Sulamangalam Sisters - Murugan Devotional Songs

Sulamangalam Sisters - Murugan Devotional Songs

EMI India S/33ESX 6031 - P.1970

Side A

A1 Sri Mahaganapathe

A2 Swararagasutha

Side B

B1 Panchashadpeedaroopini

B2 En Indha Mounam

B3 Arbuthamana pazhaniappa

B4 Kandan mel kaadal

B5 Nalamyavum tharuvai muruga

B6 Mamaduraiyil

I have little to add about the music of this record, except that it is one of the best Sulamangalam Sisters I have heard. A beautiful mix of Carnatic Classical and Carnatic Devotional "Filmi" songs. I wholeheartedly recommend it. And it makes me "triply" happy as it has a little story. It belongs to a very special batch of recordings. I wrote the following in one of my comments to one of the previous postings on Carnatic Devotional Music:

"As I have friends traveling to India that will for the first time see and stay in places I love and that they have been loving from a distance. They travel to meet with another wonderful friend and all this is because of music! I have over the last month on and off been thinking about how best to make this travel and congregation an auspicious one and as I wanted to be there myself but only can travel later in the year I was thinking of some way that I also could be part of their adventure and therefore we are all going to have this Carnatic spring!

Over the following days we shall see not only posts of my own records but also some contributions by my friends! There will be several more devotional albums and soon to follow, there is at least one more Sulamangalam Sisters!

(This post contains that very album!)

The record was spotted and secured by the good Arvind and sent over the great water and ripped and digitally fondled by good Costis with very little help from the lazy dog zwan but whose overseeing I am sure was crucial to the whole undertaking! This eventually led to these digital likenesses finding their way through the myriads of protocols on the internet to finally land with us here!

I am confident you will enjoy many of them!

It will be my great pleasure to be with you on your journey and to bring other travellers in music along with us!"

That is what I wrote, and what the Carnatic Spring postings mean, is that for the duration of my friends journey that starts today (on what numerological seems to be very special date 2011.02.22 and as I hope an auspicious one!) I will play mostly Carnatic music at home and burn incense for their safe passage and for the first week there will only be posts with Carnatic music here at Luobaniya!!

Thank you so much Costis for the rip and the photos made just before leaving and thank you Arvind for finding the records taking good care of them and passing them on to a good future!

I propose that we keep doing this "digital trinity offerings" later and on a more regular basis!

But to make it clear to everyone else, that are not specifically into Carnatic Devotional or Classical Music, you may rest assured I am not going to stop posting music from other traditions! There will be music interspersed in the course of posting from most all over the world. I may even go to Europe when it gets a bit warmer here. I still have not finished posting Deben Bhattacharya's field recordings but they will come, as will the Bärenreiters, Esperance, BAM, and all the others! I have not forgotten! I just have too many things I want to share with you at the same time. Chinese, Japanese, Arabic, African, South East Asia, they will all come back but now it is this glowing warming of the Carnatic Spring that will shine over all of you!

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Sirgazhi S. Govindarajan - Sri Rama Charitha Geetham

Isaimani Sirgazhi S. Govindarajan

Papanasam Sivan's - Sri Rama Charitha Geetham

EMI HMV India - ECSD 3215 - P. 1973

Side A

A1 Sri Rama Charitha Geetham pt. 1 - 21.10

Side B

B1 Sri Rama Charitha Geetham pt. 2 - 20.15

Sirgazhi S. Govindarajan (Tamil: சீர்காழி கோவிந்தராஜன்;

January 19, 1933 - March 24, 1988)

The singer Sirgazhi S. Govindarajan, was a leading vocalist in Carnatic Music. Govindarajan, born in Sirkali in Madras Presidency) and started performing at the age of eight in Tirupurasundari Temple. He graduated from the Tamil Isai College in Chennai in 1949 and learnt music from Thiruppampuram Swaminatha Pillai. He was conferred the Padma Shri award by the Government of India.

Govindarajan had also done playback singing in Tamil, Telugu and Kannada films. Madras University conferred a doctorate (Honoris Causa) on him in 1983. He died in 1988, aged 55.

Sri Papanasam Sivam

The composition is by Sri Papanasam Sivam who is responsible for hundreds and hundreds of popular compositions in all forms of carnatic music like Varnams, Kritis, Thillanas and like here, a Ragamalika set to Adi Tala, consisting of 24 ragas beginning with a Pallavi and anu-pallavi in Nata raga and 23 charnams unfolding the story of Ramayana. Valmiki's epic in

24.000 slokas epitomized in 24 stanzas of elegant Tamil.

Sri S.V. Venkatraman

The music director for this Ragamalika, Sri S.V. Venkatraman, is the same person who also supplied the music for the movie "Meera" where the great singer Smt. M.S. Subbulakshmi acted the heroine. Her music will also soon be well represented here as she is one of my favourite singers and that is something I happily share with a larger part of the South Indian population and that I know they are also happy to share with us.

