Things that are obvious and yet most important are often promptly taken for granted..
Once I attended an introductory session of 'Art Of Living' course. The first question that the presenter asked was "have you ever paid attention to the fact that you are actually breathing all the time..?"; Such a simple question was provided with an embarrassing answer from all of us.. Then he asked "Can all of us close our your eyes and deliberately concentrate on our breathing for 5 minutes?". And when we did, it initially felt weird to focus on such an evident thing, then all sorts of other thoughts distracted the mind... Little later a complex feel engulfed the mind.. and finally it transformed to an uplifting experience that's hard to explain. (Its another matter that I never joined that course despite all this.. Because it was at morning 5:30; I have not seen that time of the day in my life even on a Deepavali day.. hee hee..!)
When it comes to Raaja's music, there are lots of such obvious factors that are just too important to ignore and yet remain so.. Peculiar indeed.. Or is it..! ?
Robin Singh, Lance Klusner and Michael Bevan are no Sachin Tendulkar or Brian Lara.. And yet these guys are considered modern day greats of Cricket. Why..? Just because of their ability to finish matches.. In the context of a given game, A match winning 20 is much more important than a classic century. And so is that last little portion in a Raaja song.. These parts usually lend an indispensable support to the script of the movie and often such songs culminate in to a finale.
In Musical terms the part that finishes the song is often described as a
Coda, although Raaja's application of finishing cannot be always called as Coda as per the norms of western classical music. However Coda is not a term restricted to only western classical and often is loosely attached with other genres of music as well including the recent ones; Its simply a portion that signals the end of the song; It could be a improvised version of the previously used theme in such a way it emphasizes an impending finish or it could be a new unrelated portion that extends the main theme into the finish line. While we may loosely attempt to call the clips described further below in this post as Codas, more often than not they are just a repetition of the exposition (i.e, Pallavi) in a totally new dimension; The term for such phenomenon in a western classical sonata is '
Recapitulation'; A Common ground can be that these clips are applications of
Musical Development. As far as my limited hearing of various other Indian and modern day western composers go, Raaja certainly belongs to the exclusive club when it comes to decorating the finishers.
Although I am tempted to call the below applications a 'Recapitulation' or a 'Coda' (as I don't see a good reason why this term be restricted to only Sonata forms), its best if we don't pay much attention to the terminology but simply marvel the often taken for granted realm of musical development around Raaja's finishers.
In these clips, I have taken those songs where there is an impending danger to either the hero or heroine towards the end of the song; The unique conundrum of situations which Tamil Cinema (alone!) brings are refreshingly challenging for Raaja; Where else do you get anti climax-ic situations conceived by a woeful Villain (or sometimes by fate playing dice !!) in which one protagonist's hour of glory/ happiness is their beloved's moment of life and death simultaneously.. (eg: Yaar Veetil Roja, Paadava un Paadalai, Mannava Mannava that are listed below); So you have to compose a "Happy song" and pack it with concealed tension; That "Element of Surprise"
as defined is clearly conveyed through these Finishers; And often the modus-operndi of this transformation remains the same magic bullet.. (As also specified in one of my
previous post).. The Strings Ensemble !
I have rather deliberately picked some hit numbers for this case-study.. So as to make you focus on the obvious and yet oblivion.. In all these clips you will hear the main theme (i.e., Pallavi) from the beginning passage in a song+ one second of gap followed by the same theme played from the last section of the song with the String Ensemble backings. I think this gives you the opportunity to spot the differences instantly. The strings that starts at the second time around is more like an relay, with the baton handed over from scintillating strings backing from the stanza, usually extending until the finish of the song.
Tip: These clips are better playable in IE (to avoid the
plugin problems of other browsers such as Mozilla firefox); Also please use headphones if you can!.. And most importantly conjure up all the patience you can get.. This is by far one of the lengthy posts that I have written :-PP
After all those build-ups :-) Dear readers,
Herewith I am presenting you...
The Raaja's Finishers...
