During the same time, the legendary Rukmini Devi Arundale initiated a new course onSangeeta Siromani at Kalakshetra. MDR auditioned for the course and was the only student to be selected for the first batch commencing in 1944. Soon, MDR emerged as Tiger Varadachariar’s favorite and was his closest disciple when the later died in 1950.

MDR was known for his unique style of singing. In addition to having an extremely deep, booming voice, he rendered songs at an extremely slow pace, thereby allowing ample time for the listener to catch every word of the song and gauge its meaning. He also sang with adequate bhava or expression. Ramanathan has sung in most Carnatic music ragas such as Sahana, Sri, Anandabhairavi, Reethigowla and Yadukula Kambhoji. Other favorite ragas of his include Kedaram, Kambhoji and Hamsadhwani. As he himself once admitted, hisVilambita Kaala Gaanam renderings during Kathakali dances had influenced his music and style of singing.

MDR has composed more than 300 songs in Carnatic music in Tamil, Telugu and Sanskrit. He used the wordVaradadasa as his mudra, in respect for Tiger Varadachari, his teacher.

For his contributions to music, MDR was awarded the Padma Shri by the Government of India in 1974 and the Sangeet Natak Akademi Award in 1975. The Indian Fine Arts Society bestowed upon him the title of ‘Sangeetha Kala Sigamani’ in 1976. He also served as a member of the Madras Music Academy’s Experts Committee. He was also considered for the Academy’s Sangeetha Kalanidhi award in the 1983-84 season though he did not get the award.

MDR’s legacy has been kept alive through his albums and private recordings. M.D. Ramanathan, A Unique Octave in Music by Dr. Madhu Vasudevan, which was released in 2003, is a fitting tribute to the legend.

MDR – An artist who transcends man made boundaries in the field of art. He was a singer, writer, dramatist, scientist, poet all rolled into one. Here I am trying to capture the essence of his lifetime work through quotes from famous names in all these various fields of endeavor – with an appropriate matching track.

http://www.mediafire.com/?5pn1l3o7z7zwxaa

Writers have no real area of expertise. They are merely generalists with a highly inflamed sense of punctuation.

Lorrie Moore

http://www.mediafire.com/?u15a18mqar07lj8

http://www.mediafire.com/?1k20k8b4et5kt2j

RTP Todi

 A good writer refuses to be socialized and conform. He insists on his own version of things, his own consciousness.

And by doing so he draws the reader’s eyes from its usual groove into a new way of seeing.

Bill Barich

 http://www.mediafire.com/?doc4yicuh7c2oip

Thulasi Bilwa

 Singing is near miraculous because it is the mastering of what is otherwise a pure instrument of egotism: the human voice.

Hugo von Hofmannsthal

 http://www.mediafire.com/?pm7od7wwfkwk8su

etavunna Nerchitivo

Music washes away from the soul the dust of everyday life.

Berthold Auerbach

http://www.mediafire.com/?o0t89kuz15u0d4g

Mokshamu Galada-Saramathi

 Music….Love looking for words…

Lawrence Durell

http://www.mediafire.com/?6a3s3qrvcyq505i

Guruleka Etuvanti Guniki Teliyaga Podu – Gowri Manohari

 No work of Art is ever completed. Only abandoned.

Paul Valery

http://www.mediafire.com/?uzqbr5q0iiu1yk2

lokavana

 The job of the artist is to deepen the mystery

Francis Bacon

 http://www.mediafire.com/?6r74xh8g6gc138w

Dwaithamu sukhama

 Only a born artist can endure the labour of becoming one.

Comtesse Diane

 http://www.mediafire.com/?5dbcu84nk4iq2e1

Sankaree Sankuru

 Without music, life would be a mistake.

Friedrich Nietzsche

http://www.mediafire.com/?32hy9bu6y8kqd7d

Bhavayami

 One good thing about music, when it hits you, you feel no pain.

Bob Marley

http://www.mediafire.com/?u7ta0cczcdptxow

 If a man does not keep pace with his companions, perhaps it is because he hears a different drummer. Let him step to the music which he hears, however measured or far away.

Henry David Thoreau

http://www.mediafire.com/?5bgahulabubbwku

Ninne Bhajana

 When I hear music, I fear no danger. I am invulnerable. I see no foe. I am related to the earliest times, and to the latest.

Henry David Thoreau

http://www.mediafire.com/?i541837z2aesh66

Speech

Music is a safe kind of high.

Jimi Hendrix

http://www.mediafire.com/?ahg97i0vq8ezofw

03-Virana Brova (Kalyani)

 He who joyfully marches to music in rank and file has already earned my contempt. He has been given a large brain by mistake, since for him the spinal cord would suffice.

Albert Einstein

03-Kaddanuvariki-Thodi

http://www.mediafire.com/?mugdbo09e2mmfd0

 And the night shall be filled with music,

~Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, The Day Is Done

 http://www.mediafire.com/?31a0be0p7011p5k

Tulasidala

 Lastly a radio program on his 75th birthday

http://www.mediafire.com/?x7llbmkzbebhlss