he beleived he had perfected them for the concert platform. Pandit Jasraj in one of the interviews stated that he used to sing a raga for over 6/8 months in concerts so that he could perfect them ! of course HM concerts showcase just 4/5 ragas as they are far more detailed. The Older generation worked hard to perfect the ragas and kritis that they learnt and their renditions were flawless. If the repertoire was in any way doubted to be less, perhaps that could have been due to limited availability of resources (recordings / notattions / material / teachers etc).

Trichur Ramachandran in one of the MD Thematic concerts held in Bangalore after a beautiful raga alapana of Hamirkalyani and a brief skletch of the Kriti - Parimala Ranganatham and a intro to the kriti - that being composed in the Dhrupad style, goes on to say the efforts he took to learn the kriti from a Grand Master who knew it and the time taken to learn and perfect it. If anyone has not heard this rendition, I recommend to do so. A masterpiece. M Chandrasekaran adding sheen to the rendition.

arasi
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Re: Maharajapuram Santhanam

Post by arasi »

ram1999,
For a moment, I wondered too about the limited repertoire of the old school vidwans which Sundara Rajan speaks about. He surely knows about their long years of learning, that too of their living under the same roof as their gurus--taking in all the music even beyond the few hours of teaching--if it was there at all.
As I understand it, what Sundararajan means is that the repertoire they brought to the stage was limited. In that too, they were perhaps following their gurus! Even MMI was once the target of Subbudu's criticism on this.

As opposed to today's many means of learning wherein some bright and enterprising young musicians learn and perform within a few years, it was a very long journey then, unless the disciples were extremely lucky.

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