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Okay, I don't want this to be a music blog exactly. But somehow I can't restrict myself from writing this article.

Dr S Ramanathan(DSR) was perhaps one of the most underrated musicians of Carnatic music. Yeah yeah.. you would have listened to the short and sweet pacy kalpana swaras of GNB or the genius of Madurai Mani Iyer or the drawling voice of Maharajapuram Santhanam. Or even other yester-year greats like Ariyakkudi Ramanujam Iyengar or Semmangudi Srinivasan. But I don't think not many(atleast in this generation) would have listened to DSR as much as they have listened to other vintage musicians.


Image courtesy: www.carnatica.net

Dr S Ramanathan was more a musicologist than a musician. With a PhD in Ethnomusicology from Weslyan University, he looked at Carnatic music from an academic perspective. Now, that should never undermine his talent as an accomplished singer. One thing that captivates me when I listen to him is the inherent sowkyam brimming in the voice. When I was learning the Saranga Varnam (Intha Modi), I wanted to listen a musician's rendition as this has always helped me understand the full beauty of the song and the potential for improvisations present in it. When I hunted for it, I chanced upon the version sung by DSR. And boy, was I surprised. Till then I have never heard much of him but once I started listening, I was hooked.

Here I was listening to a chrono-perfect, paternal comforting voice in repeat mode. A slight detour: Saranga is a janya of Mechakalyaani with M2 like Kalyaani. But the usage of M1 in the sequence r g m r s makes Saranga stand out and it would be apt to say that this is the signature of Saranga. The text book Aarohanam |Avarohanam is
s p m2 p d2 n2 S (You can also sing or play s r2 s p m2 p d2 n2 S)| S n2 d2 p m2 r2 g2 m1 r2 s.

And I started hunting for more songs by DSR. Unfortunately not many were available to listen to online.
Links for a few of them - listen to them..They are absolute gems!

1. Shivkumar's page

2. A Kamas kriti on YouTube

(By the way, I was actually floored after listening to Mandolin Srinivas' Enta Bhagyamu in Saranga. Currently am too bugged to find the link. Will update as soon as I find it).

Adios

The other day when I was in Chennai, my sister and I were discussing about music in general and Desh raga in particular. That was because I had listened to her doing a good alapana of the raga sometime before. Instantly I loved it - who wouldn't fall for Desh?
That discussion led to a gem of a song "Thunbam Nergayil" set in the raga and composed by Bharathidasan. This is one song that grows on me whenever I listen to it and it's love at first sound. I was hunting for the song online when I stumbled upon two versions of it:

1) Nityashree Mahadevan's - Brims with emotions and gloriously rendered. Absolute stunner.
Click and listen

2) The original from the movie Or Iravu(1951). Singers are : MS Rajeshwari and Verma.
This version is all the more beautiful as the hero seems to teach the heroine sing - he comes up with romantic interjections time and again.
Click and listen

Enjoy.

Peace.