Maharajapuram Viswanatha Iyer
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Maharajapuram Viswanatha Iyer (1896 - 1970) was one of the great Carnatic vocalists. He has won several awards including Sangeetha Kalanidhi and Sangeetha Bhupathy.
Son of Rama lyer, himself a good singer, Viswanathan was trained initially by Umayalpuram Swaminatha Iyer, a direct disciple of Maha Vaidyanatha Iyer. Maha Vaidyanatha Iyer had learnt from a direct disciple of Tyagaraja and thus Viswanatha Iyer represents the fifth generation of the Tyagaraja School. Young Viswanathan also learnt from Thanjavur Rangappa Iyer, a ghatam exponent.
A unique feature about his music was his great success in raga elaboration in great detail. The raga alaapana of Mohanam was one of his specialties. His has been hailed as the success of 'kalpana sangeetha', music rich with imagination in raga elaboration and swara singing,a specialty of his.
He had several prominent disciples including Semmangudi Srinivasa Iyer, Mannargudi Sambasiva Bhagavatar and his own son Maharajapuram Santhanam.
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