In the 1950s, people in the United States knew nothing about Carnatic music. It took the efforts of musician T. Viswanathan and his family to take the genre there, musicologist B.M. Sundaram said.
“I was first introduced to Mr. Viswanathan when he came to Tiruppamparam Swaminatha Pillai’s house to stay and learn from the master,” Mr. Sundaram said, speaking at the T. Viswanathan Memorial Concert held here on Saturday.
“Music is a gift from God, but lineage has a big role to play. In Mr. Viswanathan’s case, both the family he was born into and the musical lineage he acquired from his guru were both impeccable, and shaped the great musician that he became,” he said.
Musician Douglas Knight Jr., from the U.S. spoke of how several musicians were awed by the concept of a family music practice, which was several generations old. This was introduced to them by Mr. Viswanathan and his brother Ranganathan. “In 1958, when the brothers came to the U.S., Carnatic music and the concept of a unified culture from south India were alien to us. This family influenced many young musicians,” he said.
The memorial concert also had a movie with excerpts of a lecture demonstration by Mr. Viswanathan at Music Academy on December 16, 1996. “There are a number of students of Mr. Viswanathan across the world and we want to bring them together through an annual memorial concert in September, the month in which he died,” M.V. Bhaskar, an organiser of the event, said. On the occasion, there was also a flute concert by T.R. Moorthy, accompanied by M.A. Sundareswaran on the violin and Umayalpuram Mali on the mridangam.
Speakers at the memorial concert for T. Viswanathan recalled his efforts to introduce classical music in the U.S.
