Illayaraja

[rajeshnat]

Day 24/40-April 17th,2020 update with God of Music Illayaraja in Mind:
----------------------------------------------------------------------------
With the advent of youtube , more community participation ensures much higher extraordinary remastered audio quality reaching each of us. There is this snippet song Vaanam Thottu Ponaa and VettaruvA thAngi, hear the below recording, absolutely stunning audio quality

I get goosebumps when God Of Music(Illayaraja) is left all alone with God of Melody(SPB) with kavignar vaali penning lyrics to ensure words are chiseled without loss of music. Both the small snippet of songs are coming in quick succession with extraordinary humming done by unknown Team . Recording is just less than 5 mins. There is already a miniature yet complete Mozart And Beethoven Symphony Orchestras in these two successive songs

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=do5DcUURyRI

Vaanam Thottu Or VettaruvA thAngi | SPB | Great Unknown Humming Angels| Vaali | Illayaraja | Thevar Magan | 1992

p.s:
---
In general when you search for a song , dont just go to top links . Mostly they are all legacy,the audio quality is not the best . Nowadays in last few years more folks remaster and give absolutely stunning better audio quality . I have in my mind few great youtube upload ids . They are maha2014, balpalaki, Kadar Majee and in this case the id is THe Mastering Project. All these ids you may have to scroll a bit to get their links , but they are worth it. Million Tx to these great folks who upload post their remastering.

- Rajesh
========================================================
Please share the below link to outside world inclusive of FB and twitter. We will cash in God Of Music Illayaraja to bring more readership and from there more writers to rasikas.org

viewtopic.php?f=10&t=32009&start=25#p362216

[rajeshnat]

Illayaraja - India's Ratna with exclusive Hindi song that did not have other avatars - Day 29/40, April 22nd 2020 Update
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
There has been usually opinions that happen with Illayaraja versus in general comparisons with other music directors . The Other Music Directors can be usually the Hindi film based music directors and at times even say other music directors in tamil industry who preceded Illayaraja like MSV, KV Mahadevan etc and few more who came into the field after Illayaraja.

There may be say few dozen songs that were dubbed/ readapted from Tamil/Telugu/Malayalam/Kannada world to hindi movies .There are also pilferage copies where many music directors have lifted the tune verbatim. But there is one illustrious and unique song of Illayaraja . What is unique about that song.

This song "KaisE Kahoon kuch kahna sakhoon" was only tuned as a Hindi song in a tamil movie Nandu. The Hindi song was never adapted from/to any South Indian languages and remained as a stand alone Hindi song.

It is dead easy for any one in North India to aurally look and hear holistically Illayaraja creations and register the 7 absolute facts:

#1# Orchestration and concept of rich interludes between stanzas is prominent only in Illayaraja songs . IN most Hindi songs it is usually not there at all, it is just a plain placeholder before pallavi moves to stanza.

#2# Rhthymn and tala variations of instruments in hindi is practically near zero

#3# Generally higher sense of shruthi with far higher quality of singers like SPB/Yesudas/S Janaki/Chitra vs kumarsAnu/UditNarayan/TM Sounderrajan.

#4# With Illayaraja, songs are multi dimensional vs in general hindi song like say eK ladki kO which are monolithic and goes in endless loop.

#5# Usage of natural instruments which gives jiva vs lifeless rythmn pads which was even there from 1970s in hindi music. This disease is also there in many tamil music directors post IR era which is sad.

#6# Range and variety of Humming , juxtaposition of counter and harmonics to enhance the quality of songs is a pure Illayaraja typecast.

#7# Above all quality of basic tunes(mettu in tamil) due to depth of musicians capability like IR is statistically higher . Though you can have few songs in Hindi which are comparable quality but there is no major impetus of collaboration , mostly stays with only vocalist singers.

Ofcourse the above 7 points is typically known to significant South Indian domiciled Indians and those who grew up with Illayaraja in 70's to 2000's . An average North Indian who speaks Hindi and other languages other than Hindi does not know the above 7 absolute truth elements. He /She may not genuinely know Illayaraja greatness or in few cases just dismiss it . The reason is pureplay unfamiliarity and ignorance.

Let us take the hindi song KaisE Kahoon kuch kahna sakhoon. You can aurally spot all 7 points. They are the same #1 to #7 namely:

Orchestration and interlude before stanzas,rhythm tala variations, Higher sense of shruthi with singers in this case Bhupinder Singh and heavenly S Janaki Ji who sings brilliantly Hindi with great feel. ALso you can spot usage of natural instruments , varied hummming , tunes are multidimensional .

The lyricist of this hindi song is veteran singer PB Srinivas .The late legendary director J Mahendran made it possible to incorporate the Hindi song in a thamizh movie Nandu in 1981.

I wish Illayaraja had little more time in 1980s to 1990s to tune more hindi songs , but he always was over booked by south indian film industry. Best wishes for the 100 crore North indians to know what 30 crore South INdians know.

Hopefully God Of Music soon gets Bharat Ratna. If IllayaRaja does not get Bharat Ratna who else can get it.

Send this to every North Indian friend to state with conviction the facts of Illayaraja music. They have to move out of cheeni kum songs of Illayaraja which is what they are familiar.

Let the North Indian bhai and behans hear their first exclusive first Hindi song of Illayaraja KaisE Kahoon and use it as a "Gateway of Illayaraja" from their more familiar Gateway of Bollywood land. Then in turn listen to other great 5000 plus songs of God Of Music - Illayaraja . The rest of the songs only had a south indian language shell but a much much deeper universal muscial avatar with atleast 7 salient points.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TBGHBYFz_3A

KaisE Kahoon kuch kahna sakhoon | Bhupinder Singh and S Janaki | PB Sreenivas | Illayaraja | Nandu(Movie Name) | 1981

- Rajesh dated April 22nd,2020



==================Snippet tobe shared to Facebook ,WhatsApp and Social Media ====================
The 40 Crore South Indian Diaspora whereever they are in the world somewhat get Illayaraja. The remaining 100 Crore North Indian population donot get Illayaraja. Personally wrote 7 salient points of Ilayaraja vs Other Film Musicians of India.Certainly IR is our Bharat Ratna , let this link and writeup go viral

Pass it along
viewtopic.php?f=10&t=32009&p=362344#p362344

-Rajesh , dated April 22nd , 2020.

[Pratyaksham Bala]

Where can we place this isaignani illayaraja something much more than vidwan and vidushi but let me take him as vaggeyakkara as after sadguru Thyagaraja , dikshitar and there is illayaraja. ... ...

