The Rainbow of Shuddha Dhanyasi - M Balamuralikrishna - A Ramaswamy - M Radhakrishna Raju (1987)
Today, the 21st June, is a special day. We celebrate the International Yoga Day and the Fête de la Musique, also known as World Music Day. We present you a very rare and unique recording of a peerless artiste uniting with another, living the spirit of attitude of gratitude.
The “Rainbow of Shuddha Dhanyāsi, bridging present with past” is a reunion concert in 1987, commemorating the journey in music of Dr. M Balamuralkrishna (BMK) with the percussion artiste of his maiden concert.
We hope that a flashback of an event that took place in 1940 would help to get a perspective about the reunion concert.
Susarla Dakshinamurthi Shastri festival was regularly conducted in Vijayawada by his disciple Ramakrishnayya Pantulu (and subsequently the guru of BMK) and his disciples.
In the year 1940, Pantulu gāru had to go to his village on some urgent work, when the festival was due to start in about two weeks.
Pantulu gāru entrusted the programme arrangement to some of his disciples, and Radhakrishna Raju, a mridangam player, was one among them.
The disciples decided to include a ten year old music prodigy Muralikrishna in the programme and pamphlets were accordingly printed, scheduling a music concert of the wonder-kid for the 18th July 1940.
Apparently, this decision was not known to Pantulu gāru. On his return, his disciples, i.e., the programme organisers, pleaded and convinced their guru to go ahead with the programme which had already been announced.
Muralikrishna’s father was worried too as his boy had not yet performed on a stage, though his talents were very well known to him. The boy gladly agreed to perform and sought the support of his confidants Akkaji Rao (Veena) and Radhakrishna Raju (mridangam) to accompany him.
A stipulated 30 minutes concert of Muralikrishna flowed flawlessly and overflowed to 3 hours, casting a musical spell on the audience. On that day, the boy was rechristened as Balamuralikrishna and the rest is the known history of Muraligānam over the next 70 years plus.
After many years of that historic event of “the making of Balamuralikrishna,” BMK happened to meet Radhakrishna Raju. The latter was senior and quite old when BMK came to Vijayawada for a concert in 1987. That is when an idea occurred to him.
BMK requested Radhakrishna Raju to be the percussion accompanist for a radio concert. BMK also assured him that he would sing in a manner that would be comfortable for the aging mridangam player.
Then, BMK also requested All India Radio, Vijayawada for a radio programme with Radhakrishna Raju (RR) on the mridangam and his long-time associate Annavarapu Ramaswamy on violin.
During the recording, BMK had suggested to RR while he was singing the rāgālāpana, RR could relax on a nearby sofa and could come back to play only for the kriti part.
In this special AIR concert, BMK has elaborated the rāga Shuddha Dhanyāsi and has explored it to bring out many facets of the rāga to accommodate his senior accompanying artiste.
Although the leisurely approach was the objective of the concert, yet the flow of creativity, the second nature of Muraligānam, appears to be concomitant with the purpose of the concert.
The composition that followed, “tana hitavé tana matamu” of BMK himself, is noteworthy for its being selected for the occasion.
Further, it is interesting to observe how appropriately BMK chooses the line, “kāla-gamanamé” (implying the passage of time) for sahitya-vinyāsam and then for a stimulating svara-vinyāsam.
Continuing that streak of creativity, during the svara-vinyāsam, the pentatonic rāga (Shuddha Dhanyāsi) gracefully blossoms into a rainbow displaying its intrinsic beauty. BMK, taking the note “pa” as reference (pnsgmp-pmgsnp), brings out the raga Hindóla; then rāga Móhana from the note “ga” as reference (gmpnsg - gsnpmg) and finally the rāga Madhyamāvati from the note “ma” as reference in tonal shift (mpnsgm - mgsnpm).
The three pentatonic outputs originating from another pentatonic: could it be interpreted as the appearance and merging of three modes of relative time (past, present and future) into the absolute of eternity?
The rendition is concluded with a laya-vinyāsam by RR, thus fulfilling the desire of the maestro - remember the artiste who played when he was a boy of ten; respect him when he was old; and seek him to accompany him.
