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MUSICAL MEMORIES Guruve Bhaskarudu

MUSICAL MEMORIES
Guruve Bhaskarudu
By Malladi Sreeramprasad and Malladi
Ravikumar
Our musical journey with vidwan Nedunuri
Krishnamurthy began in 1991 at Durgi Vari Veedhi at Gandhi Nagar in
Vijayawada. When our father took us to Nedunuri’s house, we were ready to sing
a few keertanas and varnams in his presence. Our father, Malladi Suribabu and
uncle, Malladi Narayana Sarma, had learnt a few kritis from Nedunuri earlier.
The first meeting is etched in our memory.
We prostrated before the vidwan and our father requested Nedunuri to teach us.
He addressed us as “Yera” (an affectionate Telugu endearment which means “Hey
you!”). He asked us our names and wanted to know whether we could tune the
tambura and write notation – to which we answered in the affirmative. He then
asked us to sing the Todi varnam Yera napai which we sang, of course
with his embellishments which we had imbibed from our father. Thus started our
musical journey with our guru Nedunuri and we learnt several varnams and kritis
from him.
After his retirement as the Principal of
the Government Music College, he got a call from Andhra University,
Visakhapatnam appointing him as a visiting professor in the newly established
department of music. A few days later, Nedunuri himself wrote to our father
saying that he would teach us music in the gurukula paddhati, also assuring us
a scholarship. Both of us joined him in 1991. We used to stay with him in his
quarters in Visakhapatnam. This journey continued up to 2014 till our guru Nedunuri
left for his heavenly abode.
Sruti was always in his travel bag and on his
coffee table and he used to enjoy reading the articles and music news from
around the world.
We have shared our learning experience
under the guidance of our guru, Nedunuri Krishnamurthy, with the readers of Sruti.
Our reflections delve into his musical brilliance and the path we traversed
under his mentorship.
His raga alapana
Ragasudharasa paanamu jesi... raajillave O
manasa!
Thus spake Tyagabrahmam!
His exhaustive, wholesome, aesthetic
alapanas were a treat to listen to. Major ragas took on a new avatar and lesser
sung ragas brightened up in myriad colours in his voice. His imagination,
spontaneity, and embellishments made raga alapanas ever enchanting, yet
classical. At this juncture, we would like to mention that one of his disciples
— sangeeta acharya Akella Mallikarjuna Sarma — has notated several raga
alapanas and kritis of Nedunuri and given them to numerous students to learn
raga alapana. Sarma has also accompanied him in concerts and participated in
his long practice sessions.
In class, we used to begin a raga, and
soon Nedunuri garu would explore and enjoy the beauty of the raga. He never
taught us phrase-by-phrase elaboration; he would take his turn to explain how
to build alapana in his own leisurely way of expanding a raga, leaving us
spellbound. After his alapana, he would often forget himself and end the class
in silence. We picked up many elements of raga by listening to his singing as
he immersed himself in his ishta raga devata. His Kharaharapriya, Todi,
Kambhoji, Bhairavi, Kalyani, Saveri, Begada, Poorvikalyani, Ahiri,
Kannada, Harikambhoji, Sama, Khamas,
Mohanam, Abheri, and Sahana to mention only a few, never sounded similar. His
ragas remain ever fresh and beautiful.
His niraval
The art of niraval lies in singing a
complete sentence repeatedly with the feeling (bhava) of the lyric (sahitya).
Guru Nedunuri used to sing niraval extensively. He taught us niraval by making
us sing after him and emphasised niraval as an amalgamation of all aspects of
manodharma sangeetam involving raga, laya and bhava. He would tell us about
artists like M.S. Subbulakshmi, K.V. Narayanaswamy, and Musiri Subramania Iyer
who excelled at niraval. He encouraged us to observe and absorb the different
styles of his contemporaries. He exactly followed what he was taught by his
guru, Sripada Pinakapani, who used to demonstrate the style of expert musicians
in singing niraval.
Who can forget his Eedu leni malayamarutamu (Murupemugalige in Mukhari),
Tyagaraja hridaya sadanudani (Enduko nemasu in Kalyani), Saramina
dhyanamu (Aragimpavey in Todi), Jagadekapatimena (Okapari
in Kharaharapriya), Baguga vinta ragamula (Mitri bhagyame in
Kharaharapriya), and many more.
His swarakalpana
‘Swarakalpana is an extension of raga
bhava’ – is what he taught us. We learnt the two main aspects – vastness and
mathematics of swarakalpana. He used to plan and chisel each phrase of
swarakalpana on stage. He was such a genius that each time, a new pattern of
swarakalpana would emerge spontaneously on stage within no time. It is
interesting how he arrived at the eduppu (starting point of the sahitya). It
was not a tightrope walk; it was a smooth landing, which he handled with
perfection. Even while singing swarakalpana in the second speed, he never left
the gamaka, anuswara and spuritam. He used to sing extensive swarakalapana in
the first few kritis itself and sometimes in the varnam too, perhaps to get
hold of the stage or to get full control of his voice.