Can someone please provide the list of kritis in standard format created by Ilaiyaraaja that are suitable for Carnatic Music concerts ?

Also, the links, if any, to the such kritis rendered at Carnatic Music platforms ?

[rajeshnat]

How about we all conditioning to actual absolute music where illayaraja music is superimposed for an english movie Amadeus based on Mozart where Illayaraja's original thevar magan Background is inserted. Incidentally Illayaraja said this movie amadeus is his favourite.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3Y9smFvCK6Q

[Ranganayaki]

oh, no, no!

This is so not nice! What’s this idea of a “vs?” Whats this notion of comparing everyone to Mozart? It smacks so much of ego and ignorance! Whoever wrote this “vs” just assumes that Mozart is one of the greats - because they’ve heard that, and have no clue about what makes him so greatly admired!

This music just cannot be compared to the original music of the scene. This music is eerie and coarse, the voices are so ordinary! The overall effect is so overbearing! I’m hoping that if you had watched the original you wouldn’t have thought you should post this! The original is delicate, and then seems to rise to reflect tragedy without losing sensitivity.

[Ranganayaki]

Here’s a piece of music by Mozart.. it’s almost chosen randomly, because there isn’t a piece of Mozart’s that I don’t love. But I do like his horn concertos.

https://youtu.be/xzCiVyWx-Tk

These are very big shoes to fill! We can’t just bandy his name about!

Some composers borrow from the world of western music. They do create new InDian music, but they are still consumers of the music - at a higher level than just people like us.

[Ranganayaki]

How about we all conditioning to actual absolute music (...)

And what does this mean?

[rajeshnat]

Ranganayaki,
For the last 5 plus years wanted to see the movie amadeus, very recently Illayaraja told he was so moved with this movie and the score and acting of one of the actors HE said this movie is his favourite and he watched it many times. I am yet to watch amadeus , very interested that too with the recommendation from God Of Music.

Personally i thought the chorus of different voices (which you said the voices are ordinary) blend blend with right contrast and just tied so well with the orchestration. I particularly liked the imagery of death caskets and this tune of Thevar Magan superbly blended which to you was overbearing , We have to surely disagree and move on.

THe tune of this Kollywood thevar magan did suit well for a hollywood movie amadeus . That is absolute to me , where I mean absolute as something that exists independently and did have a stirring impact for me.If you disagree on the usage of absolute keyword you can substitute better appropriate word .

In any case if you donot like this interlude that go that well atleast hear the SPB part where he also sings the few snippet of songs (Vaanam thottu or Vettaruva). Good luck on you liking SPB with those snippets . I also knew that Amadeus also get an oscar for sound mixing. I rest amadeus case here and I look forward to see that movie.

[rajeshnat]

Ranganayaki,
If you have time also read the next KaisE Kahoon kuch kahna sakhoon and continue to write your impressions . Advance Thanks.

I am intending to make my next post on next song of Illayaraja. Already typed but let us have some spacing .

[Ranganayaki]

Ranganayaki,
For the last 5 plus years wanted to see the movie amadeus, very recently Illayaraja told he was so moved with this movie and the score and acting of one of the actors HE said this movie is his favourite and he watched it many times.

Yes, I’ve heard that Lalgudi Jayaraman also loved it. Any music lover would. It was in the days of video cassettes. I had mine, and I’ve watched it many many times.

Much of the score is Mozart’s own, that’s why it did not win an Oscar for the score.

You have responded to me without seeing the original music. So I understand how it sounded perfect to you - a death scene, deathly music.. so it is not in an absolute sense that I say I didn’t like it. But saying “vs Mozart” bothers me. You should watch the movie and listen to the music of the movie (composed by Mozart, it was his last, unfinished work) and then tell me how you feel. Then we can disagree and move on. Don’t let me just offend you chumma. May be you will understand, in comparison, why I said “overbearing.”

This substitution music is probably very nice in Vedam Puthithu. I remember it, but not the scene, so I’m not commenting more. But it cannot compare with the score of the movie scene in Amadeus.

And in principle a cliched comparison with Mozart just cheapens both Mozart and the person being compared. We all know how talented a certain musician is, but he refers to himself as the Mozart of India (he uses the quote)!! It’s like saying, they say I’m the great apple of oranges! It is meaningless. The similarity begins and ends with their both being considered child prodigies. He should just have been himself (musically I mean).

I particularly liked the imagery of death caskets and this tune of Thevar Magan superbly blended which to you was overbearing , We have to surely disagree and move on.

Yes, I understand that it sounds nice to you. It is extra deathly too in this substitution video. But it is a comparison with the original. You have looked at only one side of the comparison!

THe tune of this Kollywood thevar magan did suit well for a hollywood movie amadeus . That is absolute to me , where I mean absolute as something that exists independently and did have a stirring impact for me.If you disagree on the usage of absolute keyword you can substitute better appropriate word .

I’m beginning to understand what you mean by absolute, i just used it too like that above.

In any case if you donot like this interlude that go that well atleast hear the SPB part where he also sings the few snippet of songs (Vaanam thottu or Vettaruva). Good luck on you liking SPB with those snippets . I also knew that Amadeus also get an oscar for sound mixing. I rest amadeus case here and I look forward to see that movie.

https://youtu.be/xzCiVyWx-Tk

Because you are making this comparison, I offered you a piece of Mozart to listen to, so you understand something of the greatness. You have not said anything about it!

I’m challenging you not to love it ! You want me to listen to so many pieces, you try this one .

[rajeshnat]

Illayaraja - Oru Kiliyin ThanimayilE - Day 34/40, April 26th 2020 Update with God of Music Illayaraja creation
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Illayaraja has certainly blended beautifully with just not SPB and S Janaki . He has done many gems with KJ Yesudas and KS Chitra .God of Music understands chorus with such musical sensitivity where he gives a range of natural growing adolescent voices where the chorus blends with masterly main singers. With rich orchestration it is indeed a musical masterpiece.

This song "Oru Kiliyin ThanimayilE" was sung by Yesudas and Chitra. The movie is Poovizhi VasalilE , certainly for many like me then in mid 1980s ,the movie along with music had very deep impressions. Atleast to me as a madras boy ,the flavour of malayalam movies and the music was indeed injected to me in atleast significant doses with this movie and songs of this movie. THis movie was a remake of a malayalam movie directed by Fazil ,the famous malayalam director.