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Thyagaraja Bhagavathar - Tamil Filmi Songs 1937-1953

Thyagaraja Bhagavathar - The Golden Voice - Tamil "Filmi" Songs

EMI Odeon - 3AE CX 5509 - P.1965

Side A

A1 Swappana Vazhvil - Sivakavi [1943] 5'45

A2 Krishna Mukunda Murare - Haridas [1944] 6'40 movieclip

A3 Manmatha Leelaya - Haridas [1944] 6'40

A4 Rajan Maharajan - Shyamala [1953] 5'30

A5 Unknown track 6'40

A6 Sathvaguna Bodhan - Ashok Kumar [1941] 6'20

Side B

B1 Dheena Kurunakarane - Thiruneelakantar [1939] 6'00

B2 Unaikkandu - Ashok Kumar [1941] 5'35

B3 Amba Manamkaninthu - Sivakavi [1943] 6'40

B4 Maraival Pudhaitha - Thiruneelakantar [1939] 5'35

B5 Gnanakkan Onru - Chintamani [1937] 6'10

B6 Nattiyakkalaye - Sivakavi [1943] 5'40

It is really about time that we move a bit south and to tell you the truth Tamil Nadu and Carnatic singing holds much of the miraculous medicine that makes me happy deep in my heart. Hindustani classical is very good for healing wounds and nurturing ones tormented soul, but the true magic is to be happy and believe in it without any proof or obvious reason. Actually there are still so many more reasons in the world why we should not be happy and the crux is of course that it is better to dwell upon happiness than sadness and that in itself is the best reason. Well, anyhow Carnatic music does just that for me. It puts me in a very sound mood of believable happiness without ignorance and in spite of what I see around me of greed injustice and destruction I am still not ashamed. Please come join me in some semiclassical Carnatic filmi music and in following posts we shall take the filmi and devotional road gradually moving via Nagaswaram temple music of T.N. Rajaratnam Pillai, Sheik Chinnamoulana, and some wonderful Carnatic instrumentalists like Lalgudi G. Jayaraman, and Palghat T.S. Mani Iyer, towards the real heavyweights and stalwarts of Carnatic Classical singing with artists like Smt. M.S. Subbulakshmi, M.D. Ramanathan, Manu Somasundaram, D.K. Pattammal, M.L. Vasanthakumari, Madurai Mani Iyer, Chembai Vaidhyanata Bhagavatar and there is no end to the list... Anyhow hope you enjoy this nowadays forgotten singer, once widely popular that I present in the hope that you will be smitten with the good feelings and the exuberant happiness that flows from this music!

Mayavaram Krishnamurthy Thyagaraja Bhagavathar

(Tamil: மாயவரம் கிருஷ்ணமூர்த்தி தியாகராஜ பாகவதர்)

(1 March 1910 – 1 November 1959)

His name is really a mouthful, but as is the tradition, forming acronyms of names of famous people to shorten them, he was also known as M.K.T., and he was not only a Tamil film actor and producer but also a wonderful Carnatic music singer. He is considered to be one of the most successful Tamil film actors ever and I think of him as the K.L. Saigal of the south.

Bhagavathar was born in the town of Mayiladuthurai in then Tanjore district of the Madras Presidency, British India. He started his career as a classical singer and stage artist in the late 1920s. In 1934, he made his début in films with the movie Pavalakkodi which turned out to be a hit. From 1934 to 1959, Bhagavathar acted in 14 films of whom 6 were box-office hits.

Bhagavathar's 1944 film Haridas, ran for three consecutive years at Broadway Theatre, Madras and created the record for the longest continuous run at a single theatre.

Bhagavathar was arrested in 1944 as one of the main suspects in the Lakshmikanthan Murder Case and spent three years in prison before being released in 1947 after a re-trial found him innocent. Bhagavathar's career declined after his arrest and though he did continue to act in Tamil films after his release from prison, none of them did well. Bhagavathar died of diabetes at the age of 49 on 1 November 1959.

Bhagavathar was acclaimed for his powerful, melodious voice and the ease with which he could sing high pitch notes. Critics and film historians acknowledge Bhagavathar as the "first superstar of Tamil cinema".

Bhagavathar was a philanthropist and contributed for important social and religious causes. He was awarded a "Diwan Bahadur" title by the Governor of Madras for his contribution to the British war efforts during the Second World War but he turned it down.

M.K.T. made his début in the 1934 film Pavalakodi; in all, he appeared in 14 movies before he died. Most of his films were record-breakers. Thiruneelakandar, Ambikapathi, Chintamani were among the first highly successful Tamil films. Haridas, released in 1944, was possibly his biggest success as its ran continuously for three years at the same Theatre.

Read more

Papanasam Sivan (Tamil: பாபநாசம் சிவன்)

September 26, 1890 - October 10, 1973

A prominent composer of Carnatic music and a singer, also known as Tamil Thyagayya. Using Classical South Indian as a base, Sivan created numerous hits popularised by M. K. Thyagaraja Bhagavathar and M. S. Subbulakshmi. I will post several more of his compositions as you will see from future posts. In his old age he was approached by a journalist who asked him why he was not composing anymore, the answer was laconic "There are no more Thyagaraja Bhagavathars ....

Some of the filmposters

And still some more to read here:

A legend fades into oblivion

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