Madurai - Heritage

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Madurai - Heritage

Heritage

Madurai has a close correlation with classical and modern music industries. Madurai has given many legends to this world in terms of performers in the stage and in the media. In those days Thanjavur district teemed with many highly reputed nadaswara vidwans - Koorainadu Natesa Pillai, Mannargudi Chinna Pakkiri, Chemponnarkoil Ramaswami Pillai, Thiruveezhimizhalai Subramania Pillai, Thiruvavadurai Rajaratnam Pillai to mention a few.

Amongst them, Madurai Ponnuswami Pillai held the rasikas in spellbound music in their heydays. Originally nayanam was the real name of the instrument and the players were called nayanakarras. Nayanams were made out of silver or any other metal. Madurai Ponnuswami Pillai researched the musical notes and proved that Nayanam can be performed better if its made out of wood. Only then Madurai Nayanams were made out of wood.

Madurai Ponnuswami Pillai

Dr. Vijayalakshmi and her husband, Dr. Navaneethakrishnan are professors in Tamil folk studies at Kamaraj University in Madurai. They have done years of research in Tamil folk songs. While Vijayalakshmi is usually the main vocalist, her husband and their numerous students perform the Village dance. Its a fun way to earn Ph.D. The song Vandha Vaarandi... is a popular song sample.

Also, for some curious reason, most of Vijayalakshmi's songs seem to have originated in the Madurai - Ramanathapuram area, with almost nothing coming out of the other parts of Tamil Nadu. While this may explain why a genius like Ilayaraja came out of those parts. In those days temples used to draw many great musicians. Temples, in some sense, propagated music. Madurai Pushpavanam Iyer, usually performed "Kandhasashti utsavam" at the temple. Those were among the most memorable moments. Some of the great musicians came to perform at the utsavam.

Sangeeta Kalanidhi Madurai Mani Iyer

Madurai Mani Iyer (1912-1968) was born into a family of musicians, deeply interested in classical music. His paternal uncle, Madurai Pushpavanam Iyer, was one of the three celebrated vocalists during the first quarter of this century. Mani Iyer's first teacher was Rajam Iyer, noted for his singing of swarams. But, it was his second Guru, the renowned Mutthiah Bhagavatar, who shaped Mani Iyer into a full-fledged musician.

Young Mani was a prodigy and commenced giving concerts when he was 12. He soon became a vocalist par excellence, and never looked back for four decades. He built up a vast repertoire of compositions of various kinds but his forte was swaram singing. This feature in Carnatic music is the inherent tonal relationships of a ragam delineated through solfa passages. Mani Iyer evolved an unusual pattern of weaving the notes of a ragam into a fabric of melodic and rhythmic consonance. His uncanny sense of the sruti or subtle microtone enabled him to produce extraordinary musical effects. He was noted for flights of imagination and originality in structured note patterns across the body of a ragam.

Sri Madurai T.N. Seshagopalan

Sri Madurai T.N. Seshagopalan, the celebrated Carnatic musician and composer had his initial musical training under his mother and Sri. Ramanathapuram C. S. Sankarasivan. Seshagopalan holds a degree in Science from Madras University, (Madras, India) and a degree in music from Madurai University (Madurai, India). He has served as professor of music at Madurai University. Seshagopalan was also made the "Asthana Vidwan" of Kanchi Kamakoti Matt by Paramacharya along with a title of "SANGEETHA SUDHAKARA".

In 1983 the prestigious Music Academy of Madras arranged to have a program of Seshagopalan in order to record special CD's and cassettes which have now been released by Oriental Records in the United States. A master of swara compositions, Seshagopalan continues to increase his stupendous repertoire with compositions of his own. He is noted for his own elegant Thillana compositions, devotional Bhajans, Namavalis and Abhangs.Seshagopalan's singing technique has the knack of transferring and communicating the most intricate musical expression with ease, simplicity and aesthetic charm. Blessed by the Goddess Meenakshi, presiding deity in the temple in Madurai, Seshagopalan is indeed a musical marvel.

Madurai - Heritage

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