Moving On what matters is music and only Music

#1# The opening cue is extraordinary . Illayaraja sir takes a chirp of natural Parrot as a start and then continues with a flight of musical fantasy . The aural fantasy starts with Piano/Keyboard opening and a cute little kyu(I just dont know that instrument , I am assuming that came from the Piano/Keyboard of illayaraja extraordinary keyboard artist Viji Manuel). The opening interlude moves on to a great string section with violin dominating the course. I am assuming the violinist there could be vs narasimhan, ramasubramaniam, kalyan, prabhakaran and many more .There is a shade of extraordinary stop gap of flute just joining here and there. The opening itself ensures that you are in for an excitement.

#2# The gAndharva Voice , Oh i should say God of Masculine Heaviness is KJ Yesudas is right there at the start .Yesudas begins with his extreme baritoned voice where he starts with the line - Oru Kiliyin ThanimayiLE with steady female chorus uravu uravu with extreme melodic assertion.

#3# The first interlude is heavenly. That minimal kyu which is minimal in the opening cue takes a bigger KYU take off with an extremely shadowy lead guitar . I am assuming that the guitar is by lead guitarist Sadanandam Sudharshanam . The guitar chords are heavenly.The contrast for the heroin to have guitar chords and for the hero to have violin interludes is aurally rich and arresting.

#4# Oh what a voice what can I say Goddesss of Voice Power with classicism is indeed Chitra's grand entry in stanza 1 . Chitra magically starts with direct punch with voice power in lines Muttu Rathinam Unakku Chooda . The whole charanam is completely with Chitra and even the follow up is strictly chitra and feminine voices appearing from a girls school chorus.

#5# THe missiing flute comes in heavily in interlude 2. I am assuming the flutist Sudhakar And/Or Napolean (ArunMozhi) plays the flute .THe gAndharva kural Yesudas comes in with his second stanza with his words Kattalai padi KiDaitha vEdham. Incidentally the stanza 2 has both Yesudas and Chitra singing one line after another, great sense of musical camraderie there.

#6# The rhythmn section is simply extraordinary the pallavi was with drums ,the stanzas is more tabla. There are few of his special effect rhythmmic instruments in interludes but all simply fantastic. I am assuming the drums is by Purushottaman the stock drummer of Illayaraja.THe tabla I am assuming is played by kanniah and/or prasad.

#7# The beauty of the whole song is actually Hummming .Hear each of the contextual aural layering of Humming. Panniapurathu Maharaja is a hummming WOW raaza

#7A# Illayaraja uses different shades of humming , young boys school voice texture for hero side chorus. Especially hear the aaa aaa counter of boys in the yesudas line vizhigalilE kanavu mEthandu vara , such beautiful Lead Voice-Humming voice intersect

#7B# In stanzas ,in lines like inimai thavazha , the voice texture is that of school girls texture . The young voices just go along with chitras and they looping with uravu uravu and the last bit of charanam back to pallavi is very aesthetic. There is a great sense of melody and rhythmn from these hummers.

#7C# In second interlude the texture of humming voice changes from school girls with a bit more senior female voices with their la la la la .... la lA humming being spectacular . For this voice humming, there is extremely high usage of bass guitar .I am assuming that bass guitar snippet was played by sasitharan .Sashitharan happens to be self taught brother in law of Illayaraja.In second stanza ,voice texture of hummers is more heavier and senior to perhaps suit a different cast of supporting cast.All these contextual magic of voice texture of different youth and adolescents in humming can only be done by God Of Music.

#7D# The song ends with boys who usually have a female texture voice at that middle school age .These boys usually in their adolescence, their voice is atleast half female and the texture remains so . THe boys in chorus do very well where The boys chorus ends with the repeated charanam lines of oru kiliyiN . For a change school boys fare better than school girls(musically yes , academically i donot know ) in the last part of the song closure.

Isaignani Illayaraja pays attention even to the excellence of humming .No vocalist or instrumentalist is a pushover when God Of Music composes songs .Surprisingly the less trained and definitely unknown hummers do give their excellence as much as yesudas and chitra who give such power and emote to the song.

Hear the song with quality headphones or bluetooth speakers
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cmVrmOp ... mVrmOpLY_g

Oru kiliyiN thanimayilE | KJ Yesudas and KS Chitra | Unknown Humming and Chorus Angels| Gangaiamaran Or Muthulingam or Illayaraja or kamakodiyan(dont know who is the lyricist for this song, i only found the list of lyricists for this movie)| Illayaraja | Poovizhi vaasalilE | 1986

- Rajesh dated April 26th,2020 - Day 34 of 40

p.s One of my friend/accquintance who read the series of previous post asked me to relay the following . He/She says please ask each reader to read it twice with pauses and then hear the song.

========================================================
Please share the below link to outside world inclusive of Facebook and twitter. We will cash in God Of Music Illayaraja to bring more readership and from there more writers to rasikas.org.

Illayaraja with team of young kids in chorus with Kj Yesudas and Chitra just rock with this song Oru Kiliyil ThanimayilE with extraordinary orchestration

viewtopic.php?f=10&t=32009&p=362449#p362449

- Rajesh dated April 26th,2020 - Day 34 of 40

[Pratyaksham Bala]

Where can we place this isaignani illayaraja something much more than vidwan and vidushi but let me take him as vaggeyakkara as after sadguru Thyagaraja , dikshitar and there is illayaraja. ... ...

Can someone please provide the list of kritis in standard format created by Ilaiyaraaja that are suitable for Carnatic Music concerts ?

Also, the links, if any, to the such kritis rendered at Carnatic Music platforms ?

[Pratyaksham Bala]

.
It seems Ilaiyaraaja has not created any CM kriti !

Then, how come he is touted as the only “Vakgeyakara after sadguru Thyagaraja, dikshitar” -- discounting, and ridiculing in the process, all great Vakgeyakaras? The premise is faulty, and the attempt to brand him as the greatest Vakgeyakara is brazenly misleading.

There is no denying that Ilaiyaraaja is one of the greatest Light Music Composers.

But this thread on him is a misfit under ‘Vakgeyakara’ section. The right place would be ‘Light Classical’. There one can discuss and admire his contributions.


Mods:
You may consider moving this thread to ‘Light Classical’ section.

[rajeshnat]

https://youtu.be/xzCiVyWx-Tk

Because you are making this comparison, I offered you a piece of Mozart to listen to, so you understand something of the greatness. You have not said anything about it!

I’m challenging you not to love it ! You want me to listen to so many pieces, you try this one .

