Pilani Subramaniam Pillai
Nick Haynes
biographical, about the Mridangam Maestro Pillani Subramaniam Pillai they
could email to me I would be very grateful.
Does anyone have any photos they could send electronically?
Best Wishes,
N i c k
Nick Haynes.
David Nelson
nha...@cix.co.uk wrote:
> If anyone has any information, e.g. musical, technical, anecdotal,
> biographical, about the Mridangam Maestro Pillani Subramaniam Pillai they
> could email to me I would be very grateful.
SRUTI did a memorial on (NB) *Palani* Subramania Pillai issue a few years
back with lots of photos and biographical and anecdotal information. i
don't have it with me, but may be able to find it at home and get you the
issue number and date. there are a few recordings around, but they're not
easy to find, and the quality varies widely.
it was my great fortune to study for thirteen years with T Ranganathan,
who had all his training with this great musician. this very beautiful
style may not be "fashionable" nowadays, but i wouldn't trade it for
anything else i've ever heardŠ you can hear some of PSP's material in
solos by Trichy Sankaran and a few others
> Does anyone have any photos they could send electronically?
if you do turn up any of these, i'd love to know about them.
best,
david nelson
--
David Nelson
340 Westhampton Rd
Florence, MA 01062
413-586-3627
413-585-0815 (fax)
Venkat A R Subramanian
Perhaps, you might want to check www.carnaticmusic.com
Venkat
Nick Haynes wrote in message ...
>If anyone has any information, e.g. musical, technical, anecdotal,
>biographical, about the Mridangam Maestro Pillani Subramaniam Pillai they
>could email to me I would be very grateful.
>
>
>Does anyone have any photos they could send electronically?
>
>
>
Nick Haynes
> He is PALANI Subramaniam Pillai & not Pillani.
Spelling mistake acknowledged with apologies
sur...@ibm.net
was an accomplished kanjira Player and would often accompany concerts on
the Kanjira, leaving the mridangam duties to people like Palghat Mani
Iyer.
My father and uncle knew him personally and both maintained that he was
a gentleman throughout, in an age where musicians were known for their
ego and excesses. I have listened to a couple of concerts with Subbaiah
Pillai and I really miss that Baani today. I will try and get a wav
file of a thani of his and post it up here...
suresh
Todd Michel McComb
>I have listened to a couple of concerts with Subbaiah Pillai and
>I really miss that Baani today.
No one has mentioned him in this discussion, but Guruvayur Dorai
can be very very good at times... maybe we take him for granted
because he tours so often, but he is the consummate professional.
(And of course a student of Palani Subramania Pillai.)
Todd McComb
mcc...@medieval.org
Shankar Krish
Todd Michel McComb <mcc...@medieval.org> wrote in article
<723840$12u$1...@machaut.medieval.org>...
> In article <3644E4EB...@ibm.net>, <sur...@ibm.net> wrote:
> >I have listened to a couple of concerts with Subbaiah Pillai and
> >I really miss that Baani today.
>
> No one has mentioned him in this discussion, but Guruvayur Dorai
> can be very very good at times... maybe we take him for granted
Does that mean he is normally just an average accompaniment and is good
only on occasions or in spurts. Curious to know why you qualified him being
good at times.
Todd Michel McComb
Shankar Krish <shanks-...@worldnet.att.net> wrote:
>Todd Michel McComb <mcc...@medieval.org> wrote in article
><723840$12u$1...@machaut.medieval.org>...
>>can be very very good at times... maybe we take him for granted
>Does that mean he is normally just an average accompaniment and
>is good only on occasions or in spurts. Curious to know why you
>qualified him being good at times.
He is always very good, of course. I do not think it is reasonable
to expect an artiste to reach the greatest heights of musical
expression on all occasions. Who can really be said to do so? It
is not a comment on Guruvayur Dorai at all. To achieve these
heights on some occasions is the province of a very few.
Todd McComb
mcc...@medieval.org
mu...@bnl.gov
> was an accomplished kanjira Player and would often accompany concerts on
> the Kanjira, leaving the mridangam duties to people like Palghat Mani
> Iyer.
I hope the above remarks werent meant to be as silly as they sound. Palani
used to play the Kanjira all right, but he was a Mridanga Vidwan of great
stature. Thankfully there are enough recordings of his; his contributions to
the art of Mridangam playing have been studied in detail and documented. The
interested reader is referred to the Sruti issue featuring Palani. muthu Nur
der BvB!
-----------== Posted via Deja News, The Discussion Network ==----------
http://www.dejanews.com/ Search, Read, Discuss, or Start Your Own
Nick Haynes
> In article <3644E4EB...@ibm.net>,
> sur...@ibm.net wrote:
> > ...
> > was an accomplished kanjira Player and would often accompany concerts
> > on
> [....]
>
> ...
> used to play the Kanjira all right, but he was a Mridanga Vidwan of
> great
> stature.
> ...
