Just as each raga is for a specific time of day or night... in the same way when talking of ingenius songs, there are several that come to mind that have captured my heart... to name a few, alongside two of my favourite ragas... (this is by no means a definitive list, only a beginning)...
I have uploaded these songs online, you can get them here, and listen to them as you read:
http://www.vajrakrishna.com/Music/
"Kannodu Kanbethelam" from film "Jeans". Music: A.R.Rahman. Raga: Shuddha Dhanyasi.
The Shuddha Dhanyasi raga's classical renditions can be heard here: http://www.musicindiaonline.com/music/c ... ragam.388/
This will give a clear idea of the ragam itself, so that you can better appreciate the way in which A.R.Rahman has composed to this ragam. I have always respected the music where I was never able to second guess the proceeding melody, because I am constantly, subconsciously anticipating where the song can lead... and when the composer takes it to somewhere better than I expected, it makes me sit up and take real notice. In an article, Gulzar said about A.R.Rahman, "Working with Rahman is a challenge. He is a magician. He has broken down the format of the Indian film song. Earlier, songs followed a set pattern - the mukhra (music), antara (crossline - or linking line as we called it in earlier times) and asthayi (all in rhymes). But Rahman has broken that form. You don't know where the asthayi would come; that makes his music delightful and unpredictable. This is where I feel his music turns a "geet" into a "kavita" or "nazm" (brings a song much closer to poetry).He is someone who keeps walking ahead. When you walk continuously, the horizon keeps expanding, so you keep growing."
"Majaa Majaa" from film "Sillindru Oru Kathal". Music: A.R.Rahman. Raga: Shuddha Dhanyasi.
This is a song totally unlike the previous, yet both set in the same ragam... this one particularly takes on a sensuality that's tribal and simultaneously divine... and ultimately, a rousing of breath... the voices of the singers becoming just that... lovemaking with breath... (something that has hardly ever well accomplished). Once again, take a listen to the actual carnatic renditions of the Ragam... and you'll understand the innovativeness of using the Raga for this sort of mood and feel. Moreover, S.P.Charan's voice is simply majestic, and I wish they would use his voice more in tamil music... then there is Shreya Ghosal, who personally holds an indisputable spot for the best female singer in India at the moment. As for the very composition, how can I begin to describe it... it is uttely unpredictable, implicit in its transitions... a lingering mesh of hunger and contentment.
"Viliyil Vilunthu" from film "Alaihai Oivathilai". Music: Illayaraja. Raga: Shuddha Dhanyasi.
A mesmerising composition by Illayaraja. First, a nod to the lyrics... "Viliyil vilunthu Idayam nulainthu uyiril kalantha urave".. a brilliant description of falling in love. And the very melody, mood, everything about the composition captures that core emotion of the actual "falling" in love. The soft pangs of the heart, that electric butterfly, the golden elixir in the throat, the gleaming of the solar plexus... the entirity of the "fall" is captured in this composition.
The second thing I want to mention is that by listening to film songs composed to a particular raga, however diluted or faithful the film song may be to the raga itself... it is a wonderful way of understanding and identifying the raga, and perhaps learning to breathe new life into ragas in this rapidly fusing world of music... with the advent of technology new and newer means of exploring ragas must be embraced... I do not believe in limitations. And traditions are only so good as long as they allow one to expand their horizon. Once tradition becomes superstition, then it becomes a hangman's noose. In the justification of "safeguarding one's culture", building walls around you also locks you inside... There is no culture that is stagnant. That is a fallacy. Allow the constant evolution to take place.
That being said, it is so that ragas have a geometric precision that is very much a sign of some divine intervention... But one must remember that such things are never lost... So there is no need to worry. Even if forgotten... They will re-emerge. What is essential, however, is to allow raga and technology to merge.
"Marghali Poove" from film "May Madham". Music: A.R.Rahman. Raga: Hindolam.
Some information on Hindolam ragam:
http://seetha-narayanan.sulekha.com/blo ... ndolam.htm
You can hear an aalap (a rendition of the core of the raga) on this page, then compare it to these two songs... Hindolam is one of my favourite raagas. Now consider how Rahman has composed to this Raga. These songs shook my world when they were first released... I sunk into an ocean of bliss, lost in the song of life.
"Innisai (Remix II)" from film "Godfather". Music: A.R.Rahman. Raga: Hindolam.
An authentic classical interpretation of Hindolam raga.
"Kopama" from film "Varsham". Music: Devi Sri Prasad. Raga. Hindolam.
