Mudikondan Venkatarama Iyer - Lecture Demonstration at The Music Academy, Madras, 1970

Nādabhṛṅga is very pleased to bring to you an excellent recording of a very special lecture demonstration by Mahamahopadhyaya Sangita Kalanidhi Sriman Mudikondan Venkatarama Iyer. As part of the Dr. V Raghavan Shashtiabdhapoorthi Endowment Lecture Series, Sri Mudikondan Venkatarama Iyer was invited to present a lecture demonstration at The Music Academy, Madras, in December of 1970, during the morning experts committee session. Sri Venkatarama Iyer presented a most scholarly lecture demonstration on the topic "Mahā Vaidyanātha Aiyar and his contributions to Carnatic Music, with special reference to Simhanandana Tāḷa Pallavi". This tāḷa is the longest and possibly most challenging in the Carnatic system, with 18 aṅga-s and 128 akṣara-s. Sri Venkatarama Iyer speaks in detail about the composer Mahā Vaidyanātha Aiyar, his brother and equally prolific composer Rāmasvāmi Śivan, as well as explaining in detail about the Pallavi of Mahā Vaidyanātha Aiyar composed in Simhanandana tāḷa. Along the way, he also presents some beautiful compositions of the composer including an imposing tillānā in the rāga Kānaḍā, also set to the Simhanandana tāḷa. The piece de resistance of this recording is definitely the two stellar accompanying musicians, Sri Lalgudi Jayaraman and Sri Umayalpuram Sivaraman, whose masterly accompaniment leaves the listener truly mesmerised at their musicianship! Several poor quality versions of this recording have been circulating for many years. We wish to share here a complete and high quality version of this demonstration, and we hope that this will be useful for many students, as well as aspiring musicians, apart from rasikas. The programme details are as follows:

Sangita Kalanidhi Mudikondan Venkatarama Iyer
Accompanied by:
R Vedavalli - Vocal Support
Lalgudi G Jayaraman - Violin
Umayalpuram K Sivaraman - Mridangam

1. Introduction in English [00:00]
2. Introductory talk by Mudikondan in Tamiḻ [02:08]
3. paṅkajākṣī (pada varṇam) - kāmbhōji - ādi - rāmasvāmi śivan [15:29]
4. śrī śaṅkaraguruvaram - nāgasvarāvali - rūpakam - mahā vaidyanātha śivan [22:41]
5. meḷarāgamālikācakra - rāgamālikā - ādi - mahā vaidyanātha śivan [30:51]
6. rāgam-tānam-pallavi (māṃpāhi śrī rājarājeśvarī śekharī śivaśaṅkarī simhavāhinī sevakajanapālinī kapālinī maṇimālinī varaśūlinī) - kāmbhōji - simhanandana (4 kaḷai) - mahā vaidyanātha śivan [53:31]
7. tani āvartana [01:36:16]
8. tillānā - kānaḍā - simhanandana - mahā vaidyanātha śivan [01:41:36]
9. Saṅgīta Kalānidhi elect D K Pattammal speaks [01:46:22]
10. Saṅgīta Kalānidhi Semmangudi R Srinivasa Iyer speaks [01:47:01]
11. Miscellaneous announcements in Tamiḻ [01:55:13]

Nādabhṛṅga consists of a consortium of enthusiasts and collectors of Indian Classical Music who are intent on sharing good quality recordings of the erstwhile Masters from a compendium of archival recordings, carefully collected over several decades. The music we share here will hopefully serve as an archival source for current and future generations of musicians, students, aficionados and connoisseurs. In case of any copyright disputes, kindly contact us and we will remove the video. Nādabhṛṅga is NOT a monetized channel. Any ads that do feature here are due to third party copyright claims, which are unavoidable.

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