M.d. ramanathan blog
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When I was young, good music was heard only over the radio and from rare records that one possessed. The moments to cherish were when your favourite musician came on the radio unexpectedly. When MD Ramanathan’s rare record was played, my father would raise his hand to silence all of us, as we listened to his rendering in Nilambari or Reethigowla. I would have included MDR, as he was known to his fans, in my series of forgotten musicians, but for the fact that his following today is much more than what it was when he died. If Ramanathan were alive, he would have been 97 today, the 20th May 2020.
MDR fans would have knit their brows in disagreement, if I had included him in a list of forgotten musicians. However, visitors to his music pages in the public domain are relatively few. Fewer still are those who comment on his music. Another reason for his being considered forgotten is that he left behind just two records, one LP and one EP. And this was all that one got to hear of him in my younger days. One of the two songs that first caught my imagination was his rendering in t
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M. D. Ramanathan
Indian music composer
Manjapara Devesa Bhagavathar Ramanathan (20 May 1923 – 27 April 1984) was a Carnatic musiccomposer and vocalist who created a distinctive style of singing rich in Bhava and Laya. He was considered for the Madras Music Academy's Sangeetha Kalanidhi award in 1983. However, the award for that year was given to Sripada Pinakapani.
Biography
Manjapara Devesa Bhagavathar Ramanathan was born in Manjapra, Palakkad District, Madras Province (now Kerala), India on 20 May 1923, as the son of Devesa Bhagavathar and Seethalakshmi Ammal. His father Devesa Bhagavathar was a music teacher by profession. Ramanathan did his schooling in ASMMHSS Alathur in Palakkad and graduated with a BSc degree in Physics from Victoria College, Palakkad. On completion of his studies, he traveled to Madras along with his father to improve his musical talents.
During the same time, Rukmini Devi Arundale initiated a new course on Sangeeta Siromani at Kalakshetra. Ramanathan auditioned for the course and was the only student to be selected for the first batch
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M.D. Ramanathan – Simple man, great music
Suganthy Krishnamachari
Someone once said that Kerala’s exports could be summed up as three C’s- cashew nuts, civil servants and Carnatic musicians. One such major export to Tamil Nadu was musician Manjapparai Devesa Bhagavatar Ramanathan, or MDR as he was known to the music world. When the Sangeetha Shiromani course was started at Kalakshetra in 1944, MDR entered Kalakshetra as Tiger Varadachariar’s student. As one listened to his lecture demonstration (lecdem) for Tiger’s centenary, one realised that what he said about his guru, was true of him as well.
Tiger was outspoken, and so was MDR. In fact, when MDR was asked to give a lecdem for Tiger’s centenary, he said that he was hesitant because he was known for leaving controversies in his wake, and he was afraid the lecdem would just lead to yet another controversy. But he saw it as his duty to spread “Tiger consciousness,” which was why he agreed to do the lecdem.
MDR never made compromises to please people. In a memorial lecture organised in Tripunithura by MDR fan Kr
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