His swara singing for Bhavanuta,
Manavyalakincharadate, Undedi Ramudokadu, Chani todi teve, Bhuvini dasudane,
Smarane sukhamu, Sugunamuley, and many madhyama kala kritis and other
two-kalai chauka kritis, are a treat for students, musicians and rasikas alike;
he gave us many tips by precept while teaching, by example in concert singing.
He considered Semmangudi Srinivasa Iyer’s
swarakalpana as ideal and thought of him as his ‘manaseeka guru’. As students,
we observed that the single avartanam was common to both the stalwarts.
Kriti patham
His kriti patham is authentic and hence is
followed by musicians of many schools. Vidushi R.Vedavalli once told us that
she has learnt many kritis from the video recordings of SVBC channel where he
taught several compositions to both of us. His kriti patham with progressive
sangatis exhibits the grandeur of raga and the spirit of the composer. Singing
kriti for him was never a time-pass or a filler in between concert items. He
had the ability of beautifying the keertana with abundant raga bhava. We have
learnt several kritis with perfect notation from our guru during our
gurukulavasam. These include compositions of the Trinity, Annamacharya,
Bhadhrachala Ramadasu, and others. Our first kriti learnt from him was Koluvamaragada
kondadapani in Todi. He advised us to sing madhyama kala keertanas; not to
sing in a fast tempo, to understand the subtle beauties of raga and sahitya
bhaava. He always stressed the importance of wording (proper joining and
splitting of words) and pronunciation. On one occasion, he mentioned that music
in the composition of Tyagaraja, Dikshitar and Syama Sastry, reflects the
Tanjavur bani. He firmly believed that artists should not make even a
micron of adjustment then the artist is worthy of being called a torchbearer of
this tradition.
His ragam-tanam-pallavi
Nedunuri had sung many
ragam-tanam-pallavis with profound laya skills in various tala structures, he
used to recall his memories with vidwan Lalgudi Jayaraman who appreciated his
ability to sing pallavis. Nedunuri used to ask us to compose pallavis on our
own and he liked our mantra naada pallavis where we include mantras in pallavi
sahityam for bestowing the result of mantropasana.
His reverence towards his gurus
Over three decades, Nedunuri has set to
tune more than 200 kritis of Annamacharya, 108 kritis of Bhadrachala Ramadasu,
several of Narayana Teertha and a few Tyagaraja kritis (found in Sourashtra
Sabha, Madurai) discovered by Acharya Veturi
Ananda Murthy, son of renowned scholar Veturi Prabhakara Sastry (he rewrote
Annamacharya sankeertanas from copper plates). It is our fortune that along
with his disciple, Garimella Balakrishnaprasad, we too had notated his
Annamayya, Bhadrachala Ramadasu and other kritis, recorded them and have been
singing them in concerts, teaching
his immortal tunes to our students. Notably, many kritis sung in Carnatic
sangeetha sabhas feature mostly Nedunuri’s Annamacharya and Ramadasu kritis.
Nendraganti Krishnamohan, Chairman, Sri
Chakra Cements, is a Rama bhakta. His meeting with Nedunuri culminated in the
celebrations of Ramadasu Jayanthi at Bhadrachalam. Lalitha and Vijaya Kumar have been conducting
this utsavam for the last 14 years, keeping up the Ramabhakthi of Nedunuri.
Blessed are we both that he used to call
us and sing a new tune. We used to sit together in Vizag to see the final
proof. He gave us such a place in his heart! He was a perfectionist to the core
– we witnessed and participated in hundreds of recordings – even one mistake in
a raga alapana or keertana, would upset him, and he would fly to Hyderabad and
get it corrected in the recording studio!
His sishya vatsalyam
Till Nedunuri moved to Visakhapatnam, he
was a busy performer and administrator in various music colleges in Andhra
Pradesh. He worked as a principal in Secunderabad, Vijayawada and Tirupati.
Domada, Chittabbay, Koka Satyavathi and
Akondi Sreenivasa Rajarao are a few of his students. As a head of the acharyas,
he used to conduct raga rasam, a special music class for students in music
colleges to enrich raga bhava and he used to make them understand how to derive
raga gnanam from varnams and kritis and the importance of learning raga alapana
from live concerts.
In Vizag he had a bunch of sishyas -
Saraswathi Vidyardhi, her daughter Lahari, Sarada Subramanyam , Lalitha Chandra
Sekhar, Chaithanya brothers, Malladi Yamuna Raman, Vinay Sarva, Ramakoti,
Sreenidhi and few other young students. Subbanarasayya of Montreal, Canada used
to visit him and learn.
Sugunamma (our guru’s wife) Sree Valli and
Vijaysree (his daughters) and Pinakapani (his son) treated us as their own
family.
Learning, singing alongside him in
concerts and recordings, absorbing the experiences as his disciples from our gurukulavasam
have been special. Particularly,
understanding his musical self-realisation, life journey, and the integration
of practical Vedanta in his teachings.
(The authors, veteran Carnatic musicians
and teachers)
[Sruti has a policy of editing out salutations like Sri, Smt,
Sir, Ji, Pandit, Ustad, Saheb and
honorifics from all its articles]