Lecdem On Namagiripettai Krishnan and Vedaranyam Vedamurthy@Alwarpet Medai on July 20th ,2024

[rajeshnat]

Lecdem On Namagiripettai Krishnan and Vedaranyam Vedamurthy@Alwarpet Medai on July 20th ,2024
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Lecdem On Namagiripettai Krishnan and Vedaranyam vedamurthy, the two great nadaswara vidwans
Lecdem given by our LalithaRam Ramachandran
Organisation : I think connected with Sruthi , one lady did MC
Occasion : both of the vidwans were born in 1924 - so the lecdem is centenary tribute

It is a joy to always know that our LalithaRam is presenting . HE is thorough in analysing and most importantly he takes pain to present facets that is quite unlikely not easily known to you . He does research on both non music and musical aspects. I had a chance to attend a 2 hour plus lecdem where he presented two great nadaswara vidwans namagiripettai Krishnan and Vedaranyam Vedamurthy

The interest in me for nadaswarams did only come perhaps more with the advent of sangeetham or early days of our rasikas.org .Possibly the great vocalist of extraordinary delivery like what i(Rajesh) coined as Carnatic vocal trinity MMI-SSI-GNB who all took a lot of ideas from nadaswaram and a bit later with few vidwans say like Madurai somu , mandolin Srinivas who all took liberally the approach of imagination from nadaswara vidwans interested me more with nadaswarams.

Particularly while the world got floored with TNR ,i had more liking to Karaikurichi. I did not listen at all this vidwan namagiripettai Krishnan than the occasional Deepavali doordarshan relays , but i did pay lot of attention and listened to available 50 percent of vedaranyam vedamurthy. There was one person in our forum , his id was vinayO who told a lot about vedamurthy. Vedamurthy was a phenom i took an instant liking just like say a Santhanam but namagiripettai Krishnan was more an unheard vidwan

[rajeshnat]

Lec Dem on Namagiripettai Krishnan
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I took lot of notes but there was no light in auditorium in alwarpet and with me reading my writing after 15 days later what can i say my poor handwriting has a lot of missed notes , please bear with me

1.Namagiripettai lecdem start was with his mangala Isai in kedaragowlai .I would have assumed that the clip was more a TNR bit later lalitharam said TNR was namagiripettai manaseega guru . ONe can spot so much of overlap say of TNR-Namagiripettai just like say GNB-SKR or a GNB- Trichur Ramachandran

2. Namagiripettai parents were chinnappa mudaliar and Kaadeswari. HIs gurus were Aruppukottai Ganesan and was there another guru by name sowdambigai. TNR was his manaseega guru

3. Namagiripettai is in the namakkal district , so his roots were not on the known Carnatic belt of Tanjore or Tirunelveli. He was Asthana vidwan for Tirupati and in his best days he was given an astronomical financial support by Tirumalai Devasthanam

4. Lalitharam played a bit of rare mohanam which was more in madhyamakaalam and some super vajra phrases of TOdi

5.The early pick was an extraordinary alapana of navarasa kannada . I have not that much heard or may be not even heard the alapana in navarasa kannada (some vocalist once sang a part of RTP in this ragam). What a lovely navarasa kannada what ideas of intense Carnatic sangathis , pouring ideas . This is what i like about nadaswaram at times you get a fresh raga bhavam which you have not heard yet from any one else. They possibly dont get caged with lakshnam(grammar) cage ,it was alakshyamaana lakshyam(imagination)

6. Namagiripettai had a wide range of repertoire .Lalitharam said he even played once a RTP in rare hamsabrahmari . I wish he had played it but he did not.THen i think some mallari was played which i am forgetting or not able to read from my notes

7. THen an extraordinary ranjani came into fruition as a clipping . IT was Dayananda saraswati dakshinamoorthE , beautiful ideas . Ranjani in nadaswaram is for Gods and again here namagiripettai was like TNR

8.Then a famous kalyana melam was played. IT was a ragamaliga one i think there i got floored in huseni

9. His two tavil vidwans name was mentioned . Senthamangalam and some ALangudi . He played a clipping of the famous chakkani raja what an idea there pouring with so much intensity. TNR Was there within namagiripettai

10.Perhaps the best interesting pick may be after navarasa kannada was the kalyanavasantham. Incidentally namagiripettai played with M Chandrasekar in the violin. ONe has to give a lot of credit to MC for his skill and adroitness. SO much of kalayana vasantham came out far above than naada loludai.

11.Then a set of ragamaliga was played all great , that was part of RTP . I can recollect that having a neelambari too.

All said impressions on musical worth of Namagiripettai was immense

[rajeshnat]

Lec Dem on Vedaranyam Vedamurthy
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Vedaranya vedamurthy is a phenom . He never pierced our ears with excess sound .He takes you to such depth of classicism .

