Semmangudi Srinivasa Iyer

Semmangudi Srinivasa Iyer (1908-2003) was the pitamaha, the patriarch of Carnatic music. His singing was powerful, deeply moving. His profound scholarship never hampered his creative genius. He was a star in the midst of outstanding contemporaries like Ariyakudi Ramanuja Iyengar, Madurai Mani Iyer, Musiri Subramania Iyer and G.N. Balasubramanian. He battled a gruff and nasal voice all his life and managed to produce grand music despite having to fight those wayward vocal chords every inch of the way.

Through that gruelling vocal odyssey, it often seemed he was pleading with God, even altercating or wrestling with Him as he struggled to overcome his handicap. It could not stop Semmangudi Srinivasa Iyer from becoming arguably the top Carnatic musician of the 20th century.

If Ariyakudi Ramanuja Iyengar shaped the structure of the modern Carnatic music kutcheri, Semmangudi defined its grammar and aesthetics. Gamaka and bhava predominated while briga and swara jugglery were to be foresworn. There was no room for thrills and spills in it, crooning was anathema to him.

Born at Semmangudi, near Kumbakonam, to Radhakrishna Iyer and Dharmambal on 25th July 1908, Srinivasan showed musical promise early, when he was five years old. The village had no music teachers, and little Srinivasan had to move in to his teacher Sakharama Rao's home at Tiruvidaimarudur. When Srinivasan's adolescent voice broke, it turned so harsh that his maternal uncle advised him to switch to playing the violin, but he was determined to conquer his recalcitrant voice.

Srinivasan became a sishya of Maharajapuram Viswanatha Iyer, who treated him like a son. Once he made his concert debut in 1926, his progress was phenomenal. He was at 39 the youngest Carnatic musician in history to be crowned Sangita Kalanidhi by the Madras Music Academy. He succeeded Harikesanallur Muthiah Bhagavatar as Principal of the Swati Tirunal College of Music and made a monumental impact on the Carnatic music scene in Kerala.