1.) I start with a heavy-weight: A crazy girl's sympathy for an yesteryear heartthrob's tragic suicide turns into love and she goes searching for him (as she believes in her love's ability to raise the dead !!); Did she meet the ghost ..?
Engirundho(If you can, Watch out for a much more subtle finisher in Raaja's solo version of the same song.. Only one man can do such wonders)
2.) Hero singing in his career defining recording not knowing the least that he is loosing his lady love rather tragically..
Yaar Veettil3.) Quite a mirroring situation but from the lady's point of view..
Paadavaa4.) A blind mom ignorantly feeding her baby with poisoned milk;
Mannava5.) A dancer pair proving their innocence at the seat of god while a conspiracy to kill the hero unfolds.. (You would agree with me that this is a rather an odd selection out here given its folkish rawness.. I specifically chose this because of some superb application of Cello towards the ending.. Cello.. !!?? Are you kidding me..? that giant of a Western Classical Instrument for a Tamil Folk dance.. !!! ??
Getting the desired results is more important.. not how you do it.. this speaks for Raaja's indigenous ideas and unorthodoxy.
Mariyamma6.) A demented innocent man with a child's heart sings the same song twice - first during his initial days and later to bring back his lady to life; The treatment to the same melody with strings is unimaginable (With strings at double the tempo of an already decent paced song); That flute bit in the end epitomizes the personalities of movie goers while leaving the theaters.. House wives weeping (Aanandha Kanneer), Husbands who were dragged along by those wives Yawning.. Their small kids feeling a sense of achievement having actually visited a theater and watched a movie on the big screen while the jobless youth (Vela vetti illadha pasanga) who came to wile away the time, reaching to their pockets searching for cigarettes ('Dhammu').. Gosh !! we lost those ages of watching movies in small time theaters to the Multiplexes, Malls and home theaters I guess..
Thooliyile7.) I save the best finisher where the recapitulation is presented for no apparent reason but simply to celebrate Music. With PC Sriram's wizardry on capturing butterflies, this has got to be
one of the best audio visual experience.. Especially the beginning of the second interlude.. (If you can resort to the selective Amnesia of forgetting Aishwarya from the frame!).
Oh ButterflyNow lets come out of this pattern and look at other ways of Raaja's finishers.
There seem to be a subversion of Coda known as
Codetta where by the composition extends into a tail piece that is on its own and rather unrelated to the main theme, for a period longer than usual. The moment I read this, the finisher of "Inji Iduppazhagaa", the one where Revathi sings it for Gauthami came to my mind. Its an amazing tail piece. It starts with Revathi singing in front of Gauthami. As the song progresses it conveys Gauthami's farewell from rest of Kamal's Family memebers.. By the time the tail piece gathers pace she would be on the car on her way to the railway station. Then the String ensemble takes over briefly as Kamal and Gauthami bid goodbye to each other. The final bell of the song proceeds as if its hand-holding Gauthami all the way as she boards the train.. And it chugs away with a fade out, together with the train.. I have seen the movie only once and this sequence is somehow etched in my memory..
Art of composing again at work..
Inji iduppazhagaAlso such an extended un-related way of finishing seem to be the norm of Raaja when it came to a highly intense carnatic/ Bhardha-nattiya Numbers such as "Sangeetha Jaathi Mullai, Azhagu malar aada etc.,); Or for that matter dance numbers such as the Dandiya based "Dhillu Baru jaane" or Frolic "EnJodi Manjakuruvi"
Historically, in order to emphasize the finish (esp. in group songs) composers resort to just repeating the Chorus 'n' times together together with (or alternatively) an increase in the tempo of the song; Besides adopting the same technique in many songs to play by the books, Raaja also have mastered the art of subtlety by simply introducing claps that gets periodically doubled in tempo in songs like Aracha Santhanam, Priya Priyathama Raagalu, Paasamulla Paandiyaru etc., While the overall tempo is not increased, the effect of more people joining and the emphasize on the song's ending is conveyed ever more clearly through 1x, 2x and 4x of clapping .. Again Same results achieved as others for finishing but through his own unique ways..
