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Anecdotes about Musicians- T,V,Gopalakrishnan
courtesy: Sri.PP.Ramachandran
Anecdotes about Musicians—22—
T,V,Gopalakrishnan (1932
T.V.G Gopalakrishnan who was born in Tripunithura is a Carnatic and Hindustani musician. His father, T.G.Viswanatha Bhagavathar was a direct disciple of Palghat Sri.Anantharama Bhagavathar , He was a court musician for the Cochin Royal Family and a professor of music at the S.K .V. College in Thrissur.
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TVG is a multi-faceted artist—a vocalist who plays the violin and is also an exponent of the mridangam. He started playing the mridangam at the age of four and had his arangetram at the Cochin palace at the age of six. He is a disciple of Chembai Vaidyanatha Bhagavathar. His Uncle Sri.Narayanaswamy Iyer taught him Mridangam. TVG has been a popular guru among both Carnatic musicians and those pursuing music of other genres. He has been a pioneering collaborator in several fusion efforts as well. His students include Ilayaraja, A.R.Rahman, Sivamani, Kadri Gopalnath, He has also collaborated with Franklin Kiermyer the drummer/composer on live performances.
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TVG was given the Sangeet Natak Akademi Award . He has been awarded the Padma Bhushan .Other outstanding awards won by TVG include Sangeetha Kalanidhi Award from Madras Music Academy ,He is the Asthana Vidwan of Kanchi, Sringeri and Mantralayam mutts.
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TVG was taken on a foreign tour of six months to USA and Europe by Ravi Shankar and George Harrison.
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"This," said Gopalakrishnan, pointing to a tall, ornate kuthuvilakku ( a lamp) standing conspicuously in a corner, "was given to me in Bombay by Shanmukhananda Sabha," The Sabha had just given him a lifetime achievement award, instituted in the name of Paramacharya. The day after it arrived, he got Padma Bhushan.
**************************************
"I have always been very flamboyant," he says with disarming openness and satisfaction but without conceit. He always had two cars, he says, while recalling how he used to drop his Hindustani guru, Krishnanand, belonging to the Kirana Gharana, home after class. Krishnanand had at first refused to teach TVG, saying that he never taught Carnatic musicians, who would only discontinue learning after the first six months. When TVG persisted, Krishnanand's terms were "Rs 10 per class, six months' fees paid in advance, and a drop back home after each class." This was back in 1969.
***************************************
TVG's father was a musician in the Royal Court of Cochin and Chembai in one of his visits to Tirupunithura, asked TVG, then a stripling of a boy, if he was up to playing the mridangam for him. An aghast father protested, but the young Gopalakrishnan was insouciantly at ease. After the concert, Chembai told TVG's father, "Viswanatha, send your son along with me to Chennai. There aren't many to play the mridangam and those who are in the field, are old."
********************************
TVG was the eldest of nine children and his Father was keen that his son should study well, and get himself a government job . TVG did. He got his B. Com degree and then worked in the Accountant General's office for a few years. It was only after he completed his studies that the Father gave his consent to TVG to join Chembai in Chennai. When TVG met Chembai in Chennai in 1951, the doyen said: "You have come now, when I have lost my voice." Chembai lost his voice while singing in a concert on January 2, 1951 and eight years later, he regained it at the Guruvayur temple.
*****************************
Dwaram Venkataswamy Naidu gave TVG his first opportunity. When a scheduled mridangam player could not come, someone suggested TVG's name to Dwaram. They asked whether TVG should be auditioned? "No. Never do that," said Dwaram. "Never test an artist. Ask him if he has heard me play. If he has, he can accompany me."TVG remembers Dwaram as a violinist who played with a "bell clear tone". Dwaram paid him a memorable compliment: "Mani, Palani and you," he said, bracketing TVG with the other two all-time-great percussionists.
***************************************
For a boy, whose musical career began at the age of six, when he played on the mridangam at the Cochin palace in the presence of Viceroy Linlithgow (in 1938), making a mark for himself was no big deal. TVG began his career on the twin tracks of vocal and mridangam — his first vocal concert was when he was about 14. For six decades from the early 1950s, TVG has sung, played, conducted orchestras, taught and spoken about music. TVG has preserved 35 mridangams with which he accompanied Giants of Carnatic music.
