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Dear SrIman Bhattadhiri :

Thnaks very much for your passing on the note about
SangItha Kalanidhi , SrI Semmangudi SrInivAsa Iyer .
He is a family friend of many years. All the points 
made by the author of the epilogue about the life and times 
of Semmangudi MahA VidvAn brought a lot of dear thoughts
about him. We will miss his genius and commitment to
SampradhAyam. 

I have number of his concert tapes. He was a great devotee of
Lord Oppiliappan and gave many concerts in front of the Lord 
of ThiruviNNagaram .

V.Sadagopan   


Semmengudi Srinivasa Iyer
25th July 1908-31st oct.2003 
             
                
                
             
       


Profile
Srinivasa Iyer was the third son born to Radhakrishna Iyer and 
Dharmasamvardhini Ammal. Born on 25th July 1908, he grew up in the village of 
Semmengudi which is in the cradle of Carnatic music, Tanjavur District, South 
India. 
Semmengudi had the opportunity to learn music under four distinguished musical 
stalwarts. Semmangudi Srinivasa Iyer started learning music in 1916, at the age 
of eight from Semmangudi Narayaswamy Iyer. He was then under thetutelage of 
Gottu Vadhyam Vidwan Tiruvidaimurudur Sakharama Rao for a few years. Later he 
went to Umayalpuram Swaminatha Iyer from whom he learnt anynumber of Thyagaraja 
songs. Semmengudi also had training from the acclaimed vocalist, Sangeetha 
Kalanidhi Sri Maharajapuram Viswanatha Iyer whom he supported in many concerts. 

Semmangudi's first music recital was in 1926 at the Kumbakonam Nageswaraswami 
temple. 

Although a traditionalist, he introduced many novelties in the works of 
composers ranging from Swati Tirunal to Ambujam Krishna. He also 
popularisedrare ragas such as Bhavapriya, Salaghabhairavi and Narayanagowla. 

Among his rare distinctions is the great qualitative contribution he has made 
to the development of M.S. Subbulakshmi's transporting music, and the fact that 
she acknowledges him as her guru. Also his joining the Sri Swati Tirunal 
College of Music, Trivandrum, to edit and make ready for publication the kritis 
of Maharaja Swati Tirunal which turned out to be a milestone in the history of 
South Indian music,as, More and more of Swati Tirunal's songs came to be sung 
in concerts from then on. 

Semmangudi has been showered with awards including the Padma Bhushan and the 
Padma Vibhushan conferred by the Government of India 

His prominent disciples include t Prof. T. N. Krishnan (who accompanied him on 
violin in many concerts) and T. M. Thiagarajan and also P. S. Narayanaswamy. 




Sri Semmangudi Srinivasa Iyer, the Grand Old Man of Carnatic Music left this 
world leaving his sweet memories at 94 years of age. He has been one ofthe 
longest serving classical musicians in India. His musical achievementshave been 
chronicled by many in the past and I will not get into the details now. I would 
like to look at what relevance the man and his music have to this day and age 
and for future generations to come.
   
The first thing that is most relevant today is his strict adherence to 
tradition. Now different people have given different explanations to tradition 
and I will only interpret it as a live link with the past. His music represents 
the glorious musical history of our system and what the future can have in 
store for us if we were to keep him as an ideal or inspiration.
"There will always be a group of committed listeners and performers who will 
refuse to compromise on traditional values..." 

SONGS about the glory of India and the joys of Independence were on everybody's 
lips in August 1947. Today we wonder: have we really achieved freedom? 
Politics, social patterns, attitudes and values have suffered a drastic change 
since then. And although I believe that Carnatic music has not only survived 
but developed in many new directions, I see also the shifting perspectives and 
goals. 

Before the 1930s, musicians performed before small groups of 200 to 300 
listeners. The microphone brought a revolution. The singer did not have to 
develop a voice of full-throated resonance any more. Thousands could hear his 
murmurs and croons. But amplification has been at the cost of tonal clarity, as 
also of depth, weight and vocal power. The mridangam is a victim too. Restraint 
robs it of natural force and lucidity. This new style of music may please the 
ear, but cannot haunt the mind. 

The amplifier's feedback can be a hindrance on the stage. So it is for 
listeners assaulted by the gigantic speakers in the hall that convert music 
into noise. The distortions can be minimised by placing small speakers at 
regular intervals to project more even sound. Why, the bell-shaped speakers of 
the early days, placed above the pandal, were far better than the models that 
we have now. 

