Read this first!

Transliteration

When native musical terms or words from Indian languages (typically written in Devanagari script) is used here, I have tried to italicise them and follow ITRANS (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ITRANS) for transliteration (though there may be some small deviations, which are normally accepted). The word “kruti” is used in these pages for any composed item – varNams, kIrtanais, swarajatis, tillAnas, padams, javalis etc.

Disclaimers

When reading these pages, keep in mind the following very important points:

• These articles have been written from a lay rasika’s point of view, and hence focuses more on the structural aspects of MDR’s music. It does not deal in detail with MDR’s nuanced treatment of rAgAs, but rather on those qualities which are noticeable to a rasika who has minimum exposure to Carnatic music. The former need to be handled by someone who is much more knowledgeable in those aspects, like a performing musician or an experienced musicologist!
• This is also not intended as an analysis of MDR’s personality or his views or his approaches. These are just my views on MDR’s music. It may be possible that I am imagining something MDR never intended! Beware of this!
• I did not have the fortune to hear MDR live 🙁 The impressions noted here are derived from some of his archived concerts and also based on some information on MDR available on the web. Sound quality of many of these recordings are not that good as well. If offline listening of such recordings could already make such a great impact on me, I can’t even imagine how the live experience could have been!
• These observations were made from a small set of concert recordings I have listened to, and is not an exhaustive list.
• These pages elaborate the aspects that I found interesting (and liked) in MDR’s music. My likes may or may not match yours!
  • And, when an aspect is called out, it DOES NOT mean that it is unique to MDR and no other musician employs these techniques. It only means that when MDR does it, the effect is wonderful (and some times unique) and I like it!
  • When I say MDR’s handling of some aspect of music is good, it does NOT mean that other interpretations are bad or inferior. It only means that I like the “MDR way”! Do not come up with comments/conclusion like “XXX does this better”, “YYY was not this good” etc. These pages were NOT written to compare artists!
  • In those rare instances when I say I couldn’t enjoy something, it only means that I have a problem in understanding and enjoying it. It surely is NOT the artist’s issue!
• No comment/opinion expressed here should be taken as a generalisation (though sometimes, it may sound so!), they are written based on some specific instance, and mostly refers to only that instance.
• For any point mentioned here, there may also be another instance where MDR would have done something different. Some points mentioned here are more prevalent and some are rare occurrences. Consider this in mind when reflecting on these points.
• I have no issues in a reader having a diametrically opposite view from mine on the topic under discussion. At the same time, I believe that these pages are not the place to prove your point of view, so, instead of starting a big debate, please start a blog of your own!
• Any opinion expressed can change as time goes by. I do not vouch for anything that is mentioned here. I reserve the right to contradict myself based on context and situation 😉
• I do not claim any expertise on Carnatic music. In case any of my statements/assumptions/conclusions are wrong OR not accurate, please excuse me and point it out, I will try to correct.

What type of comments are acceptable?

• Comments which add value to the topic under discussion

What type of comments are not welcome and will be removed without notice?

• Comments which are deemed derogatory
• Comments not relevant to MDR’s music and the topic under focus

Playing relevant sections

Normally, the concert is visible in the page as a typical musical player control in the page with a play and volume buttons. Whenever a section of the given concert is pin-pointed, a button is given to exactly play the relevant section. Click once on the button to start playing. Click again on the same button to stop playing. Eg:

If you press another button, without stopping the currently playing file, it will result in songs running in parallel! So, always remember to press the same button again to stop. If network bandwidth is slow, it may take some time to load the audio file, so, be patient after you click “Play” 🙂

Note: You may need to play around with volume when songs change as the volume and and quality of recordings vary.

Copyrights & Acknowledgements

The audio clips used in this site are downloaded from https://shankarkrish.blog/carnatic-vocal/m-d-ramanathan/ , https://archive.org/, http://www.sangeethapriya.org/homepage.php and www.youtube.com (very few). Thanks to all those music enthusiasts who shared the contents freely. Arunachalam P, a fellow rasika also shared few valuable links and pointers, which has been incorporated in some of these pages. And, finally, thanks to MDR’s family too for their work in keeping his legacy alive!

The purpose of downloading and using the files is only for illustrating specific aspects of MDR’s music. If anyone has objections to the use of any clip, please contact the admin.

Some of the posts in https://rasikas.org/forums/ also helped in the creation of the content here, so, thanks to the forum and the contributors!

Images used were taken from a Google search. If there are any objections, contact me.

The textual contents are all my personal opinions and thoughts. I do not wish to hold any copyrights on these and if someone wants to use the content, they are free to do so, without any obligations (and at their own risk 🙂 ).

And finally, make sure that you read the Privacy Policy here.