The following CD ROM is available directly from:

Sri B. R. C. Iyengar
brc@narada.org

Posted on  July 28, 2001

Comprehensive CD on Thyagaraja released 

Reported by KutcheriBuzz Staff / Madras

A new CD on the works of saint  Thyagaraja has just been released. The CD which offers a  multi-media facility to the user has been brought out by B R C Iyengar, L J Haravu and T N Rajan. The CD was released recently in Madras.

Journalist N. Ram of The Hindu group and businessman and arts promoter Obul Reddy, who were present at the function, ordered for 500 CDs each, to provide the team which produced this work, a huge pat on the back!

The uniqueness of the CD is the section that it spans from a biographical sketch of the foremost composer of Carnatic music to a significant analysis of his works and a boggling range of encyclopedic features.

T. N. Rajan is a documentation expert of profound experience,  
L. J. Haravu is a multimedia expert of immense knowledge and skill, and B R C Iyengar is a musician, musicologist, teacher, renowned critic, writer, correspondent for Sruti, The Hindu, and Newstime. The three worked out of Hyderabad to produce this CD.

So how did the threesome get together on this project 
and why?
Iyengar explains. It was a chance coincidence that brought us together. It has taken us two and a half years of hard work at considerable expenditure. 
It is a total and complete dedication to this work with the one and only ambition of bringing out an excellent product, useful to different sections of viewers; and thanks to the new information technologies, it is possible to present the musical and spiritual wealth of a great saint in a modern multimedia format, which will probably appeal to young minds who are increasingly turning towards computer based learning. One of the objectives of the product is to kindle new enthusiasm for the wonderful heritage of our country not only in India, but also abroad.

And how did they go about putting the content together?
Iyengar explains. Thyagaraja’s greatness as a musician and vaggeyakara is too well known. His songs are recited every day all over the world. Many books have been written on his works, which mostly consist of the summary of the song.. 
Beyond this, none has gone to study in depth, the message and philosophy, the construction and grammar, the mood and mode, the lyric and the music, his mind and the message. Questions crop up: why has he chosen a particular raga and kalapramana for a particular song, what is the context? The profundity of all these facts is mind-boggling. We sat down to address these facts.

And as the threesome burnt the midnight oil, researching, all kinds of questions popped up. And in the process, the answers provided the contents of the cassette.

 Here is a sample of the questions that were thrown up - Why has Thyagaraja composed as many as 594 songs in sudhamadhyama ragas alone and just 94 in pratimadhyama ragas? Why has he not utilized as many 21 mela ragas but switched over to their janya ragas? Why has he composed maximum kritis in Todi and Shankarabharana, as many as 30 in each?

 Explains Iyengar, There are quite a number of ragas in which he has composed just one kriti. It is a revelation to note the daintiness and delicacy on one side, sublime splendor on the other, the simplicity at one end and ornamentation at the other; each of his works is a perfume without a name, godliness and eternity gazing at itself in a mirror. The dexterity in the use and combination of melody with rhythm and the adroitness in the fusion of bhakthi and bhava is a form of genius, a sensible image of the infinite. His aspiration was - sangitha sastra gnanamu, sarupya soukhyadanamu, prema bhakti sujana vathsalyamu, nema nishta yeshodhanamu. It is these unanswered questions that made us think more deeply.

Both  B R C Iyengar and Rajan went into details and analysed critically and dispassionately the issues that their research threw up. Then, followed intense documentation.  Haravu, a multi media expert who is also interested in music, gave life to the amazing details and range of information and formatted the contents for use on a PC.

The threesome say that the depth and scholarship packed into this CD will serve all kinds of people scholars, artistes, rasikas.

Says Iyengar,  We wish to tell you that this is a product of intense desk research, expert soft ware technology and deep study of the works of Thyagaraja, over a period of two and half years. It is backed by decades of professional and research experience to put things together. Our main intention in bringing out this work is to make it a far-reaching educational and entertaining artefact, virtually an encyclopedia on Thyagaraja, useful to different sections of society, the common and the connoisseur, the teacher and the pupil, the scholar and the researcher, the young and old. It has proved to be a constant reference work.

 Numerous artistes, senior and junior, from all parts of India -  big and small - from Bangalore’s Srikantan to Madras’ Sumitra Vasudev  have lent their voices to provide samples of the saint’s work. The contributors to the music on this CD include T M Krishna, Sanjay Subramanyam, Raji Gopalakrishnan, Sangita Shivakumar, Hyderabad brothers (Seshachari), Sangita Krishnamurthy, Prema Rangarajan, Amrutha Murali, N Ramamurthy, Visalakshi Nityanandam and Peri Sriramamurthy. 

Even if you are not keen to delive into the fund of information but like to listen to good classical music, you can simply click on an icon and sit back and enjoy a range of krithis. So, there is also great entertainment value for this CD! The CD costs Rs.360 in India and US$30.

For further enquiries, please contact Iyengar at  brc@narada.org

Click here to read a letter from a reader who sheds light on the indepth work on saint Thyagarja done by the late Dr. V. Raghavan.