H. K. Narayana was a well-known singer and music composer from Karnataka, India. He was an icon of Light music and played an important role in popularizing the genre of

Sugama Sangeetha Sugama Sangeetha, a variety of Bhavageethe, is an Indian musical genre in which poetry in the Kannada language is set to music. It gained recognition with the work of P. Kalinga Rao in the mid -20th century. Mysore Ananthaswamy and C. Aswath ...

Kannada Kannada (; ಕನ್ನಡ, ), originally romanised Canarese, is a Dravidian language spoken predominantly by the people of Karnataka in southwestern India, with minorities in all neighbouring states. It has around 47 million native s ...

. ''Nadavirada Baduke'' by Nissar Ahmed, ''Brundavanake Haalanu Maaralu'' by

Kuvempu Kuppali Venkatappa Puttappa (29 December 1904 – 11 November 1994), popularly known by his pen name Kuvempu, was an Indian poet, playwright, novelist and critic. He is widely regarded as the greatest Kannada poet of the 20th century. He was ...

and ''Shubha Nudiye Shakunada Hakki'' by ''

D. R. Bendre Dattātreya Rāmachandra Bēndre (31 January 1896 – 26 October 1981), popularly known as Da Rā Bēndre, is generally considered the greatest Kannada lyric poet of the 20th century and one of the greatest poets in the history of Kannada ...

'' are some of his well-known numbers. He is popular through ''Navasuma'' and ''Geetaraadhana'' in Radio.

Early life

Narayana was born in 1934 at

Holenarasipura Holenarasipura is a town and taluk in Hassan district of Karnataka. The town is situated on the banks of the Hemavati, one of the tributaries of the Kaveri. Demographics India census, Holenarasipura had a population of 29,938. Males constit ...

Hassan district Hassan is one of the districts of Karnataka, 31 districts of Karnataka, India. The district headquarter is Hassan, Karnataka, Hassan. It was carved out from Mysore district in the year 1866, during the Commissioner's Rule of Mysore (1831-81). ...

of Karnataka to Keshavayya and Sannamma. Influenced by his father, who was a musician himself, Narayana developed interest in music early in his life and started learning Violin at a young age of six. He later got his Carnatic classical vocal music lessons from the veteran musician R. K. Srikantan in Mysore. H.K. Narayana was known to be one of the favourite students of R. K. Srikantan. He later switched to Sugama Sangeetha, an area he was much passionate about.

Family

Narayana's wife Kanta is a Kathak dancer. Like HKN his daughters Chandrika (Chandu) and Manju have also developed interests in the field of art. Chandu is a Bharatanatya dancer and a painter in Tanjore style. And Manju has interests in instrument. HKN's brother Keshav Murthy is a renowned Carnatic violinist and he teaches violin to his students.

Career

He got associated with the All India Radio early in his student life and gave many performances. He also later joined as a staff artist in AIR. H. K. Narayana known as HKN worked with

All India Radio All or ALL may refer to: Language * All, an indefinite pronoun in English * All, one of the English determiners * Allar language (ISO 639-3 code) * Allative case (abbreviated ALL) Music * All (band), an American punk rock band * ''All'' (All a ...

for almost four decades. He held many important roles and responsibilities in AIR as Junior composer, Senior composer, Music producer, 'A' Grade artiste of

and

Classical Music Classical music generally refers to the art music of the Western world, considered to be distinct from Western folk music or popular music traditions. It is sometimes distinguished as Western classical music, as the term "classical music" also ...

. M.D. Parthasarathy who worked as the Assistant Producer of Light Music at AIR, Bangalore is supposed to have played a key role in imparting the art of composing the melody and the background score to HKN. He retired from AIR in the year 1989. HKN was part of the committee constituted in 2004 by

N. Dharam Singh Dharam Narayan Singh (25 December 1936 – 27 July 2017) was an Indian senior congress politician who served as the 17th Chief Minister of Karnataka from 28 May 2004 to 28 January 2006 and Member of the Lok Sabha from Bidar Lok Sabha constitue ...

the then Chief minister of Karnataka Government to select and suggest a befitting tune for the rendition of the Karnataka state anthem in 2004. The committee composed of G. S. Shivarudrappa, Siddalingiah, Doddarange Gowda and

Rajashekhar Mansur Rajshekhar Mansur (born 16 December 1942 death 1 May 2022) was an Indian classical vocalist of the Jaipur-Atrauli gharana. He was the son and disciple of vocalist Mallikarjun Mansur. Early life and education Mansur was born to singer Mallikarjun ...

deliberated over the quality and dignity of rendition of the officially edited version of the poem and recommended that the music composed by

Mysore Ananthaswamy Mysore Ananthaswamy (ಮೈಸೂರು ಅನಂತಸ್ವಾಮಿ) was one of the pioneers of Kannada Bhavageethe in Karnataka. He was a very popular composer and singer of Kannada Sugama Sangeetha. He composed music for several poems an ...

was apt. He has composed music for several music based plays including ''Shringaranayaka'' of

Jayadeva Jayadeva (; born ), also spelt Jaideva, was a Sanskrit poet during the 12th century. He is most known for his epic poem ''Gita Govinda'' which concentrates on Krishna's love with the '' gopi'', Radha, in a rite of spring. This poem, which presen ...

