Pioneering efforts
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Music in general and Carnatic music in particular has always had takers contends SUGANTHY KRISHNAMACHARI even as she discusses the enthusiasm of our singers through the years.
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AIR — Tiruchi (pic.) and Chennai — has played a great role in the propagation of music.
ALTHOUGH DECEMBER-January is considered the music season in Chennai, passion for music is not confined to those two months. Hence a plethora of festivals throughout the year — Rama Navami, Gokulashtami and Navarathri, not to mention Tyagaraya Aradhana.
In the 1940s, apart from the Navaratri cutcheris in sabhas, concerts used to take place at the Kapali temple, at the Ramakrishna Math and also at
Kothamangalam Subbu's house. Eminent vidwans such as Madurai Mani Iyer and Papanasam Sivan sang at Subbu's house.
Concerts were also held in Abhiramapuram, Chennai, at the residence of Tediyoor Subramania Sastry, to coincide with Sankara Jayanthi celebrations. When it came to worthy causes, the musicians of Tamil Nadu were the first to pitch in with benefit performances.
In October 1944, Gandhi Jayanthi was celebrated for a week from October 2. A fund was created in memory of Kasturba Gandhi. The money was to be donated to orphanages. Since Gandhi turned 75 that year, it was decided to collect Rs. 75 lakhs for the fund.
Each State was assigned a target, and the target set for Tamil Nadu was pretty high. There were many who wondered if the target could be met, because most Congressmen were behind bars and there was no one to launch a collection drive. But funds poured in.
Tamil Nadu in fact exceeded its target in fund collection. This was due to the many concerts that were held in the city to raise money for the fund. M. S. Subbulakshmi for example sang on five consecutive days and collected Rs. 60,000 for the fund. The South Indian Journalists' Association organised an M.S. concert in 1949 to raise money for its building fund. The concert took place at Rajaji Hall, Mount Road, and although the tickets were priced at Rs. 100, 50 and 25, and concert was a sell-out.
In 1944, the Corporation of Madras set up a fund for the maintenance and upkeep of orphanages.
K. B. Sundarambal
The students of Loyola College arranged a GNB concert at the R. R. Sabha to raise money. It was a four-hour concert and although it was raining heavily, the hall was packed and the audience stayed on right till the end.
In 1949, concerts took place for 10 days at the Sir P. Tyagaraya Chettiar School, Washermanpet, to raise money for the school. The difference was that the performers were famous names in the film world and all of them were trained in Carnatic music.
M. K. Tyagaraja Bhagavatar, Dandapani Desikar, K. B. Sundarambal and N. C. Vasanthakokilam were among those who sang. Elaborate arrangements had been made to accommodate the huge crowds that the organisers knew would turn up to see MKT Bhagavathar. To the delight of his fans, Bhagavathar not only sang but also gave a speech.
Old timers might recall the series of cutcheris that took place in 1944 in Thanjavur and Kumbakonam to raise money for the Tyagabrahma Utsava Nidhi.
The performances took place at the Thanjavur Tower Talkies Hall and Kumbakonam Raja Talkies Hall and almost all major vidwans of the day such as Ariyakudi, GNB, Madurai Mani Iyer and DKP gave benefit performances.
Tamil Sangam
Even as early as the 1940s there was a Tamil Sangam in the Hindi heartland in Benares University! This sangam often staged Tamil plays. There was a Tyagaraja Sabha in Bombay, which celebrated both Tyagaraja Day and Dikshitar Day. Before the invasion of television, radio was the main entertainment medium and AIR did not disappoint the listeners. In 1944, Chennai station introduced a new programme called Pallavi.
This programme was of 30 minutes duration and only RTPs were sung.
In 1945, AIR Tiruchi, relayed a nadaswara goshti gaanam. To popularise the Tirukkural, AIR also started a programme called Kural.
Everyday the meaning of a kural would be analysed and then Dandapani Desikar would sing the day's kural in a Carnatic ragam.
Yet another novel attempt of AIR Madras, in 1945, was to relay musicals in order to popularise Carnatic music. They roped in vidwans like S. V. Parthasarathy, Kunnakudi Venkatrama Iyer and P. A. Periyanayaki to sing the songs for these plays.
In 1944, both Chennai and Tiruchi stations celebrated Bharatiyar day, although the Government had banned the teaching of Bharatiyar's songs even in schools.
M. K. Thyagaraja Bhagavathar.
But they relayed his devotional songs and not his patriotic songs. Vanoli, the radio guide that gave details of AIR programmes, was eagerly awaited every month.
Every issue also carried rare compositions of composers like Kavi Kunjara Bharati, Maarimutha Pillai, Ponnaiya Pillai and Aanaiyya. Very often vidwans like GNB wrote articles on music for the journal. The last issue of Vanoli was dated April 22, 1987.
The demand for including more Tamil songs in concerts is nothing new. Ariyakudi was famous for his rendering of Tiruppavai and Rama Naataka kritis and for several other Tamil songs. Who can forget his "Ethanai Sonnaalum" in Saveri? DKP was famous for her rendition of Bharatiyar's songs and M.S. for Kalki's songs.
Although there is now a revival of interest in Tamil folk music, thanks to the efforts of singers like Pushpavanam Kuppuswami, this too was an area the previous generation took an interest in.
Way back in 1944, Ki. Va. Ja published a book entitled "Naadodi Ilakkiyam". It was a collection of folk songs sung by agricultural labourers and fishermen. But it was not a mere compilation of such songs. Ki. Va. Ja. had analysed the meaning of these songs with several references to Tamil literature.
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