Marungapuri Gopalakrishna Iyer - Violin

Here is a rare gem!

Sangeethakalanidhi Marungapuri Gopalakrishna Iyer plays Violin.
This is a 78 rpm record from yesteryears!

Bantureeti - Hamsanadam - M G Iyer.

Gopalakrishna Iyer was born at Madurai and took to music at a very early age. He decided to specialize in the art of violin playing at the age of twelve and accordingly trained under Karur Venkatarama Iyer, a senior violin vidwan. With his dedication and hard work, he flowered into one of the top violinists of the day. He acquired a phonoviolin and popularised it. He used to conduct special aradhanas for Tyagaraja. He was chosen as the Asthana Vidwan in the Marungapuri Zamindari. 

"Next came the Tyagaraja festival conducted by violin maestro Marungapuri Gopalakrishna Iyer at Srirangam. The event lasted for four days, from January 16 to 19 and on the last day, Gopalakrishna Iyer felicitated Mani Iyer on his receiving the ‘Kalanidhi.’ A gold-bordered lace shawl was gifted to Mani Iyer who replied thanking Gopalakrishna Iyer for all the support he had given him over the years. The Hindu (January 24) noted that a ‘large gathering of musicians and music-lovers was present."

- From Sri Sriram V's blog (This is a part of write-up about Sri Madurai Mani Iyer)

"Imagine being honoured as "Gayanapatu" by Vishnu Digambar Paluskar, and "Kirtanapatu" by Lokmanya Balgangadhar Tilak! Harikatha is an obsolescent genre now, but in its heyday Saraswati Bai's eloquence, multilingual wit and ripe music made her an unrivalled exponent. First woman to be honoured with a Merit Certificate by the Music Academy, Bai is the stuff of legends. Sriram mentions the rare `phono violin', a violin with a speaker attached, that she gifted to Marungapuri Gopalakrishna Iyer. The curio was described by Ariyakudi Ramanuja Iyengar as "bandmaster's baby"."

-from Mrs Gowri Ramnarayan's article in The Hindu.

(Thanks to the net sources for the text and the image)