I have been told that he pioneered kanjira as an accepted instrument on
the classical concert platform
mu...@bnl.gov
nha...@cix.co.uk wrote:
> I have been told that he pioneered kanjira as an accepted instrument on
> the classical concert platform
No. We cannot ignore Pudukottai Dakshinamurty Pillai. In fact, when he (PDP)
played the Kanjira, the Mridangam player accompanied him (instead of the
other way around). Apropos of this, there is a recording of GNB with Palghat
Mani Iyer and Swaminatha Pillai (s/o PDP) on the Kanjira. At one stage during
the Tani, PMI says (referring to SP's Kanjira playing), "ivar toppanar
vAsippile kAl vAsi thaan.." (this is just a quarter of his father's
abilities). Does anyone have recordings of concerts with PMI on the Mridangam
and Palani on the Kanjira? I have heard only one. A Tiruppugazh concert by
Alathur Bros. muthu Nur der BvB!
Y. Chandramouli
The Concert you are referring to is a Music Academy concert of Alathur
Brothers/TNKrishnan/
Palghat Mani Iyer/Pudukottai Swaminatha Pillai. During the thani, Sivasubramania
Iyer says " Shouldn't you
play at a level which a quarter's father's level of kanjira playing. " I have
heard the Dakshinarmurthy Pillai
was a mentor for Alathur Brothers, accompanied them in many concerts and taught
them Thirupugaz songs etc. .
I find that Pudukottai Swaminatha Pillai Kanjira playing is of a very high
caliber. In some sequences, the korvais
played by PSP on Kanjira inspired Palghat Mani Iyer's mridangam playing !!!. Two
examples come
to my mind immediately: One is an Alathur Brother's concert, when Kanjira and
mridamgam (PSP and PMI)
take turns during the rendering of the krithi Endundi (Durbar). Another example
is MDR/TNK/PMI/PSP concert.
The rapid fire korvai exchanges between PMI and PSP during MDR's rendition of the
popular krithi
"Sogasuga Mridanga Talamu", is a delight. To add some zip to the rendition, MDR
starts rendering the
popular krithi in an unusual way " Talamu, Mridanga Talamu, Mridanga Talamu, ...
Chandramouli
Srini Pichumani
>In article <memo.1998111...@nhaynes.compulink.co.uk>,
> nha...@cix.co.uk wrote:
>
>
>> I have been told that he pioneered kanjira as an accepted instrument on
>> the classical concert platform
>
>No. We cannot ignore Pudukottai Dakshinamurty Pillai. In fact, when he (PDP)
>played the Kanjira, the Mridangam player accompanied him (instead of the
>other way around). Apropos of this, there is a recording of GNB with Palghat
>Mani Iyer and Swaminatha Pillai (s/o PDP) on the Kanjira. At one stage during
>the Tani, PMI says (referring to SP's Kanjira playing), "ivar toppanar
>vAsippile kAl vAsi thaan.." (this is just a quarter of his father's
>abilities). Does anyone have recordings of concerts with PMI on the Mridangam
>and Palani on the Kanjira? I have heard only one. A Tiruppugazh concert by
>Alathur Bros. muthu Nur der BvB!
>
>-----------== Posted via Deja News, The Discussion Network ==----------
>http://www.dejanews.com/ Search, Read, Discuss, or Start Your Own
Apropos kanjira, Palani himself says the following in an article written in
Tamil in the Journal of the Music Academ, vol XXV ... Pudukottai Maanpoondiaa
Pillai, one of the giants in laya at the turn of this century, learnt tavil
for a while from Maariappa tavilkaarar ... recognizing his student's genius
and his uncanny ability to play complex solkaTTus with one hand, Maariappa
tavilkaarar encouraged his student to build an instrument on which he could
play with just one hand. Maanpoondia Pillai then went about constructing this
instrument from a piece of "taazham" wood (?), "udumbu" skin, and a "kaasu"
(the small cymbal like metal piece in the kanjiraa). He practised on this
instrument for a while and then set forth with his guru's approval to make
the kanjira an acceptable instrument for accompaniment in Carnatic concerts.
Leading laya vidvans of the day like the mrdangist Tanjore Narayanaswami Appaa,
and naagasvara vidvans like Sivakkozhundu Pillai, appreciated his laya vidvat
and his handling of the then novel instrument and honored him.
Later Maanpoondia Pillai instructed many vocalists and percussionists in the
mysteries of rhythm... the vocalist Konerirajapuram Vaidyanatha Iyer,
Pudukottai Dakshinaamurti Pillai (1875-1936), Palani Muthiah Pillai (father
of Palani Subramania Pillai), etc were his prime disciples.
Dakshinaamurti Pillai himself first played ghatam after his gurukulavaasam
with Manpoondia Pillai for about seven years... then he played mrdangam for
a while at the insistence of Narayanaswami Appa... for many years, he was the
stock accompanist for the Kaaraikkudi brothers who played duet veena. And in
his later years, he almost exclusively played the kanjiraa.
-Srini.