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{{Short description|Indian Carnatic musician}}
{{More citations needed|date=September 2014}}
{{Use dmy dates|date=June 2017}}
{{Use Indian English|date=June 2017}}
{{Infobox person
| name = Doreswamy Iyengar
| native_name = 
| image = DoraiswamyIyengarPic.jpg
| alt =
| caption =
| birth_name = Mysore Venkatesha Doreswamy Iyengar
| birth_date = 1920
| birth_place = Gaddavalli, [[Hassan district|Hassan]], [[Kingdom of Mysore]]
| death_date = {{Death date and age|df=yes|1997|10|28|1920}}
| death_place = [[Bangalore]], India
| children = [[D. Balakrishna]]
| awards = [[Padma Bhushan]]<br> [[Sangeetha Kalanidhi]]
| other_names =
| occupation = Musician
| years_active =
| known_for = [[Veena]]
| notable_works =
}}
'''Mysore Venkatesha Doreswamy Iyengar''' (1920–1997) was a [[Carnatic music]]ian and one of the greatest exponents of the [[Saraswati veena|veena]] in modern Indian history.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.hindu.com/revents/04/19970499.htm |title=Archived copy |access-date=2014-05-26 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20031231092001/http://www.hindu.com/revents/04/19970499.htm |archive-date=31 December 2003 |df=dmy-all }}</ref><ref>{{Cite web | url=https://www.frontline.in/static/html/fl1423/14230990.htm |title = Latest Volume14-Issue23 News, Photos, Latest News Headlines about Volume14-Issue23}}</ref>

== Early life ==
Doreswamy Iyengar was born to a [[Tamils|Tamil]] [[brahmin]] family in Gaddavalli, a village in [[Hassan district|Hassan]] of the erstwhile [[Kingdom of Mysore]] (in the present-day [[Karnataka State]] of India). His grandfather, Janardhana Iyengar, sang compositions of the Dasa saint-poets, including [[Purandaradasa]]. He was a son of Venkatesha Iyengar, a learned [[vainika]] and royal musician at the court of the [[Maharaja of Mysore]].<ref name="frontline">{{cite magazine |last=Ramnarayan |first= Gowri |date=15–28 November 1997 |title=A gentle musician |url=https://frontline.thehindu.com/other/a-gentle-musician/article30160421.ece |url-access=subscription |language=en |magazine=[[Frontline (magazine)|Frontline]] |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20010211111049/http://www.the-hindu.com/fline/fl1423/14230990.htm |archive-date=11 February 2001 |access-date=10 May 2024}}</ref>

Iyengar started learning the veena from his father at an early age and soon became a disciple of [[Veena Venkatagiriyappa]], a friend of his father. Doreswamy performed in the presence of the then Maharaja, [[Krishna Raja Wadiyar IV]], at the age of 12 for the first time. A few months later, he was appointed the junior ''[[vidwan]]'' in the [[Musicians of the Kingdom of Mysore|palace orchestra]]. He then passed the examination in advanced theory of Western music conducted by the [[Trinity College London]] and at 16, was nominated the court musician of Mysore, the youngest to win the honour. Iyengar, who was never interested in studies, managed to secure a [[Bachelor of Arts]] degree from [[Maharaja's College, Mysore]], with the help of his friend, [[R. K. Narayan]]. He was married at the age of 12 to Sharadamma.<ref name="frontline"/><ref>{{cite web |title=R.K. Narayan on Doreswamy Iyengar |url=https://frontline.thehindu.com/other/article30160423.ece |website=Frontline |access-date=10 May 2024 |language=en |date=14 November 1997 |url-access=subscription}}</ref>

== Career ==
Iyengar gave his first public performance in 1943 at the Bangalore Gayana Samaja.{{citation needed|date=April 2020}} He served as the Producer with the [[All India Radio]] (AIR) in [[Bangalore]] starting 1955. He was reluctant to carry on considering the bureaucratic and organisational demands of the post, and that he perform for the AIR at need, alongside auditioning and selecting musicians for the same. However, he was persuaded to stay by [[Semmangudi Srinivasa Iyer]], who was a chief producer with the AIR based in [[Madras]] (now Chennai), assuring him of flexible hours and fewer burdens of administration. Iyendar put together ''Gita Bharati'' for the AIR, Bangalore, which juxtaposed the compositions of [[Tyagaraja]] and [[Muthuswami Dikshitar]] with the Bengali songs of [[Rabindranath Tagore]], based on their musical structure. These unusual pieces had been composed by Tagore after his trip to southern India in the 1920s that included a visit to the Mysore court.<ref name="frontline"/> Other programmes produced by Iyengar included those where he set to tunes to poems of many Kannada-language poets such [[G. S. Shivarudrappa]], [[N. S. Lakshminarayan Bhat]].<ref name="th1">{{cite web |last1=Kambanna |first1=Manasa |title=Remembering the virtuoso |url=https://www.thehindu.com/entertainment/music/remembering-thevirtuoso/article30038758.ece |website=The Hindu |access-date=10 May 2024 |language=en-IN |date=21 November 2019 |url-access=subscription}}</ref> Iyengar later became the first [[Kannada people|Kannadiga]] and ''vanika'' to perform for AIR's national programme.<ref name="frontline"/>