I close with the following jewel on the crown. This clip is an stitched version of 3 passages from the "Composer's Breadth"; What an religious application of Exposition (1st bit), development (2nd bit) and Recapitulation (last bit);
Composer's BreadthThe Exposition is the lead Hindolam piece played softly, Followed by a superb development of the same with string ensemble and finally when it returns as such an arresting fortississimo, it moves you into another world that one of my roommates in college actually wept silently when he heard it for the first time (It was the first and only time where I have actually seen someone crying by hearing to a piece of music)
Thanks for traveling this far. The whole post may appear too obvious to one since you have heard these songs all along. But that's precisely the point. We don't normally look (again) at something we already know.. Its not exciting any more.. However its important to stop sometimes, take a step back and deliberately focus on such factors..
Again... and Again...
So that you are not unnecessarily denied of an uplifting experience that you deserve..
With Love
Vicky
Labels: Muse-ical, Orchestration, Strings
Ask anyone, what is the single most factor that differentiates Raaja's songs from the rest. The answer is bound to be "Orchestration".. Or in more simple terms the art of making a (fairly big) team of musicians working in unison to produce the desired results. Or in colorful language, Orchestration its the art of writing screenplay to the story called Melody.
One such tool available to write the screenplay is employing the String Ensemble as Tremolo strings.
Wikipedia defines Tremolo as "A regular and repetitive variation in amplitude for the duration of a single note". If that sounded too text-bookish, try this.. I would like to define it as a way of employing the String ensemble to sketch a measure with innumerable bow strokes; Or dividing a bar into notes of minimum perceivable time signatures; Or decipherable atomic notes per unit measure; The strokes have to be so fine, that on casual listening it should sound disguised as a normal sustained long note but on careful listening it is actually made of multitudes of strands.. Simple speaking, Think off Haldiram's Soan Papdi :-)
I would like to start off with the song Maalaiyil Yaaro (Chathriyan):
A casual look at the prelude, and you could be excused for thinking its made of full notes
"Pa ga Ma Pa
Pa Ma Ga Sa "
Prelude of 'Maalayil Yaaro'In reality, each of the notes specified above are made of tiny flakes of same note lasting for abysmall duration each.. Something like:
Papapapapapapa gagagagagagagagag mamamamamamama papapapapapapaapapa
Listen to the above track again.. there you go!!
Note: As far as I know, the Tremolo time signature is spontaneous and is not a strict derivative of 1/4x lasting notes (i.e., not necessarily 1/32 or 1/64th time signature).. basically its asymmetrical within each count but totally put together lasting for the given notated duration.. You can clearly see that pattern in this track and all the tracks to come...
Same phenomenon is observed all over this song.. I am posting this very short beginning of 1st interlude. There are just 2 bars.. Each starting with pizzicato strings (Technique of plucking instead of bowing a String instrument like Violin.. This is worth another blog post..) and finishing in Tremolo strings..
1st interlude of 'Maalayil Yaaro'Now look at the background of "Nenjame".. The desired effect is achieved solely by Tremolo:
Anu Pallavi of 'Maalayil Yaaro'Also in the 2nd interlude some beautiful Tremolo well disguised as full notes:
2nd interlude of 'Maalayil Yaaro'As in the previous clips, The pattern in which Raaja equates Tremolo effect with the pain of prolonged wait in Love symbolizing the return/ arrival of lover is rather unique ('Pirivaatraamai' in Tamil Ilakkiyam (!!??)). The irking wait for the partner is epitomized by one of the most beautiful tremolos of Raaja... The prelude of Sundari..
Maniratnam's picturization of early morning mist (Courtesy: Santosh Sivan..)
Solo Flute (and Solo Lady on screen)..
A landscape resembling Newzealand-ish outdoors of 'Lord of the Rings' with mountains, lush greenary and lakes...
And Tremolo..
