Preludium in F Major

When you can write a multi-part score at your will, you know you are in a league of your own.

The prelude of "Kannil enna Kaarkaalam" is one of my fascinations. Musically, there are so many layers in that song that every time I listen to it, it tells me how little I know and how much more I still need to go to appreciate this giant called Maestro Ilaiyaraaja.

If you look at each of the track in this multi-part harmony, its so simple. So perhaps its not such a big deal to find such a simple composition in Western classical tradition. But you look closer and you will see that the prelude operates in such a narrow range of notes of the major scale. If a composer is able to pack so many tracks with these notes and is still able to balance each of them and give them their place within the prelude without making a clutter out of it, it shows the mark of his genius.

And what is certainly a big deal is the seamless transition of ideas.. The composer thinks of a multi-part Western classical prelude for the first 30 seconds and then eases into an indian melody (With strong mohanam notes in the first few lines) set for a tisra nadai tabla rhythm without even you noticing it. Composing with such musical zeal song after song makes this man truly one of a kind!

This song is one of those comforting type that makes you slow down, take a deep breadth, close your eyes and listen to it. Melodywise the song is nothing special but SPB and Janaki take this to the next level due to only one factor.. The factor misused by every talent show judge nowadays - Singing with Soul, expression, feeling etc etc. Next time you listen to the song please pay attention to the emotion expressed by the singers and you will understand what truly "singing with feel" means.

The song's visuals for once do justice to music. That's because its picturized song by the master story teller Balu Mahendra. Its such a complete song, that even superstar Rajnikanth is not standing out in a song (like he usually does, even if its a sad song) but let the song be bigger than him. According to me, this song should be in the same league of best of Raaja - Balu Mahendra combinations but somehow didn't attain that cult status, which I hope posts like this will rectify.

I already mentioned the song is for a sorrow situation, but if you are a composer you know that its difficult to bring out that emotion in a major scale. But if you do handle it right, it sounds so soothing.. Especially that second chord of C#dim in strings ensemble towards the end of the prelude cuts me into two every time. A similar song of companionship that makes an equal impact is Simon and Garfunkel's "Bridge over troubled waters". Finally, Coming back to the prelude, There are 5 or 6 melody parts in it which I can hear and I figured at least 4 out of it. I only have two hands with limited playing capabilities and I was wondering how to go about this. I was considering sequencing this in the keyboard when Vedanth walked by.. I asked him "Hey Ved, do you want to help me with my Friday video..?" His school vacations started from today and he was like "eh.... I was going to watch TV". Then I offered him if he helps me, he gets to watch an extra episode of Topgear (He is an Automobile freak). His eyes lightened up immediately and he sat with me "Show me, what have you got!". I showed him the sheet music I wrote and in less than 10 minutes he was ready.. He is watching his TopGear now while I am typing this.. 1 hour of returns for 10 minutes of effort.. Good bargain, don't you think !!??

Happy weekend..

With Love
Vicky

PS: Send me a message or drop in a comment if you are interested in the sheet music.

posted by Vicky @ Saturday, December 20, 2014 Comments: 5