M S Subbulakshmi and her music - Part 12: Expanding the repertoire of Carnatic Music - Part 1

The music repertoire of any form of music expands due to the artists performing the music, and Carnatic music is no exception. From a time when the overall number of krithis performed was limited, to an era of abundance has been made possible due to a lot of musicians learning and singing newer krithis. Many stalwarts had left behind their signature on certain krithis, and those had captivated the audience. Be it Ariyakudi's 'evarimata,' Madurai Mani Iyer's, 'thaye yashoda,' GNB's 'sivakameshwarim,' DKP's 'dasukovalena,' Semmangudi's Bhairavi Swarajathi and so on. Of all of them, MS left behind the most beloved classics, which singers still continue singing, and everyone is reminded of MS's rendition. I am not talking here about the 'tukkada' pieces at the end of the concert, but those that are sung in the core of the concert.

We have seen many such krithis in the earlier parts, like 'kanakasaila viharani,' 'paratpara,' 'akhilandeswari,' and so on. We will see some more such krithis, which are now related to MS's singing, by everyone. 

One of MS's greatest contributions was to throw light on Annamacharya krithis. Let it be clear, the others like Sripada Pinakapani, Nedanuri Krishnamurthy, Balamurali and others were already singing Annamayya's krithis. Pinakapani and Nedanuri had tuned many Annamacharya krithis, as did Rallepalli Anantakrishna Sharma. Yet, it is fair to say that Annamacharya's fame on a broader level happened when MS sang Annamacharya krithis for Tirupati Devasthanam, who released those in the form of LPs and later tapes. Many of the krithis were tuned by Kadayanallur Venkataraman, while for some krithis, the older tuning of Pinakapani, Nedanuri was used. 

Here is the charming 'Sreeman Narayana,'  in raga Bowli, waking up the Lord of the Seven Hills.

The philosophical, 'na nati bhathuku' is raga Revathi.

The ethereal 'bhavamulona' in Sudha Dhanyasi

'bhavayami gopala balam' in Yamuna Kalyani.

All of these find a place in the present-day concerts.

( A comment by @vemuriviswanadham6853 on youtube for this song, "I believed God himself sat among audience to hear Ms singing" He is not wrong, is he?)

MS was a votary of Tamil Isai and brought to the fore many Tamil krithis. Krithis of Papanasam Sivan, Periyasami Thoornam, Gopalakrishna Bharathi, Nilakanta Sivan and many Devarams and Pasurams. Let us now hear the Periyasami Thooran's Saveri krithi 'muruga muruga' which she popularized.

Another Tamil krithi made extremely popular by MS was Papanasam Sivan's 'nee irangayenil' in Atana. 

And here is the beautiful Bowli krithi of Nilakanta Sivan, 'shambo mahadeva' 

It can justifiably be said that the krithis given above were all popularised by her and have now become part of the Carnatic repertoire of performing musicians. She was able to captivate the audience with new songs due to her amazing voice, clear diction, whatever be the language, her taut delivery style and as usual, that unknown quality in her voice called bhakthi. Carnatic music must be beholden to her for giving it newer krithis and expanding the overall range of the music system. 

I know I am missing many other such standards that can be attributed to MS. I shall write about more such krithis in the next part.