T. Viswanathan

Tanjore Viswanathan (b. Madras, India, August 13, 1927; d. Hartford, Connecticut, United States, September 10, 2002) was a Carnatic musician specializing in the Carnatic flute and voice. His brother was the mridangam player T. Ranganathan (1925–1987).

Viswa, as T. (Tanjore/Thanjavur) Viswanathan is often called, was the grandson of the legendary Veena Dhanammal, considered and remembered as the greatest exponent of Veena, the South Indian lute. Viswa was the brother of T. (Tanjore/Thanjavur) Balasaraswati, the greatest exponent of Bharatanatyam in the second half of the 20th century. Though hailing from the greatest musical family of his generation, Viswa sought the tutorship of Tiruppamparam Swaminatha Pillai, one of the innovators of the bamboo flute as an art musical instrument alongside T.R. Mahalingam (Mali). While a majority of South Indian (Carnatic) flautists play with the 8-holed flute fashioned by T.R. Mahalingam, students of T. Viswanathan play with the 7-hole flute innovated by Swaminatha Pillai.

Viswa combined the best musical traditions of his family and that of Swaminathan Pillai to play the flute in a uniquely vocal style, doing full justice to the lyric and lilt. In fact Viswa would very often put the flute down in the middle of his concerts and start singing, though he was not a trained voice artist. Viswa was a complete musician. He performed for dance as much as he performed pure music. His repertoire was wide and we may well have heard the last of many of the songs that he used to perform, in particular the songs of Muthuthandavar which were set to music by Swaminathan Pillai, and a host of Padams, Javalis and Tillanas that were the property of the Dhanammal family. He trained a number of students in India and abroad to sing, but just one student, T.R. Moorthy, on the flute.

Viswa was largely responsible for putting Jon Higgins on the carnatic stage, who became so popular as to be known as Higgins Bhagavathar among the rasikas of South Indian music. To teach foreign students, Viswa employed complex notations to represent the ornamentation/oscillation that is characteristic to South Indian music.

The astute listener can appreciate that the greatest level of syncopation between melody and percussion was heard when Viswa played with his brother Ranga on the drum. Some public concerts of Viswa can be downloaded free from www.sangeethapriya.org.

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