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Lalgudi Jayaraman
By T. M. Sivaraman
One can go on writing tomes on the musical genius Lalgudi Jayaraman.
But I will only attempt a short take on him here.
The 77-year-old maestro has been playing for 41 years. His music
is still as refreshing as ever. If anything, it only blooms
afresh day by day.
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Born in the lineage of an illustrious
disciple of the great saint Thyagaraja, he inherited the essence
of Carnatic music from his father V.R.Gopala Iyer, who trained
him meticulously.
He started his musical career at the age of 12, accompanying
leading vocalists of the day. Endowed with rich imagination
and great inborn skills, he rose to the pinnacle of fame quickly,
accompanying all leading maestros of the day, with an ability
to adapt to the varying styles of the different maestros, and
contributing to the success of their vocal concerts in a large
measure.
He rose to be a solo violinist of rare brilliance due to his
hard work and dedication, coupled with the rich experience gained
accompanying the maestros, and his genius which gave original
expression to the musical ideas surging within him.
His revolutionary violin-playing technique became a distinct
school of music and came to be known as "Lalgudi bani",
which is characterized by a flawless and fascinating style,
soft and melodious bowing, distinctly different from the harsh
bowing techniques of his earlier predecessors, and yet deeply
rooted in traditional classicism.
Another fascinating facet of this multi-dimensional personality
is his emergence as a forefront composer of krithis, varnams
and thillanas, which exhibit sheer lyrical brilliance coupled
with bhavam, rhythm and melody.
His compositions are in great demand with all present generation
of musicians, who perform these in most of their concerts.
As a soloist, he has performed extensively, giving thousands
of concerts in India and abroad, receiving rave reviews everywhere,
and being honoured by Government of India and also by many foreign
governments and by such leading international violinists like
Yehudi Menuhin, who presented him with a precious Italian violin
after being bowled over by his genius at one of his concerts.
Awards and tributes have come to him by the dozens.
'Nada Vidya Tilaka' by Music Lovers' Association of Lalgudi
in 1963; 'Padma Shri' by the Government of India in 1972; 'Nada
Vidya Rathnakara' by East West Exchange in New York; 'Vadya
Sangeetha Kalaratna' by Bharathi Society, New York; 'Sangeetha
Choodamani' by Federation of Music Sabhas, Madras in 1971; State
Vidwan of Tamil Nadu by the Government of Tamil Nadu in 1972;
and Sangeetha Natak Academy award in 1979 .
The First Chowdaiah Memorial National-Level award was given
to Lalgudi Jayaraman by the Chief Minister of Karnataka. He
has also received honorary citizenship of Maryland, U.S. in
1994 and the Padma Bhushan by the Government of India in 2001.
He may not have got with Music Academy’s Sangeeta Kalanidhi
title for assorted reasons. The Academy corrected this anomaly
by conferring on him the rare one-off Lifetime Achievement Award
recently.
Another singular achievement of Lalgudi was the formation of
the concept of musical ensembles in 1966 and he gave many such
ensemble concerts and received great acclaim for the innovation.
Geniuses like Lalgudi Jayaraman are born once in a millennium.
They set new trends in the realm of music. May Lalgudi Jayarama
live up to a ripe old age and continue his great contributions
to Carnatic music.
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