Wow.. Wow.. Wow..
Prelude of 'Sundari Kannal'PS: Actually you can watch this Tremolo in action. There are two occassions. once in Jeya TV's
Andrum Indrum Endrum.. Now let me recap the definition of Tremolo.. A regular and repetitive variation in AMPLITUDE. Watch Raaja
in this video from seconds 48 to 52. The Amplitude of Tremolo raises and falls as gestured by Raaja.. !!
A much more pronounced Tremolo in action in this song is noticable in "Raaja Raajadhan " Live show in Dubai.. that can be watched here
http://sinnakuddy1.blogspot.com/2008/02/live-show.html --> Video no: 2 --> Seconds from 22:38 to 23:20. What happened was, clearly the Audio technician sitting in the channel mixer hasn't heard the song before and doesn't have enough knowledge of the song..(this might sound preposterous to you.. but take it from some one who has played 200 stages.. A technician who knows the song upfront is a very very crucial part of the stage show where live music is played by orchestra involving more than 6 channels or so.. stage feedback and mixing are two external factors which can make or break a show irrespective of your team's talent and hard work. The show is worth nothing if your sound mixer technician for the day is a stupid like in this case...) So the technician here, saw a hoard of animated violinists and thought that's the main part of the song and increased that channel's volume least realizing its the Flute and Oboe that was taking the lead there.. The result was a cold blooded murder of a beautiful phrase.. All the hard work of the orchestra goes down the drain.. But I was jumping when I saw that because I could hear the Tremolo uninterruptedly and could understand the transitions more vividly.. A horrible gaffe but it brings a hidden area to forefront even though the result is not pleasing to hear..
There are probably hundreds of songs by Raaja employing Tremolo.. I am copy pasting tracks top of my head..
Prelude of 'Kaatru Poovai'(I Love India)Prelude of 'Unnai naan' (Kannukkoru Vannakilli)Last but not the least, The superb
Pooerukonum Purantharanum from ThiruvasagamI would like to close with one remark. Often I get asked by my friends, why am I so biased with Ilaiyaraaja..? Well, I am not averse to other composers.. I definitely am a big fan of quality music where ever that comes from (ARR included, for instance..); but there are reasons why my veneration towards Raaja is unflinching..
Let me again quote
Wikipedia: "In music notation tremolo is indicated by strokes through the stems of the notes (in the case of semibreves or whole notes, which lack stems, the bars are drawn above or below the note, where the stem would be if there were one)".
Show me another composer in India/ South Asia who is capable of "indicating these strokes through the stems of the notes" and making a bunch of 40 violinists from Chennai play it..locally right here.. Fully cognizant of the fact that 9 out of 10 who listens these tracks where looking at the hero (probably a Murali or a Ramarajan or a xxx) or the heroine (a Bhanupriya or an Ambika or..) and not noticing the Tremolo..
Well, that's definitely a reason good enough for me to revere for..
With Love
Vicky
Labels: Muse-ical, Orchestration, Strings
Raaja: Vanakkam Thiru Bach
Bach : Freut Mich Herr Ilaiyaraaja
Raaja: I am honored to have you here. I never imagined this meeting would take place. No words can express my joy.
Bach: The pleasure is mine.. I felt very much the same way when you took particular interest to visit me in Leipzig.
Raaja: Yes, your music has been a great source of inspiration to me from the early days when I started learning Western Classical Music under my Master, one Mr. Dhanraj.
Bach: I have listened to some of your works too. Especially the tracks like the Background score of the movie Johny. Its hard for me to believe why such quality music is not known to many outside your home state.
Raaja: Yes. Probably because here in India, Doing music in Cinema is considered the ultimate, and given that my movies are mainly regional, the scope is limited.
Bach: I see.. You mean, the only opportunity that exist for you to express your musical views is through the small window of Cinema...?
Raaja: Yes.. But I take that more as a challenge than a constraint. For me everything is music. There is only so much that I could spin and yet I have to produce a sugar candy that looks exciting to people every time. That's a real challenge.
