<p>The music and personality of S. Rajam made a great impression. It is not possible to separate music and his nature.</p>

- N. Ramanathan

He was blessed with an enviable voice while very few male singers from Tamil Nadu have a melodious voice. From the panchama in the mandra sthayi to the tara panchama, he had a voice of uniform evenness and steadiness. He did not croon, nor did he use a false (head?) voice. His voice production was clean.

It is common for musicians to set some musical preferences for themselves. The thrust among Carnatic musicians is usually on the madhyama kala or medium tempo. Gamakas like kampita, jaru and vali characterise the melodic line in abundance, but in their performances, we do observe a fundamental incompatibility between the kalapramanam and the gamakas. In other words, when there is an acceleration from the madhyama kala to the druta kala, the gamakas are intensified instead of being sobered up, resulting in a kind of melodic jarring and confusion.

Rajam gave preference to madhyama kala but maintained a certain restraint in the extent and tempo of gamakas and kept the melodic expression from getting out of control. As a result his music might have given the impression of lacking a ‘Carnatic melodic depth’, but the richness of the voice was not sacrificed and the beauty of melodic expression was well maintained. Dwaram Venkataswamy Naidu too, as we observe in his recordings, in order to avoid any compromise with the tonal quality of the violin, curtailed the intensity of some gamakas and also simulated them through ‘viraladi’, the dexterous movement of different fingers, instead of quick up-and-down sliding movements on the string. These c