Sahithyam based recordings of Veena rendering - Popular and Rare Krithis in the Paani of Shri,S.Rajam

Well Friends,

Happy New Year 2011 !!!!

This Year, I have planned to engage in a long-term project, one of uploading Rare Carnatic pieces in this blog...

Late S.Rajam was a very famous and versatile painter/musician and musicologist who hailed from a family of musicians. One of the students of S.Rajam sir happens to be my mother B.Gomathi.

Fundamentally, she is a Veena player who started playing from a very young age of 6, and after learning the basics from her mother late Mrs. Rajam Ram, came under the tutelage of late V.L.Gurumoorthy on the Veena and then Rajam sir, where for 8 years, she learnt and mastered many of Dikshithar's krithis (including the Kamalaamba Navaavarnams and Navagraha Krithis) and also krithis of many other composers. The total amount of songs amount to about 500, a massive number.

She also mastered all the 72 melakartha krithis of Koteeswara Iyer patronized by S.Rajam Sir.

She has also given concerts at the All India Radio(AIR) - Chennai and Doordarshan (Podhigai) amongst others such as Mylapore Fine arts and Indian Fine arts during music seasons (December).

She has been teaching Veena and vocal Carnatic music since 30 years, also in various institutons like Bharatiya Vidya Bhavan (Mylapore,Chennai). Chettinad Vidyashram, J.S.S Public school (Bengaluru) and also had her own music school, the Sai Vidya Mandir in Coonoor, Nilgiris, where she gave a concert with 8 other students at the Nilgiris Cultural Association (NCA). Even today, at the age of 62 years, she has not given up the noble profession and continues to train and help many more interested in music.

She says that, all through her career, she was supported strongly by her husband Capt.S.Balasubramanian, an ardent lover of music, to whom she attributes all credits.

Well, as for me, I have been learning from her from the age of 7 and have participated in all concerts since then.

For the past 2 years, I have been working on a colossal project of numerically expressing the emotions in Carnatic music, performing analyses and syntheses on the same, which would eventually be useful in music therapy and other allied fields. She has been a great support to me in this venture.

Well, after all the biodata, here is what I am going to do... I am going to upload all the links for the songs (the actual songs are in http://www.chirbit.com) she had recorded in tape as and when she learnt them from Rajam sir. There are 2 versions for each song...

1. The one sung by Rajam sir himself, called RMC (Rajam Master Copy)

2. The one played on the Veena by Gomathi for Rajam's Sirs appraisal after learning the song. This would be called GMC (Gomathi Master Copy).

To start with, I am going to upload the Melakartha series of Koteeswara Iyer, as these are very rare to find nowadays because very few people handle Vivaadhi Ragas with confidence. Today, to start the venture, I am uploading the auspicious invocation song, Vaarana Mukha Va on Shri Ganapathy in Hamsadhwani Ragam in Rupaka thalam.

This blog and the associated uploads are dedicated to late.S.Rajam, late.Mrs.Rajam Ram and late.V.L.Gurumoorthy, the Gurus of B.Gomathi.

The audio clips will also be very helpful for those aspiring to learn Carnatic Songs provided they have the capacity to learn by listening for both vocal and Veena.