Nagaswaram vidwan Vedaranyam Vedamurthy.
| Picture Credit score: Illustration: Saai

If one have been to make a listing of all-time nice nagaswaram artistes, centenarian Vedaranyam Vedamurthy’s title is definite to make it to that checklist. Born on September 10, 1924, and having lived solely 38 years, Vedamurthy etched his title completely via his considerably modified instrument and its distinctive tone. He adopted a method, which was primarily based on serenity and subtlety.

Vedamurthy’s life is well-documented in works corresponding to B.M. Sundaram’s monumental Mangala Isai Mannargal. His maternal grandfather was the multifaceted genius Ammachatram Kannusami Pillai, underneath whom nagaswaram exponent T.N. Rajaratnam Pillai honed his ability. Vedamurthy had his coaching, each in vocal and nagaswaram, underneath Kannusami’s son A.Okay. Ganesa Pillai.

As a teenager, Vedamurthy had acted and sung in a couple of movies together with Thayumanavar, which had M.M. Dandapani Desikar within the lead function.

Apparently, Vedamurthy is without doubt one of the first names that come to thoughts when speaking about sweetness within the nagaswaram’s tonal high quality. But, all accounts level out that he was not naturally gifted with a candy tone, and in his preliminary days, his model was extra targeted on displaying mastery over advanced arithmetic patterns. It is usually talked about that he inserted a metallic extension within the nagaswaram, between the Ulavu (the pipe with seven holes to play the notes) and the Anasu (the conical part on the finish), which resulted in getting a wealthy, ringing tone.

Whereas it’s true that Vedamurthy did modify the instrument, his efforts in doing so have been grossly undermined. Happily, the modified instrument continues to be preserved by his brother thavil maestro Vedaranyam Balasubramaniam. Upon inspecting it, a couple of key nuances have come to mild.

Modified tonal high quality

Tiruvengadu Subramania Pillai.
| Picture Credit score:
The Hindu Archives

Based on Balasubramaniam, the unique instrument was a present from the nagaswaram legend Thiruvengadu Subramania Pillai, and its authentic pitch was in three kattai (scale). Whereas the metallic extension did convey the pitch down, it have to be famous that the pure tonal pitch of the modified instrument was a lot larger than the one which we hear within the recordings (about 1.5 kattai). The pitch of the double reeds (Seevali), connected to the nagaswaram for blowing, is neither the pure pitch of the modified instrument nor the pitch at which Vedamurthy used to play in his live shows. It’s clear that the modifications that he made weren’t a ‘plug and play’ type. Reasonably he needed to compensate for the asynchrony along with his blowing. It’s with this perception that Vedamurthy’s conquest of achieving his desired tone must be appreciated.

It leads us to the query, why would an artiste herald options that might create issue in enjoying an inherently finicky instrument? Sadly, we should not have first-hand sources to reply this. Nonetheless, the handful of recordings that has cemented an plain place for Vedamurthy within the music world means that his considerably totally different ‘aesthetic decisions’, when exploring ragas, might have nudged him in the direction of the modifications, regardless of its limitations.

Coming into the music world when T.N. Rajarathnam Pillai’s model was taking the whole Carnatic music world by storm, Vedamurthy’s decisions have been in whole distinction. In contrast to enjoying lengthy drawn-out phrases and in depth gildings on the upper octave, that projected the majesty of the instrument, Vedamurthy selected to color his raga canvas with exact but delicate notes. The significant pauses between his phrasings gave a mystic attraction to his renderings. His gildings have been principally within the center register, solely sometimes touching larger register notes with out lingering on them. The recordings and track lists we now have, although restricted, point out that his selection of ragas (e.g., Surutti, Nattaikurunji, Sahana, and Dhanyasi) matches his chosen model of enjoying.

Nagaswaram vidwan T.N. Rajaratnam Pillai took the Carnatic music world by storm along with his distinctive model of enjoying.
| Picture Credit score:
The Hindu Archives

Jaarus on the nagaswaram

In veena, dealing with of jaarus – a sort of gamakas produced via seamless sliding from a word to a comparatively far word, outcome within the rounded sound impact because it permits the artistes to slip over the strings easily. However to provide the jaarus with the identical impact on the nagaswaram could be fairly difficult. Vedamurthy’s dealing with of such slides (for instance the slide for Pa to Ri in Sahana) has led many to outline his model as ‘enjoying veena on the nagaswaram’.

Throughout his time, it was maybe the norm that raga alapana took the centre stage. And even when performed earlier than a kriti, the main target was on exploring the raga and probably not maintaining the chosen kriti as a central theme for the raga exposition. Vedamurthy differed on this side too. His method was distinctive and there was a way of steadiness and connection within the period of the raga alapana in addition to the content material of the exposition, with respect to the kriti that adopted. His adherence to an unhurried method was additionally seen within the selection of slower than traditional kalapramanam (tempo) for a number of of the items not simply in kritis, but in addition in javalis and Tiruppugazh.

Vedamurthy launched his modified instrument in 1952 on the Arunagirinathar competition in Tiruchi. His profession, with this instrument, lasted for barely lower than a decade. In all probability, lower than 20 hours of his recorded music is in circulation. However, there’s greater than sufficient sparkle in these recordings to maintain his title afloat among the many best even after six a long time of his passing away.