Tribute to M.S. Subbalakshmi "nightingale of India,"greatest singer of Carnatic music

[krsna]

 

http://www.iht.com/articles/2004/12/14/opinion/edgupte.html

 

SINGAPORE, December 15, 2004: ( This report appeared in the

International Herald Tribune.)

 

She was known as the "nightingale of India," but that scarcely captured

what Madurai Shanmukhavadivu Subbulakshmi - who died on Saturday at the

age of 88 - was all about. Known widely as just "M.S.," she was the

greatest singer of Carnatic music, the South Indian genre that's

considered to be one of the oldest systems of devotional music in the

world. Subbulakshmi was more than a voice - she was the very embodiment

of a centuries-old music tradition that lives on in the homes of

millions of Indians in the subcontinent and around the globe.

 

While maestros like Pandit Ravi Shankar of India and the late Nusrat

Ali Khan of Pakistan, along with the show-biz tunes of Bollywood, put

South Asian pop-classical music on the global map, it was Subbulakshmi

who introduced Carnatic music to the West. She enthralled audiences

with her mellifluous voice that captured the seven talas - or rhythmic

cycles - and 72 fundamental ragas - or melodic scales - of the genre in

a way that could only be characterized as mesmerizing. She sang

bhajans, or spiritual songs, in 12 Indian languages in venues ranging

from her native Chennai to Carnegie Hall.

 

In a career that started when she was 13 years old, Subbulakshmi

performed before audiences all over the world, and received scores of

awards, including the Bharat Ratna, India's highest civilian honor. But

perhaps her greatest accomplishment was that she enticed an entire new

generation of young Indians to Carnatic music.

 

Today, even young Indians living in the United States and other

places, start their day listening to "Sri Venkateswara Suprabhatam," a

hymn invoking the blessings of the elephant-headed Hindu god Ganesh

( Actually, Lord Vishnu as Venkateswara, click

http://robotics.eecs.berkeley.edu/~srinath/suprabhatam/). Sreenath

Sreenivasan, a professor at Columbia University, tells of how his

two-year-old twins nod while the hymn is played in the household every

morning.

 

That the Sreenivasan twins - and their Indian-born parents - in New

York should listen to Subbulakshmi says something important about the

preservation of Indian culture at a time when it's under siege by the

Westernization wrought by globalization. Subbulakshmi took Carnatic

music out of the concert halls and injected it into everyday people's

homes.

 

It is music that, while indigenous to India's south and its

temple-based Hindu culture, appeals to listeners across the board

because of its emotion and spirit of improvisation. Indian classical

music is categorized under two genres. The best known is Hindustani,

developed in the north of the country, in the form of ghazals, Sufi

mystical music, and the sitar, which Shankar popularized in the West.

 

What Subbulakshmi did was to advance the system codified by Purandara

Dasa, a 15th century guru, who codified Carnatic music and gave it an

identifiable format as a medium of teaching, performing, prayer and

therapy. It was Purandara Dasa, and subsequent gurus, who influenced

Subbulakshmi.

 

Subbulakshmi, with the help of her husband, T. Sadasivam, drew

attention to the works of three saint-composers of the 19th century -

Tyagaraja, Muthuswami Dikshitar and Shyama Shastri - by organizing

concerts featuring thousands of songs that remain favorites. As

Subbulakshmi explained to me some years ago when I met her and

Sadasivam at their modest Chennai home, the lyrics of the traditional

Carnatic compositions, whether mythological or social in nature, are

set entirely against a devotional or philosophical background.

 

I asked her if she was surprised that Carnatic music had caught on

among India's contemporary youth. No, was her response, it was

testimony to the innate power of the genre to induce tranquillity and

energy. In an age when young Indians, as young people everywhere, are

obsessed with career advancement and gaining prosperity, Subbulakshmi's

singing offered a welcome musical interlude as well as an opportunity

for personal renewal.

 

Hers was a public life led very privately. She donated millions of

dollars to charities. Subbulakshmi once said that she would stop giving

concerts if her husband, Sadasivam, died. He died a few years ago,

after which she only sang on private occasions, mainly to raise money

for struggling musicians. She was already a legend. Her voice and

music, summoning up India's ancient traditions of peace and devotion to

communal harmony, will always be with us, will always be relevant in a

world of increasing tensions. What better legacy could this legendary

figure have left?

[krsna]

 

http://www.chinapost.com.tw/i_latestdetail.asp?id=24936

 

BANGALORE, INDIA, December 12, 2004: Madurai Shanmugavadivu "M.S."

Subbulakshmi, an Indian classical singer who mesmerized millions, died

late Saturday in the southern city of Madras, a close family friend

said. She was 88. She died of a respiratory illness, the friend said

Sunday. Born on Sept. 16, 1916, in the southern Indian temple town of

Madurai, she recorded her first disc at the age of 10. She made her

concert debut at Madras' legendary Music Academy Hall aged 17 -- a

performance that brought her instant fame. In 1938, Subbulakshmi

started acting in movies, but it was the 1945 film "Meera," in which

she played a singer who dedicated her life to the Hindu god Krishna,

that the young star was catapulted to iconic status. The glamorous

Subbulakshmi later quit acting to concentrate on her musical career,

and she commanded a huge and loyal following. Jawaharlal Nehru, India's

first prime minister, once said of her: "Who am I, a mere prime

minister, before this queen of song?" Subbulakshmi traveled widely,

performing in Britain, France and the United States -- including at

Carnegie Hall in New York. In 1998, she was presented with India's

highest civilian award, the "Bharat Ratna," for her contribution to

Indian classical music. Subbulakshmi frequently performed for the rich

and powerful, but she led a simple and private life. Indian freedom

fighter C. Rajagopalachari wrote a song for Subbulakshmi to sing at the

United Nations in 1966 that seemed to sum up her philosophy of life: "I

have no complaints, Lord Krishna, no complaints at all."