He was among the most imitated vocalists in Carnatic, or south Indian classical music. His impact on both listeners and musicians was so great that many young musicians to this day try to mimic his inimitable style.
Most of today’s music lovers are unfortunately too young to have heard him live extensively, though some retain a few vivid images from childhood, and remember being exhilarated by his wonderful voice.
Born to GV Narayanaswami Iyer and Visalakshi on 6 January 1910, GN Balasubramaniam studied at the Hindu High School, Triplicane, Madras, Madras Christian College (where he completed his B.A. Honours in English), and briefly at Annamalai University. GNB—as he was to be known as a charismatic vocalist—was eager to pursue a career in music, while his schoolmaster and music enthusiast father wanted him to take up a proper job. He had a natural flair for music and did not undergo much formal tutelage. Both his parents were musically talented and had many opportunities of listening to giants of the period. When GVN, as Narayanaswami Iyer was often called, became a maths teacher at the Hindu High School, Madras, and became involved in the Sri Parthasarathi Swami Sabha, a music organisation, he came into close contact with great musicians.
GNB recalled in a 1967 article, "Violinist Karur Chinnaswami Iyer lived next door to us in
Triplicane. I lived in an atmosphere drenched in music and this helped me to nurture, develop and sustain my ardour for music." His ability to learn by ear was sharp and inspired, enabling him to learn the more advanced aspects of music without the help of a guru. In his own words, "Without so much as any basic training, I acquired swara gnana which I humbly feel was due to the benediction of elders and savants. Whenever I listened to good music, I had an inner feeling that I could visualise it in the imagery of swara-s. What my ears would be hearing would be picturised in my mind’s eye in swara forms."
For all his greatness, GNB was a genuinely humble man. After listening to a haunting raga Bhairavi from the eccentric genius, flautist TR Mahalingam, he once said, “After listening to this, I feel like giving up singing.”
GVN was often dismayed at his son’s proclivity for what he considered excessive speed in his singing. He even complained to his houseguest, the doyen of Carnatic music, Ariyakudi Ramanuja Iyengar about this tendency of his son. The maestro then asked Mani to sing for him and was more than impressed by his voice and talent.
Ariyakudi instantly became GNB’s hero and virtual guru. When his first concert opportunity came about in 1928, with a desperate SOS from the organisers for him to fill in at the last moment for famous Musiri Subramania Iyer— who had taken ill — at a concert at the Mylapore Kapaliswara temple, it was Ariyakudi’s example that dispelled the doubts assailed the young GNB’s mind. Years earlier, Ariyakudi had replaced Madurai Pushpavanam at a concert under identical circumstances, and the retelling of that story was enough inspiration for GNB to accept the challenge and captivate the listeners with a virtuoso performance.
All his life, GNB continued to admire Ariyakudi. A great fan also of vocalist Maharajapuram Viswanatha Iyer and TN Rajaratnam Pillai, the nagaswaram (the south Indian pipe) wizard, GNB imbibed the best of their music, but also blazed a trail of his own. His structured approach to improvisation and expansive treatment of the great raga-s helped him evolve a style involving step-by-step building of a magnificent edifice that summed up the grandeur and range of each raga. He gave concert music the idea of modal shift of the tonic, an intriguing exercise fraught with vocal risk, but never indulged in excess of any kind.
While his portrait of the original raga was a vast landscape, his modal shift of tonic was subtle, no more than a suggestive brushstroke or two. His raga elaboration was a detailed, systematically developed, soulful recapture of the raga’s every contour. His singing was famous for briga or lightning-fast modulations of the voice.
GNB was not only a great and charismatic musician, he was also an intellectual and a scholar, who studied other systems of music — both Indian and Western — as well as literature and philosophy — again both Indian and Western — assimilated the best and applied it in his theories and utterances. A Sanskrit scholar, albeit self taught, he was also a master of the English language who could write and speak it fluently, as his many articles proved time and again.
GNB acted in a few films at a time when Indian films were excuses for showcasing the best music of which composers of the era were capable. GNB the actor was a pale shadow of GNB the brilliant musician and his foray into the medium was predictably short-lived.
He was a highly creative composer of music in the best tradition of the great vaggeyakaras (composers who wrote both the music and lyrics of Carnatic music). Though he himself seldom sang his compositions in his own concerts, they have outlived him splendidly, with many musicians of today including them proudly in their repertoire.
Easily the most successful musician of his time, with concert engagements almost everyday of the year, GNB was a much travelled man. He was a stylist who dressed well and had an expensive taste in perfumes, pens and cars. A handsome man with a debonair presence, he was the heartthrob of thousands, perhaps the first male matinee idol in Carnatic music. His constant travels and excessive use of the voice in all kinds of conditions at faraway locations took their toll on his health. In May 1965, he succumbed to heart disease when barely 55 years of age. He left behind a grieving wife and ten children.
His music lives on in recordings and the memories of thousands of die-hard fans. Many young musicians of today have been greatly influenced by GNB’s music. His centenary celebrations during 2009-2010 featured several concerts in his memory all over the world.