� l SRUTI October 2011

NEWS & NOTES

A veritable who’s who of Bangalore’s musical circuit had assembled at the

Gayana Samaja on the morning of 11 September 2011. The occasion was to pay a musical tribute to the last of the great vaggeya-kara-s of erstwhile Mysore, H. Yoganarasimham, through the launch of a twin CD set of his compositions and a website dedicated to him. Both the event and the CD were appropriately christened Devagitam as the maestro used ‘Deva’ as his nom de plume.

After a melodious invocation of Kannada poet Bendre’s verse, veteran artist Sangita Kalanidhi R.K. Srikantan launched the CDs to a thunderous applause from the enthusiastic crowd. Speaking about the towering personality of the late composer, Srikantan wondered how it could be possible for an individual to excel himself in so many fields. “Yoganarasimham,” he recalled “was a singer, composer, Sanskrit scholar, a theatre enthusiast, a nationalist, a writer, philosopher and thinker for whom music was a means of cleansing the self rather than gaining the appreciation of others.” The nonagenarian poignantly asked if it was possible to find such a trait of selflessness towards music among aspirants today. Srikantan also paid tributes to Mysore Vasudevacharya, the mentor of Yoganarasimham, with whom he was closely associated for over four decades. He recalled his own association with Yoga-narasimham at the All India Radio. Raghavendra Rao of Ananya received the first copy of the CDs.

The CDs have 18 compositions of Yoganarasimham including rare ones

‘Devagitam’ launched in memory of Yoganarasimham

like Nadavara in Nadavarangini, Santirupaasyatam in Latantapriya, Ninnu minchina in Kolahala, Saphalam jeevitam’in Kuntalakusumavali and Jaya jaya Bharata, a tribute to the National Flag set as a delightful ragamalika, among several others.

Violinist Lalgudi G.J.R. Krishnan spoke on the musical and lyrical beauty of the compositions of Yoganarasimham. In an eloquent and impressive speech he outlined several facets of the kriti-s and illustrated how both divinity and nature play important roles in sparking creative inspirations for composers like Yoganarasimham and his own father Lalgudi Jayaraman. He highlighted the usage of rare raga-s, varieties of genres, a mix of tala-s, ample usage of swarakshara-s and the amenability of the compositions to niraval and swaraprastara – all of which demonstrate the marks of a great composer. His compositions brought to life several raga-s that existed as mere scales in ancient texts, he noted.

A clip from a dance performance based on one of Yoganarasimham’s masterpiece swarajati-s in raga

Mayamalavagaula, by one of his grandnieces Pooja Sukumar based in the US, came as a pleasant surprise. This swarjati Bhaja re manasa Vrajabalam, is as power-packed as Syama Sastry’s swarajati-s, though refreshingly different, and has several charanam-s starting with each swara of the raga. On the agenda was also the inauguration of a website <www.devagitam.in> which catalogues not only biographical details and photographs of the maestro but also documents all his compositions with notations and meanings. The audience was enthralled to hear

a recording of Yoganarasimham rendering in perfect sruti towards the fag end of his life one of Sankaracharya’s Avinaya Mapanaya Vishno from the Vishnu Satpadi.

Speaking on the occasion, G. Raj Narayan of Radel Electronics made a valid observation: “In a day and age when the internet has emerged as such an important medium that even before their very first concert artists ensure that they have a web presence, the very fact that Devagitam has made a modest presence after four decades, speaks volumes of the self effacing composer.” He also reminisced how Yoganarasimham had met Gurudev Rabindranath Tagore and impressed him with his musical brilliance.

A fitting finale to the launch was a delightful rendering of some of the kriti-s of the composer by his granddaughter and musician M.A. Jyothi accompanied by Charulatha Ramanujam (violin), H.S. Sudhindra (mridanga) and Phanindra Bhaskar (ghata). Starting with the Dwijavanti varnam Vanamali, Jyothi presented a melodious mélange of compositions: Sujana charitam (Mukhari), Kaapaadade

� l SRUTI October 2011

NEWS & NOTES

nepa hooduvi (Gaganamohini), the sedate padam Sringara Sekhara (Neelambari), a tillana in Sunadavinodini, before winding up with a mangalam dedicated to his favourite deity Lord Narasimha in Madhyamavati.

The event also witnessed the coming together of the maestro’s children H.Y. Mohanram, Narayandutt, H.Y. Rajagopal, H.Y. Mukunda, Lakshmi Rajanna, Kasturi Subrahmanyam and Neeraja Achuta Rao and their families.

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(L to R) M.A. Jyothi, G. Raj Narayan, G.J.R. Krishnan, R.K. Srikantan and R.V. Raghavendra at the CD launch