Introducing Yourself to Indian Classical Music 5-Voices
Continued from here.
A deep voice that I think rocks (and acts as a painkiller when I have back problems).
MDR
picture credit: The Hindu
While I was growing up, my parents listened mostly to Hindustani music. However, we had some cassettes of the famous Carnatic vocalist MD Ramanathan at home, and they used to sometimes play those. I loved MDR, immediately.
In fact, the first rendering I heard of the composition Maha Ganapatim, in the ragam Natta or Nattai, a very well-known composition of Carnatic music, and sung by many Carnatic vocalists, was MDR’s.
Later, I grew up to develop a deeper interest in Carnatic music, and to discover that MDR’s music was considered difficult or incomprehensible, or that his voice was considered “strange” by many afficionados of music (known as rasikas), even in the South. Others, like Dandilsa, who commented on the first post about this, changed their mind at some point in their lives and now can’t listen to some compositions sung by anyone except MDR.
I didn’t care for him (MDR) at all when I was getting into carnatic music, but now he is one of my favorite musicians and for some songs I can’t listen to anybody else’s rendition anymore! I am happy I gave myself more chances to appreciate his music.
On youtube I read someone had come back to MDR after fifty years.
I think I need to restate something here. There are samples of different famous voices from the classical traditions of India in these introductory posts, not because I think the singers that feature are the ultimate purveyors of the form of classical music they represent, but to illustrate the space in Indian music for the different types of human voice.
The listener accomodates in her mind that Indian music has this vast space of different voices (old and young) and styles of vocal presentation.
These vastly different voices can offer different starting points into the music and its grammar, even when we are not familiar with the technicalities, but just through absorption via sound.
Back to MDR:
In addition to being a singer, MDR was also a prolific composer.
Below is another video of MDR singing. Halfway through the video, MDR sings a composition of his own, a type of composition called a tillana in the ragam Kathanakuthoohalam. The piece that precedes it is a composition called Biraana brova idhi in the ragam Kalyani. The video is approximately 7 minutes long.
There is a very nice, immensely cheering, percussion solo in the beginning:
(Prince) Rama Varma of Travancore, a singer and Veena player, on whom MDR’s music is a great influence, writes:
Though he was born and brought up in Kerala, he taught himself Telugu, Sanskrit and Tamil to such an extent that he could read, write and compose in all these languages. With the result that when he sang a composition of Tyagabrahmam or Dikshitar or Syama Sastry or Swati Tirunal he became one with the composer and with the composition. When I hear most other musicians blasting Tyagaraja Kritis, mangling the lyrics, ruining the sentiments contained within them, beating out the rhythm aggressively and earning several rounds of applause during the concert and a fat envelope full of hundred rupee notes at the end of it, I wonder if they had the slightest inkling of what the composition meant. That poor Tyagaraja was crying out to his beloved Rama to come and protect him from his relatives who thought he was crazy, for example….would they butcher the piece like this, singing it at supersonic speed, cutting almost all the words in the wrong places and smiling smugly when the words scream out the torment of the composer’s heart? When MDR sang he literally spoke to us, understanding, feeling and living each word of the composition with his emotional, intellectual and technical involvement being complete and perfect.
link.
Other beautiful pieces by MDR (and these are by no means the only ones):
To Hear
MDR was famous for his rendition of Giripai a composition by Tyagaraja (you cannot learn about Carnatic music without learning about Tyagaraja-more about him later). If you listen to the clip below you will hear Tyagaraja’s “signature” or “mudra” which is part of the lyrics.
Giripai is in the ragam Sahana.
Kulkarniji, if you are reading this, I’m sure you’re going to say there are other renditions by MDR that deserve attention…I agree, but I can’t help loving Giripai, specifically when MDR sings the word “Giripai,” I always get a frisson. Just to hear that word alone, I can listen to the composition over and over. Sometimes it sounds as though MDR is fetching his voice from his toes.
Hari Hara Putram in the ragam Vasanta
Samaja Vara gamana in the ragam Hindolam.
Sangeethapriya website, which is a fantastic resource, full of non-commercial recordings of Indian music, mostly Carnatic, but with a good collection of Hindustani pieces as well. Several recordings of MDR’s live concerts are available free to download.
Another good resource is Tyagaraja Vaibhavam for lyrics etc
To Buy
M.D.Ramanathan – Classical
M.D.Ramanathan – “Maha Ganapathim”
Website on MDR:
Varadadasa.
Continued: Introducing Yourself to Indian Classical Music 6-Voices
Hi Uttara, I am waiting for my speakers to get functional again. You have made me want to listen to MDR so much with this post!
I think you will like him.
Hey Uttara !!!
You are doing a fantastic job , indeed.And I am all ears .
This Sahana piece is a classic indeed .
Your choice of MDR , immediately after MSS , is itself a stroke of genius .
IF MSS brought up the Starry side of this Art , MDR was a bit like the intense churning of molten metal , deep under the surface of mother earth.
He stuck to a style , At a huge risk of being misundertood . And probably paid a huge price . Sang to sparse audiences ..
