The Hindu : Karnataka / Bangalore News : ‘Pitamaha of Carnatic music’ remembered

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‘Pitamaha of Carnatic music’ remembered

Staff Reporter

Budding musicians urged to emulate Semmangudi Srinivasa Iyer

— Photo: Bhagya Prakash K.

Traditional welcome: Mathoor Krishnamurthy, Executive Director of Bharatiya Vidya Bhavan; Bellary M. Venkateshachar, vocalist; M.R. Srinivasan, scientist; N. Gopalaswami, Chief Election Commissioner for India; and H. Kamalnath, president of The Bangalore Gayana Samaja, being received at the Shemmangudi Birth Centenary celebrations in Bangalore on Sunday.

Bangalore: Not many know that doyen of Carnatic music Semmangudi Srinivasa Iyer was asked to give up singing and take up violin.

Revealing some anecdotes about the late vocalist, Chief Election Commissioner N. Gopalaswami said: “He was told by the great ganjira player Dakshinamurthy Pillai that his voice sounded as melodious as the sound of a coconut shell being scraped on a piece of rock. Pillai even asked him to give up vocal music and take up violin instead.”

Speaking at the Semmangudi Centenary celebrations and inauguration of 40th music conference at The Bangalore Gayana Samaja here on Sunday, Mr. Gopalaswami said that Semmangudi took it up as a challenge, practised for more than eight hours a day “like one possessed”. “In 20 years, he was honoured with the title ‘Sangeetha Kalanidhi’ by the Madras Music Academy,” he said.

He said that Semmangudi was appropriately called the “Pitamaha of Carnatic music”. He said the doyen gave equal importance to technical virtuosity and diction. He sang with a lot of ‘bhava’. A ‘rasika’, while listening to him, would feel as if he was in a temple. Bellary Venkateshachar, renowned musician, who is also the president of the music conference, said that Carnatic music should be made compulsory in schools. “Children will develop a liking to it early, which will help propagate it. Youngsters, after learning Carnatic music, will be able to take up any form of music later,” he said.

Mathoor Krishnamurthy, Executive Director of Bharatiya Vidya Bhavan, said that budding musicians should learn to sing with “bhava” the way Semmangudi did. He recalled his interaction with the renowned musician.

M.R. Srinivasan, former Chairman of the Atomic Energy Commission, recalled his association with Semmangudi.

Eswar Ganjam, Chairman of Ganjam Jewellers, was present.

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