Composition of poetic excellence

BORN IN a family with a musical lineage drawn from Lalgudi Rama Iyer (a disciple of Tyagaraja), Lalgudi V. R. Gopala Iyer (or Valadi Radhakrishna Gopala Iyer) rendered yeoman service to Carnatic music as a disciplined and dedicated ``housemaster'' to his pupils, children and grandchildren.

Besides being a devoted musician, instrumentalist and teacher, Lalgudi Gopala Iyer was a person with multi-dimensional interest - horticulture, toy-making and games like carrom, chess and cards. The spiritual strength derived by him in his early years during his stay with Sadguru Swamy Gnanabodhananda, his musical background and practice, and his devotion to Lord Muruga enabled him to compose songs and verses in Tamil. All accomplished superbly in an unassuming state of mind.

Celebrating his birth centenary, the Lalgudi Trust organised a function to pay homage to him, at the auditorium of Sri Krishna Gana Sabha in T.Nagar.

Participating in the function, Semmangudi R. Srinivasa Iyer referred to the renowned musical ancestry of Lalgudi Gopala Iyer and praised his meritorious service to Carnatic music. Prof. Va. Ve. Su dwelt on the literary and poetic excellence of the songs and verses composed by Gopala Iyer. A cassette of Lalgudi Gopala Iyer's compositions sung by Lalgudi Vijayalakshmi was released on the occasion.

Paying homage to his father, Lalgudi G. Jayaraman referred to the intensity of his teaching music. Lalgudi G.J.R. Krishnan proposed a vote of thanks.

Earlier, there were vocal recitals of Gopala Iyer's compositions by Lalitha Krishnan and S. P. Ramh.

Delightful veena recital

Following the function, there was a veena recital by Padmavathy Ananthagopalan and R. Jayanthi. The duo delighted the audience with the pieces, ``Ninnebhajana'' (Nattai) and ``Aparamabhakthi'' (Panthuvarali) of Tyagaraja. Their compact and nuanced rendition of swaras in conclusion of the piece in Panthuvarali was praiseworthy. The crispness of the artistes' delineation of the javali, ``Narimani'' in Kamas drew distinct admiration.

Befitting homage

Srimathi Brahmanandam and Lalgudi Rajalakshmi gave a gratifying violin recital as a musical homage to their father. The artistes' depiction ``Marivere'' (Shanmukhapriya, Patnam Subramania Iyer) and ``Alavaiamma'' (Manohari, Lalgudi Gopala Iyer) was impressive with aesthetic appeal. The duo's portrayal of Sankarabharanam as preface to ``Bhakthi-bhikshamu'' of Tyagaraja was pleasant.

The function's concluding part comprised group singing of the compositions of Lalgudi Gopala Iyer by students of Lalgudi G. Jayaraman. Their execution of ``Va Vadivel'' in Behag was notably neat.

The recitals were supported by Vittal Ramamurthy, Pakkala Ramadas and Padma Shankar on the violin, and by K. R. Ganesh and Hanumanthapuram R. J. Bhuvarahan on the mridangam.

- R.V.

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