M. Balamuralikrishna

M. Balamuralikrishna
Pandit Ji at Rajarani Music Festival, Bhubaneswar, Odisha
Background information
Native name	మంగళంపల్లి బాలమురళీకృష్ణ
Birth name	Mangalampalli Balamuralikrishna
Born	(1930-07-06) 6 July 1930 Sankaraguptam, East Godavari District, Madras Presidency, British India (now part of Andhra Pradesh, India)
Genres	Carnatic music
Occupation(s)	Musician
Instruments	Singing, viola, mridangam, kanjira
Years active	1938–present

Mangalampalli Balamurali Krishna (Telugu: మంగళంపల్లి బాలమురళీకృష్ణ) (born 6 July 1930) is an Indian Carnatic vocalist, multi-instrumentalist, playback singer, composer and actor. He was awarded the Padma Vibhushan, India's second-highest civilian honour, for his contribution towards Indian Art. He was made Chevalier of the Ordre des Arts et des Lettres by the French Government in 2005.^[1]

Early life

Balamurali Krishna was born in Telugu speaking Brahmin family of Sankaraguptam, East Godavari District, Andhra Pradesh state.^[2] His father was a well known musician and could play the flute, violin and the veena and his mother was an excellent veena player. His mother died when he was an infant and Balamuralikrishna was raised by his father. Observing his inner penchant towards music, his father put him under the tutelage of Sri Parupalli Ramakrishnayya Pantulu. Sri Pantulu was a direct descendant of the sisya parampara of Saint Thyagaraja.

Under his guidance, the young Balamuralikrishna learned Carnatic Music. At the age of eight, Balamuralikrishna gave his first full-fledged concert at a Thyagaraja Aradhana, Vijayawada. Musunuri Suryanarayana Murty Bhagavatar, a distinguished Harikatha performer, saw the musical talent in the child and gave the prefix 'Bala' (child) to the young Muralikrishna. This title has stuck ever since and Balamuralikrishna has been known so.

Balamuralikrishna thus began his musical career at a very young age. By the age of fifteen he had mastered all the 72 melakartha ragas and had composed krithis in the same. The Janaka Raga Manjari was published in 1952 and recorded as Raagaanga Ravali in a nine-volume series by the Sangeeta Recording Company.^[3] Not merely content with his fame as a Carnatic vocalist, very soon started playing the kanjira, mridangam, viola and violin. He also accompanied various musicians in violin and is also noted to give solo viola concerts.

Performing career

Balamuralikrishna started his career at the age of six. Up to the present time, he has given over 25,000 concerts worldwide.^[4] He accompanied Pandit Bhimsen Joshi. He also gave jugalbandi concerts with Pandit Hariprasad Chaurasia and Kishori Amonkar, among others. He is also known for popularising the compositions of Sri Bhadrachala Ramadasu and Sri Annamacharya.

Concerts

M. Balamuralikrishna during Rajarani Music Festival at Bhubaneswar on 19 January 2013

Balamuralikrishna during a concert in Kuwait on 29 March 2006, accompanied by Mavelikkara Sathees Chandran (violin), Perunna G. Harikumar (mridangom), Manjoor Unnikrishnan (ghatam)

Mangalampalli Balamurali Krishna and Ravi Joshi, during a concert in San Francisco, California, April 2014

Balamuralikrishna's concerts combine sophisticated vocal skills and rhythmic patterns of classical music with the popular demand for entertainment value. Balamurali Krishna has been invited to give concerts in many countries, including the US, Canada, UK, Italy, France, Russia, Sri Lanka, Malaysia, Singapore, Middle East and many more. Apart from his native tongue, Telugu, his works also include ones in other languages like Kannada, Sanskrit, Tamil, Malayalam, Hindi, Bengali, and Punjabi.

He appeared as featured soloist with an award-winning British choir, performing the "Gitanjali Suite" with words from Rabindranath Tagore's Nobel Prize-winning poetry and music by Dr. Joel, the noted UK-based Goan composer. His clear diction in several languages prompted an invitation to record Tagore's entire Rabindra Sangeet compositions in Bengali, preserving them for posterity. He has sung in French, and even ventured into jazz fusion, collaborating with the top Carnatic percussion teacher, Sri T.H. Subash Chandran, in a concert for Malaysian royalty.

