Swarna Venkatesha Dikshitar Swarna Venkatesha Dikshitar a noted composer and musical scholar, Dikshitar belonged to the Chidambaram tradition of Podu Dikshitars and was trained early by Raja Ganesa Dikshitar and Padaga Sundaram Pillai. He composed many kritis, the most popular of which was swarnakAla bhairavam in kalyANi. It has an unusual tala structure of 13 […]
Tarangambadi Panchanada Ayyar TarangambaDi Pancanaada Aiyyar – A 20th century composer, his biraana brOva (save me, O goddess Lakshmi) in kalyaaNi was very popular and aarabhimaanam was composed in 16 ragas!
Raghavendra Swamy An advocate of the Madva philosophy, he was considered a reincarnation of Prahlada. He was a scholar of many arts, including music, but in fact his great-grandfather, Krishnabhatta, tutored Krishnadevaraya (King of Vijaynagar) in the veena. He was born VenkaTanatha (after Lord Venkateshwara) in 1595 in Kaveripattanam, Tamil Nadu to Thimmanna Bhatta, a […]
T. Chawdaiah Mysore T. Chowdiah – (1895-1967) “It is a feature of a violinist’s career to burst abruptly into view”, Menuhin has said. This is very true of ace violinist, Shri T.Chowdiah. His studies were stopped in boyhood to enable him to concentrate on music, in which his mother imparted early lessons. His uncle then […]
A contemporary composer. Vaa murugaa is a popular composition, known for its “jumping” tune. Other compositions include Hari hari anu dhyanamu-Kokilanata-Chapu, Paradevate varade, Daya judaga rada, gaNanAyaka nin pAdam sharaNam, Somachakkanudai-dhanyaasi, Vanajakshi nikai valachi vachchiyunnanura (taana varnam)-Behag, Sarisamana-vitapi, Neevanti-Varali, Muruga Tirumal-harikaambhOji, and Maha tripurasundari sodari. He has also released a book of T. Sankara Iyer’s […]
Sattur Krishna Ayyangar A legendary musician and contemporary of Tiger Varadachariar and TK Rangachariar. He was among the faculty of Annamalai University with them. Among his disciples are T. Sankara Iyer, Calcutta KS Krishnamurthy, S.R. Janakiraman, and S. Ramanathan.
Tirupati Naryana Swami Tirupati Naryana Swami Trained by his mother Komalamma in vocal music, he later learnt Vina from Kalahasti Venkataswami Raju. The family hailed from Tirupati, Andhra Pradesh, and hence his compositions are in Telugu and are mostly devotional. A highly versatile personality, he was a vocalist, vainika, violinist and Harikatha performer. He was […]
N.S. Chidambaram A Tamil composer. Other popular songs include koovi azhaittaal, angayarkkanni Anjali, Inthidum kaniye, Manigalum olittana, Muralidara, Navagraha Nallanjali, Kandu Nee Solla, yaaraadinaar, and Muruga Nee Varavendum. He also composed varnams such as Amma jnanam alikkum surya (a daru varnam). His mile long kriti Needan thunai Neelambari is a Ragamalika with eight ragas. He […]
Subbaraya Sastri (1803-1862) Born in Tanjavur in 1803 as the second son of Shyama Sastri, he listened to great music at home and at the Bangaru Kamakshi temple. He studied music from his father, who later sent him to Tyagaraja to study music at Tiruvaiyar. Tyagaraja had great reverence for Shyama Sastri andgladly took Subbaraya […]
T.K. Rangachari T.K. Rangacaari – (1912-1979) He began his training under Namakkal Narasimha Iyengar. He was in the first batch of students in the Sangita Bhushanam course at Annamalai university. Among his teachers were illustrious musicians like Ponniah Pillai (a descendant of the Tanjore Quartette) and Sabesa Iyer. He then taught at Annamalai university for […]
