Heritage Tour of the Music Academy
On the 17th of December, a group of 30 history and classical music lovers were taken on a tour of the various locations that The Music Academy of Madras operated from during the first 35 years of its existence.
The tour was conducted by music historian Sriram V. in collaboration with Charsur Digital Workstation.
The tour began at 6.00 am from the present campus of The Music Academy premises. 'The Academy founders could not have foreseen that we would one day do a tour of their locations and so a few locations which are out of the way could not be included,' says Sriram.
The first location, the dry bed of the Spur Tank in Chetput where the All India Music Conference was held in 1927 and the Museum Theatre in Egmore where the lec dems were held, were thus excluded.
The first stop was therefore the YMCA Building, NSC Bose Road, Parrys area, where The Music Academy was formally inaugurated on 18th August 1928 by Sir C P Ramaswami Iyer.
Then the group went to Thambu Chetty Street to the Rama Rau Buildings, which was once the chamber of Dr U. Rama Rau, the first President of the Academy.
The Academy had its registered office here for the first seven years even as it held monthly concerts and began its Teachers College of Music at Dr RauÕs residence, 'Gana Mandir', which no longer stands, on the same street.
The next stop was the My Ladye's Garden the sole survivor of the sprawling 116 acre People's Park, behind Ripon Buildings, where the Academy held its annual conference from 1930 to 35, in a specially erected pandal.
My Ladye's Garden
This was where the Academy renamed Sadir as Bharata Natyam and fought for saving the art.
From here the group went to the Senate House in the Madras University campus, which was the venue for the first Music Conference of 1929 and also the conferences of 1939, '40 and '41.
Senate House, University of Madras
Next stop was Mani Iyer's Hall in Raja Hanumantha Lala Street, Triplicane where the Preliminary Conference of Experts on Raga Lakshanas and Sruti's took place between 18th and 21st April 1930.
This was when a decision was taken to hold an annual conference in December each year.
Three locations, 'The Funnels' of General Patters Road (1936, landmark not identifiable today), Lodd Govinddoss Garden (1937) and Woodlands Hotel, Westcott Road (1938) were not covered on the tour owing to paucity of time.
The last location was R. R. Sabha, on Sundareswarar Street, Mylapore, where the Academy met from 1942 to 1955 with lec dems in the nearby National Girls (now Lady Sivaswami Iyer Girls) School.
This was where the decision to award the Sangita Kalanidhi was taken in 1942.
From here the Academy moved into its own premises in 1955 after Pt. Nehru laid the foundation stone for the new auditorium.
The plot itself was purchased in 1946.
During the construction, the Conferences were held at R R Sabha with concerts at the PS High School. The new auditorium was declared open on 20th December 1962 by HH Jayachamaraja Wodeyar of Mysore.
The group returned to base and had a large breakfast at the canteen.
<<V. Sriram will conduct another music heritage tour. The Mylapore Walk. On Jan.5, 2007, 6am, as part of the Sundaram Finance-MYLAPORE FESTIVAL (Jan.4 to 7, 2007). Info at www.mylaporefestival.com. >>
Pictures by: Gomathi Panchapagesan.
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Kapali Fine Arts fest opens
Mylapore is the centre of attraction, with more sabhas inaugurating their annual festival. Kapali Fine Arts inaugurated its 37th Art Festival on Dec. 12, at R. K. Swamy Auditorium, Mylapore.
Dancer Sarayu Sai was conferred with the title Natya Kala Jyothi and V. R. Lakshminarayanan presided over the function. Lakshminarayan lauded the effort of the Sabha for conducting the festival successfully for more than three decades and honouring giants like Semmangudi and M. S. Subbulakshmi. He recalled his association with the awardee as a girl in Dindigul. Dancer - guru Saroja Vaidyanathan inaugurated the fest. Playback Singer Vani Jayram was also present for the function.
Sarayu is disciple of Chitra Visweswaran and is also a Post Graduate in Literature from Stella Maris College. The sabha programmes would be conducted at R.K.Swamy Auditorium, Sastri Hall, P.S. High School and Bharatiya Vidya Bhavan.
Click here for schedules.
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