, ''Chitrangada'' of

, ''Gita Bharata'' of

Rabindranath Tagore Rabindranath Tagore (; bn, রবীন্দ্রনাথ ঠাকুর; 7 May 1861 – 7 August 1941) was a Bengali polymath who worked as a poet, writer, playwright, composer, philosopher, social reformer and painter. He resh ...

. He has composed music for more than 25 dance dramas abroad. He has also given several performances as a singer for Light Music, Classical Music and Bharatanatya in several part of India and in US,

England England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Wales to its west and Scotland to its north. The Irish Sea lies northwest and the Celtic Sea to the southwest. It is separated from continental Europe b ...

Singapore Singapore (), officially the Republic of Singapore, is a sovereign island country and city-state in maritime Southeast Asia. It lies about one degree of latitude () north of the equator, off the southern tip of the Malay Peninsula, borde ...

Hongkong Hong Kong ( (US) or (UK); , ), officially the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region of the People's Republic of China (abbr. Hong Kong SAR or HKSAR), is a city and special administrative region of China on the eastern Pearl River Delta i ...

Ceylon Sri Lanka (, ; si, ශ්‍රී ලංකා, Śrī Laṅkā, translit-std=ISO (); ta, இலங்கை, Ilaṅkai, translit-std=ISO ()), formerly known as Ceylon and officially the Democratic Socialist Republic of Sri Lanka, is an ...

Russia Russia (, , ), or the Russian Federation, is a List of transcontinental countries, transcontinental country spanning Eastern Europe and North Asia, Northern Asia. It is the List of countries and dependencies by area, largest country in the ...

Manila Manila ( , ; fil, Maynila, ), officially the City of Manila ( fil, Lungsod ng Maynila, ), is the capital of the Philippines, and its second-most populous city. It is highly urbanized and, as of 2019, was the world's most densely populate ...

and other places. Though his major contributions as a musician are found in compositions of Kannada, one can definitely get a taste of HKN's musical compositions in other regional languages as well. He has composed music to three Malayalam songs in a programme organised by Akashavani in

Calicut Kozhikode (), also known in English as Calicut, is a city along the Malabar Coast in the state of Kerala in India. It has a corporation limit population of 609,224 and a metropolitan population of more than 2 million, making it the second la ...

. He has also worked with several other artistes to create several popular work of art in the field of music. He has sung for as many as 150 audio cassettes with noted classical musician

Rajkumar Bharathi Rajkumar Bharathi is a classical singer and music composer from India. He is the great grandson of the renaissance poet Subramanya Bharathi. Rajkumar is an Electronics and telecommunications engineer graduated from the College of Engineering, Gui ...

for ''Ramanamaharshi Gitagayana''. He has composed music for more 35 audio cassettes sung by noted vocalist Vidyabhushana.

Excellence

HKN was known for carefully crafting the tune of the song without compromising on the lyrical beauty of it. Listeners could enjoy the emotional core of the poem in his scores. His excellence in music composition reflects in the song ''Shubha nudiye shakunada hakki'' which creates a perfect ambience while still reinforcing the meaning. When the phrase ''Googeyondu Gukkenuthiththa'' is rendered he cleverly deviates from the scale introducing an odd note, which blends aptly with the meaning and the mood of the song. To compel the listener to concentrate on the lyric HKN often introduced a slight delay of the voice delivery with respect to the beat pattern in his compositions making room for emphasis on the meaning. He was supposedly influenced by the legendary singer Ghantasala. The voice modulation and '

Gamaka (music) Gamaka (also spelled gamakam) refer to ornamentation that is used in the performance of North and South Indian classical music. Gamaka can be understood as embellishment done on a note or between two notes. Present-day Carnatic music uses at le ...

' ('drag' and 'looping' of 'graces') reflects Ghantasala`s influence on HKN. Composers recall HKN's seriousness and immense commitment towards his work. It is said that HKN'S handwritten scripts were a treat to see with his notations, neatly handwritten and highlighted in different coloured inks. This habit of making meticulous scripts came from the days of him being a

Copyist A copyist is a person that makes duplications of the same thing. The term is sometimes used for artists who make copies of other artists' paintings. However, the modern use of the term is almost entirely confined to music copyists, who are emplo ...

with AIR, during the days when the Kannada typewriter was not in much use.

Song compositions

Some of the popular compositions of HKN.

Death

H. K. Narayana died on 8 February 2008 in Bangalore after a prolonged illness. He was 73. He is survived by wife Kanta Narayan and two daughters Manju and Chandrika.

Awards

H. K. Narayana has got many awards to his credit. *''Karnataka Kalatilaka'' Award by ''Karnataka Sangeeta Nritya Academy'' *''Rajyotsava'' Award *''Chowdaiaha'' Award *''Santha Shishunala Sharifa'' Award *''Pampa'' Award *''Aryabhata'' Award

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Narayana People from Hassan district Singers from Karnataka 20th-century Indian composers 20th-century Indian singers