Kunnakudi Vaithyanathan

The great Violin maestero passed away yesterday.He was a child prodigy.Hailing from a small town in Tamilnadu called Kunnakudi, vaithyanathan carved a special place for himself in the music world.He played violin for carnatic music giants like Ariyakudi Ramanujar ,Chemmangudi sreenivaa Iyer and Maharajapuram at a very young age of 12.His style impressed even laymen with no knowledge about the nuances of carnatic music. It was a treat to watch him play violin.Undoubtedly he was one of the greatest violinists of our time. He was fondly called as Kunnakudi by the music fraternity .He was known by the name of his place. Incidentally kunnakudi is a famous temple town of Lord Muruga.But when one mentions about Kunnakudi, the name of Vaithyanathan comes to ones mind.Kunnakudi's skilful handling of the violin is famous among his fans. He was like a snake charmer when he handles his violin. The audience would be spellbound by his subtle techniques. He always does lot of experiments while playing violin.The purists among the violinists had their own reservations about the way Kunnakudi handled his violin. Nonetheless they all agreed he was a gifted musician.

Even at a young age of 14 Vaithyanathan has done experiments with music therapy. As an young boy of 14 he played the raga Bairavi for days together in front of his father who was in coma and finally succeeded, when his father regained consciousness and lived thereafter for many years.He was also running a Raga Research Centre to analyse the therauptic effects of various carnatic ragas. When Jayalalitha was CM, the governement donated land for this research institute. Years before Jayalalitha has sung four devotional songs on Tiruverkad Karumari Amman composed by Kunnakudi . The audio was then released by Columbia . He was also running a residential music school .He introduced concerts with 'Thavil' a traditional percussion instrument ,which is normally played only with the wind instrument nadaswaram. His novelty in combining this percussion instrument with the string instrument violin was a great hit world over.He has performed the world over.

Kunnakudi was a freelance music director for HMV's devotional songs.He has composed music for many Tamil films also . Prominent among them are Navarathinam an MGR starrer, Vaa raaja Vaa,Agathiyar and Mael naattu Marumakal.He has given lot of violin solo performances on almost all TV channels . He also directed a Tamil film called 'Thodi' with famous carnatic musician T.N.Sheshagopalan in the lead. The music for this film was also scored by him.

He was the president of the Sangeetha Nataka Academy of Tamilnadu for decades.He was also the secretary of the Tiruvayaru Thyagabrahmma sabha which conducts the annual musical tribute to the great carnatic composer Thiagarajar.Kunnakudi recieved 'Best music Director' award,Sangeetha Mamani award,Kalaimamani award and also Padmashri from the government of India.Kunnakudi will always be remembered for the song "Maruthamalai Maa Maniyae Murigayaa' rendered so beautifully by Madurai Somu.Kunnakudi was also famous for his peculiar glittering attire,sporting a big smile always, and his bigger than normal safron dot on his forehead.A face that can never be forgotten by many.