He has recently become increasingly interested in music therapy, and now performs only occasionally. He gave his authorisation to S. Ram Bharati to found "Academy of Performing Arts and Research" in Switzerland and is also working on music therapy. He established the 'MBK Trust' with the objective of developing art and culture and for carrying out extensive research into music therapy. A dance and music school, 'Vipanchee' is a part of this Trust and is run by his managing trustee Kalaimamani Saraswati.

In February 2010, he did a three-day concert in Vishakapatnam, a first in his career.^[5]

Cinema

Balamuralikrishna has composed over 400 compositions in various languages like Telugu, Sanskrit, Kannada and Tamil. His compositions range from Devotional to Varnams, Krithis, Javalis and Thillans, in all the fundamental 72 melakartha ragas to film music.

He made his acting debut with Bhakta Prahlada (1967) under AVM Productions as Narada, and has acted in various films.

Innovations

Balamuralikrishna performs in 2005

Characteristic of Balamuralikrishna's musical journey has been his non-conformism, spirit of experimentation and boundless creativity. Balamuralikrishna has innovated the whole Carnatic music system by keeping its rich tradition untouched. The ragas like Ganapathi, Sarvashri, Mahati, Lavangi etc. are credited to him. The ragas which he invented represent his quest for new frontiers. Ragas like Lavangi are set to three or four notes in ascending and descending scale.^[3] Ragaas created by him, like Mahathi, Lavangi, Sidhdhi, Sumukham have only four notes; while Ragaas created by him, like Sarva Sri, Omkaari, Ganapathy have only three notes.

He also innovated the tala system. He has incorporated "gati bhEdam" (గతి భేదం) in the "sashabda kriya" (సశబ్ద క్రియ) (actions in Talas, which can produce sound/shabda (శబ్ద) are called sashabda kriya - సశబ్ద క్రియ) part of the existing Tala chain, thus throwing open a new chain of Tala system. Saint Arunagirinaadhar used to inject such systems in his famous Thirupugazh, but only as Sandham, while Balamuralikrishna is known to be the pioneer in bringing such Sandhams into a logical rhythm, with Angam and definition. Thri Mukhi, Panchamukhi, Saptha Mukhi and Nava Mukhi are the basic classifications, he has named for his New Tala System.

Awards and honours

Civilian honours

• Padma Vibhushan
• Padma Bhushan
• Padma Shri

International honours

• Chevalier Rank Chevalier of the Ordre des Arts et des Lettres from the French Government (2005).^[1]

All India Radio

• Top Grade – Awarded "Top Grade" for performance areas

playing instruments: violin, viola, mrudhingam, kanjira, music:- classical music, light music, devotional music, composer, conductor, music director and poet.

National Film Awards

• 1976 – National Film Award for Best Male Playback Singer – Hamsageethe – "Himadri Suthe Pahimam"
• 1987 – National Film Award for Best Music Direction – Madhavacharya

Kerala state film awards

• 1987-Best Male playback singer – Swathi Thirunal
• 2010-Best Classical Music Singer-Grammam

Other honours

• Honorary Doctorate
• Sangita Kalanidhi by The Music Academy, Madras
• Sangeetha Kalasikhamani by The Fine Arts Society, Chennai (1991)
• He was awarded the Lifetime achievement Global Indian Music Academy Award for 2011.^[6]
• Sangeetha Kalasarathy^[7]
• "Sangeetha Virinchi" tilte conferred by Sangeetha Bharathi music School, Auckland during Dr BMK concert "Raganga Ravali" in 2009 at Auckland, New Zealand^[8]

M. Balamuralikrishna in Telugu Book of Records

• http://www.telugubookofrecords.com/home/indian-carnatic-vocalist-playback-singermulti-instrumentalist-and-cator/

Selected compositions

Film compositions

Balamuralikrishna acted in few films and gave his voice to some selected songs in Indian cinema.

References

Further reading

• "There's no one way to teach". The Hindu. 28 February 2006. 
• Swaminathan, Chitra (4 January 2008). "He defines 'style' as tradition". The Hindu. 
• Khurana, Suanshu (2 September 2013). "God's Own Voice". The Financial Express. 

External links

Wikimedia Commons has media related to M. Balamuralikrishna.

• Murali and Me: A tribute by Prince Aswathi Thirunal Rama Varma.
• Balamuralikrishna with his musicians in Switzerland in 1992.
• Various devotional works of Balamuralikrishna.