Ranganayaki
My next post is remarks on this mozart piece . Few days later i will continue atleast with few more illayaraja till the lock down is there . I already typed one but i will space it after few days. You may or may not put anothermozart link , distract illayaraja with mozart and definitely not ask my comments as i am not that qualified . The title that was in youtube where that amadeus movie was not put by me ,

[rajeshnat]

Mozart - Horn Concerto
--------------------------

Upto 1st Minute :
----------------
First one minute the excitement indeed settled well within me . Looks all the string instruments are in play. Apart from violin and viola, there is definitely cello and/or double bass .

From 1st to 4th Minute:
-----------------------
Around 1:05 th min Horn comes in very distinctly. Atleast i am not accustomed to this Horn instrument that much . THere is a dialogue at last between Horn and Stringed instrument .There is orchestration definitely there between say captain violin and Horn . One hears lot of distinct sounds ,the fade and drop of Horn appears quite heavenly and the quick swiftness of this king of all instruments the maharaja violin were just superb

From 5th Minute to 6:20 Minute:
------------------------------
Felt lot of repetition . Or I can say it was one of those Hindustani typecasts where i am awaiting for the plot to get unvieled (I am missing my God Of Music Illayaraja here) . Ofcourse one can say even Carnatic has repetition of pallavi sangathis, but in the absence of no percussion , the repetition or incremental addition of sangathis in this concerto does not appeal that much to me.

From 06:21st to : 09:45
------------------------
Landscape changes perhaps MD Ramanathan is coming in after semmangudi and his sishyas exits out with violin.Semmangudi Cheenu(violinist) has taken all the electric sangathis with him and left MDR high and dry(Horn). Horn is getting sensitive, at times i am feeling hey violin please give more space only to Horn . The blow is bit more serene like a bansuri flute blow taken by a carnatic flute who decides to play C major based scale in Western Music. Suddenly feeling the ulta feeling .O Horn why dont you grab some more support from violin .Atleast with my thought telepathically mozart heard it .The violin and all string instrument comes in the aural landscape changes but it is still not that great

From 09:45th minute till the end:
---------------------------------
THe Horn wakes up suddenly and there is more variety and dynamics of rhythm that is happening. At this exact time 09:45 th minute it appears a brand new composition or a new charanam is added to a well set composition This is musically very difffernt from what was played before . Horn is beautifully getting supplemented with more clearer accentuation from violin which is in line with the blow of Horn. Did i hear a metallic flute some where on 11th to 12th minute. My mind is racing at 12:03rd min, where i feel i have heard those snippets somewhere some time in school . They appeared famous and known to me atleast from 12:00 to 12:10 . Then the closure sangathis hit me and mozart closed it .

Key takeaways for me is perhaps only one thing .
------------------------------------------------
I am finding very difficult to disambiguate stringed instrument sounds. For eg cello vs double bass and say violin vs viola is not aurally distinct to me. I can say for sure without violin there is absolutely no western music and absolutely there is also no carnatic music .

Violin is the staple of classicism continuity

Mozart - Horn Concerto link that is talked up is in the below link
https://youtu.be/xzCiVyWx-Tk

[Ranganayaki]

[You may or may not put anothermozart link , distract illayaraja with mozart and definitely not ask my comments as i am not that qualified . The title that was in youtube where that amadeus movie was not put by me ,

Distract? That’s not a friendly thing to say! I am not in the business of hijacking threads.

I wasn’t going to post more links. If I wanted to I would start a new thread called Mozart.

I didn’t ask you and I would not ask you for your comments. I wanted to know your response to the music. Simply, did you like it, love it, or was it “bleh?” May be a little expansion.

I think everyone here even re. Carnatic music is only discussing their responses. I certainly. We have a few musicians in our midst, and other than them I don’t know who can claim to be qualified. But we write tons and it is welcome.

I wasn’t expecting that review though. I simply wanted to know if you actually listened and if you liked it and may be a little detail on why.. It is not interesting to anyone here to read so much detail on an unfamiliar piece of music! Most of us here have not ever heard it! I mean, in challenging you not to love it, I didn’t mean to make you write so much detail about the instruments!

Btw, I just thought of specifying that the word “concerto” does not mean concert, it is the name for a musical form. A type of musical piece.

The variations are not in the spirit of sangatis, but rather expansions on the theme.

[Ranganayaki]

[You may or may not put anothermozart link , distract illayaraja with mozart and definitely not ask my comments as i am not that qualified . The title that was in youtube where that amadeus movie was not put by me ,

Distract? That’s not a friendly thing to say! I am not in the business of hijacking threads.

I wasn’t going to post more links. If I wanted to I would start a new thread called Mozart.

I didn’t ask you and I would not ask you for your comments. I wanted to know your response to the music. Simply, did you like it, love it, or was it “bleh?” May be a little expansion on that.

I think everyone here even re. Carnatic music is only discussing their responses. I certainly. We have a few musicians in our midst, and other than them I don’t know who can claim to be qualified. But we write tons and it is welcome.

I wasn’t expecting that review though. I simply wanted to know if you actually listened and if you liked it and may be a little detail on why.. It is not interesting to anyone here to read so much detail on an unfamiliar piece of music! Most of us here have not ever heard it! I mean, in challenging you not to love it, I didn’t mean to make you write so much detail about the instruments!

Btw, I just thought of specifying that the word “concerto” does not mean concert, it is the name for a musical form. A type of musical piece.

The variations are not in the spirit of sangatis, but rather expansions on the theme.

[rajeshnat]

Overall I liked it. But as indicated some pockets were not that interesting. I am assuming that you should have bit more basic training especially in stringed instruments to understand aural nuances where I fail.

On a most interesting revealing note which I forgot to mention before is the instrument horn. I have seen in few school bands and scout bands where some one plays horn. I thought it was just a very minor instrument not capable of much impact. Mozart giving so much of musical flair for a horn is my biggest discovery.

May be in future I will try to.post illayaraja with some trumphet family instruments handling as one post. I am assuming somewhere some time horn may have been used by Illayaraja.

On the distraction part looks post your posting i have miscommunicated that is not a right etiquette for the forum,

[rajeshnat]

Illayaraja and Kannadasan - Carnatic and Western - Musically in perfect synch , Day 36/40, April 29th 2020 Update
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Isai Isaignani Illayaraja and kaviarasu kannadasan combo were working atleast 6 years together. I knew this song vaguely but got refreshed few years back. What i did not know then which i know now is what i am writing now

#1# kaviarasu kannadasan thamizh azhage azhagu .kannadasan has given lyrics with everyphrase ending in gal.Such beautiful lyrics .