Ingenius. What eloquent use of raga hindolam. This is a telugu song, and Devi Sri Prasad is quickly becoming a composer I respect. I find it difficult to describe the sharpness in transitions that makes this song such high calibre for me, just as a poem is best described only by the poem itself...
Robert Frost was conducting a poetry reading, and by the end of it, it was question time. A woman said to him, "I can't understand that last poem. Can you explain it?"
He replied, "You mean you want me to say it again, only not as well?"
In the same way, I am at first lost for words in describing why I find these songs to be ingenius... But I will try to explain. It is very important in music to have a unique melody that works in parallel to the actual melody of the song... (sometimes it works when both these melodies are the same, but as a rule it is better to have two counterpoint melodies) - and then the selecting of that exact moment when both these melodies intersect - that... is the height of creativity.
The first step of a great composition is the melody itself... But what establishes its classic nature is the selecting of silence, of time and space... And how these melodies are going to intersect with each other.
Do not go for the "obvious" route. Go for what you yourself would not expect. Outthink yourself - or in in words of the great artists... "Step out of the way, and let intuition work through you". I felt all these compositions accomplished this in some way or form. This is why great composers always credit God for their work, and not themselves. Time and again I have read interviews where nearly every one of my favourite composers related divine moments of creative revelations where suddenly the song "comes" to them. They do not compose... They do not create... It arrives.
You are dreaming the song, and the song is dreaming you.
Ok, I will write more soon... Next time with songs that are groove-based/funky/fast paced that I have grown to love.
Two of my favourite Ragas and their Role in Film Music.
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dianicdreams
- Posts: 15
- Joined: 20 Mar 2009, 19:21
There is a very interesting article on ragas by Ramakrishnan that touches on the use of Venkatesa Subprabatham in Marghazhi Poove, handled in witty insightfulness. Here is the passage:
"A.R.Rahman is the number one copier in the world. My friend is very much convinced on this matter. He called A.R.Rahman as a mammoth recycling bin that takes its own previously tuned songs and polishes it and presents it in a different form. How dare he copy the great "kowsalya supraja" tune and use it as the interlude music in "margazhi poovae" (may maadham). My friend boils with anger. How dare the freshmen music director of the movie meendum savithri (Ravi Devendran) copy the interlude of margazhi poovae (which is itself a copied bit from kowsalya supraja) and present it in his song. A chain of copying! My friend has lost his peace and is now a terri-bly agitated individual. His head is hot with anger!
Is it correct to call the flute interlude in "margazhi poovae" as a copy of kausalya supraja? A.R. Rahman has tuned his margazhi poovae in the ragam Hindholam. Subbulakshmi's Kausalya supraja is in the ragam Sudha Saveri. If Rahman indeed copied willfully, how could he present a Sudha Saveri tune in a Hindholam song?
The concept of Sruthi is very illusory. We know that if we sounded a note with any frequency (X) and another note twice its frequency (2X), then there is an entire octave between these two notes. Be X = 1 hertz, and 2X = 2 hertz, or be X = 100,000 hertz and 2X = 200,000 Hz, there is one and only one octave inbetween these two respective sets of notes. Thus we will have an entire Sa Ri Ga Ma Pa Da Ni Sa between these notes. So, you can take any frequency (Sa) and play the 2X frequency of that fundamental frequency (upper Sa) and make a shruthi. Additionally if you played X x 2 * 7/12 (read this as X times 2 to the power 7/12) with X and 2X, then, you are adding the panchamam to the two Sa's and you get panchama shruthi. Instead, if you played X x 2 * 5/12 (X times 2 to the power 5/12), you are
adding madhyamam to the two Sa's and it is called as the madhyama shruthi.
Shruthi forms the territorial boundaries in music. Any swara derives its identity only with reference to the shruthi. A single note when played
alone is probably meaningless in classical music without the Shruthi. Shruthi by itself is pleasant music. In katcheris you may often see somebody sitting on the stage and playing the thambura. The thambura just gives the Sa Pa Sa notes to the Katcheri. That is the SHRUTHI!! Illayaraja has many times just used the Sa Pa Sa shruthi as the background score in cinemas and lilted the audience by the magical effect of the SHRUTHI! Rahman also has used the drone of the Shruthi conspicously in many of his songs and added great melody to the songs (eg: the panthuvarali song in Rangeela sung by Swarana Latha and Udit Narayan. What a classical piece!!)
