Story Behind
Sangeetha Kalanidhi T. K. Govinda Rao, one of the senior-most vocalists of Karnatak Music, was born in Thrippunithura, Kerala, and originally belongs to the Tulu speaking Udupi region. In 1949 he joined Tamil Nadu Government Music College at Chennai, where under the care of great musicians like Sangeetha Kalanidhi T. N. Swaminatha Pillai and Smt. T. Brinda, he completed the course of "SANGITA VIDWAN." TKG was fortunate to have as his Guru, the Founder-Principal, Padmabhushan, Sangita Kalanidhi, Sri Musiri Subrahmanya Iyer, the doyen of Karnatak Music. A rigorous GURUKULAVASA-training spread over fifteen years followed by many years of close association with his Guru, marks him as a Faithful representative of the Musiri style of Bhava-laden rendering.
A career spanned over six decades brought him numerous assignments such as Lecturer, Tamilnadu Government Music College; Chief Producer-Music, All India Radio (Chennai) and Chief Producer-Music in the Directorate-General, All India Radio (NewDelhi). In addition, he had been associated with The Music Academy as a member of the Advisory Committee; Central Sangit Natak Akademy; and the Indian Council for Cultural Relations and also with Universities of Banares, Delhi, Madras, Bangalore, Annamalai University, Andhra University and Telugu University in various capacities.
As a vocalist and teacher, over five decades, he had given hundreds of concerts and had taught hundreds of students all over the world. He had tuned numerous dAsapadas including Thirumala Thirupathi's dAsasAhitya project and dEvaranAma albums rendered by his disciples Bombay Sisters (Smt. Lalitha and Smt. Saroja). Many popular compositions such as "bAro krishnayya", “yAdava rAya brindAvanadholu” of Sri KanakadAsa, "venkatAchala nilayam","innu dayabArade", “Ada hOdalle makkalu” of Sri PurandaradAsa, "muruga muruga endrAl", “kaliyuga varadhan”, “tAaye tripura sundari” of Sri Periyasami Thooran, “mAdhava mAmava dEva'' of Smt. Ambujam Krishna have been set to his tunes and rendered by, among others, the women trinity of Smt. M.S.Subbulakshmi, Smt. D.K.Pattammal and Smt. M.L.Vasantakumari.
To promote, preserve and propagate the time-tested traditions of Karnatak Music, he edited, compiled, and published all of the authentically available compositions of great composers such as Tyagaraja, Muddusvami Dikshitar, Syama Sastri, Swati Tirunal and “Varna Sagaram''. All of these publications are in Roman-English diacritical scripts, Devanagari scripts, applicable regional languages, with meanings in English and Roman SRGM notations for every composition. This immeasurable encyclopedic work is his great contribution to the world of music.
Titles like Sangeetha Kalanidhi, Sangita Choodamani, Sangeetha Sastra Rathnakara, Ganakalatilaka, Naadakkanal, Swarasamrat, Sangita Samrat, Sangita Acharya, Sangita Poornasri, Gayaka Sikhamani besides the Academy Award from the Central Sangit Natak Akademy, the National Academy of Music, Dance and Drama and Asthana Vidwan of Kanchi Kamakoti Peetham and Sapthagiri Sangita Vidwanmani of Tirupati Tirumala Devasthanam have been conferred on him for his contributions to the field of Karnatak Music.
He was also the first male playback singer for Malayalam movies. He sang many songs for the movie Nirmala in 1948.
The music books compiled and edited by TKG include:
- Sri Tyagaraja’s compositions in Tamil with notation:
- Sriranga kshetra pancharatna kirtanaigal
- Tiruvotriyur kshetra pancharatna kirtanaigal
- Kanchipura kshetra pancharatna kirtanaigal
- Tirupathi kshetra pancharatna kirtanaigal
- Tiruvaiyaru kshetra pancharatna kirtanaigal
- GhanarAga pancharatna kirtanaigal
- In English:
- Varnamanjari consisting of 50 Tana and Pada varnams
- Compositions of Thyagaraja consisting of 688 compositions with meaning
- Compositions of Mudduswami Dikshitar consisting of 472 compositions with meaning and notation
- Composition of Syama Shastri, Subbaraya Shastri and Annaswami Shastri consisting of 71, 12 and 13 compositions respectively of the said composers with meaning and notation
- Thyagaraja Aradhana consisting of the Ghana raga pancharatna kritis of Saint Thyagaraja
- Compositions of Thyagaraja consisting of 688 compositions with meaning and notation
- Compositions of Swati Thirunal consisting of 391 compositions with meaning and notation
- Varnasagaram consisting of 415 Adi Tala, Ada Tala and other tala varnams, Chauka varnams, Pada varnams, Ragamalika varnams and Daru varnams.
- Compositions of Purandaradasa consisting of more than 1200 kritis (in 3 volumes) with meaning and notation is under development (Please Contact us if you are interested in volunteering to proof read the pending work)