Thumbi Vaa

This post is very special to me...
(Note: Read the previous one for the background check on this one.. !)

For the first time I made a serious attempt in representing Raaja's music as Staff notations. The piece I have taken for examination is the Pallavi of the one of the greatest Malayalam songs.. "Thumbi Vaa " from the movie 'Olangal'. I took the Concert version of this piece performed by Raaja himself during his "A musical journey" concert that was played live in Italy circa 2003.

I took the orchestra version because the bass pattern in this track are proper minims (half notes) and hence easy to follow as compared to the original track where the bass pattern though of lesser no. of notes is of more complex time signature. For additional simplification I didn't consider the minute Sangathis etc., Just the lead melody on the treble clef and the cello tracks on the bass clef.

Here is the Original part of the track:
Thumbi Vaa (Concerto Version)

And here is the sheet music for this phrase:
Thumbi_Resized.png

A quick guide to read the above notation is that:
Its a score with 4/4 Time signature and the key signature is C minor. I have used "Repeat volta " where each line has to be played twice instead of unfolding them as many times and cluttering the score. As a sample, I employed one slur on the second line to represent the gamakam (ga ma ga ri).. A sheepish attempt at best.. !!

This score also explains the Contrapuntal technique in a very basic form where two melodies are played simultaneously with different patterns and also sometimes in opposite directions crisscrossing each other..

Click here to Download this notation as pdf.

And here is the output of the notation in midi format:
Thumbi Vaa (Midi Version)

If you want to see the tracks played in real time mapped against Piano Keys, I suggest that you download this midi file here and play it using the Van Basco midi player that can be downloaded here. It gives you a much more clearer idea of how the notes are divided and played simultaneously.

This is a very basic first attempt and I have no idea if the score is written properly. Therefore I would really appreciate if someone gives a open review of this score (CSR ..?); Also please note that the notes in the sheet music are identified by raw hearing and I would be happy to know if there is any odd note that isn't in sync with the original..

Finally to put things in perspective, this the language that the musicians world over communicate with each other. Can you imagine, this is the language with which Raaja wrote the notations for Thiruvasagam or Guru or Hey Ram and musicians from Hungary who never knew anything of Raaja or India or Tamilnadu could play it instantaneously in exactly the same way that he intended. Isn't that amazing..?

In the future, I hope to unravel many of such Raaja's classics in its purest form !!

And Yes, I also hope that the PT Sir would be proud of the black sheep now !!

With Love
Vicky

Special Credits:
1.) A wonderful software called Lilypond that helped me notate this score. Its an automated engraving system that can generate printable sheet music in a traditional plate.. It has some extremely handy features such as midi output as well as image output of the score. And its FREE... (Hail Open source !!)

2.) Simple and complete Musical theory pages of the Connexions website such as this one that helped me bolster my basics and clear some doubts that arose while notating this score.

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posted by Vicky @ Friday, November 28, 2008 Comments: 14