A small tribute to Muktamma

T Mukta, of the famed Brinda-Mukta duo of jugalbandi singers and the only surviving grandchild of Veena Dhannamal passed away on Sunday. She was an authority on Padams and Javalis, Shyama Shastri and Dikshithar Kirtanams, a patient and loving teacher and the torchbearer of the much-adored Dhanammal bani (style) of music.

May her soul rest in peace. I am sure she'll be singing in heaven with her sisters T.Brinda and T.Abhiramasundari on the violin. Or they might be having a Sangeet-mehfil (music session) with the entire Dhannamal family participating. Its only the Gods and demigods who can listen to these concerts live. We mortals have to content ourselves with the few available recordings of these Gandharvas of music.

Adding this link with a well written article on her.
http://carnatica.net/nvr/edit-nov2004-mukta.htm

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Obsessive Compulsive Asaveri Listening Disorder ?

I seem to suffering from OCALD (My sister who is a doctor and practicing psychiatrist while discussing her cases talks about OCD wherein people continue to do the same thing again and again.) In my case I have been hooked on to listening to Ragam Asaveri since last week. Developed a liking for this Ragam after listening maestro Veena Balchander's Dikshithar Kirtanam "Chandram Bhaja Manasa". Balchander, supported by a couple of his disciples, has rendered this song both vocally and on the veena. I have a vintage recording of M.S. Subbalakshmi singing this song self accompanied on the Veena (at Kalki Gardnes). I also seached Sangitapriya and found renditions of this song by Brindamma , DK Pattammal and Sowmya. Some more on the details on Asaveri. It is a janyam of HanumatThodi .In its Arohanam, Ga and Ni are omitted. In Avarohanam, all the seven swaras are included. Hence, its Jati is Audava-Sampoorna. It is an early morning raga which is very pleasant to hear. It is an ...
Read more

Degradation of poeple's tastes in film music ?

I had been to Chennai (Madras) over the weekend. I have been trying to procure the CD of a movie titled Sringaram - The Dance of Love ( As the name indicates, the movie is based on the Bharatnatyam system of dance) since a while . The music for this movie has been composed by Violin virtuoso Shri Lalgudi G Jayaraman . It is his first attempt at composing music for films and I read that he won the National Award for Best composer for this movie. That strengthened my resolve to get a copy of this CD. My first bet was Landmark, a wonderful book shop chain which also stocks CDs (picked up a few books on music - The Spiritual Heritage of St. Thyagaraja , The Madras Quartet by Indira Menon and Great masters of Hindustani Music by Mohan Nadkarni - a music critic for Times of India for many decades.). The registry at their help desk indicated that they were not aware that a movie of this name existed. I then decided to try my luck at music shops in T Nagar , the cultural hub of Chenn...
Read more

My tribute to Kanekar Uncle ( Pandit Narendra Kanekar)

My aunt called up today morning to say that Kanekar uncle (thats how I addressed Pt. Narendra Kanekar, doyen of Jaipur and Agra gharana) passed away today at Bombay. Having know him and aunty Kanekar very well for 15 years, it came as a shock to me. My aunt, Dr. Bhanu Raman who was Panditji's disciple for almost 12 years is devastated at the loss of her guru. Pt. Narendra Kanekar specialized in Gwalior, Agra and Jaipur, three principal Gharanas of Hindustani vocal music. He received his initial grooming in music from Pt. Manohar Barwe of Gwalior Gharana. He later became a disciple of Pt. Dattatraya Vishnu Kane (Kane Bua of Ichchalkaranji) of Agra Gharana. Kanebua was a prime disciple of Ustad Vilayat Hussain Khan Saheb. Pt. Ratnakar Pai of Jaipur Gharana was his Guru after he moved to Bombay. He was an A grade artiste on AIR and TV. He was blessed with a sweet yet powerful voice . Due to years of rigorous training, his depth and understanding of Hindustani classical music was l...
Read more