Once Budalur Krishnamurti Sastrigal and I sat on the bridge across the Cauvery 
in Tiruvaiyaru to see how well we could hear the flute recital of Palladam 
Sanjiva Rao at the high school venue nearby. Sanjiva Rao's lengthy mandara 
(lower octave) phrases were nectar from the heavens. Mandara sthayi has gone 
out of vogue. We have neither the vocal strength nor the taste for it any more. 

IN the past, Carnatic music was nourished by the nadaswaram tradition. Asa 
child I followed the pipers through the four streets round the temple inthe 
procession of the deities. Now and then the pipers would stop and ruminatively 
elaborate a raga. The crowds would throng to worship the gods as well as to 
listen to the music. The pipes seemed to call the people to come and cleanse 
their souls in prayer and music. The brothers Kiranur, Tiruppamburam, 
Tiruvizhi-mizhalai... Mannargudi Chinnapakkiri, Chidambaram Vaidyanatha Pillai, 
Rajaratnam Pillai, Viruchami Pillai... they were giants. I wonder how many can 
recognise their names today. That kind of expansive, contemplative music has 
vanished. I can still hear their morning ragas - Kedaram,Bilahari, Saveri, 
Dhanyasi, Nattakurinji - as the deity was taken to the riverside mantapam for 
the tirthavari ritual; and the evening strains as he rode the silver chariot 
back to the sanctum. Today the children of those pipers have exchanged their 
family art for office jobs. 

I will concede that present-day singers have developed a better voice culture 
than in our times. They have also developed better sruti alignment. Ofcourse 
many of them are inaudible without the mike. But you will say I fault this 
because I belong to the old school! 

THE growth of music depends as much on the listeners as upon the 
artists.Nowadays people do not have the time or the temperament to savour four- 
to-five-hour-long concerts. But they know much more theory, which makes them 
formidable. It is very difficult to satisfy them. What a contrast to the 
old-timers who often identified Khambhoji not by name but by a well-known song 
in it as the 'Sri Subrahmanyaya namaste raga'! The credit for 
cultivatinggreater knowledge among listeners should rightly go to Ariyakudi 
Ramanuja Iyengar. He not only gave us the concert format that we follow now, 
but also popularised many ragas and a variety of kritis in them. 

The old listeners had patience and discipline. When an organiser found someone 
gossiping in my concert, he literally dragged him by the ear and threw him out 
of the hall. Once when I found some Mylapore advocates chatting in the last row 
I asked them: "Would you let me talk in your courtroom?" No more trouble! At 
the least sign of inattention my guru, Sakharama Rao, would simply pick up his 
gottuvadyam and stage a walk-out. He did not tolerate any insult to the art he 
worshipped. 

Today performers not only tolerate indiscipline, they also rely more on the 
razzle-dazzle of virtuosic skills, which do not permit depth. I will notmention 
names - no, I do not want stones thrown at me! But listeners have been trained 
to appreciate ragas sung in ways difficult to identify or understand. This 
trend is lauded as clever. People have come to believe that real enjoyment 
comes from what they do not understand. They crave for ragas "new" and "rare", 
but so limited that there is no doing anything with them except racing up and 
down the scale. I have never indulged in such tricks. 

A REGRETTABLE modern tendency is to burst into applause for every little thing. 
This creates the illusion that the success of a concert is to be gauged by the 
volume and frequency of the applause. Determined performers worktowards a 
crescendo of superfast swaras tagged with the "tadinginatom" - in other words, 
arranging swaras to imitate drumbeats. Laya wizard Dakshinamurti Pillai would 
exclaim even in those days: "Leave drumming to us! Sing from the soul!" But 
from Kanchipuram Nayana Pillai to the Alathur Brothers there were those who 
indulged in fireworks. Today this has become the rule rather than an exception. 
The music and the applause are equally mechanical.Once in Bangalore, when 
violinist Lalgudi Jayaraman and I traded kalpanaswaras in fast and slow speeds, 
stimulating each other to plunge more and more into Anandabhairavi, finding 
poruttams each more beautiful than the one before - there was no need for any 
climax of calculated rhythms. And the hall was filled with an exhilaration 
beyond thoughts of applause. My friend and contemporary the late Musiri 
Subramanya Iyer used to be so lost in bhava that he never thought of evoking 
any response. 