Acknowledgements:
My sincere thanks and appreciation to Sri. D V Mohana Krishna for sourcing the audio and to Sri. T K Ramkumar for his support.
Пікірлер: 29
Thank you very much for this wonderful kruthi bathed from its toe to top in the highest possible melody of this ragam . It creates in us the "lightest among all" feeling for a very heavy composition. BMK alone can do this. He is a Thyagaraja when composing and a Tansen while singing. South Indian as well as North Indian music are at his beck and call always as 'ready to dance' damsels. I said it is light not because the kruthi is really light but because many movie songs come into our mind when BMK paints the contours of the raga picture in the seven hundred colours of the rainbow which he alone can bring in. He is blessed with a very wide spectrum in the repertoire of musical wavelengths. Just focus into the raga alapanam at around 14 minutes or so. You can see a classical continuum of swaraas among the high frequency swaraas which are quantum-wise discrete . He is seen here filling the gap areas between the swaraas with notes in his own style without disrupting the music grammer. So we don't feel any jerk at all as his voice traverses through the high middle and low octaves. Even in a three note ragam like Ganapathi we don't feel any jerky auto rickshaw motion along a country side topsy turvy apology of a road, while he takes us for a ride along the Ganapathy lane. I don't know how he brings in swaraas and fills the vacuua and pot holes . So, in Shuddha dhanyasi which is a pentatonic ragam ,the auto rikshaw ride is as good as a drive in a multi-crore BMW. Telugu is Greek for me. So I can't say about his skill in writing the verses in this Kruthi. While in poem scripting he stands equally tall as Dikshithar as his "Sanskrit krithees" tell me that he is the Deekshithar of our times. I have felt his Abheri renditions touch our hearts like a very light feather caressing our cheeks.Often ,I am tempted to believe that many film music composers are inspired by the siken smooth renditions from BMK. This Shuddha Dhanyasi is a pure Carnatic Ganges flowing down from the heavens into the heads of the Musical Lord Siva in us. It has come to dwell there in us till eternity .
@rajkumar6195
3 жыл бұрын
Dear Rajendran garu, read your superlative discription of raga and its contours as well as DrBM's technical process of filling potholes for a BMW ride! I was just wondering why such a great enthusiasts as yourself in the technicalities of our music of the Gods do not get curious to understand and take a holy dip in the springs of the soul of kirtanas of Sri Tyagaraja Swamy! I do not know abcd of the Carnatic/Hindustani music, but when I listen to the kirranas when sung with correct punctuation and pronunciation tears drop from my eyes as a miniscule of Sri Tyagaraja Swamy's feelings tiwards Lord Rama get into my mind. So when a lay man like me can go into ecstacy when I understand the meaning and language, why people (Carnatik music lovers) like you make an attempt to learn and understand the meaning and relish the nector flowing through the kirtanas. I am not ashamed to say that even though I am a Telugu, Carnatic music is alive and thriving because of Tamils and Tamilnadu. But most unfortunately, Tamil singers ( also Telugu students of Tamil gurus) do not care for the soul of the kirtana and concentrate only on the technicalities or gamakas of music. I may be forgiven for pointing out this. Even other Tamil 'diggajas' of Carnatic music do not care for this aspect. Most Tyagaraja Swamy's kirtanas in Telugu are not understood by Telugu people when rendered by Tamil singers! Knowing the meaning and soul of the kirranas is like the so to say, iceing on the cake!
How can anyone show their gratitude to you Murthy garu, for enabling us to know great events in maestro's life and for uploading gems of audio recordings overflowing with muraliganasudharasam.🙏🙏🙏🙏
A true master , a great human being born for music lived in music. With his stream if music , he purified many hearts. గంగా ప్రవాహ సంగీత సుధారసం ఆత్మనందమిచ్చె నతిమధురం సాటిలేని మధుర మురళీగానం విష్ణు పాదమునందుద్భవించిన గంగ వాణీ హృదినుంచి వచ్చిన వేదము గురు భక్తిన పొంగి పొరలిన అమృతం I'm in lack of words to express my bliss. Completely drenched in his soulful music. Thank you so much srinivas garu. 🙏🙏
@mangalampallivmmuralikrish5873
3 жыл бұрын
Extremely inspired with the lirical beauty of the kriti I had fortune of sharing this with bmk personally
@maruvadakatyayani7548
3 жыл бұрын
You are so fortunate .
