ENCORE

The "passing of music"

SRIRAM VENKATKRISHNAN

A GREAT STYLIST: Ariyakkudi Ramanuja Iyengar.

Ariyakkudi Ramanuja Iyengar had lived a long life and had enjoyed a successful concert career for more than 50 years. Yet his rasikas could never have enough of his music. Thus when The Hindu on January 24, 1967, announced "Ariyakkudi Ramanuja Iyengar Dead," the news was received with shock and disbelief. It was a sad decade for beginning with Palani Subramania Pillai in 1962; the music world had lost GNB and Alathur Sivasubramania Iyer in 1965 and T.Chowdiah earlier in 1967. As Musiri Subramania Iyer said in his tribute, "Carnatic music had sustained grievous loss of stalwarts in the art one after the other and this loss of Sri Ramanuja Iyengar came as a bolt from the blue".

The maestro was 77 years old and the end came at around 8 p.m. at his residence in Sambandan Colony, Mandaiveli, Madras. His last public performance according to The Hindu, was "in November 1965 at the Radio Sangeet Sammelan in Madras". The tribute that followed the news item was rather like Ariyakkudi's own music — in its brevity and in the comprehensive manner in which it summed up the musician. The writer, probably a staffer of The Hindu, stated that Ariyakkudi was "one of the greatest stylists of our time, he was the creator of the kutcheri, the modern concert and there is not a single musician who is not indebted to him for this." No truer word was ever written, for though Ariyakkudi fashioned a concert format which was ideal for himself, such was and is its popularity and appeal that none after him has ever tampered with it.

The "Golden Mean" was Ariyakkudi's hallmark and The Hindu paid tribute to this aspect by writing that the maestro "knew that to present the ingredients of Carnatic music in proper proportion giving to each aspect its due share of concert time would be the surest way of widening the circle of the listening public. He also knew that only by elegant exposition he could hold them".

Elegant style

Elegance was yet another watchword in Ariyakkudi's style and manner of presentation. "Never known to be a vulgarian," said The Hindu, "Sri Ariyakkudi could never descend even in his selection of pieces in the last part of the concert." The music of Ariyakkudi was marked according to the tribute by "raga alapanas just right, kirtana renderings in excellent bhani, swara singing in two tempos to impeccable kalapramana, all these flowed with effortless ease and the middle of the road listener joined the connoisseur in identifying and enjoying the music." In the laya department also Ariyakkudi was known for his balance. "He had no use for arithmetical feats... but was blessed with an extraordinary sarvalaghu suddha which uniformly adorned his swara singing. His niraval and pallavi singing were full of grace, depth and life." Those who have heard recordings of Ariyakkudi render the famed four raga pallavi "Azhaithodi Vaadi... " have never ceased to marvel at the felicity with which he moved from raga to raga.

Given all these qualities and added to them a voice rich in timbre, it was no wonder that this musician ruled the roost right through life. He was also an accompanist's delight, the favourite combination in the golden years being Ariyakkudi-Papa (K.S.Venkataramaiah)-Mani (Palghat Mani Iyer). The Hindu observed that "Sri Palghat Mani Aiyar has always been known to be at his peak while accompanying the great maestro". It was a well known fact that Mani Iyer's admiration for Ariyakkudi's music had known no bounds and the on-stage chemistry between the two was visible to all rasikas. The maestro would refer to Mani Iyer as his "Sabari" comparing Mani Iyer's faith in him to the devotion Sabari had to Rama.

Ramanuja Iyengar's death affected Mani Iyer more than anyone else and he said in a speech that as far as he was concerned "music has passed away".

While this does not appear in The Hindu, tributes from several other stalwarts such as Musiri, Prof. P.Sambamoorthy and Semmangudi Srinivasa Iyer were published. Perhaps only one name was missing and that was of GNB who had predeceased Ariyakkudi by two years. Once when someone had spoken of Ariaykkudi having walked by, GNB had gently corrected him by stating that "music had walked by that way". To him as to Mani Iyer, Ariyakkudi represented all that was best in music and hence he was music personified. GNB had earlier written one of the finest articles appreciating Ariyakkudi's music, titled, "The Hero as a Musician" and that can be taken to be the tribute of the all-time hero of Carnatic music to the greatest maestro in the field.