Chennai:
Chennai-based Carnatic vocalist, T K Govinda Rao, passed away at his residence at Indira Nagar in Adayar, Chennai on Sunday. He was 83.
He was the greatest exponent of the august Mussiri Baani in Carnatic music.
Rao had also contributed much towards the preservation of a languishing singing tradition in Carnatic music.
His song 'Subha Leela...' in Nirmala, directed by P.V. Krishna Iyer in 1948, was the first song, that brought the technique of playback singing into Malayalam cinema while the song `Paaduka poomkuyile... sung by him and P.Leela was the first duet in Malayalam cinema.
The most remarkable among his valuable contributions is the documentation of thousands of immortal compositions scored and popularised by great musicians such as Purandaradasa, Kanakadasa and other yesteryear celebrities.
As the chief producer of Delhi All India Radio, Govinda Rao came across almost all schools in Carnatic Music, including his own Guru's Bani and that of other popular singers of those days such as G N Balasubramanyam and M D Ramanathan.
After retirement from the post of Chief Producer in All India Radio, Govinda Rao, the direct disciple of Mussiri Subramanya Iyer, concentrated on popularising the different Baanis in Carnatic vocal by designing a voice bank with the invaluable voices of stalwarts of Carnatic music.
After absorbing the myriad styles of various artists from different Baanis, Rao came to know that all these artists were very careful about musicality but not the Sahithya Bhava (literary richness) of the compositions.
Many of them cited the reason for giving little importance to literary richness as the linguistic barrier which prevented them to know more about the Sahithya Bhavam of those compositions.
In a recent interview, Rao mentioned about fulfiling his cherished dream of constructing a full-fledged studio and a publishing house.
He received an offer from Los Angeles requesting him to take music classes for a group and using the amount obtained as his fees Rao fulfiled his ambition of publishing many informative texts on Carnatic music.
He was the greatest exponent of the august Mussiri Baani in Carnatic music.
Rao had also contributed much towards the preservation of a languishing singing tradition in Carnatic music.
His song 'Subha Leela...' in Nirmala, directed by P.V. Krishna Iyer in 1948, was the first song, that brought the technique of playback singing into Malayalam cinema while the song `Paaduka poomkuyile... sung by him and P.Leela was the first duet in Malayalam cinema.
The most remarkable among his valuable contributions is the documentation of thousands of immortal compositions scored and popularised by great musicians such as Purandaradasa, Kanakadasa and other yesteryear celebrities.
As the chief producer of Delhi All India Radio, Govinda Rao came across almost all schools in Carnatic Music, including his own Guru's Bani and that of other popular singers of those days such as G N Balasubramanyam and M D Ramanathan.
After retirement from the post of Chief Producer in All India Radio, Govinda Rao, the direct disciple of Mussiri Subramanya Iyer, concentrated on popularising the different Baanis in Carnatic vocal by designing a voice bank with the invaluable voices of stalwarts of Carnatic music.
After absorbing the myriad styles of various artists from different Baanis, Rao came to know that all these artists were very careful about musicality but not the Sahithya Bhava (literary richness) of the compositions.
Many of them cited the reason for giving little importance to literary richness as the linguistic barrier which prevented them to know more about the Sahithya Bhavam of those compositions.
In a recent interview, Rao mentioned about fulfiling his cherished dream of constructing a full-fledged studio and a publishing house.
He received an offer from Los Angeles requesting him to take music classes for a group and using the amount obtained as his fees Rao fulfiled his ambition of publishing many informative texts on Carnatic music.
