Thematically, a significant number of Tyagaraja’s compositions are those where he questions Rama on why HE is not responding with alacrity to Tyagaraja’s pleas. In this aspect, Tyagaraja was following a hoary tradition of nindA stuti (prayer couched as censure bordering on abuse). Bhadrachala Ramadasa whose trail Tyagaraja followed was of course renowned for this, as was Purandaradasa.
Many compositions tend to get associated with a particular performer who popularised them, but the linking of mArubalka with Semmangudi Srinivasa Iyer is possibly the epitome of such associations. For lay listeners, serious rasikas and professional musicians alike, mArubalka WAS Semmangudi, and vice versa. I remember a talk by Vidwan Sri D K Jayaraman where he talks about how well he himself had sing this kriti on one occasion and how it nearly was of the same standard as Semmangudi’s rendition. In his own mind also, if you sang mArubalka, the comparison with Semmangudi was a given.
I had grown up in a house where music was a constant and comforting presence. Mother was an erudite listener and erstwhile amateur vainika; father is a passionate fan of music and of MMI in particular; grandfather was a brilliant raconteur with a fund of stories and personal anecdotes from a long bygone era. At that time, most of the music we had was on LPs or pre-recorded cassettes. Copies of live concerts were few and far between, a treasure we strove to collect. My first exposure to Semmangudi was interestingly enough through a Tyagaraja composition in the same raga SrIranjani, albeit a different one - brOcEvArevarE. And the constant refrain from both my mother and grandfather used to be - if you think this is brilliant, its because you haven’t heard his mArubalka!
Surprisingly enough, none of the pre-recorded music or the few live concert recordings that we had included this kriti. The composition took on mythical status in my head and I went crazy looking for any rendition of it, with no luck. Imagine my consternation when a set called “Semmangudi over the decades” was released to commemorate his 80th birthday, but this was still missing in action!
As the millennium turned, floodgates opened with the spread of the internet. I finally discovered for myself this tour de force that I had heard of previously only in anecdote. Concert after concert with the gem, which made me wonder if the man sang it so often, how come NONE of the recordings I had heard over nearly 20 years contained even one rendition of this? A interesting problem for statisticians to ponder over.
Semmangudi in his early years was renowned for extremely vigorous vocalisation, causing a leading violin vidwan of that era (possibly Papa Venkatramiah or Kumbakonam Rajamanikkam Pillai, but I’m not certain who) to put down his violin at the end of a particularly scintillating svara kalpana passage and exclaim “What can we play in response to such typhoon svara kalpana!” In a quirky way, the intent of mArubalka mirrors what Semmangudi could have asked of his accompanist - why aren’t you responding?
Here is a teaser of such “typhoon svarakalpana”: https://youtube.com/clip/Ugkx96-2RDQQ0JohZitFN3cji7uxiO5qioH5
Among the barrage of concerts with this kriti I stumbled upon, one stood out - the Music Academy concert of 1968, with Lalgudi Jayaraman and Umayalpuram Sivaraman accompanying Semmangudi (the clip above is from this concert). 1968 was the year Semmangudi turned 60, and there had been felicitations for him around the country. During one such event in Delhi in November that year, Semmangudi exclaimed that even the early winter cold of Delhi was too much for him, and how his throat was too sore to deliver what his imagination dictated. But come December in Chennai, particularly the Music Academy, Semmangudi was in home territory, and the grand old man was in fine fettle of imagination, voice and energy.
The entire concert is one of his best, but Iets focus on just mArubalka here. The explosive start, the tightrope walk at the anupallavi (jAra cOra), the mind-blowing neraval in the charanam (dAri nerigi santasillinaTTi), the sledgehammer-"gotcha-by-surprise" kalpana svaras starting on tAra sthAyi gAndhAram!
The beginning: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cuqElCJmWKk&t=4100s
The tightrope walk (anupallavi): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cuqElCJmWKk&t=4214s
The thrill (neraval): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cuqElCJmWKk&t=4452s
The typhoon (kalpana svaras): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cuqElCJmWKk&t=4738s
Notice how even as brilliant an accompanist as Lalgudi, whose prescience of what the vocalist would sing and accordingly follow through was unparalleled, is stumped in the first instance. My friend Ramakrishnan and I, who heard this together for the first time, have argued and fought about whether Lalgudi followed Semmangudi perfectly for the first round of svaras. He is a violinist himself and insisted Lalgudi was on track; I think not. He does not start at the same eduppu, the pattern he plays is longer and its definitely not got the sense of sheer thrill that the old man delivers.
But Lalgudi being Lalgudi, is back on track from the next round of svaras; he had been the perfect wingman thru the kriti rendition and even more so in the neraval. That blip for the first svara passage was just to let us know that even he is human, and also a rasika on stage who can be stunned by the brilliance of the old man.
Which is poetic justice to the composition. The svara kalpana is being done at dAri nerigi santasillinaTTi - a sense of exultation at having found the right path! Umayalpuram was on the path all through - his accompaniment for the anupallavi is a benchmark for me in augmenting the energy of the singer to take the rendition to stratospheric levels.
santasillinaTTi - THAT exultation….
Pic Acknowledgement: The Hindu Archives (www.thehindu.com)
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