Padma Vibhushan L Subramaniam: The Violin Virtuoso Who Put India On The Global Map Of Music

Back in the late 80s, a bunch of us just out of school, in the typical spirit of restless teen angst, were feeling unsatisfied with the music that was on offer those days. Film music, especially of the 80s, is indeed filled with remarkable riches. We enjoyed it. But our contrarian youthful spirit also looked for something that was different and unique. 'English songs,' especially those of the rock bands, gave you some cred, but that music, while enjoyable, did not fundamentally touch you as your ethos and inner spirit were different.

In those confusing crossroads of youthdom, a music cassette named 'Conversations' was dropped. Later we came to know that it was first recorded sometime around 1985. But we (me and my friends in the small city of Madurai) got to hear it around 1989. 

You know those days, like books, cassettes would be passed on for listening among friends. From the very first listen, we were absolutely blown away. It was music that we, at least those of us from the hinterlands of Tamil Nadu, had not heard before.

The instrumental music was headlined by L Subramaniam and Stephane Grappelli (a legendary French jazz violinist). It was a blend of known and unknown, in that it was jazzy, rocky, groovy interspersed in between with the quintessential Indian melodic music feel. The ensemble music, led by the violins, was immediately attractive without being predictable.

Whether it was the terrific title piece 'Conversations' (a true conversational exchange between two violins — don’t miss the part around the 2:20 mark when LSubs kicks in with a soulful, melancholic riff that has since become his musical trademark) or the catchy and rousing 'French Resolution,’ the album was a winner. It offered the kind of improvisational music our rebellious minds had been yearning for — not too outré, not too mainstream. It was, as we figured out soon, his quintessential brand of music. 

And with it, our fascination and fandom for 'LSubs' (as we referred to him among friends) began. And it has not stopped since. The man was a true musical pioneer who was among the first group of performers to take Indian musical traditions to the West and help them get pride of place without in any way diluting or deforming them. 

There has been some uncharitable chatter around the Padma Vibhushan conferred to him, but anyone who has followed his career in music would vouch that this is an honour most deserving. If anything, it is a tad late coming to this 78-year-old veteran who has been performing music right from around age six. 

A family filled with musical riches

His family was one with musical smarts. His mother Seethalakshmi was a decent vocalist, and his dad V Lakshminarayana Iyer was much more accomplished as a musician as he was both a singer and violinist. He taught music in Jaffna, and when he shifted base to Madras, he mentored many young musical talents, one of whom is, wait for it, Ilaiyaraaja. LSubs' uncles were Ramnad Raghavan and Ramnad Krishnan, so with such a rich musical lineage, it was inevitable that he started playing the violin along with his brothers L Vaidyanathan (older by 3 years) and L Shankar (younger by 3 years).

In the seventies, the brothers as a trio were spoken of very highly and one of their recordings with mridangam legend Palghat Mani Iyer (verily, the Bradman of Mridangists) in vinyl record was a chartbuster. 

The Carnatic music world looked at them with awe and they were predicted to take it to newer heights. But there was a restlessness and an innate quest for novelty and newness among the brothers, as they soon chose to go their different ways.

L Vaidyanathan chose to focus on refined melodies and passed away a few years ago as one of the finest orchestrators and arrangers in film music. His score for Ezhavadhu Manithan was highly regarded at the time as an avant-garde yet accessible masterpiece. L Shankar, more restless and ambitious, began with a spectacular stint in the legendary Shakti music band. He later improvised the much-discussed and appreciated double violin — a ten-stringed instrument that was challenging to play and adapt to Carnatic tunes. But he pulled it off with flair (listen and marvel at his improbable Abheri). However, he proved to be a maverick, and his career never quite lived up to the greatness it once promised.

But LSubs has not only managed to live up to the early expectations riding on him but also managed to, in a sense, surpass them. That is because he has managed to find a sweet point between experimentation and tradition. For a man who is a qualified doctor — he pursued medicine at the prestigious Madras Medical College — LSubs always knew that his inner calling was music. That is why he never began his practice as a doctor and instead chose to focus on his violin music.

Right in the early 70s, LSubs found the Carnatic world to be a bit stuffy to his liking as experimentation was frowned upon by the conservative set. (He had accompanied, among others, Chembai Vaidyanatha Bhagavatar, KV Narayanaswamy, Semmangudi Srinivasa Iyer, Balamuralikrishna, M D Ramanathan, and Alathur Srinivasa Iyer).

Instead of turning into a pointless performative rebel, LSubs decided to produce his kind of music and take it to a stage where it would find more easy acceptance. Though he was schooled strongly in Carnatic traditions (this early Keeravani exposition underscores his classical virtuosity), LSubs' medical college background had exposed him to other kinds of music — Hindustani and Western. 

On to the global stage

It was the era of Indian and Western music assimilation (remember Beatles and Ravishankar?), LSubs caught the same spirit and soon hitched his wagon on the global stage. For this, he worked on his violin playing to be a bit different from traditional Carnatic musicians — he used even the little and ring fingers to hit the notes on the string (Carnatic musicians mostly made do with middle and index fingers). His bowing technique was also more wholesome and he played with every part of it.    

