Chembai Vaidyanatha Bhagavathar
Chembai Vaidyanatha Bhagavathar, a patrician in the sphere
of Carnatic music abounding in gayaka lakshana was a deeply religious
man. Music was in his family and he was taught and learnt as part of Vedic
instruction.
Born on August 1896 in a family of musicians,
whose traditions ran uninterruptedly over
about two centuries, Chembai Vaidyanatha Bhagavatar had music in his
blood. A great grandson of Chakratana Subba Aiyar,who was a contemporary of the
musical trinity,and son of Chembai Anantha Bhagavatar young Vaidyanathan
had music readymade for him.He had his early training under his
father and for himself equipped fully to give an independent performance even at
the age of nine.
He has a tonal clarity and flawless articulation with
undiluted rhythmic content. His repertoire was wide enough to include poems from
the Tiruvachakam, Tiruppugazh, Divya Prabhandam, Ramalingaswami's Viruttam,
compositions of Muthuthandavar and bhajans of Kabirdas, Tulasidas and
Bhaktha Meera, besides the immortal creations of the
trinity and others.
As a performer his creative ability was astonishing. He could do
a neraval and swara- prasthara from any given point, which
bespoke of mental alertness from the word ``go'' in a concert. His
abiding sympathy for his accompanists was
noteworthy and he would go to any length to encourage
them by giving them full scope to develop and display their
talent.
With his rich vibrant voice and a ringing
tone, Chembai's music had a direct appeal to his listeners. To Chembai,
the main factors that contributed to the development of a musical personality
were the intuition of the musician, his sound knowledge
of ragas and swaras and firm control
of sruti and laya and the capacity to evolve an individual style of
expression suited to one's voice and
aptitude and ``ideas distilled through the variegated experience behind
him.'
He lived a life of a savant larger than real life to two years
short of four-score. He passed away on October 16, 1974. Chembai was the
recipient of numerous honours. Swami Sivananda
conferred on him the title of Sangita
Samrat. Honours were also bestowed on
him by the rulers of Cochin, Mysore, Baroda, Vijayanagaram,Bobbili
and Jaipur.
