Doreswamy Iyengar

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Doreswamy Iyengar
Born	Mysore Venkatesha Doreswamy Iyengar 1920
Died	28 October 1997(1997-10-28) (aged 76–77) Bangalore, India
Nationality	Indian
Occupation	Musician
Known for	Veena
Children	D. Balakrishna
Awards	Padma Bhushan Sangeetha Kalanidhi

Mysore Venkatesha Doreswamy Iyengar (1920-1997) was a Carnatic musician and one of the greatest exponents of the veena in modern Indian history.^[1][2]

Early life[edit]

He was a son of Venkatesha Iyengar, a learned vainika and royal musician at the court of the Princely State of Mysore. Iyengar started learning the veena from his father at an early age and soon became a disciple of Veena Venkatagiriyappa.^{[citation needed]} He performed in the presence of the then Maharaja of Mysore at the age of 12.^{[citation needed]} Spellbound, the Maharaja presented him with a fifty-rupee silver coin.^{[citation needed]} Iyengar received a BA degree from Maharaja's College, Mysore.^{[citation needed]}

Career[edit]

He gave his first public performance in 1943 at the Bangalore Gayana Samaja.^{[citation needed]} He participated in music conferences including one in Shiraz, Iran, in 1969, where he was also invited to perform at the Shiraz Persepolis Festival of Arts.^{[citation needed]}.

He served as the Music Director at the All India Radio in Bangalore.^{[citation needed]} The University of Mysore conferred upon him an Honorary Doctorate in 1975.^{[citation needed]}

In an age when most of the other vainikas had started using the contact microphone, Iyengar stuck to the ‘acoustic’ Veena.^{[citation needed]} His style of playing is sometimes referred to as the Mysore Style.^{[citation needed]} This distinctive style is marked by the movements from one note to another being achieved with the playing fingers (the index and middle fingers of the left hand) parted. This, along with his prolonged, medieval string plucking style enabled him to achieve the continuity of sound.^{[citation needed]}

Concerts of Iyengar, accompanied by Mysore T Chowdiah on the violin, became very popular.^{[citation needed]} He participated in many Jugalbandis, including with famous Hindustani classical instrumentalists such as Ustad Ali Akbar Khan.^{[citation needed]} He composed music for dance dramas, notably to those of P. T. Narasimhachar.^{[citation needed]} Iyengar also composed songs for a few Kannada films, notably Subbashastri, starring Kalyan Kumar.^{[citation needed]} Iyengar was regularly accompanied on mridangam by V S Rajagopal.^{[citation needed]} The noted vainika C. Krishnamurthy was one of Iyengar's main disciples.^{[citation needed]}

Iyengar died aged 77 in Bangalore, India.^{[citation needed]}

Awards[edit]

Doreswamy Iyengar was awarded the Padma Bhushan by the President of India in 1983,^[3] the Sangeetha Kalanidhi of the Madras Music Academy in 1984, the Sangeetha Kalasikhamani of the Indian Fine Arts Society in 1994, the Sangeetha Kalarathna of the Bangalore Gayanasamaja, and the Chowdiah National Memorial Award.^{[citation needed]}

References[edit]

External links[edit]

• Listen to Tyagaraja Compositions performed by Sri Doreswamy Iyengar
• [1] his compositions in mp3 format