#2# Illayaraja is a master of both carnatic and western music. The tune of the song is very much close to the grand carnatic raga shankarabharanam . In western music they call this is as their major scale raga.

#3# One of my friend Sivasubramanian who learns western music used to say play all the white keys and you get this scale western major scale shankarabharanam . Thank you for the tip ,I am not even sure if i have quoted absolutely right on what he said, but what illayaraja does interestingly is he majorly keeps the major scale intact and he moves in distinct places by shifting scales to give a great feel to the song . Pay attention when the singers sings “Anandha Gaanangal” (end of 1st charanam) and “Verenna Sondhangal” (end of 2nd charanam) . The song moves moves momentarily down ( from major to minor) and again steps ( from minor to major) and ends the charanams. Those hooks from charanam to pallavi is musically aesthetic that i find it so much in Illayaraja which i dont get it that much with many other music creators.

#4# Both the singers,malaysia vasudevan and s janaki have strong voices .They keep the whole song in a subtle fashion perhaps they have internalized the necessity of showcasing the great kannadasan lyrics and wanted to showcase the gal ending of every phrase of the song so that the music is highlighted with more bhava.

#5# Preludes of the song is heavenly.Guitar-Violin-Flute are the 3 pointed weapons of mass muse of Illayaraja with surgical strikes of keyboard/Piano . The take off with a musically expressive vidushi S Janaki who has also learnt carnatic music taking off with kAlangal is lovely. The two charnams are handed over with male and female voices seperately and they both aurally polish the song

#6# The first interlude is superb with again the guitar-violin-flute coming with lovely balance without any loss of melody. All phrases ending with gal with kannadasan iis rocking with Illayaraja giving great shape with his western tonic shifts .THe dheera shankarabharanam, the melakartha #29 is very much there not just on April 29th,2020. It will be there for ages

#7# The second interlude is again great with expressive violin bit raising the shade of muse , the flute calming and the guitar just taking us through the shade of already settled muse . The rhythm section throughout the song is fantastic with tabla leading with a sprinkle of drums to tease .

Hear the song kaalangal mazhai kaalangal with quality headphones or bluetooth speakers
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mvUi6htIH7g

The kannadasan lyrics of the song in both english and tamil is in the below link.Just listen by reading the song.
https://www.tamil2lyrics.com/lyrics/kaa ... ng-lyrics/

kaalangal mazhaikaalangal | malaysia vasudevan and s janaki | kannadasan |illayaraja | Idayathil Oru Idam | 1980

- Rajesh dated April 29th,2020 - Day 36 of 40

===============
Please share the below snippet and link to outside world inclusive of Facebook and twitter. We will cash in God Of Music Illayaraja to bring more readership and from there more writers to rasikas.org.

Illayaraja and Kannadasan, Western and Carnatic Music all are intact with RagAngal sugangal in the song KAlangal mazhaikAlangal
www.rasikas.org/forums/viewtopic.php?p=362532#p362532
- Rajesh dated April 29th,2020 - Day 36 of 40

[Pratyaksham Bala]

.
Long and wearisome posts on movie music tend to paint a different character to the Forum, which may discourage serious CM rasikas from active participation.

[rajeshnat]

.
Long and wearisome posts on movie music tend to paint a different character to the Forum, which may discourage serious CM rasikas from active participation.

PB ,
I am assuming ths post is also culmination of a post that you made where you asked if Illayaraja is a vaggeyakkara why cannot all this move to another thread . I did not respond to that post as already that question was asked in first few posts and my reply was already done .

Let me reiterate crisply again .We are talking about People Topic. In peoples topic , there are three threads namely Vaggeyakkara, Vidwan and Vidushi & Critics and Rasika . The approximate thread that Illayaraja can fit in is vaggeyakkara, it is not perfect but with in the available areas , this fits the best.

For the record Illayaraja has composed a carnatic krithi in ragam raagavardhini , I have not heard that krithi at all . Lalgudi Jayaraman praised it and Illayaraja has also spoken in some lalgudi book release function . Few artists may have played raja krithi in carnatic concert is what i heard thru grapevine not very sure. So let us bury the relevance where these posts has to be with this clarification as I have made atleast 10 plus about the person Illayaraja .

Ofcourse this does not answer that this is creating a different character to the forum which you have asked :
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
For the record, since i have posted few weeks back ,I had already typed atleast 2 posts like that in my personal notepad I am spacing it roughly once or twice a week . I personally have had lot of fellow forumites and others sending some texts or email communication to me liking many of the posts in private about IR . In general if you take each of the post ,i am opening with a facet of Illayaraja that 99 percent of even Illayaraja fans in any forum or web would not know of .

I personally only had a drive to post say till May 03rd on Illayaraja till lockdown ends , see how it goes after, though i still have a sufficient drive to write more about illayaraja with a rare facet with my own customized relevant comment . Now that I have typed and saved i will atleast post one more which is kind of semi carnatic and can fit well.

All said as a long term forumite who is always level headed , I personally felt you could have either let go or may be felt there is some thing deep which you could have read and understood my intent .Please remember just as you say IR music is not relevant here , I can bring 25 topics which are not even music which goes on and on where the relevance of those posts have already made many leave the forum .

Bottomline , I will post one or two and leave at that . See how my motivation to write more is there and take it or drop it from there. With no concerts to attend my time can be apportioned away from kutcheri reviews to something deep with an angle that you all may enjoy.

@srkris
You take the next step what i should do after my next post since it is already typed last week , I am putting the next post on Illayaraja and Ramanar, it is not CM, No hard feelings either way, Cheers. I am also assuming many passive readers are ok with these posts on Illayaraja and may not feel like PB.

[rajeshnat]

Illayaraja and Ramana Maharishi -Deep Musical and a Deeper Spiritual connect
-----------------------------------------------------------------------
Isaignai Illayaraja had a deep spiritual connect with Bhagwan Ramana Maharishi . Infact from early 1980s raja sir's life, his habits and interactions with many in film industry did have a greater spiritual angle . That inside spiritual angle produced a far greater musical output with sustained excellence that in next 100 generations may not be matched ever by any musical director will be surely a fact .

#1# Illayaraja's lifestyle being a devotee of Mookambigai , kanchi mahaswami and Ramana Maharishi did even catch up with many especially in his native state of TamilNadu.