The swaras of Sudha Saveri are: Sa Ri2 Ma1 Pa Da2 Sa; Sa Da2 Pa Ma1 Ri2 Sa. If we played Kausalya Supraja the tune goes like this: Sa Ri Ri (kausalya)Sa Ri Ri (supraja), Sa Ri Sa Ri (Rama poorva), Sa Ri Sa Ri Sa Sa (Sandhya pravarthadhae). The above swaras have meanings only within their respective Shruthi. If you viewed these notes from within the boundaries of a different musical territory, then it might have a different meaning. What if you viewed these notes from the reference shruthi of "Ri2-Da2-Ri2"?! The ragam might change totally. It is like Pandiyarajan and S.V.Sekhar travelling overnight and going to Kerala in Kadhanayakan!! Though Thamizhnadu and Kerala are adjacent states, words might have totally opposite meanings there! If a Thamizh doctor prescribed a sleeping pill to a Malayalee and told him "ee guligai ravilae kazhicho!", he will be in trouble. Because, "ravilae" means night in Thamizh and morning in Malayalam! See how
different the meanings are?!
What A.R.Rahman has done is, he has skillfully "copied" the Sudha Saveri swaras and transliterated it into Hindholam as Ga2 Ma1 Ma1, Ga2 Ma1 Ga2 Ma1 and so on. We don't know if he purported to copy or if it was a strange co-incidence. But, the fact is that a Coke can got recycled and came back to us as a Pepsi can! Sometimes, Coke cans can get a new sticker on its face (with no shruthi change and stuff!) and can be sold as Goli soda locally. That has happened in the background rhythm guitar score in "kuluvaliyae" (Muthu) song. The same piece comes in Sister Act. Illayaraja too has got incriminated many times for such blatant similarity of his songs to other popular songs ("en purushan thaan enaku mattum thaan" in Gopurangal Saivadhillai was called as a copy of "dham maerae dham"). ""
"A.R.Rahman is the number one copier in the world. My friend is very much convinced on this matter. He called A.R.Rahman as a mammoth recycling bin that takes its own previously tuned songs and polishes it and presents it in a different form. How dare he copy the great "kowsalya supraja" tune and use it as the interlude music in "margazhi poovae" (may maadham). My friend boils with anger. How dare the freshmen music director of the movie meendum savithri (Ravi Devendran) copy the interlude of margazhi poovae (which is itself a copied bit from kowsalya supraja) and present it in his song. A chain of copying! My friend has lost his peace and is now a terri-bly agitated individual. His head is hot with anger!
Is it correct to call the flute interlude in "margazhi poovae" as a copy of kausalya supraja? A.R. Rahman has tuned his margazhi poovae in the ragam Hindholam. Subbulakshmi's Kausalya supraja is in the ragam Sudha Saveri. If Rahman indeed copied willfully, how could he present a Sudha Saveri tune in a Hindholam song?
The concept of Sruthi is very illusory. We know that if we sounded a note with any frequency (X) and another note twice its frequency (2X), then there is an entire octave between these two notes. Be X = 1 hertz, and 2X = 2 hertz, or be X = 100,000 hertz and 2X = 200,000 Hz, there is one and only one octave inbetween these two respective sets of notes. Thus we will have an entire Sa Ri Ga Ma Pa Da Ni Sa between these notes. So, you can take any frequency (Sa) and play the 2X frequency of that fundamental frequency (upper Sa) and make a shruthi. Additionally if you played X x 2 * 7/12 (read this as X times 2 to the power 7/12) with X and 2X, then, you are adding the panchamam to the two Sa's and you get panchama shruthi. Instead, if you played X x 2 * 5/12 (X times 2 to the power 5/12), you are
adding madhyamam to the two Sa's and it is called as the madhyama shruthi.
Shruthi forms the territorial boundaries in music. Any swara derives its identity only with reference to the shruthi. A single note when played
alone is probably meaningless in classical music without the Shruthi. Shruthi by itself is pleasant music. In katcheris you may often see somebody sitting on the stage and playing the thambura. The thambura just gives the Sa Pa Sa notes to the Katcheri. That is the SHRUTHI!! Illayaraja has many times just used the Sa Pa Sa shruthi as the background score in cinemas and lilted the audience by the magical effect of the SHRUTHI! Rahman also has used the drone of the Shruthi conspicously in many of his songs and added great melody to the songs (eg: the panthuvarali song in Rangeela sung by Swarana Latha and Udit Narayan. What a classical piece!!)
