G.N.Balasubramaniam
Background information
Born	January 6, 1910(1910-01-06)
Origin	Chennai, Tamil Nadu, India
Genres	Carnatic music - Indian Classical Music
Occupations	Singer
Years active	1920 - 1965

G. N. Balasubramaniam (Tamil: ஜி.என்.பாலசுப்பிரமணியம், January 6, 1910 - 1 May 1965), popularly known as GNB, was a vocalist in the Carnatic tradition. He became the first superstar of Carnatic music, innovating the art through emphasis on laya control & reducing the gamakas which eventually made Carnatic music appeal to the lay and the learned alike.

Contents 1 Early life and background 2 Career 3 Style 4 Contributions 5 Influence 6 References 7 External links

[edit] Early life and background

Balasubramanian was born in Chennai, India. He was the son of G V Narayanaswamy Iyer, who was a keen student of music. Throughout his younger years, he observed with utmost attention the techniques of the musicians of his day. Ariyakudi Ramanjua Iyengar became his manasika guru and inspiration. While his father dreamed of living in a villa at Luz Church road through GNB becoming a successful lawyer. The young musician in G.N.B made way for greater goals in life. He completed his B.A. in English Literature at the prestigious Presidency College with honours and took up a short music course at Annamalai University under the guidance of Tiger Varadachariar & within 2 years, he was ready for concert performances. With his debut in 1928, his climb to the dizzying heights of Carnatic music was almost meteoric.

[edit] Career

Often criticized for producing producing extremely fast gamakam laden sangathis with strength and weight and with wide imagination, a voice as his, running at so fast a speed through the effects of Brighas, twists and turns would come in quick succession that he became an instant hit with both the lay audience as well as those initiated to the arts and science of carnatic music.

In the first half of the 20th century, nobody could sing ragas with an intellectual bend of mind like GNB, for he was the first concert musician to approach the concept of raga alapana in a step-by-step approach. His approach soon inspired the great masters of the day including his arch rival Semmangudi Srinivasa Iyer. Semmangudi, overwhelmed by GNB's overpowering musical genius, and the respect GNB had for Semmangudi's style eventually forged a life-long friendship between the both of them.

FIlm offers flocked to GNB for his charismatic looks and musical talent. He acted in films, including Bhama Vijayam and Sakunthala. In the latter, he appeared as Dushyantha, alongside the vocalist M.S. Subbulakshmi. M.S. Subbulakshmi has also on her own memoirs wrote about the almost magnetic effect of GNB's music that she embraced his style completely in her early years reflected in M S - A Life in Music. After a short stint in the film industry, GNB remained in the Carnatic music fraternity, due to the overwhelming demand for his performances till his passing in 1965.

[edit] Style

As a critical musician with a revolutionary approach to Carnatic music, G.N.B made sure that many of his musical feats were technically and methodically feasible. With his charismatic speaking style & writing, he made his ideas clear and all opposition against his style faded quickly. With his charm, fame and yet humble personality, potential disciples flocked for his guidance in music.

He was also the first major Carnatic musician to moot the idea of Indian music as a single entity rather than separating it into Hindustani & Carnatic systems. He was very attentive in understanding why HIndustani music concerts is so well loved by south Indians. By emphasizing on the richness of the composition together with expansive improvisation passages, he forever changed the way, Carnatic music was sung. His grasp of tala was unprecedented for he understood the magic of singing in the 2nd & 3rd kala which had a mesmerizing effect on the audience that he performed. Sometimes, reaching the 4th kala in brisk succession would also arouse the ecstasy of his audience.

[edit] Contributions

Though GNB's music is often fast pace & rich with swara prastharas, he has also rendered numerous compositions in strictly in the 2nd kala and not letting speed destroy the lyrical beauty of Carnatic compositions. Most of these compositions are the ones that he popularized and revived from the Trinity's repertoire with devoted support from the percussion wizard Palghat Mani Iyer. The duo would work out exactly how a composition needs to be arranged and configured to unravel its richness before being performed. Even with an almost unprecedented musical accumen, such conformity to his concert planning for his compositions often surprised his counterparts.

A well-known example of many such arranged pieces is the swara passages (chittaswaram) that GNB composed for the now popular Vara Raga Laya composition set to the challenging Chechukhamboji raga by St. Thyagaraja. The chittaswaram has acquired a synonymous status with the composition itself and many popular musicians today sing the swara passages in the same way that is arranged by GNB, because of its rhythmic dynamism and unusually beautiful swara combinations of the raga.

His introduction of shruthi bedam, a technically challenging approach of shifting raga from one to another by taking the last note of a raga as the tonic note and starting another raga with it. Though challenged by many of his counterparts as absurd and a taboo for it was claimed that it never existed, GNB identified literary and historical evidences to support the existence of this method in early Indian music. Today this method is almost used in the renditions of most popular Carnatic musicians.

[edit] Influence

His performances with accompanists like Mysore Chowdiah who played with a 6-string violin and then the rising violin star Lalgudi Jayaraman are legendary for the excellent effect they share in bringing out expansive raga alapanas with full flung crescendos and gamakas. Lalgudi Jayaraman would later become one of the most celebrated classical violinists in the world.

His humility also made sure that he gave ample performing opportunities for young upcoming musicians like Palghat V. Raghu, Lalgudi Jayaraman, M. S. Gopalakrishnan, his disciples the late T. R. Balasubramaniam and the late Tanjore S. Kalyanaraman also shared a part of his glittering limelight.

He composed over 100 krithis with rich prose and musical weight.

Balasubramanian also composed kritis and invented new ragas. He taught a number of students during his active years. Most famous among them are M. L. Vasanthakumari, Radha Jayalakshmi, S. Kalyanaraman and Trichur V. Ramachandran.

Balasubramaniam worked as principal of Sree Swathi Thirunal College of Music, Thiruvananthapuram of the state of Kerala.

He died on 1 May 1965.

[edit] References

[edit] External links

• G. N. Balasubramaniam