#2# Moving on connecting with music ,Illayaraja after his copious output in films from 1980s to 2000 plus had given a great Ramanar Album titled Guru Ramanar Geetham in 2003 .His albums were too few . In 1980's he gave an album by name Geethanjali . There were also his phenomenal albums like How to Name it , Nothing but wind which was a rave for many like me then in that era . Then much later album titled Thiruvasagam had a place to show his non film angle,but this album Thiruvasagam did not musically interest me that much as his previous albums.

#3# This particular devotional album song Chinna payyan Oruvan is written , sung and composed by God Of Music . Illayaraja is a phenomenal lyricist , just hear the song with the tamil lyrics in front of you . Ramana Maharishi is traced by illayaraja .Illayaraja is perhaps wondering on life history of ramana maharishi in the pallavi . As charnam unfolds ,The events of Ramana maharishi as a young lad , his presence and settling in Tiruvannamalai , his quest for truth and finally ramanas soul being immortal where ramanar joins with the jyothi in the hills of tiruvannamalai . All these biography is lucidly captured as both lyrics and musically tuned. Music generally brings in 100 x bhakthi which gets bit short circuited when you just speak or hear

#4#I am personally not even a basic devotee of Ramana Maharishi but have some minimal insights on Ramana's teachings especially a small booklet "Who am I (Nan Yaar)" which i read it some time back . I am not even in beginning of transformation yet, but there is some deeper belief on Ramanar that is just skirting me right .When there are powerful lines that gels with great music, there is statistically more push to believe certain spiritual scriptures.

Just see my few handpicked 5 lines in each of stanzas that Illaraja Sir wrote:
கண்ணீர் கயிற்றால் கட்டிக்கொண்டான்
பூதமும் போகாத பாதாள லிங்கத்துள் போயமர்ந்தான்
முற்றும் அறிந்து முனிவனானவன் இல்லால் நம் பிறவிக்கு பயனுண்டோ?
உடம்போடு வாழ்ந்தாலும் உடம்பின்றி வாழ்ந்தவன் குரு ரமணன்
ஒளி வெள்ளமாய் மலை உச்சியில் கலந்து விட்டான் ரமணன்

#5# Keep the lyrics in front of you. Just click the link scroll below 5 stanzas tracing ramana maharishi life. Even if you do not know to read the tamil still ok,just minimally get few key words and move on.

https://amrithavarshini.proboards.com/thread/1159

#6# Then play the song .I am assuming the ragam of the song is the most omnipresent / over abused thukkada raga of Carnatic Music , the ragam is sindhu bhairavi. This song has a lot of overlap in tune with the popular song of the movie sindhu bhairavi - naan oru sindhu kavadi chindu which got chitra her national award along with GOd of Music who got his first delayed national award for a tamil movie.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gOZ5nX7 ... rt_radio=1

# Chinna payyan Oruvan | Illayaraja | Illayaraja | Illayaraja | Guru Ramana Geetam (devotional album) | 2003

- Rajesh dated May 04th,2020

==============================================================
Please share the below link to outside world inclusive of FaceBook and twitter. We will cash in God Of Music Illayaraja to bring more readership and from there more writers to rasikas.org

Illayaraja and Ramana Maharishi -Deep Musical and a Deeper Spiritual connect
www.rasikas.org/forums/viewtopic.php?p=362669#p362669

- Rajesh dated May 04th,2020

[rajeshnat]

Vegam Vegam Pogum Pogum Magic Journey - Writeup for school kids with Illayaraja song
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
This song came in 1990-1991 timeframe transitioning when many like me were transitioning from school to college. I did recently help one third standard kid to ride a bicycle in 2020 As I was loitering in my apartment the two senior kids in the apartment are saying NEET exams is there and our exam results are out on July 15th. May be there is some correlation may be there is none, it is sad to see the school kids of all sizes getting caged with Corona. Moving on with the song

#1# Hear the recording of vEgam vEgam which is now digitally mastered . See the interlude of the song . Prabhakaran one of the ace violinist who played for God of Music says somewhere in some interview this song is just full score of music for all musicians . He says There is a whole symphony within this song.

#2# There is chorus , violin and all string instruments, synthesier, piano, metallic flute,bass guitar, lead guitar, main singer singing in both low pitch with chorus singing in upper register.

#3# You can hear the violin and synthesiser interlude especially from 01:55 to 02:05 and the preceding chorus. The second interlude with a cycle bell like variation i am assuming that is late Viji Immanuel in piano/synthesiser . IllayaRaja Sir is inventing new sound. Mozart And Beethoven Symphony Orchestras are there in the two interludes of the song.

#4# Chorus singers with Usha Uthup is the main singer.How can anyone give so much life to chorus like what IllayaRaja does . JUst hear the excerpt of chorus example when you hear the first interlude with wu wu wu. That wu wu is also a new musical sound . I am also assuming Late Purushottaman is leading all the way with his extraordinary drums and his perfect rhythm.

#5# I recollect Mani Rathnam wanted to model this song with the famous Steven Spielberg ET movie then . Certainly spielberg movies not having Illayaraja score is only a loss for Hollywood. How did Kollywood Illayaraja imagine a spielberg Hollywood ET movie science fiction with just an audio song.

I will stop here with the chorus line so apt for Panniapurathu Maharaja.

EdhO EdhO vindaigal EllamE arputham
yennana Chitiram ellAmE vichitram

Vegam Vegam Pogum Pogum Magic Journey |Usha Uthup | Chorus by kids of Illayaraja, Gangai Amaran and Bhaskar | Vaali| Illayaraja| Anjali | 1990

Special thanks to this great uploader who has polished IR gem for us to hear all the magic harmonics.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Oyj_kULHtNs

- Rajesh , dated July 01st ,2020


=============================================
Please share the below link to outside world inclusive of FaceBook and twitter. We will cash in God Of Music Illayaraja to bring more readership and from there more writers to rasikas.org, especially school kids of all sizes.

Vegam Vegam Pogum Pogum Magic Journey - Writeup for school kids with Illayaraja song
www.rasikas.org/forums/viewtopic.php?p=364439#p364439

- Rajesh , dated July 01st ,2020

[rajeshnat]

Illayaraja- Naan Oru Ponnoviyam kanden ilamai - extreme Carnatic
------------------------------------------------------------------
Illayaraja , the prolific composer is an amalgamation of 3 musical genres - Carnatic Classical, Western and Village Folk .

He cleverly mixes with his own concoction ,every mix is a surprise . While most of his songs you can map it to a definite carnatic raga , there is always some shade of western harmony and/or village folk. Let us take in and out a carnatic composition.This post is all about his one musical genre - carnatic .