The brika is another dangerous device. Its glamour is often mistaken for 
grandeur. I would say that no attention-getting device has lasting value. Music 
must not draw attention to skills; it must make performer and listenerforget 
themselves. Sometimes I feel that not having a good voice is an asset to the 
Carnatic musician. It impels him to Herculean efforts to grasp something beyond 
his reach - to explore new, original, fascinating territories. Of course, now 
you think I am talking about myself. Maybe I am. 

There are many changes for the better. There are more sabhas, sponsors, 
government support and more musicians. Artists enjoy financial security, a far 
cry from the days when parents were afraid to get their daughters married to 
musicians. Yes, I speak from personal experience. 

ANOTHER tremendous step forward is the emergence of women as equals of men in 
this male-dominated field. With the exception of the Dhanammal family,women 
musicians sang a string of songs exactly as they had been taught. They did not 
attempt much improvisation of raga and swara, they avoided the challenge of the 
ragam tanam pallavi. With the advantage of naturally sweet voices, women are 
now overtaking men in each one of these departments. 

Concerts today have team spirit. Instrumentalists have made great strides. The 
violin has become a solo instrument on par with the veena and the flute. New 
instruments like the mandolin and the saxophone are crowd-pullers. We have to 
wait to see if they will endure. 

The rasika has greater variety and choice than ever before. But there is less 
diversity in another area. In my time you could say this boy was trained by 
Maharajapuram Viswanatha Iyer, this man is the disciple of Ariyakudi,and so on. 
But today every youngster sounds the same. Their concert pattern, manner of 
kriti rendition are all the same. They are all one even in refusing to descend 
from the higher octave until they extract applause. 

The reason is that they are no longer merely the sishyas of this or that guru, 
but of the cassettes that flood the market. Nor has criticism developed as a 
constructive guide. Critics are more interested in attacking established 
artists to produce copy that sells. 

OUR age has seen a proliferation of musical compositions. The lesser-known 
kritis of the great masters have been discovered and polished. And each day 
brings a new composer to light. The old endures because it is steeped inthe 
essence of the ragabhava. And time will decide the fate of the new. I will say 
that Papanasam Sivan's songs are not skeletal verses; they are filled with 
life-giving melody. 

Staying with the guru for years and absorbing music by listening as well as 
learning is no longer feasible. Now we have institutions where music is taught 
to groups of students in one-hour slots - a waste of energy and money. In 
Thiruvananthapuram, where I was Principal of the Sri Swati Tirunal College of 
Music, I devoted a whole morning to a class, attended to the needsof each 
individual student and finally sang the whole piece so that they got the whole 
picture of what they were learning in parts. I find that thosewho learn from 
classes held in the home of vidwans show better results than government college 
students. 

I cannot end without repeating my conviction about teaching methods. You know 
that children who learn in the Montessori method have a better grasp of the 
subject than those who are force-fed. They learn spelling and grammarafter 
becoming familiar with the language. Similarly, exercises in the scales like 
sarali and janta must be taught after the child learns little, simple songs. 
Then he will learn more, enjoy more. 

With all these developments in the art and its sponsorship, why is it that the 
impact of present-day music is confined to concert time? Why does notit linger 
in the mind for days after? One reason is that there is too muchof it easily 
available round the year. You do not have to wait for it and seek it as in the 
past. 

Perhaps the problem has to do with a fast lifestyle, one that hankers after 
novelties and innovations all the time. It lacks the perseverance and 
discipline on which the creative arts thrive. But Carnatic music will retain 
its grandeur and depth despite temporary trends. There will always be a group 
of committed listeners and performers who will refuse to compromise on values. 
It will remain a small minority. So what? The classical arts have never had 
mass appeal. 
Srinivasa Iyer was the third son born to Radhakrishna Iyer and 
Dharmasamvardhini Ammal. Born on 25th July 1908, he grew up in the village of 
Semmangudi which is in the cradle of Carnatic music, Tanjavur District, South 
India. From the age of 5, the young lad showed an aptitude and interest in 
music. The success in the field of music by Dharmasamvardhini?s brother, 
Tirukodikaval Krishna Iyer ( one of the first successful Carnatic musicians 
whoplayed violin ), and her nephew Narayanaswami Iyer, led Radhakrishna Iyer to 
decide that music would be a good career for his son. Hence from the ageof 
nine, Semmangudi started receiving music training. 