The swaras of Sudha Saveri are: Sa Ri2 Ma1 Pa Da2 Sa; Sa Da2 Pa Ma1 Ri2 Sa. If we played Kausalya Supraja the tune goes like this: Sa Ri Ri (kausalya)Sa Ri Ri (supraja), Sa Ri Sa Ri (Rama poorva), Sa Ri Sa Ri Sa Sa (Sandhya pravarthadhae). The above swaras have meanings only within their respective Shruthi. If you viewed these notes from within the boundaries of a different musical territory, then it might have a different meaning. What if you viewed these notes from the reference shruthi of "Ri2-Da2-Ri2"?! The ragam might change totally. It is like Pandiyarajan and S.V.Sekhar travelling overnight and going to Kerala in Kadhanayakan!! Though Thamizhnadu and Kerala are adjacent states, words might have totally opposite meanings there! If a Thamizh doctor prescribed a sleeping pill to a Malayalee and told him "ee guligai ravilae kazhicho!", he will be in trouble. Because, "ravilae" means night in Thamizh and morning in Malayalam! See how
different the meanings are?!
What A.R.Rahman has done is, he has skillfully "copied" the Sudha Saveri swaras and transliterated it into Hindholam as Ga2 Ma1 Ma1, Ga2 Ma1 Ga2 Ma1 and so on. We don't know if he purported to copy or if it was a strange co-incidence. But, the fact is that a Coke can got recycled and came back to us as a Pepsi can! Sometimes, Coke cans can get a new sticker on its face (with no shruthi change and stuff!) and can be sold as Goli soda locally. That has happened in the background rhythm guitar score in "kuluvaliyae" (Muthu) song. The same piece comes in Sister Act. Illayaraja too has got incriminated many times for such blatant similarity of his songs to other popular songs ("en purushan thaan enaku mattum thaan" in Gopurangal Saivadhillai was called as a copy of "dham maerae dham"). ""
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karthikbala
- Posts: 219
- Joined: 05 Feb 2010, 09:58
Isn't this Abheri/Bhimplas?dianicdreams wrote: "Kannodu Kanbethelam" from film "Jeans". Music: A.R.Rahman. Raga: Shuddha Dhanyasi.
See:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OZNTl5hEfEA
"Thottal Poomalarunm" remix in "New" by ARR though, is in Shuddha Dhanyasi, as is the original (MSV?)
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dianicdreams
- Posts: 15
- Joined: 20 Mar 2009, 19:21
I should have mentioned, Kannodu Kanbethelam from Jeans is said to be a transition between Shuddha Dhanyasi and Abheri (Abheri is another favourite Raga of mine).
Thank you for that fantastic youtube link. Very useful!!
Thank you for that fantastic youtube link. Very useful!!
Last edited by dianicdreams on 24 Mar 2009, 22:52, edited 1 time in total.
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gobilalitha
- Posts: 2056
- Joined: 03 Feb 2010, 07:12
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vageyakara
- Posts: 602
- Joined: 01 Dec 2006, 20:24
Hi GBL , May I ad to your list the great chindanai sei manamE, so beautifully sung by TMS which is also so also Pollathanathai enna solven kasnnna both are kalyani based.I wish to take to the early forties where "Namakkini bhayamedu Thillai Natarajan arual irukkum bodu" by P.U. Chinnappa (in five roles-a new concept/innovation thosedays) as a pallavi which enthralled the audience with it's rhythmic excellence
KR
KR
Last edited by vageyakara on 26 Mar 2009, 06:42, edited 1 time in total.
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cmlover
- Posts: 11498
- Joined: 02 Feb 2010, 22:36
Not to forget 'kalai vaaNiyE' in sindhubhairavi by IR where he uses only the aarOhaNa prayOgas of kalyani only; a bold experiment! The mood is just dramatic!
Such tinkerings with existing ragas can produce unexpected dramatic effects. Some of the bhajan songs attempt such techniques to work towards a crescendo which carry the audience to the heights of ecstasy.
I would humbly request Ramraj to attempt such experiments since he is the most capable and versatile vaggeyakara at present. Try starting with Mohanam ...
Regards
Such tinkerings with existing ragas can produce unexpected dramatic effects. Some of the bhajan songs attempt such techniques to work towards a crescendo which carry the audience to the heights of ecstasy.
I would humbly request Ramraj to attempt such experiments since he is the most capable and versatile vaggeyakara at present. Try starting with Mohanam ...
Regards
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gobilalitha
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- Joined: 03 Feb 2010, 07:12
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ganeshkant
- Posts: 963
- Joined: 05 Feb 2010, 11:59
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ganeshkant
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