Iyengar participated in music conferences including one in [[Shiraz, Iran]], in 1969, where he was also invited to perform at the Shiraz Persepolis Festival of Arts as a guest artist. He performed at the Festivals of India event in Germany and the [[Soviet Union]]; in the latter, he presented his five veena recitals (''pancha'').<ref name="frontline"/>

Concerts of Iyengar, accompanied by [[Chowdiah]] on the [[violin]], became very popular.<ref name="th1"/> He also performed duets with other violinists such as [[Lalgudi Jayaraman]], [[T. N. Krishnan]] and [[M. S. Gopalakrishnan]], and vocalists such as [[M. Balamuralikrishna]] and [[K. V. Narayanaswamy]]. He participated in many [[Jugalbandi]]s, including with popular Hindustani classical instrumentalists such as [[Ustad]] [[Ali Akbar Khan]], [[Mallikarjun Mansur]] and [[Amjad Ali Khan]].<ref name="frontline"/> Iyengar was regularly accompanied on [[mridangam]] by V. S. Rajagopal.{{citation needed|date=April 2020}} The noted vainika C. Krishnamurthy was one of Iyengar's main disciples, alongside his son [[D. Balakrishna]].<ref name="frontline"/>

Iyengar composed music for [[opera]]s, notably to those of [[P. T. Narasimhachar]], such as ''Gokula Nirgamana'' and ''Hamsa Damayanti''. He also scored music for a few Kannada-language films, notably ''[[Subba Shastry]]'' (1966).<ref name="frontline"/>

In an age when most of the other vainikas had started using the contact [[microphone]], Iyengar stuck to the acoustic Veena.<ref>{{cite web |last1=Govind |first1=Ranjani |title=A life in music |url=https://www.thehindu.com/entertainment/music/doreswamy-iyengar-d-balakrishna-bv-rajaram-kala-gangothri-dr-n-raghu/article31008974.ece |website=The Hindu |access-date=10 May 2024 |language=en-IN |date=7 March 2020 |url-access=subscription}}</ref> He was against [[Instrument amplifier|amplification]] as he felt that it robbed the music of its nuances and often distorted the tone.<ref name="frontline"/> Iyengar's style of playing is sometimes referred to as the Mysore style.{{citation needed|date=April 2020}} This distinctive style is marked by the movements from one note to another being achieved with the playing fingers (the index and middle fingers of the left hand) parted. This, along with his prolonged, medieval string plucking style enabled him to achieve the continuity of sound.{{citation needed|date=April 2020}}

Iyengar's son Balakrishna recalled that despite his father being "a purist, he listened to western music and [[Fritz Kreisler]] was one of his favorites.<ref name="th1"/> Members of his family recalled that his all-time favorite pieces were by German and Austrian musicians.<ref name="frontline"/> The [[University of Mysore]] conferred upon Iyengar an honorary doctorate in 1975.{{citation needed|date=April 2020}} Iyengar died of [[hepatitis C]] on 8 October 1997.<ref name="frontline"/>

== Awards ==
Iyengar was awarded the [[Karnataka Sahitya Academy|Mysore State Sahitya Academy Award]] in 1970,<ref>{{cite web |title=Doreswamy Iyengar |url=https://sangeetnatak.gov.in/public/uploads/awardees/docs/Doreswamy%20Iyengar.pdf |publisher=[[Sangeet Natak Akademi]] |access-date=10 May 2024}}</ref> the [[Padma Bhushan]] by the [[Government of India]] in 1983,<ref name="Padma Awards">{{cite web |url=http://mha.nic.in/sites/upload_files/mha/files/LST-PDAWD-2013.pdf |title=Padma Awards |publisher=Ministry of Home Affairs, Government of India |date=2015 |access-date=21 July 2015 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20151015193758/http://mha.nic.in/sites/upload_files/mha/files/LST-PDAWD-2013.pdf |archive-date=15 October 2015 }}</ref> the [[Sangeetha Kalanidhi]] of the [[Madras Music Academy]] in 1984, the [[Sangeetha Kalasikhamani]] of the Indian Fine Arts Society in 1994, the Sangeetha Kalarathna of the Bangalore Gayanasamaja, and the Chowdiah National Memorial Award.<ref name="frontline"/>

==References==
{{reflist}}

== External links ==
* [http://www.kannadaaudio.com/Songs/Classical/home/TyagarajaMasterpieces.php Listen to Tyagaraja Compositions performed by Sri Doreswamy Iyengar]
* [https://web.archive.org/web/20071213081355/http://www.sangeethapriya.org/Downloads/vd/vd.html] his compositions in [[mp3]] format

{{PadmaBhushanAwardRecipients 1980–89}}
{{Authority control}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Iyengar, Doreswamy}}
[[Category:1920 births]]
[[Category:1997 deaths]]
[[Category:Saraswati veena players]]
[[Category:Male Carnatic singers]]
[[Category:Carnatic singers]]
[[Category:Musicians from Mysore]]
[[Category:University of Mysore alumni]]
[[Category:Maharaja's College, Mysore alumni]]
[[Category:All India Radio people]]
[[Category:20th-century Indian male classical singers]]
[[Category:Recipients of the Padma Bhushan in arts]]
[[Category:Recipients of the Sangeet Natak Akademi Award]]

Doreswamy Iyengar - Revision history

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