T. R. Mahalingam (flautist)
| Tiruvidamarudur Ramaswamy Mahalingam | |
|---|---|
| Born | 6 November 1926 |
| Origin | Tiruvidaimarudur, Tamil Nadu, India |
| Died | 31 May 1986 (aged 59) |
| Genres | Carnatic music |
| Occupation(s) | Carnatic instrumentalist |
| Instruments | Venu flute |
| Years active | 1938–1986 |
Tiruvidaimarudur Ramaswamy Mahalingam (6 November 1926 – 31 May 1986) affectionately known as Mali, was a flautist who revolutionised the style of flute-playing in Carnatic music.
TRM was born in Tiruvidaimarudur, Tanjavur district in Tamil Nadu to Ramaswami Iyer and Brahadambal. His parents named him after Mahalingaswamy(Shiva), the deity of the nearby Hindu temple. He had an elder sibling Devaki and started learning singing music from his maternal uncle Jalra Gopala Iyer, who ran a famous music school. At age five, he observed other boys playing the flute and secretly, against his father's wishes, he picked up a flute and learnt to play, in three speeds, the Viriboni Varnam in Bhairavi raga entirely by himself. As a boy, T.R. Mahalingam had the ability to play any song he heard after listening to it only once. As such, he quickly advanced through his music training.
Mali was the founder of the popular style of flute playing followed today by the Carnatic flautists. Before Mali, the style of flute playing was called Sarabha Sastri style, popularised by Sarabha Sastri's disciple, Palladam Sanjiva Rao, and did not have any gamakas and involved playing the flute in discrete bursts. T.R. Mahalingam had breath control that enabled him to blow any single note over 40 seconds. This breath control let Mali give great volume to the lower octaves as well as the higher octaves. Mali introduced new fingering techniques, and a grip on the flute that came to be known as the "parrot clutch or the cross-fingering style ", allowing greater control. His style of continuous flute playing provided gamakas, and an ability to better imitate the human voice. In Carnatic music, instrumental music seeks to emulate vocal singing which is considered the ideal, and it was only with Mali's style did all the nuances of Carnatic music become possible to be expressed on the flute. His style prevailed over the Sarabha Shastri style whose last follower, Ramachandra Shastri, a disciple of Palladam Sanjeeva Rao, died in 1992. The loss of Sarabha Sastri style is only an academic loss and Mali's style of playing remains to this day unparalleled. Mali's techniques came into greater prominence under Dindigul SP Natarajan T.S.Sankaran, N. Ramani, B. N. Suresh, N. Kesi and have been carried forward by Mr.Viswanathan (son of Dindigul SP Natarajan) and students including Prapancham Sita Raman, B.G. Srinivasa, C.M.Madhuranath, B. Shankar Rao and B.M Sundar Rao.
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