Bach: Yes. I see your point. For me too, music needs no foundation and has no barriers. Irrespective of its form or cause, there must be an end purpose. The Life, The Feel and The Emotion that the notes evoke on a listener shouldn't be a passing cloud. It should stay at the hearts of the people for ever.
Raaja: Yes. I could feel that passion in all your compositions and that's the benchmark I strive to achieve in all my songs too..
Bach: OK.. As and when I was coming to meet you, I wrote this Prelude for violin.. Its the 3rd Partita that I've written in as many days.. This is how it goes...
Partita III PreludioRaaja: (Speechless).. What can I say. This is master class. E Major, isin't ?
Bach: That's correct. Now I would like to understand your music too. Can you explain it to me.
Raaja: I am too small to explain music to a man like you.
Bach: Come on. I have traveled so far to meet you and you plan to send me back empty handed !
Raaja: Now you are putting me in a fix. Let me see.. Ok I will take the same piece that you played me now and try to explain the Raaga based system of Indian Classical music.
Bach: Exciting.. I am waiting..
Raaja: hmm... Sa.. Pa.. Sa... (Hums the beginning of violin Prelude that Bach played..) hmmm... Sa ni sa pa.. ga pa.. sa ri sa ni sa pa ga pa...
You See.. that captures the Bhavam of a Raaga called 'Hamsadhwani'..
And then the place where you switched the melody to Harmonic minor, I see a natural blend of our 'Keeravani'.. Midway through you eased out the grip for a brief time, right? I see a place for 'Bageshwari' there.. And then we can go back to Keeravani and Finally the place where you close with E Major, I can bring back the original flavor of Hamsadhwani too.
Bach: Fascinating.. So shall we blend both of it together..? Why don't you bring out the essence of Hamsadhwani with my melody as a base and demonstrate it...
Raaja: Excellent idea.. I can also show you the other Raagas I mentioned by super imposing vocals mid way through the passage. Here is what we can do. I will start with a rendition of Hamsadhwani; Then you can join me with the prelude..
Bach: Lets start...
I Met Bach In My House(After the composition finishes, Bach leaps to Raaja and gives him a gentle Hug..)
Bach: Brilliant.. Brilliant...
Raaja: Only because of the base you provided me.. I am having Goose bumps... You see ..
Bach: Yes.. Yes.. As I said, Music has no barriers. Indian classical Music is amazing.. The Raagas really bring out various colors and follows such great patterns so religiously. I am also totally floored by your innovation to reduce the tempo of my piece.. you started slowly.. and then you built it up..
Raaja: Yes, we call it the Aalapana or Aalap in Hindustani music...Thats usually the way to start.. Then the normal song is in a more followable and soothing tempo, although in certain compositions like Varnams and Bhajans, during the later half of the song, we will normally speed up the tempo and sing in what we call "Moonam kaalam"
Bach: Yes.. Its conceptually the same as what we call movements although the execution is different.. We do have slow, Moderate and Fast movements.. we call it Adagio, Andante and Allegro..
Raaja: That was a great experiement..
Bach: Come on, Lets do it again. Which one shall we take this time?
Raaja: Your Bourree in E Minor has been one of my favorites. Shall we take that ..?
Bach: You mean the one that I wrote for Lute ..?
Raaja: Yes.. the same one.. Can you please play it for me? Then I will try to mix it up with an Indian melody.
Bach: So here you go..
Bourree in E MinorRaaja: This is one of a life time composition from you. There is one and only Bach. Someone is yet to be born to compose like this..
Bach: (with a wink) May be he has... Ok.. Come on.. now its your turn..
Raaja: hmm... eh... ok..
Bach: What is it..? what is bothering you...
Raaja: Nothing serious... its that again this is a bit faster for the Indian style..
Bach: yes.. thats because its a Bourree.. Its composed for Dance..
Raaja: But I see a brilliant contrapuntal melody if we can play it a bit slowly.
