Farewell to the Carnatic maestro

His musical training commenced on Vijayadashami Day, 1917, with his maternal uncle the violinist Thirukkodikaval Krishna Iyer and cousin Narayanaswami Iyer. His second teacher was the highly principled Sakharama Rao of Thanjavur, a gotuvaadyam (fretless veena) player, who once, displeased at the disturbance during a concert, simply stalked away and returned the organisers’ advance.

When Sakharama Rao fell ill, Srinivasa Iyer learnt from two other Carnatic giants, Umayalapuram Swaminatha Iyer (a student of direct disciples of Saint Thyagaraja) and Maharajapuram Vishwanatha Iyer, both vocalists.

With his entire studentship accomplished in the old style learning-residency method (gurukula) — which included some old-fashioned beatings from Sakharama Rao for infelicitous singing — Srinivasa Iyer embodied vaitheekam (orthodoxy) in his own musical identity. His singing developed to incorporate his slight nasality as an asset and not liability.

Srinivasa Iyer was known to remark that the Carnatic emphasis on songs by great ggeyakaras (composers) rather than on impressionistic raga alap enabled a musician to rise exceedingly high on the wings of their lofty vision.

His first big break came in 1927 when he sang at the Madras session of the Indian National Congress along with reigning vidwans like Kanchipuram Naina Pillasi and Madurai Mani Iyer. In 1939 he sang during a solar eclipse at the Gokhale Shastri Hall in Madras.

Maharani Setu Parvatibai of Travancore heard him and invited him to Travancore to polish and propagate the compositions of Maharaja Swati Thirunal

After consulting Sri Chandrasekharendra Saraswati Swamigal, the Paramacharya of Kanchipuram, Srinivasa Iyer accepted the position of asthana vidwan (court musician) at Trivandrum and became the principal of the Swati Thirunal Music Academy in 1941, a post he held until 1963, with only a three-year break (1956-59) as chief producer of Carnatic music programmes, All India Radio, Madras.

Awards and honours embellished his life, including the Padma Bhushan in 1969 and the Padma Vibhushan in 1990, the Isai Perarignar from the Tamil Isai Sangam in 1969, a Sangeet Natak Akademi fellowship in 1977 and a Kalidas Samman in 1981.

But it was the Sangita Kalanidhi from the Madras Music Academy, conferred on him in the significant year of 1947, that made him, at 39, the youngest recipient of the highest honour in the Carnatic music world.

One of Semmangudi Srinivasa Iyer’s most significant contributions to music was the editing and publishing of about 300 kritis (compositions) by Swati Thirunal, reviving their original tunes and ragas, a process well-begun by his illustrious predecessor at the music college, Harikesanallur Muthiah Bhagavathar.

A fervent admirer of legendary vocalist Ariyakudi Ramanuja Iyengar, who set the present format of a Carnatic music concert, Srinivasa Iyer attracted some star pupils of his own. Best-known among them are the eminent violinist T. N. Krishnan, Yesudas, T.M. Thiagarajan, P.S. Narayanaswamy. And M.S. Subbulakshmi, who polished her songs under Srinivasa Iyer’s guidance.

One of the happiest legacies of this remains the hugely popular M.S. version of the song Bhavayami Raghuramam, which is the entire Ramayana rendered in one Sanskrit song by Swati Thirunal. Originally set in one raga, Saveri, the song was revived as an exquisite ragamalika (garland of ragas) by Srinivasa Iyer and became a household favourite across the four south Indian states and their diaspora through M.S.

Other great items in the Carnatic repertoire that owe their pan-Indian popularity to Srinivasa Iyer are the Dikshitar varnam Vatapi Ganapatim bhajeham in Raga Hamsadhwani with which Carnatic concerts now open and Papanasam Sivan’s Om Saravana bhava to Kartikeya in Raga Shanmukhapriya. Semmangudi sings on.