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Lalgudi Jayaraman
By T. M. Sivaraman |
One can go on writing tomes on the musical genius
Lalgudi Jayaraman. But I will only attempt a short
take on him here.
The 77-year-old maestro has been playing for 41
years. His music is still as refreshing as ever.
If anything, it only blooms afresh day by day.
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Born in the lineage of an illustrious
disciple of the great saint Thyagaraja, he inherited
the essence of Carnatic music from his father V.R.Gopala
Iyer, who trained him meticulously.
He started his musical career at the age of 12,
accompanying leading vocalists of the day. Endowed
with rich imagination and great inborn skills, he
rose to the pinnacle of fame quickly, accompanying
all leading maestros of the day, with an ability
to adapt to the varying styles of the different
maestros, and contributing to the success of their
vocal concerts in a large measure.
He rose to be a solo violinist of rare brilliance
due to his hard work and dedication, coupled with
the rich experience gained accompanying the maestros,
and his genius which gave original expression to
the musical ideas surging within him.
His revolutionary violin-playing technique became
a distinct school of music and came to be known
as "Lalgudi bani", which is characterized
by a flawless and fascinating style, soft and melodious
bowing, distinctly different from the harsh bowing
techniques of his earlier predecessors, and yet
deeply rooted in traditional classicism.
Another fascinating facet of this multi-dimensional
personality is his emergence as a forefront composer
of krithis, varnams and thillanas, which exhibit
sheer lyrical brilliance coupled with bhavam, rhythm
and melody.
His compositions are in great demand with all present
generation of musicians, who perform these in most
of their concerts.
As a soloist, he has performed extensively, giving
thousands of concerts in India and abroad, receiving
rave reviews everywhere, and being honoured by Government
of India and also by many foreign governments and
by such leading international violinists like Yehudi
Menuhin, who presented him with a precious Italian
violin after being bowled over by his genius at
one of his concerts.
Awards and tributes have come to him by the dozens.
'Nada Vidya Tilaka' by Music Lovers' Association
of Lalgudi in 1963; 'Padma Shri' by the Government
of India in 1972; 'Nada Vidya Rathnakara' by East
West Exchange in New York; 'Vadya Sangeetha Kalaratna'
by Bharathi Society, New York; 'Sangeetha Choodamani'
by Federation of Music Sabhas, Madras in 1971; State
Vidwan of Tamil Nadu by the Government of Tamil
Nadu in 1972; and Sangeetha Natak Academy award
in 1979 .
The First Chowdaiah Memorial National-Level award
was given to Lalgudi Jayaraman by the Chief Minister
of Karnataka. He has also received honorary citizenship
of Maryland, U.S. in 1994 and the Padma Bhushan
by the Government of India in 2001.
He may not have got with Music Academy’s Sangeeta
Kalanidhi title for assorted reasons. The Academy
corrected this anomaly by conferring on him the
rare one-off Lifetime Achievement Award recently.
Another singular achievement of Lalgudi was the
formation of the concept of musical ensembles in
1966 and he gave many such ensemble concerts and
received great acclaim for the innovation.
Geniuses like Lalgudi Jayaraman are born once in
a millennium. They set new trends in the realm of
music. May Lalgudi Jayarama live up to a ripe old
age and continue his great contributions to Carnatic
music.
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