South India: Ranganayaki Rajagopalan—Continuity in the Karaikudi Vina Style

Vīṇā player Ranganayaki Rajagopalan (b. 1932) is a much-honored master of a South Indian classical (Karnatak/Carnatic) instrumental style named after the town of Karaikudi in Tamil Nadu, South India. She apprenticed from early childhood with Karaikudi Sambasiva Iyer, a prominent member of a long lineage of court musicians. In this two-disc set, she is brilliantly accompanied by the eminent mridangaṃ (double-headed barrel drum) player Srimushnam Raja Rao. This album includes a complete concert cycle of rāgam and tānam expositions and compositions by much beloved composers Tyāgarāja, Muthuswamy Dikshitar, and others. The subtleties and complexities are illuminated by extensive explanatory notes by Richard K. Wolf. 2 discs, 2 hours 17 minutes, 24 pages of notes.

This album is part of the UNESCO Collection of Traditional Music. More than 125 albums are being released by Smithsonian Folkways Recordings to make the series publicly available, including a dozen never-released albums of musical traditions from around the globe.