Side A:
1. Semmangudi Srinivasa Aiyar (Vocal) & K. S. Narayanaswami (Vina):
Dakshinamurte (12:23)
2. K. S. Narayanaswami (Vina): Pancharagam (12:41)
Side B:
1. Semmangudi Srinivasa Aiyar (Vocal) & K. S. Narayanaswami (Vina):
Navarasa (17:56)
2. K. S. Narayanaswami (Vina) & Palghat Raghu (Mridangam):
Ehi Annapurne (5:04)
3. Tuning of the Vina (0:36)
"Semmangudi Srinivasa Iyer (July 25, 1908 - October 31, 2003) is considered to be
one of the greatest Carnatic vocalists of the twentieth century. He was the
youngest recipient of the Sangeetha Kalanidhi awarded by the Music Academy in
1947 and has received many awards including Padma Bhushan and Padma Vibhushan
from the Government of India, Sangeet Natak Academy award (1953), Isai
Perarignarfrom Government of Tamil Nadu and Kalidas Samman from Government of
Madhya Pradesh. He was affectionately addressed as "Semmangudi Maama"
(Semmangudi Uncle) by his disciples. He was also considered the "Pitamaha" or
the grand sire of modern Carnatic Music. He was conferred with an honorary
doctorate by University of Kerala in 1979.
He was born in Tirukkodikaval,
Thanjavur District as the third son of Radhakrishna Iyer and Dharmasamvardhini
Ammal. He lived with his maternal uncle Tirukkodikaval Krishna Iyer, a violin
maestro, until the age of four and after his death, moved to his parents' home
inSemmangudi, Tiruvarur District. At the age of eight he started learning music
from his cousin Semmangudi Narayanaswamy Iyer. This was followed by some
rigorous training under Thiruvadaimaruthur Sakharama Rao, a famous Gottuvadhyam
exponent, an event considered by Semmangudi as a turning point in his life. This
was followed by another training stint with Narayanaswamy Iyer, during which
time he learnt a lot of varnams and keerthanams. Then he had a musical
apprenticeship with Maharajapuram Viswanatha Iyer. In 1926, he performed his
first music recital at Kumbakonam. In 1927 gave a concert in the Madras
session of Indian National Congress, another event considered by Semmangudy as a
turning point in his life, as it catapulted him into the big league of vidwans
at that time. He was known for producing soulful music, highly creative and yet
very orthodox, despite a recalcitrant voice.
He was instrumental, along with
Harikesanallur Muthiah Bhagavathar, for the work on the krithis of Maharaja
Swathi Thirunal Rama Varma. After attending one of his concerts in 1934,
Maharani Sethu Parvati Bai of Travancore was so impressed by his talent and
scholarship that she invited him to come to Thiruvananthapuram to edit and
popularise the compositions of Swati Tirunal. He succeeded Harikesanallur
Muthiah Bhagavathar as Principal of the Swathi Thirunal College of Music at
Thiruvananthapuram, a post he held for 23 years, until the age of 55. At this
age, he handed over his responsibilities to another Carnatic legend, G. N.
Balasubramaniam and at the behest of the Government of India, became the Chief
Producer of Carnatic music at All India Radio, Madras from 1957 to 1960. In
later life, he concentrated on concert performances and tutoring youngsters. He
gave public concerts even after the age of 90."
Continue reading here.
"K S Narayanaswamy, born Koduvayur Sivarama Narayanaswamy, (1914 to 1999
CE) was a Carnatic veena exponent of theThanjavur style, in which nuances and
subtleties are given more importance over rhythm based acrobatics.
He was born on the 27th of September, 1914 to Narayaniammal and Koduvayur
Sivarama Iyer at Koduvayur in Palghatdistrict in Kerala. He underwent initial
training in Carnatic music under K.S. Krishna Iyer, his brother, between his
seventh and fourteenth years. Later, he joined the Music College at Annamalai
University in Chidambaram where he learnt vocal music under stalwarts
like Sangeetha Kalanidhi, T S Sabesa Iyer and Sangeetha Kalanidhi Tanjore Ponniah
Pillai, descendent of the famous Tanjore Quartet. He also learnt the veena under
Desamangalam Subramania Iyer and the mridangam under Tanjore Ponniah Pillai.
From 1937-1946, he served as the lecturer at the Annamalai University, his alma
mater, and assisted in publishing the Tamil kritis of Gopalakrishna Bharathi,
Neelakanta Sivan and Arunachala Kavi.
Upon the invitation of His Highness,
the Maharaja of Travancore, he took up lectureship in veena at the Swathi
Thirunal College of Music (erstwhile Swathi Thirunal Music Academy) at
Thiruvananthapuram, Kerala. During his tenure at the Academy, he was
instrumental, along with Semmangudi Srinivasa Iyer, then principal of the
Academy, in editing and publishing the kritis of Swathi Thirunal Rama
Varma (commonly known as Swathi Thirunal). He participated in several
international conferences and was a member of the Music and Cultural Delegations
to the erstwhile USSR and East European countries in 1954. In 1970, he was
invited by Yehudi Menuhin to attend the Bath International Music Festival and
perform at London, Bristol, Oxford, Cambridge, and Birmingham. Later, he
succeeded Semmangudi Srinivasa Iyer as the principal of the Academy and retired
in 1970.
In 1970, he came to Mumbai, as the principal of the Sangeetha
Vidyalaya of Shanmukhananda Fine Arts and Sangeetha Sabha and taught both vocal
music and veena till 1985. In 1974, he took part as the teacher of Carnatic
music and veena at the Eleventh Conference of International Society of Music
Education at Perth, Australia. He also participated in the Indian Music and
Dance Festival of the International Institute for Comparative Music Studies and
Documentation at Berlin in 1977.
He was a recipient of many awards including
the State Award of Kerala in 1962 and that of Tamil Nadu in 1968; the National
Award of Central Sangeet Natak Akademi in 1968; the Padma Bhushan from the
Government of India in 1977; Sangeetha Kalanidhi from the Madras Music Academy,
Chennai in 1979 and the Swathi Ratna in 1999.
Among his disciples, notable
ones include Rugmini Gopalakrishnan, Kalyani Sharma, Trivandrum Venkataraman,
Aswathi Thirunal Rama Varma, Geetha Raja, Nirmala Parthasarathy, Jayashree
Aravind. Many musicians like M.S. Subbulakshmi and Semmangudi Srinivasa Iyer
have had good association with him and have appreciated his music."
