Mridangist Palani Subramaniya Pillai came from a family of stalwarts. His father Palani Muthiah Pillai was seeped in the Pudukottai style of mridangam that had by then blossomed into a distinct school. Muthiah Pillai was an exponent of its thavil-inspired laya, depth in rhythm, according to...
Dhruva Natchathiram, Lalitha Ram’s biography of mridangam wizard Palani Subramaniya Pillai, starts with a gentle advice bordering on reprimand by Chembai Vaidyanatha Bhagavathar. In the Palakkad-accented Tamil of his, Bhagavathar lavishes praise on Palani Subbudu for his Kanakku, korvai (a...
Nagaswaram artiste Prabhavathi who was featured in the article,“Biology is not destiny. Women’s bodies are no hindrance to playing nagaswaram,” recently sent us the alapana of three ragas. They were Ranjani, Saraswati and Purvikalyani. Ranjani has the quality of not allowing errors, i.e., the...
Men have owned the nagaswaram musical instrument as their own over many years. The sacred art of playing the nagaswaram has generally been seen as belonging to the masculine domain. But that is changing. Today, many women are taking up the instrument at a young age, learning how to play it, and...
The fourth pair that we are featuring in the Navarathiri Navasakthi is the couple from Chidambaram, Viswanathan – Vijayalakshmi. Vdushi Vijayalakshmi hails from the famous Thiruvarur legacy. Her grandfather TS Meenakshisundaram Pillai had the distinction of serving as the Asthana Vidwan in the...
Carnatic and bhajan singer O S Arun pulled out of the music programme “Aesuvin Sangame Sangeetham”, based on Carnatic ragas for Christian devotional songs on Christ, following threats from Hindu right-wing organizations which had hit out at Carnatic musicians for “betraying” Hindu religion and...
Music is supposed to unite, not divide. Yet Carnatic music, which has created harmony between people and communities no less than any other top system in the world, has been targeted by certain people with feigned or genuine concerns to churn up religious or communal disharmony in recent...