1. Unfortunately Vedamurthy just lived for 38 years and as per lec dem his recordings are not more than 15 plus hours. Personally i heard a lot of vedamurthy when we had our uploads coming in that also moved to Sangeethapriya

2. Vedamurthy brought in his own style . The first clip that was played was an extraordinary sankarabharanam . I have heard possibly too much of todi KHP or kambodhi but to hear a sankarabharanam in nayanam is a bit of forgotten memory . Once one of our forumites by name Vinayo referred vedamurthy as MDR of nadaswaram . Lalitharam you should use that MDR metaphor and call mdr vedamurthy

3. Vedamurthy was the maternal grandson of ammachatram kannusamy pillai. I recollect i writing some review where vedavalli mami sang a vasantha thillana of ammachatram kannnusamy pillai or is my memory fading or getting mixed up

4. Vedamurthy gurus were AK Ganesa pillai and ???. He was also a lakshana vidwan.He made a big modification where he introduced metal pipes in nadaswaram .All his adjustments post adding metal pipe was only in his blowing and fingering . I think he gave both the daring lakshya charge and also backed up with lakshanam melody.

5. Two extraordinary ragas were played sahana and natttaikurinji - both are for God . They both were fantastic . His main supporting tavil artist was nachiar kovil Raghava pillai and he was given patronage by mysore samasthanam. Lot from mysore belt are familiar with vedaranyam vedamurthy

6. THe only available RTP in bhairavi was played where taaanam was played . RTP bhairavi had a lot of cute folkish sangathis yet they did not diminish the classicism of bhairavi

7. A beautiful kurinji was played .I think it was a padam and an extra ordinary todi kamalaamba navavarnam krithi of MD was played

8.Brief ragamaliga was played , my mind is now registering only mukhari and he ended with tirruppugazh in huseni. Personally many places i could map vedaranyam vedamurthy with karaikurichi arunachalam

[rajeshnat]

Conclusion note
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Well presented to a sparse audience in a new place in alwarpet called medai . Vidwan saketharaman was there as non speaking vidwan .karaikurichi son in law was there and another nadaswara vidwan brother of mambalam siva forgot his name now . THey both gave a brief anecdote which i did not note and i am unable to recollect

All said , the thoroughness of Lalitharam Ramachandran was indeed omnipresent. HE covered interestingly and that too to collect information of a vidwan vedamurthy who only lived for 38 years who passed away in 1962 is exemplary. All said the audience of today is fed with too much of online but to hear a regulated - satsang like discourse is great to understand carnaticness that gets diluted with excess promotion . After all as a rasika Carnatic music has its my own metamorphosis .

After 15 days The joy of just two things remain .Hey rasikas i have to hunt the navarasakannada -kalyana vasantham of Namagiripettai and also hunt and hear the back to back sahana and nattaikurinji is so special to me - those raga devatas were enriched to newer frontiers . Most importantly they are not useless discourses on promoting music for non music drama sake that is prevelant as of today .

THank you Lalitharam, you continue with your thorough zeal, i missed quite a lot of notes as i am late to write .Hope i covered significant melam part of your lecdem

Overall an excellent Lecdem for 2 plus hours by Lalitharam Ramachandran

[rajeshnat]

========For Whatsapp or FaceBook Forward ===================================
Lecdem On Namagiripettai Krishnan and Vedaranyam Vedamurthy@Alwarpet Medai on July 20th ,2024
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Centenary Vidwans Lecdem by LalithaRam Ramachandran
Vidwans covered were : Namagiripettai Krishnan and Vedaranyam Vedamurthy
Organization /Hall : Sruti /Medai Alwarpet

GLICSPAWES 2024 "Goto LIve Concert Show PAtronage Without Excuses Series" concert #7 of xy is done.

www.rasikas.org/forums/viewtopic.php?p=382573#p382573

[arasi]

There is a one of a kind Lalitharam for bringing us gems from CM history, and also good old one of a kind Rajesh who makes sure that good stuff like this isn't missed by rasikAs. Though in dim light, you have written enough about this centenary event where two outstanding nAdaswara vidwAns were celebrated. It was a good experience, even hearing about it in detail. Hope we can hear snippets too.

Rajesh, I wish Vinay would post here. He hasn't, in ages. Am I right? If you remember, he plays the violin too, and is a grandson of the illustrious violinist T.K. Jayarama Iyer. I was happy to meet him once in Boston with his children who are musical too. He has moved since.

[rajeshnat]

Rajesh, I wish Vinay would post here. He hasn't, in ages. Am I right? If you remember, he plays the violin too, and is a grandson of the illustrious violinist T.K. Jayarama Iyer. I was happy to meet him once in Boston with his children who are musical too. He has moved since.

Arasi,
I am referring a person by id Vinayo not Vinay. Vinayo wrote only 50 plus posts and he told about Vedaranyam Vedamurthy is like MDR. His last post was in 200x . He made a mention about hearing Karaikurichi and he wrote also but him. He said then he was retired. Dont know anything more about vinayo other than he being a karanakartha for me to notice this extraordinary vedaranyam vedamurthy

Vinay(TKJ grandson) writes with the id rasaali .Meenakshi(Cleveland asthana photographer) and Rasaali know each other very well which i am sure you know

[arasi]

Yes, Rajesh. You are right.
Hope Vinayo also reads this (he might come across it while browsing). It would enrich this thread if he posts again.

[rajeshnat]

A week back Lalitharam wrote a lovely writeup in The Hindu-Friday review about Vedaranyam Vedamurthy.

https://www.thehindu.com/entertainment/ ... 654991.ece