The Rock Star of Carnatic Music

No No No. This post is not 'bout any rock star who came to learn Indian classical music and so not certainly 'bout George Harrison or Jon Higgins. It is 'bout one of most prolific vocalists of Carnatic Music of the yesteryears, the one and only GNB.

Sangeetha Kalanidhi G.N. Balasubramaniam shot to fame in his early twenties which was rather late for a vocalist during his time. But shot to fame he did. He became famous overnight. His meteoric rise to fame, the extravagant life he led, and the immense popularity he gained and along with that the envy of certain very prominent of his colleagues and a rather early death is very similar to any average Rock musician I guess and that's the reason for the title.

GNB did not learn Carnatic music the usual way in gurukulavasam as was the norm of the day. His father was a prominent music promoter and used to conduct numerous concerts by eminent artists. GNB grew up listening to all the great music, observing and learning. He used to practice without the knowledge of his father, who was of the opinion that Music was not an apt career for his son, though being a great fan and promoter himself. And thus heeding the wishes of his father, GNB joined for literature degree.

But fate had other plans for GNB. A chance came his way when the main artist for a concert didn’t turn up and the organisers asked GNB's father to depute his son to take the stage. That was all that needed for GNB. There was no turning back after that.

Some of the characteristics of GNB were the fast gamahas laden swarams and the exquisite delineation of ragas. His voice would race away in quick bursts of beautiful and intricate patterns of swarams. He also promoted the Swarabedham during his concerts where he would bring out the facet of another raga within the main raga he was elaborating by singing the second raga using the notes of the first raga itself but by shifting the base note to bring out the second one. Hope that was not confusing! Now contemporaries who were jealous of him saw that as an opportunity and made a big controversy out of it. But GNB prevailed. In present times O.S. Thyagarajan is the big gun who does Swarabedham during his concerts.

Once GNB had caught the attention of the music lovers, numerous concerts came his way which resulted in his constant travels to all parts of the country. These frequent travels coupled with his irregular diet and food habits had a toll on his health. He passed away at an age of 54 which was quite early at that time.

During his heydays, GNB lived life king-size moving houses for the most trivial reasons, living a very extravagant life. GNB was one of the most handsome singers around during his time and women flocked to his concerts just to see him! All this popularity did not go well with some of his prominent contemporaries, who were quite envious of his overnight rise to fame. During the latter part of his career GNB had problems with his voice, when he would be heckled by the loyalists of those contemporaries right during the concert. GNB would be greatly troubled by this and this might have contributed to his declining health then.

GNB has composed many krithis, varnams in various ragams. He had groomed some prominent musicians of the generation next to his. Some of his prominent disciples include M.L Vasanthakumari, Trichur V.Ramachandran among others.

One of my favourites of GNB's is the Abhogi varnam, one of my personal favourites. GNB was truly an inspired genius and one of the leading musicians who gave the Carnatic world some breathtaking music!

It's always a pleasure to write 'bout such titans esp the fav ones. Happy weekend all of you.