Semmangudi had the opportunity to learn music under four distinguished musical 
stalwarts. He started his musical training in 1917 ( on the auspicious 
Vijayadasami day ) with his cousin-brother , Sri Semmangudi NarayanaswamiI yer, 
who was a violinist. Later he had the opportunity to study music with the 
eminent gottuvadhyam artiste, Sakharama Rao, and also vocalist Sangeetha 
Kalanidhi Sri Umayalpuram Swaminatha Iyer. The latter had learnt musicfrom 
direct disciples of Thyagaraja.Finally, Semmangudi had training from the 
acclaimed vocalist, Sangeetha Kalanidhi Sri Maharajapuram Viswa natha Iyer, 
also a disciple of Swaminatha Iyer. Semmangudi had the chance to provide vocal 
support to Viswanatha Iyer in several concerts. The style of tuition, under 
each of his four gurus,always in the gurukula tradition where thestudent lived 
with the teacher,ensured the best environment to learn music. 

During this time, Semmangudi also had many opportunities to listen to concerts 
by eminent musicians such as ariyakkudi, Chembai, Naina Pillai and Flute 
Sanjeeva Rao. He was also influenced by the quality nagaswara music of T. N. 
Rajaratnam Pillai and Karukurichi Arunachalam, who often performed intemple 
festivals. 

Semmangudi?s rise to fame was quite meteoric. In the late 1930s he was 
considered as one of the front line vocalists of the period and in 1947, the 
Music Academy of Madras awarded him the title Sangeetha Kalanidhi. Aged 39, he 
was the youngest artiste to receive the award. Today he is the oldestsurviving 
Sangeetha Kalanidhi. 

During his illustrious career, Semmangudi held many notable positions. In1939 
he was made Asthana Vidwan ( resident musician ) of the Travancore Palace in 
Kerala and joined the Swati Tirunal Music Academy in Trivandrum in 1941. He 
soon became the Principal of this institution and was there till 1963. From the 
period 1956-59, taking a leave of absence from the Academy, he also served as 
Chief Producer of Carnatic Music at All India Music, Madras. 

Part of his role at the Swati Tirunal Academy was to revive the compositions of 
Maharaja Swati Tirunal. For many of the compositions, the text was available 
but there was no indication about the tune. Semmangudi, along 
withHarikesanallur Muthiah Bhagavathar and others were given the task to set 
music to the Maharaja?s lyrics. Semmangudi has brought out two publications 
which give the notation to over 200 of Swati Tirunal?s compositions. 
Furthermore, he tried to include at least two Swati Tirunal compositions in 
each of his concerts. Deva Deva (Mayamalavagowla), Pankajalochana (Kalyani) and 
Bhavayami Raghuramam ( Ragamalika ) are just some of the compositions that were 
both tuned and popularised by him. The latter, a description of the epic 
Ramayana, was originally entirely set in Saveri raga but Semmangudi transformed 
it into a ragamalika (beginning with Saveri) and added a scintillating set of 
chitta-swarams.

Semmangudi has large set of prominent disciples, some of whom did 
gurukulavasam, others whom he taught while at the Swati Tirunal Academy and 
otherswho took casual lessons with him His prominent disciples include two 
Sangeetha Kalanidhi-s: Prof. T. N. Krishnan ( who accompanied him on violin in 
many concerts ) and T. M. Thiagarajan. Disciple P. S. Narayanaswamy is a well 
respected musician. Kallidakurichi S.Harihara Iyer had a long associationwith 
Semmangudi and also became the Principal of the Swati Tirunal Academy. Another 
disciple, K.R.Kumaraswamy Iyer also held the same position. Othernotable 
disciples include Palai C. K. Ramachandran and V. Subramaniam (both of whom 
still provide vocal support to Semmangudi ), Neyatinkara Vasudevan, Vaigal 
Gnanaskandan, Parasala Ponn ammal and K. Omanakutty. M. S. Subbulakshmi and K 
.J. Yesudas ( a Music College disciple) have also learnt many compositions from 
Semmangudi. It is interesting to note that later in his career, Semmangudi 
himself learnt certain compositions from notable musicians such as ariyakkudi, 
T. Brinda and G. N. Balasubramaniam.








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