Bach: What are you waiting for..? Go ahead..
Raaja: Ok... (Hums) Hmmm... Pa Dha.. Pa ma ga ri sa.. This time you start.. I will catch up..
And We Had A TalkBach: (With tears in eyes..) Scintillating...
Raaja: I was a bit nervous because I positioned your track in the background. Probably the violin was a bit loud ...?
Bach: No .. No.. Its unbelievable how a Western Dance solo track can evoke such a sentimental feeling with an Indian Melody on top. This is brilliant. I liked your simplicity of merging just a solo violin together with the Bass track.
Raaja: The cue of Bourree and the path that it paved for me is indispensable.. and yet you are complimenting me ..? We have a saying in my mother tongue Tamil, "A pot that's brimming with water never spills and makes a splash".. You are such a perfect example of that..
Bach: No No.. When Music takes center stage, everything else is irrelevant. I am not alone.. There are thousands of great composers all over the world and one life is not enough to enjoy all the musics in the world.
(Now Vicky is disturbing you.. The background setting is changing... Both Bach and Raaja are walking along a long winding road.. Imagine a audio/ visual fade out in your mind... and we are zooming out as the blog approaches its end.. !!!)
Raaja: Its the same philosophy echoed by our saint Thyagaraja, who lived around the same time as you.. He said "Endaro Mahanubhavulu.. Andariki Vandanamulu"
(Zoom out.. And they become a shriking silhoute from the back.. )
Bach: Yes.. a very noble thought indeed...
(Zoom out....)
And the walk continues ....
With Love
Vicky
Labels: Muse-ical, Strings
Deutsch should have been definitely tougher for Raaja to learn. So when he wanted to communicate with a German he chose a much simpler language. Especially when the person in question is arguably the greatest Western Classical Composers of all time...
Raaja composed Two Extra ordinary tracks in his album "How to Name it", probably his most popular work outside film music together with "Nothing But Wind". In that, He envisioned a meeting between Himself and Johann Sebastian Bach. He named the tracks, 'I Met Bach in My House' followed by 'And We Had a Talk..'; Like any other Raaja follower, these tracks are etched in my mind since the school days. And I always wanted to listen to the original compositions by Bach, so that I could understand Raaja better. But only recently did I managed to get my hands on it!!
Now, Bach being a stellar figure in Western Classical Music, had distinctive contrapuntal composing techniques that changed the music for good, for ever.. As admitted by Raaja himself, The influence of Bach on him is significant. So having heard both the original and its Raaja adoption (I've published both of them in the next blog), I couldn't help but to stretch my imagination on this extra ordinary rendezvous.. For me, The timing of this fantasy and its setting is even more interesting.
Because in 1982-83, Raaja embarked on his maiden tour of Europe, not to treat his eyes but his soul. There was one place which definitely wouldn't find its place on a Tourist's essential itinerary of Europe, which he was particular to visit. And that was Leipzig, the place where Bach spent much of his life and composed most of his master pieces. What better place for a musical inspiration than the same Church where Bach used to play, conducted his Orchestra and staged his compositions. In his memoirs 'Sangeetha kanavugal' written after this trip, Raaja explains how determined he was to visit Leipzig even if it meant piercing the Iron curtains of the then German Democratic Republic. As he visited that Church and sat in solitude, even if its only for a few minutes, He explains the powerful emotions that took control of him by some divine force. He could feel Bach there...
Having visited Bach's domain first and have had a celestial talk, Raaja was obviously waiting for the moment that they could meet again. And the innovative tracks of 'How To Name It' are the outcome of the return visit of the Great German Virtuoso to No. 38, Murugesan Street, T Nagar...
Its a tale of two Musics.. Western and Carnatic.
Its a tale of two Cities.. Leipzig and Chennai.
And above all..
Its a tale of two Maestros...
Here is how that imaginative musical conversation between these Musical Gods would have transpired...
With Love
Vicky
Labels: Muse-ical, Strings
Home
Open all
Close all