Sir, let your divine voice drive away the covid pandemic from the face of the earth
Spent a glorious Sunday afternoon listening to this extraordinary piece of music by my guru. Thank you so much Sri Murthy. I hope you will be given the time to do not only an audio compilation that can be downloaded and an Amazon book of all the amazing anecdotes you have on my Guru's life. It would be an act of priceless devotion. I have no doubt that many would be more than happy to contribute financially to this effort.
Such a splendid treat. While it's a pleasure to an untrained ear like mine, your detailed explanation is helpful that such great Vinyasam happened.
I have read somewhere in the same You Tube Channel that Dr M Balamuralikrishna had elaborated Kokilavarali on one occasion(around 30 minutes long), where he was accompanied by Shri M Radhakrishna Raju.
This is just absolute nectar of Suddha Dhanyasi in every form- alapana, kriti, swara vinayasam. And Murthy sir, your detailed information regarding the background to this concert makes the emotions involved so palpable every time I read it. How special it must have felt to the artistes themselves. Oh! And that B&W photo adds to the emotionality. Thank you so much Murthy sir. Can anyone explain the meanings of the words please?
@SreenivasaMurthy
Жыл бұрын
Thank you so much for sharing your thoughts and reflections.
Grateful thanks to you Murthy Sir.
Mind blowing alapana! He has chosen to retain the notes plain than embellish them with unnecessary gamakas
Murty garu thank you very much for enabling us hear the music of different artists with your service.all the music lovers owe you for your sevice
@srirambhamidipati
Жыл бұрын
different artists? you mean different performances of one and only drbmk? 🙂
I heard first suddhadhanyasi in BMK sir voice....namaste Murthy sir...
Wow. It is really priceless sir. I thought the objective of BMK was to show legends' music doesn't age just like Muraligaanam. After reading your commentary on the importance of this recording it appears to me that the Nadabrahma Muraligaaru was comparing his friends to Tarani( Resplendent sun). ಮುರಳಿ ಗಾನವ ಕೇಳುತ ಇದ್ದರೆ ಕಾಲಗಮನದ ಅರಿವು ಇರುವುದೆ ಇಲ್ಲ. 🙏🙏🙏🙏🙏Thank you sir we are eternally in your debt. 🙏
🙏🙏🙏BMK super 👌👌👌
Truly historic and reflects BMK's "Guru bhakti" towards his senior artistes and mentors. Thank you, Murthyji.
@mulukutlabrhamandsastry7263
3 жыл бұрын
Dhanyavadalu Sreenivasa Murty Garu Adbhutam Suddha.Dhanyasi This kriti.Was.composed.i Russia Balamirali gave poorvarangam to Compose this.kriti.He.stayed in Hotel.lonely
@sadashivabhat252
3 жыл бұрын
Lot of thanks to Mr. Sreenivas Muryhy for this wonderful Shudhanyasi. It wd.be helpful if the meaning of the lyrics is explained. J.Sadashiva Bhat, Bengaluru
@sadashivabhat252
3 жыл бұрын
Why the aalaapana by the Maestro is missing ? Originally It was there. Sadashiva Bhat
@narainswamyiyer509
3 жыл бұрын
@@sadashivabhat252 Amazing shuddhadjnyasi by my manasika Guruji like palpayasam thank u Murthy sir expecting more such gems namaskaram
@narainswamyiyer509
3 жыл бұрын
Pl upload Guruji s keeravani love to hear
Thank you!
Pranamams sir.
🙏🙏🙏
Bhaktha Vijayam contains the stories of various devotees. Same way Mr Sreenivasamoorthyji’s prelude writings make me name his uploadings as Murali Vijayam !