Had a high opinion of what he wanted to convey ( or sing ) and hence never tailored his Music for the gallery
MDR – someone who was never understood in his own lifetime . But his stature grows with each passing day.
He was a perfect example to showcase the fact that it is easy to sing at fast paces and cover up one’s own inadequacies in style and content.As the speed of rendering slows down , the challenges for the singer multiply exponentially.The defects start showing up.
Kishore Da’s “Koyee hotha jisko apna’ in Mere Apne is ten times more challenging than any of his popular other numbers. Isn’t it ? Something like that.
If Ariyakudi gave us the golden mean in pace of singing, keeping in mind the listeners needs,
MDR took the issue of pace to its most dangerous limits , but in that process ,brought out so many new facets to this Art .
Anyone who is conversant with both CM and HM will soon find traces of Amir Khans music in MDR’s and vice versa. One can try a listening session of Megh – Madhyamavathi in quich succession .
And please do put up this signpost prominently somewhere :
http://thyagaraja-vaibhavam.blogspot.com
In the hope that the reader will look up the relevant lyrics in more detail .
Legend has it that Tyagaraja composed this song towards his last days , and was preparing to meet his maker.
The sadness in the raga , reflects this to some extent.
Thanks.Thanks again for showcasing my all-time favourite.
Kji,
There is no need for you to be all ears, as your ears have been everywhere, and travelled much further!
I’m sure your comment will be extremely useful for those who want to delve deeper. Will put the vaibhavam link into the post later today..thanks
Waiting for a large-sih chunk of time to release itself so I can sit and relish these posts. Thanks in advance.
Chox,
Maybe you can divide the posts into halves or quarters (!). Have included some very short clips everywhere to make this possible.
Hi Uttara,
I appreciate you efforts in writing about Indian classical music. Your thoughts on south Indians familiar with carnatic music loving Hindustani is so true. My maternal grandparents listened and favored lot of Hindustani musicians like Bade Ghulam Ali Khan (vocalist) ,Alla Rakha (tabla) Bismillah Khan (shehnai) without knowing the language and they loved Mukeshji . Whenever I go for Hindustani concerts in my town I see lot of South Indian but I hardly see any North Indian (mostly none at all) for any carnatic concerts. I used to think that they majority of them are not exposed to traditional music like South Indians
I grew up listening to Maha ganapathim by Maharajapuram Santhanam (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z0yAQZ8kxJI) since my mom loved his rendition of this famous song.
Music has no boundaries. I love sufi music, lot of arabic music, spanish and western classical. I started loving western classical thanks to this man Andre Rieu and my colleague Johny who introduced me to a local classical radio station. I love Andre Rieu’s Johann Strauss Orchestra. Seeing them live totally transport me to another world. My son’s first live concert (I was just 12 wks pregnant then) was Andre Rieu’s. When kids of his age are listening to rhymes he get psyched listening to this album by sudha raghunathan (http://www.raaga.com/channels/sanskrit/moviedetail.asp?mid=S0000009) especially mahishasura mardini.
I am sure you series on carnatic music will definitely touch somebody’s heart that has no clue about carnatic music
CS
CS,
Thanks for the useful links and your kind words. Am not trying to cover only Carnatic but Hindustani as well, because together they make up a beautiful fabric. I too love all kinds of music, you are right, it has no boundaries.
You are right about Sangeethapriya . It is such a fabulous resource for carnatic Music.
For Hindusthani I would recommend
http://sursangat.com/
For tonnes of Live Recordings.
I have an hour long MDR rendition of Giripai, that I can keep listening to forever! And his Mokshamu Galada always moves me to tears!
What can I say, Uttara, this series is just amazing! I have not had the time to go through it thoroughly, but I will, in bits and pieces when I have the time. The MDR song in Sahana is so hauntingly beautiful. I used to love listening to his kutcheris, his uniquely deep voice, the slow, soulful pace – he was one of a kind. It’s terrific that you have brought to light so much about him, he deserves to be far better known than he is.
http://mdramanathan.com/index.htm
The Background track of Panthuvaral Alapana is really a voice beckoning from Heaven –
So Puriya Dhanasri-ish
Truly Amazing Music- All man made barriers HM-CM , North-South , disintegrate in front of such music.
thanks very much for the link, I need to update the links on this post.
And you’re absolutely right about that Pantuvarali alapana Anon-its from heaven!
Uttara,
I must applaud your efforts in introducing us to classical music
Love the way the blog posts are written (well-researched and in a conversational tone) and how they are presented in small chunks.
M.D.R is a name I’d barely heard of before I read your post……thanks for shedding light on the legend and his music
I haven’t had right frame of mind to read all of your posts in detail (this is the kind of writing that deserves complete attention), but I hope I will soon
Is it the marriage efforts that are troubling you?
It was cold. wet and windy yesterday – the perfect weather for MDR. Late last night, after the rest of the household was asleep, I listened, over and over again, to Giripai. What bliss! It’s been a while since I listened to MDR, and now this has rekindled a desire to start doing so again.
Kamini, its wet cold and rainy here too. Wonder when it will ever end