Tribute To Professor P.Sambamoorthy Poem by Indira Renganathan

A tiny seed grown into a Banyan tree
Shoots noted aerially in deep roots
To grow repeatedly for aeons
Till the Earth's last breath
Blown out musically
Faming on into the ether...

Look, the wide mouthed sky
Exclaiming over an immortal service
Raga Devathas felicitating..

Advocated his musical eminence
The morning raga in the curriculum
Thence
The Sun in its universal voyage
Singing and preaching his words
Moon too along with the dancing stars..

The glory of a musical personality
Albeit a face of an attorney
Found founding a modality
Musicality in Madras university
Prof.P.Sambamoorty..'Maker of a musical century'


Note: Prof. P Sambamurthy
Professsor P Sambamurthy contributed greatly to Carnatic music with his many volumes
and books published on the various aspects of this art.
His great works included his famous series South Indian Music,
A Study of Music and Mathematics, Comparative music - country-wise
comparison of music, Music and temples, Kutcheri Dharma, Careers in Music,
Biographical sketches of composers, Raga and Rasa, History of Music, Mudras
in musical compositions, and many more. Apart from authoring many books and papers,
he also made disc recordings.

Born in Bitragunta in Andhra Pradesh to Parvati Ammal and Pichu Iyer,
Sambamurthy trained in vocal and violin music under Manatthattai Doraiswamy Iyer
and Walajahpet Ramaswami Iyer. He graduated in Law but chose to start his career
in the field of music. He was appointed as the first lecturer at the Queen Mary's College
in Madras. He then studied comparative music at the University of Munich in Germany.
He became the Head of the Department of Indian Music at the Madras University in 1937.

Sambamurthy also taught at the Sri Venkateswara University as a professor of musicology
and received the Sangit Natak Akademi fellowship in 1963.

His tours took him to all corners of the world,
giving lectures and meeting many musicians. The highlights were a lecture tour of Europe,
leading a music delegation to Manila, the International Tchaikovsky Music Competition
and the International Society for Music, Vienna and Paris.
His contribution to the field even prompted a doctoral thesis titled Prof. P. Sambamurthy's Contribution to Music Theory.
Prof.P.Sambamurthy was my professor when I did my M.A in Indian Carnatic Music