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On the morning of December 25 final yr, legendary violinist TN Krishnan took the stage together with son Sriram and daughter Viji for his annual efficiency at The Music Academy in Chennai. Like yearly, at the 93rd annual convention of the Academy, he concluded the efficiency with considered one of the world’s finest recognized Christmas songs – One horse open sleigh – James Lord Pierpoint’s biggest present to the world. And as 91-year-old Krishnan plunged himself into Jingle bells, jingle all the approach, oh what enjoyable it’s… including the gamakas together with a ghatam and mridangam from the in any other case uncompromising world of Carnatic classical music, the viewers sighed, chuckled and appeared on in admiration. He adopted it up with We want you a merry Christmas, and as he swooped in the ultimate stroke, these current broke right into a loud applause. Krishnan smiled ear to ear and mentioned, “Merry Christmas to all of you. See you again next year”. Those current stood up, giving him a standing ovation alongside an applause that didn’t break for some time.
This yr, after a long time, one received’t hear the carols on Christmas day by Krishnan throughout the Marghazi season in Chennai. On Monday night time, the legendary violinist, the final from the holy trinity of Carnatic classical violinists in the nation that included Lalgudy Jayaraman and MS Gopalakrishnan, handed away at his residence in Chennai. He was 92.
“One looks at a few people and says that if you live a life, you should live it like this person. Such a complete musical life. The most significant bit about this artist, apart from the fact that he was one of the greatest Carnatic classical violinists ever and a complete artist in every sense, was the clarity of his tone and sound. The violin just sang. His music is a lesson for all of us in how to approach music and even life,” says violinist Kumaresh of the violin duo Ganesh-Kumaresh.
What remained important all the time was Krishnan’s clear thought course of, which led to the sound that the rasikas heard. It was easy, and thus, creative. As for the depth, it prevailed someplace in between. “I was listening to his Bhairavi today and I remember one conversation with him where he said, I am not really done with Bhairavi, something new keeps coming out of it whenever I play. This is surrender to an art form. At 89, he wanted to draw more from a raga,” says Kumaresh.
Born as Tripunithura Narayana Krishnan in Tripunithura, Kerala, Krishnan started by studying from his father Vidwan A. Narayana Iyer, a well known exponent of the violin, who taught violin to all his youngsters together with daughter N Rajam, who went on to turn out to be considered one of the biggest Hindustani violinists in the nation. Krishnan was offered on stage for the first time in Thiruvananthapuram in 1939, when he was solely 11. “The moment people heard his violin, they were stunned by the sound because no one at that time could produce that crystal clear sound, such clean gamakas in that sweet tone the way he could. This clarity wasn’t there earlier. He became a darling of the crowd and that continued till yesterday,” provides Kumaresh. He provides that it was the power in the bowing approach and the distinctive finger-work that helped him obtain the sound that others had been missing. At the time, there have been many hardships for him, and Krishnan needed to earn a residing very early on to help a giant household.
Soon sufficient, the Cochin royal household got here ahead to provide him patronage. He additionally started accompanying many main Carnatic vocalists of the time, together with Madurai Mani Iyer, Ariyakudi Ramanuja Iyengar, and Musiri Subramania Iyer, and Maharajapuram Vishwanatha Iyer, amongst others. A couple of years later, in 1942, Krishnan moved to Chennai and was taught by Semmangudi Srinivasa Iyer, the legendary vocalist who additionally taught present favorite on the Carnatic circuit – TM Krishna. He lived in industrialist and philanthropist R Aiyadurai residence after that for some time.
His sister and famed violinist N Rajam, who spoke to The Indian Express over the cellphone, mentioned that she spoke to him the day earlier than and he was in superb spirits. “It will be difficult to come to terms with Anna going away. Such a soft-spoken, gentle, loving and endearing soul. I learned so much from him,” mentioned Rajam.
In the previous couple of years, the jugalbandi efficiency between the brother-sister duo was appreciated round the world. The two related but completely different worlds of classical music on an instrument that has western classical origins, from the identical household, made for an invigorating efficiency. “Whenever we were on the stage together, he’d say, ‘Rajam, you play’, completely letting me take it,” says Rajam.
“We recently celebrated his 92nd birthday and sent video messages for him. He was so excited to hear from all of us.,” mentioned violinist Ragini Shankar, Krishnan’s grandniece and N Rajam’s granddaughter. She provides that the happiness that Krishnan felt about N Rajam and her household practising Hindustani classical on the violin was “pretty amazing”. “Music was music for him and as particular as he was about Carnatic classical, he really enjoyed the music of my grandmother, our mother and even us in the last few years. Once he came to Nandini and I after a family concert after listening to us in the front row and said ‘achha bajaaya’ in Tamil. Coming from him, it was special,” says Ragini.
Apart from a protracted profession as a solo violinist, Krishnan additionally had a protracted educating profession. He was a professor at the Chennai Music College and later, turned the principal there. He was additionally the Dean of the School of Music and Fine Arts at the Delhi University. Krishnan additionally served as the vice-chairman of the Sangeet Natak Akademi in the 90s. “When he was teaching, he was very strict with his students. But then it was difficult to overlook the fact that he was so jovial and this happy-go-lucky person you could really speak to,” provides Ragini.
Krishnan was awarded the Sangeet Natak Akademi Award in 1974 and Sangeet Natak Akademi Fellowship in 2006. He additionally obtained the title of Sangeetha Kalanidhi in 1980 from the Madras Music Academy. PM Modi additionally condoled the musician’s dying on Twitter: “The demise of noted violinist Shri TN Krishnan leaves a big void in the world of music”. Violinist and his niece Kala Ramnath additionally took to Twitter calling Krishnan’s demise an irreplaceable loss for the music world and the household.
In a famed jugalbandi efficiency between Rajam and Krishnan, the conclusion occurs with the bhajan Raghupati raghav raja ram and improvisations in it. After a couple of moments, Krishnan eggs on Rajam, letting her take over and take the piece residence. And it’s the legendary strategies of Rajam on show, so one can see that she presents intricate webs splendidly. But these are methods of classical music, the place seniority issues. Rajam halts quickly sufficient and Krishnan takes over and dives again into the bhajan. He concludes it sweetly and quietly, not with the normal flourish and crescendos that concert events finish with. He made that ultimate exit the identical approach.
© The Indian Express (P) Ltd
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