#1# The movie kannil theriyum kathaikal is a 1980 early saga of raja sir.Incidentally 5 music directors inclusive of Illayaraja composed where each of them created one song . Illayaraja's guru GK venkatesh also created one song and even his super senior KV Mahadevan created one song , but Illayaraja created this magic where he adopted this song Naan Oru Ponnoviyam in ragam mohanam.

#2# In 2020 taking young kids and making them basically appreciate carnatic classical is a tussle and how to bring a basic interest to kids is a himalayan struggle due to global problem of plenty to choose . We usually give an attempt to make them hear few thukkadas with some catchy basic ragas like mohanam mayamalavagowlai shivaranjani etc.

This is just not working for many. The bigger struggle is for them to get the basic structural muse of south indian instruments like mrudangam , veena, flute , jalatharangam. Also the biggest struggle is for them to adjust to alapana, structural constructs like thillana jathi ,taanam like phrases and also for them to basically assimilate the fact that this music is centered on composition .

Let us move on...

#3# Here comes the main actor Illayaraja with 3 support actors SPB, S janaki and P susheela with a lot more supporting actors . In 1980 Illayaraja made us listen to carnatic classical music without revealing that this music is carnatic,

Let us discover how the known carnatic in conditioned ears of 2020 was revealed then in the unconditioned ears of 1980

#3A# The song has 3 stanzas hooray. The opening interlude is a clever collection of well tuned carnatic instruments with chief import western violin also in as a prolific not out batsman.Opening prelude rhythms are teasers with salangai cymbals and mrudangam. The interlude lead instruments all are again intense southern carnatic instruments, the plot starts with distinct jalatharangam and opening interludes end with a distinct veena(may be sitar)(Lesson 1 learnt without knowing south indian instruments you already learnt).

#3B# The first supporting actor spb comes roaring with his shruthi maatha entry after laya pitha interlude.SPB sings with a feel the line போதை தரும் நாதசுரம்? which roughly means intoxicating naada .Indeed the unknown pentatonic Mohanam has gone deep to many in 1980 without even knowing that there is some thing called ragam (Lesson 2 learnt without you knowing ragam and mohanam).

#3C# The first interlude starts heavily , I am assuming the instrument is not veena but sitar. But hey wait the ragam still only stays as mohanam and has not moved to Hindustani bhoop despite a trespass from carnatic veena to Hindustani Sitar.Flash of jalatharangam is a stop gap and the flute takes over distinctly with the anchor of mohanam jeeva pidis getting more pronounced with always violin being the interchange instruments. Mohanam is still there

#3D# The Melody king SPB is joined by P susheela in first stanza. We struggle in carnatic concerts where many of them struggle to appreciate raga alapana and lose their patience before the start of krithi. But Illayaraja gives alapana in between lines of the charanam (Lesson 3A learnt without you knowing alapana you just started liking alapana too).Susheela sings beautifully but S janaki sings next .

#3E# The usually expressive violin gets most expressive with a beautiful interlude in little higher register of mohanam . ALapana is more with a higher share of chorus singers (Lesson 3B learnt after you getting little acclimatized with alapana you just started enjoying longer alapana too in second interlude)

#3F# S janaki , i would humbly say is best artist for Musical expressions .What feel she gives and she takes . Just hear the line where she steadies with her pitch in the line Oru vaanam karu megam and guides her musical brother spb.

#3G# Third interlude you also get acclimatized with a thillana also , You get a boat load of jathi phrases of a typical thillana like thirana thana thirana(Lesson 4 learnt you started liking thillana)

#3H# In 3rd stanza starts with a phrase of a typical taanam that comes in Raagam Taanam Pallavi . The taanam phrase is Thanthom thanam thanam (Lesson 5 learnt you started liking taanam )

#3I# In the same stanza both janaki and susheela along with lyricist pulamaipithan also reveal sahitya bhavam and they craft the ragamudra in their song too in the line "Athu enna MoghanamO ". This point is a lie actually they only sing a "Athu enna NoodhanamO" but i heard for many years as mohanamO till few minutes back when i checked that line in web with the song. All said this misunderstanding can also be a lesson (lesson 6 and and 7 with raga mudra and sahitya bhava)

#4# For many years atleast a generation born in 1960's to 1970s all got acclimitized to Indian carnatic music only because of the early exposure of these beautiful nuggets that IsaignAni created. We dont have a guru like Illayaraja in 2020 to camouflage the deep classical nuggets namely - depth of instruments,south indian instruments,ragam , alapana ,thillana, taanam, ??raga mudra and sahitya bhava . God of Music gave 7 carnatic nuggets in 5 mins.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=igqp75E ... rt_radio=1

Naan Oru Ponnoviyam Kanden illamai | Kavignar Pulamaipithan | SPB, S Janaki and P Susheela |Illayaraja(1 of 5) | kannil theriyum kathaikal |1980

- Rajesh dated July 16th,2020 , 2nd Fortnight July 2020 Edition

=============================================
Please share the below link to outside world inclusive of FaceBook and twitter. We will cash in God Of Music Illayaraja to bring more readership and from there more writers to rasikas.org, especially school kids of all sizes.

Illayaraja- Naan Oru Ponnoviyam kanden ilamai - extreme Carnatic with 7 nuggets

www.rasikas.org/forums/viewtopic.php?p=364941#p364941

- Rajesh dated July 16th,2020 , 2nd Fortnight July 2020 Edition

[sureshvv]

Don't think Ilayaraja belongs here.

Can we have a "Music Directors" topic or thread where we can move him?

[rajeshnat]

Illayaraja-Vaanengum Thanga Vinmeengal - Extreme Western
---------------------------------------------------------------
Illayaraja , the prolific composer is an amalgamation of 3 musical genres - Carnatic Classical, Western and Village Folk . 2 weeks back the carnatic classical was covered , this fortnight we take up extreme western persona.

Western Music roughly has its vast subgenres namely the rock and roll, the country music,jazz and blues. The more striking aspect for an unfamiliar indian like me is the distinct appearance with a little higher share of dissonant harmonics. At a more simplistic feel level,I consider western music is one which has distinct and continued usage of Guitar, Piano/Synthesiser, Saxophone and more than anything the rhythm is being caressed continously by Drums.

Let us jump to this brilliant western tune composed by Illayaraja.