*************************************
"Today, if (R.K.) Srikantan (who is 86 years old) is still able to sing, it is because he sings pure notes," says TVG with the force of an evangelist. "Why, take me, for instance. I am 80 years old and can still sing." At 82 also he sings royally.
courtesy: Sri.PP.Ramachandran
Anecdotes about Musicians—22—
T,V,Gopalakrishnan (1932
T.V.G Gopalakrishnan who was born in Tripunithura is a Carnatic and Hindustani musician. His father, T.G.Viswanatha Bhagavathar was a direct disciple of Palghat Sri.Anantharama Bhagavathar , He was a court musician for the Cochin Royal Family and a professor of music at the S.K .V. College in Thrissur.
***************************************
TVG is a multi-faceted artist—a vocalist who plays the violin and is also an exponent of the mridangam. He started playing the mridangam at the age of four and had his arangetram at the Cochin palace at the age of six. He is a disciple of Chembai Vaidyanatha Bhagavathar. His Uncle Sri.Narayanaswamy Iyer taught him Mridangam. TVG has been a popular guru among both Carnatic musicians and those pursuing music of other genres. He has been a pioneering collaborator in several fusion efforts as well. His students include Ilayaraja, A.R.Rahman, Sivamani, Kadri Gopalnath, He has also collaborated with Franklin Kiermyer the drummer/composer on live performances.
*****************************************
TVG was given the Sangeet Natak Akademi Award . He has been awarded the Padma Bhushan .Other outstanding awards won by TVG include Sangeetha Kalanidhi Award from Madras Music Academy ,He is the Asthana Vidwan of Kanchi, Sringeri and Mantralayam mutts.
*********************************************
TVG was taken on a foreign tour of six months to USA and Europe by Ravi Shankar and George Harrison.
************************************
"This," said Gopalakrishnan, pointing to a tall, ornate kuthuvilakku ( a lamp) standing conspicuously in a corner, "was given to me in Bombay by Shanmukhananda Sabha," The Sabha had just given him a lifetime achievement award, instituted in the name of Paramacharya. The day after it arrived, he got Padma Bhushan.
**************************************
"I have always been very flamboyant," he says with disarming openness and satisfaction but without conceit. He always had two cars, he says, while recalling how he used to drop his Hindustani guru, Krishnanand, belonging to the Kirana Gharana, home after class. Krishnanand had at first refused to teach TVG, saying that he never taught Carnatic musicians, who would only discontinue learning after the first six months. When TVG persisted, Krishnanand's terms were "Rs 10 per class, six months' fees paid in advance, and a drop back home after each class." This was back in 1969.
***************************************
TVG's father was a musician in the Royal Court of Cochin and Chembai in one of his visits to Tirupunithura, asked TVG, then a stripling of a boy, if he was up to playing the mridangam for him. An aghast father protested, but the young Gopalakrishnan was insouciantly at ease. After the concert, Chembai told TVG's father, "Viswanatha, send your son along with me to Chennai. There aren't many to play the mridangam and those who are in the field, are old."
********************************
TVG was the eldest of nine children and his Father was keen that his son should study well, and get himself a government job . TVG did. He got his B. Com degree and then worked in the Accountant General's office for a few years. It was only after he completed his studies that the Father gave his consent to TVG to join Chembai in Chennai. When TVG met Chembai in Chennai in 1951, the doyen said: "You have come now, when I have lost my voice." Chembai lost his voice while singing in a concert on January 2, 1951 and eight years later, he regained it at the Guruvayur temple.
*****************************
Dwaram Venkataswamy Naidu gave TVG his first opportunity. When a scheduled mridangam player could not come, someone suggested TVG's name to Dwaram. They asked whether TVG should be auditioned? "No. Never do that," said Dwaram. "Never test an artist. Ask him if he has heard me play. If he has, he can accompany me."TVG remembers Dwaram as a violinist who played with a "bell clear tone". Dwaram paid him a memorable compliment: "Mani, Palani and you," he said, bracketing TVG with the other two all-time-great percussionists.
***************************************
For a boy, whose musical career began at the age of six, when he played on the mridangam at the Cochin palace in the presence of Viceroy Linlithgow (in 1938), making a mark for himself was no big deal. TVG began his career on the twin tracks of vocal and mridangam — his first vocal concert was when he was about 14. For six decades from the early 1950s, TVG has sung, played, conducted orchestras, taught and spoken about music. TVG has preserved 35 mridangams with which he accompanied Giants of Carnatic music.
*************************************
"Today, if (R.K.) Srikantan (who is 86 years old) is still able to sing, it is because he sings pure notes," says TVG with the force of an evangelist. "Why, take me, for instance. I am 80 years old and can still sing." At 82 also he sings royally.