Musiri Subramania Iyer
(1889-1975)
 |
Profile
Discography
Articles
Related Artists
Links |
Profile
Musiri Subramania Iyer was one of the most well known carntic vocalists of early twentieth century. He was also a great teacher who tought several disciples who became good musicians.
Musiri was born August 9,1899 in Bommalapalayam in Trichy district of Tamil Nadu. His father was Sankara Sastry was a Sanskrit pandit. He lost his mother, Seethalakshmi, early in life. Inspired by the singing of stage star of those days, S. G. Kittappa, he decided to become a musician. After taking initial training under S. Narayanaswamy and then violinist Karur Chinnaswamy Iyer, he became the disciple of T.S. Sabesa Iyer.
He made his debut in Madras in 1920. His name was announced as Subramania Iyer of Musiri (near Trichy), and the name stuck. Soon he became a regular on the concert circuit. His high pitched voice was a boon and his gramaphone records too became very popular. He stressed on the rasa-bhava bringing out the full emotional content of the krithis. He was a specialist in the slower tempo which exuded tranquillity and brought out the full emotional content of the ragas as well as the krithis that he rendered. Musiri's lone foray into Tamil filmdom was in the film Tukaram where he acted as the hero. Though the film is now lost, the songs he sang for the film are still popular.
A well read and highly literate musician with good command over English, he was appointed the first principal of the Central College of Carnatic Music in 1949. He trained a lot of disciples like Mani Krishnaswamy, T. K. Govinda Rao and K. S. Venkataraman. Infact his shishya parampara is so well recognized, his style of rendering krithi-s has come to be known as the Musiri School.
Related Artists
| Teachers & Influences | S. Narayanaswamy, Karur Chinnaswamy Iyer, T. S. Sabesa Iyer |
| Disciples & Followers | Mani Krishnaswamy, K. S. Venkataraman, T. K. Govinda Rao, Bombay Sisters, Suguna Prushothaman, Suguna Varadachari |
| Similar Artists | Ariyakudi Ramanuja Iyengar, Maharajapuram Vishwanatha Iyer, Madurai Mani Iyer, G N Balasubramaniam, Chembai Vaidhyanatha Bhagavathar |
| Worked With | Palghat Mani Iyer, T. Chowdaiah, T. N. Krishnan |
Links
The web page will open in a new window
| Musical Nirvana . com | Top | Last Updated on 02-May-2003 |