The state of Tamil Nadu has given Indian music numerous composers, singers and vocalists. Artists of great repute and talent, such artists have made their state and country proud on world map. One of such luminaries is L. Subramaniam. A killed practitioner of Carnatic music, he has dabbled in different forms of music and excelled in all departments. He is a senior Indian violinist, conductor as well as composers. He is equally proficient in western classical music as in Carnatic music. Born on 23 July 1947, he is credited with working in collaboration with international stars like Ruggiero Ricci, Yehudi Menuhin and Stephane Grappelli etc. he earned his fame mainly because of his compositions in orchestral fashion. No less than 150 recordings have been done by him.

L. Subramaniam had the opportunity of working with great names in Indian classical music. Some of them are, Chembai Vaidyanatha Bhagavatar and M.D. Ramanathan and many others. It all started at the age of six when he gave his first live performance. Born to musicians parents, he is highly educated. In fact, he is a doctorate in medicine and yet he became a violinist. Currently he is married to famous movie singer Kavita Krishnamoorthy.

L. Subramaniam has managed to keep a low profile and yet his deeds speak volumes of what this talent has achieved over a period of time. He has not only composed music for orchestras but also worked for Hollywood movies. His musical scores in movies like Salaam Bombay and Mississippi Masala cannot be forgotten easily. A winner of awards like Padma Shri and Padma Bhushan, he still remains a humble servant to the art of music.

Let’s talk about one of the major instruments used in classical music. Mridangam is basically a classical percussion instrument. Its main job is to provide rhythm to the carnatic music performances. Its qite popular in South India and is used in almost all the music concerts. This wonderful instrument is known by several names like, mrdangam, mrithangam, mridanga, mrudangam etc. hollow piece of jackfruit wood is used to make this essential instrument. Normally, this piece is one inch thick. After that, leather is used to cover both sides of the drum. The two sides are tied to each other using the circumference of the drum. The reason behind melodious sound of the mridangam is the leather straps that are stretched to high tension. Because of that it resonates while getting struck. Mridangam produces different treble sounds and bass effect. That’s because the two membranes have different width.

Mridangam has been given utmost impiortance in Hindu sculpture mythology. Many deities like Nandi and Ganesha have been shown with this instrument. It is being said that while lord Shiva was performing Tandava dance, Nandi was playing the mridangam. Perhaps, that why mridangam is also called as Deva Vaadyam that means instrument of the Gods. One unique feature of mridangam is that it can be played from both sides.

Smaller aperture is known as bala bhaaga or valanthalai and the bass aperture is called thoppi or eda bhaaga. The appealing metallic timbre gets its effect from black paste that is also known as karnai or satham. Mridangam is a must have instrument in all carnatic musical concerts.

M. S. Subbalakshmi or Madurai Shanmukhavadivu Subbulakshmi was one of the classical gems produced by india. She was not only well admired but also hugely popular. Carnatic music was well represented by the magic of MS as she was popularly knonw as. Her achievements include Sangeetha Kalanidhi and Bharat Ratna among others. She was the first female singer to get these prestigious awards. Born on 16th September 1916 in the Madurai city of Tamil Nadu, M S Subbalakshmi took her initial training in the family only. She belonged to a family of musicians. Semmangudi Srinivasa Iyer gave her training in carnatic classical music whereas Pandit Narayan Rao Vyas was her teacher in Hindustani classical music.

MS started to give music performance from a very tender age of ten. At the age of seventeen she made an impressive debut at Madras Music Academy. Since then it remained a life of major achievements and uninterrupted excellence. Her talent can be gauged from the fact that she performed in various languages including Malayalam, Gujarati, Bengali, Telugu, Hindi, Sanskrit, Kannada and not to forget her mother tongue Tamil. M S Subbalakshmi redefined classical music. She also dabbled in acting and performed in few movies. But she decided to devote herself to the sacred concept of classical music.

M S Subbulakshmi also performed her role of India’s cultural ambassador to the perfection. She performed in various concerts all over the world including UN General Assembly, Royal Albert Hall of London and Festival of India in Moscow. She won numerous awards likes of which include Kalidasa Samman Award, Padma Bhushan Award, Ramon Magsaysay Award and Padma Vibhushan Award. She left the mortal world on 11th December 2004 but her legacy will forever be etched in our minds.

Tamil music is one of the most ancient and complex forms of music. Infact it’s rightly said that once a person learns the nuances of Carnatic music which is the classical Tamil music it’s very simple for him to follow other music styles and forms. Most of these Tamil songs, old or new, remix or classical Carnatic are available for free download in varying formats like mp3, real audio and wma.

Tamil music started off with the Classical Carnatic music. It was basically developed by the trinity of 3 saints called Thyagaraja, Muthuswamy Dikshitar and Shyama Shastrigal. Purandaradasar was another one of the pioneers of Carnatic music.

The initial Tamil movie songs were more classical oriented with devotional songs dominating the scene. Melody was a key element in all the songs. But over the years Tamil film music has kept pace with the changing times and the music has evolved from being melody oriented to being disco beat oriented. The music today has all the elements like hip hop, rap, disco beats, English lyrics infused within the songs which the young audience can identify with.

The Tamil movie songs lyrics are available online for free download. Popular Tamil carnatic singers include MS Subbulakhmi, Balamurali Krishna, TN Seshagopalan, Bombay Jayashree, Bombay sisters, Unnikrishnan, Yesudas to name a few. Popular composers over the years have been The M.S.Viswanathan-Ramamurthy duo who dominated the Tamil music industry in the 50’s and 60’s, V.Kumar and the duo of Shankar- Ganesh. Recently established composers are Mani Sharma, Ashwin Subramanium, D Imman, Bharathwaj, Bheema, Shrikanth Deva, Jayaram Pushparaj, GV Prakash, and others.