His talent was quickly noticed, and in 1976 he was featured as a soloist in the world premiere of 'Carnatic Violin Concerto,' written for him to perform with a Western chamber orchestra. This was the veritable breaking of the wall, as no such precedent had been there before.  In two years, LSubs recorded his first-ever fusion album named Garland along with Svend Asmussen, the well-known Danish violinist. Around this time, LSubs secured a scholarship at the California Institute of the Arts, and even as he studied music, he also taught South Indian music. In academics too, it was a strange kind of fusion. 

From then on, there was no looking back as his sui generis ability to fuse the grammar of Indian Carnatic classical music with Western musical syntax became very popular as more and more collaborations with established names followed.

The most well-known among them was with the violin whiz Yehudi Menuhin (see how the strains of what seems like Carnatic raga Mohanam segue into jazzy riffs) and his most stellar album, in terms of a plethora of collaborations, was Mani & Co., as it featured legendary names like Larry Coryell, Maynard Ferguson, Bud Shank, and Tony Williams. 

The seminal Fantasy on Vedic Chants

In between, he composed a Double Concerto for violin and flute which combined western scales with micro intervals. Another release, Spring – Rhapsody, was a homage to Bach and Baroque music (very Raga Sivaranjaniesque, if you will). In 1985, LSubs recorded what is considered his seminal work, Fantasy on Vedic Chants. It is an inspirational commingling of Carnatic music and Western orchestration. 

Premiered at the historical Lincoln Center, the composition fuses Vedic chants into a Western-style violin concerto. This exhilarating musical convergence, composed byLSubs, was jointly performed by him and the prestigious New York Philharmonic Orchestra, under the direction of famed conductor Zubin Mehta. Fantasy on Vedic Chants was such a global hit that LSubs has subsequently performed it along with most of the well-known global philharmonic orchestras.

This one, with the Kirov (Mariinsky) Symphony Orchestra of Leningrad, was performed as part of the Indian festival in Moscow with the then Indian President R Venkatraman and USSR counterpart Mikael Gorbachev in attendance.

Simultaneously, LSubs was also using his musical imagination to score for films and theatre plays. His first major collaboration was as a musical consultant for the larger-than-life interpretation of Mahabharata. The most well-known film score of his was of course the poignant riffs for Mira Nair's Salaam Bombay. It was among the first films to come out with a full-fledged cassette of full background score. The theme of Salaam Bombay, haunting and moving, sets the mood for the director to seamlessly take over. 

The tune, in a sense, was tweaked for his famed performance at New Delhi for Jawaharlal Nehru's centenary celebration in 1989. Listen to this musical tribute and understand how he is able to play around with what is essentially the Hanumatodi raga scale. 

Kamal Haasan, when he conceived his magnum opus Hey Ram!, the first music director he went to was LSubs. That his score did not come out because of a financial tiff between the two, and Ilaiyaraaja had to step into the breach and come up with music and songs for the ages is altogether a different story.

In tandem with Hindustani maestros

LSubs was not only the prime mover in Indo-western fusion music, he was also the one who paved the way for strong Carnatic-Hindustani tandem music. His jugalbandis with legends like Ustad Bismillah Khan (shehnai), Ustad Zakir Hussain (tabla), Ustad Amjad Ali Khan (sarod), Pandit Jasraj (vocal), and my favourite of the lot, with Ustad Ali Akbar Khan (sarod) are the stuff of legends.

It shows his inherent confidence and compatibility to pit himself alongside the best in the business and still hold his own. But this has never allowed him to move in music circles with swagger or hubris. He is among the soft-spoken and quiet kind, and the fact that his son and daughter (Ambi and Bindu) follow in his vein is a happy augury for the musical legacy now known as the Subramania Gharana. He has two other children — a son named Dr Narayana (a doctor cum musician) and a daughter (Gingger Shankar).

Pioneered Indian music's global reach

As it happens, his marital life itself has been one of musical fusion — a metaphor of sorts. He was first married to singer Viji Subramaniam, daughter of singer Lakshmi Shankar and Rajendra Shankar (elder brother of sitarist Ravi Shankar. Viji, who had mothered all four of their children, had accompanied him on several platforms before she passed away in 1995 due to a brain tumour.

He later married singer Kavita Krishnamoorthy, and they have been successfully performing together across global stages for many years. LSubs, Kavita, Ambi and Bindu have been successfully running the Lakshminarayana Global Music Festival since 1992 in memory of his late father. (He also famously composed a new raga Shantipriya shortly after he passed away in 1990, which he also performed as a symphonic concerto).

LSubs has performed in almost every famous global musical stage. He has taken Indian classical Carnatic music to places it has never been before. He has toured and performed in every part of the world along with some of the most remarkable musical talents. He has given Indian music a great platform everywhere.

It has become normal for Indian musicians to earn acclaim internationally, and for Carnatic musicians to perform confidently with others. Today, as Indian music wins Oscars and the world begins to grasp its nuances and dynamics, it’s thanks to the tireless and generous efforts of an unassuming giant like L. Subs. He is truly among the few who set the stage for others to follow. If anything, he should be receiving the Sangita Kalanidhi. But just as well, he has been awarded something even greater — the Padma Vibhushan. 

Truly a man of many parts. Or should we say, musician of Mani parts!