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A trip, nostalgic and musical
THE BOOK titled "Semmangudi: A Mosaic Portrait," consists of re-prints of articles published in Sruti, as a special feature on this multi-faceted personality.
It covers every aspect of the musical giant, who is affectionately referred to as the `Grand Old Man' of Carnatic music. I have benefited greatly by reading these articles and have made use of them in my tribute.
I first heard Semmangudi in 1932 at a concert in the hundred-pillared mandapam at Rockfort in Tiruchi. It was obvious to me that he was a musician of enormous talent — a God-given gift.
Later on, from 1942 to 1950, when I did a fairly long stint at the Madras Secretariat, and also ran a sabha called the Mylai Sangeetha Sabha, Semmangudi's concerts were a regular feature. I also had many opportunities to interact with him during my U.N. years, whenever I visited Chennai.
I mention my long association with him to make an important point. Any artiste must have the capacity to grow and to develop his potential. In Semmangudi's case, I have seen the process during all these years. Semmangudi became a mature musician over a period of time, becoming more and more mellow with age. He has become a role model, both as a personality and as a musician.
All great musicians have an intuitive grasp of the finer points of our music. This intuition can be called gnana. Without it, raw talent cannot flourish. Semmangudi has been endowed in full measure with this intuition.
During his performing days, he was a complete musician, equally at home in alapana, neraval and swaraprastara, where he was a great exponent of the sarvalagu rendering of swara patterns.
One test of greatness for a musician is that his rendering of a raga or a kriti should haunt the listeners. I have had this experience many times with Semmangudi. His rendering of Syama Sastri's Swarajati "Kamakshi" in Bhairavi, "Akilandeswari" in Dwijavanthi by Dikshitar and "Telialeru" in Dhenuka by Tyagraja, are just a few examples of the haunting quality of his singing. For a singer to whom speed comes naturally, his rendering of "Kamakshi" is in a slow tempo and is full of the quality of visranti.
As the book reveals, and as I can personally testify, he had great respect for his contemporaries.
During his early years, he had had his gurukulavasa with the chitraveena maestro Sakha Rama Rao, and the great Tyagraja Bhakta, Maharajapuram Viswanatha Iyer. They no doubt helped his musical development during his formative years, although he developed a distinctive style of his own. He always had the greatest respect for Maharajapuram and Ariyakudi Ramanuja Iyengar.
Musiri Subramania Iyer was another close friend who did his best to help Semmangudi during his fledgling days. Of Musiri, Semmangudi used to say "He brought dignity to our profession." This sense of personal dignity has also been a distinguishing trait of Semmangudi.
Similarly, as the book itself shows, Semmangudi had great respect for the highly talented musicians who were his accompanists (pakkavadyam) — Rajamanickam Pillai and Chowdiah among the violinists, and Dakshinamurthy Pillai and Palghat Mani Iyer among the percussionists come in for special mention.
Semmangudi had a special talent for organisation and administration. These skills were very much in evidence when he became the principal of the Swati Tirunal Academy in Thiruvananthapuram.
As a tunesmith, he has set to music the 24 ashtapatis of Jayadeva, the tarangams of Narayana Teertha, the hymns of Sadasiva Brahmendra, some of Subramania Bharati's Tamil pieces, 30 verses of "Tiruvembhavai" and "Tirupalliezuchi".
There was also a joint effort with Musiri for some of Ambujam Krishna's compositions. His greatest contribution remains the tuning of some 200 compositions of the royal composer Swati Tirunal.
Semmangudi had his share of problems with unkind ciritics. It is easy to say "never mind", but an artiste cannot help being hurt by one-sided and unwarranted remarks. In recent years, Semmangudi is in great demand as a speaker. He has a tremendous memory of incidents past, and the ability to make suitable speeches for every occasion.
C. V. NARASIMHAN
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