#1# The prelude is to me a complete country music.The strokes are minimal with just a usage of acoustic guitar is my best guesss. I am assuming guitarist of repute like Chandrasekar, Sadanandam, and Sashitharan are playing guitar.The guitar plucks is very therepeutic to start with piano/synthesiser (assuming that is Viji Immanuel).The first strike of dissonant harmonics that is unmistakable to even untrained ear is when the humming starts.The hum is just - tha na na na , as humming repeats with the second round the lead female singer is just joined by few more voices with extreme rich western harmonics. The drums just comes distinctly as a rock and roll soft beat with a very distinct closure of blow of trumphet-jazz feel. In prelude we have country-rock&roll-jazz &blues all distinctly ensembled to create a western musical magic just in the first minute.

#2# I have not ever heard a man and a women singing the same western song with such equal finesse, though my knowledge of western music is very minimal . There is no concept of male female western music duet taking turns and singing equally ,i would stand corrected if there is one. I am running a dozen western music singers in my head ,it is either few males together or few females together singing as duet .There may be few but hardly it is noticable. It is a joy that INdian film industry especially south indian film industry brought in such high quality male and female singers sang together .

#2A# After the prelude is over, who else is better than spb to start .The pallavi starting line is very longish but music is crafted so well with these words or may be it is vice versa. SPB sings with such melody and his musically most appropriate female pair s janaki coaxes with right spacing .There is always omnipresent guitar chords and a very distinct rolls of drums

#2B# The first interlude is one of a kind. From a distinct country music defined by guitar,the distinct rthythm drums defines and lays the melody in a rock and roll style . Towards the second half a distinct trumphet and a closing melliflous saxophone makes us aurally move to jazz and blues world.In string section the violin is also there more in the higher register never constraining the sound of other western musical instruments.

#2C# The charanam is short with just a musical competition going on between two of the greatest singers of 1980s spb and s janaki. SPB has a style of singing with a slight higher shade of melody with some distinct touch points like pa pa. S Janaki gives more feel for the song with a distinct share of her musical expression. The guitar chords are heavenly during the course of charanam , with a few slamdunks of saxophone. The pallavi ends with the chorus dissonance bridge which is typical western with only alapana phrases

#2D# In the second interlude Illayaraja just gives male voice of SPB all the share.It is just jathi like phrases everywhere with western tune like tha tha thaga thigu with a lot of voice opening towards the end with his trademark skills. S janaki takes out so beautifully with her second stanza when spb ends the second interlude.

#2E# The second charanam is almost the same where illayaraja experiments where s janaki sings few lines and spb just one line . THe slight difference is giving rotation to chorus where chorus also sings few lines of charanam . I can hear bit more western harmonics when chorus sings , great try and a successful experimentation.

#3# Special mention to the Illayarajas right hand drummer Purushotaman who is universally well respected for his musical skills . Puru as he is called performed exclusively only for illayaraja from all the way from 1976 to 2020 when he recently passed away .Puru's shraddha to the drums is showcased brilliantly.You can distinctly hear diffent parts of drums being played like the High Toms, crash cymbals, Sticks ,right usage of leg press.Nothing sounds as noise with drums, what lovely sunaadam.

#4# I am not sure who the lyricist is .That is either gangai amaran or Vairamuthu but just fantastic choice of thamizh phrases. THough in this movie 1 song from kannadasan was more talked especially considering the film and actor/actress positioning, this song is simply way ahead of its times for its western adaptation.

#5# I usually do a fact checking with my writeup hearing the song again,I just noticed one thing just now. When SPB starts the pallavi line வானெங்கும் தங்க விண்மீன்கள் விழி இமை மூட சூரியன் வந்து கடல் குளித்தேறும் நேரம், SPB takes a pause with his breath in between வந்து <<breath>>கடல். But S janaki sings the whole line without any pause between வந்து <<>>கடல். I discovered just today that S janaki is also a Breathless (moochu vidama paadara) singer like SPB. THis song has a very difficult pallavi line to boot up , 10 out of million cannot even sing this first four lines of pallavis, i just tried it was prose recitation.

Kudos to Illayaraja-God of Music for bringing in Western Music with this tamil lyrics song .Indian Language inclusive of tamil is not that conducive to western adaptation, but may be it is just a biggest myth till i heard Vaanengum thanga vinmeengal .Thamizh can adapt even to western music ofcourse we need great team to collaborate and prove it.

Hear with your head phones AND/OR right blue tooth speaker.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GmYlUUN ... rt_radio=1

Vaanengum Thanga Vinmeengal | Either Gangai Amaran or Vairamuthu | SPB, S Janaki and Chorus |Illayaraja | Moondram Pirai (Balu Mahendra Film) |1982

- Rajesh dated Aug 01st,2020 , 1st Fortnight Aug 2020 Edition

=============================================
Please share the below link to outside world inclusive of FaceBook and twitter. We will cash in God Of Music Illayaraja to bring more readership and from there more writers to rasikas.org, especially creating awareness for western music lovers.

Illayaraja- Vaanengum Thanga Vinmeengal - extreme Western which was way ahead of time.

www.rasikas.org/forums/viewtopic.php?p=365288#p365288

- Rajesh dated Aug 01st,2020 , 1st Fortnight Aug 2020 Edition

[rajeshnat]

Illayaraja & SPB -Uchi Vaguntheduthu - Extreme Village Folk
--------------------------------------------------------------
In last two fortnights we saw Illayaraja with his extreme carnatic classical and western tunes illustration. This fortnight we take up his third dimension -extreme Village Folk.

The striking aspect for village folk music is the usage of percussion instruments . Strictly NO drums usage is there , but usually all songs will have usage of tabla in the absence of drums .But in this song Illayaraja created sheer magic where I am also assuming tabla was not used or may be just minimally used as a stopgap timer which i am not able to aurally notice. The percussion was predominantly driven by what industry calls as special effect minimal instruments and they got promoted as main percussion instruments .THe special effect instruments are Parai(Tappe), Udukai ,gadasingari, Urumi etc.Also usage of Shenai/Nadaswaram and Flute,both kind of rustic village folkish instrument is prominent in few places.Of course we also have sketchy western instruments like Guitar and significant violin drops though the tuning of the instrument is strictly folk.

Let us jump to this brilliant village folk tune composed by Illayaraja.

#1# The prelude is a start with Morsing , Parai(Tappe), ghatasingari all special effect instruments . Guitar is minimal with a lovely blowing flute. Every prelude signature of illayaraja sir is heavenly .This is just brilliant and permenantly itched .The whole motif of the song latches with the resplendent interlude.

#2# The start of the song is brilliant with distinct boom boom song of possibly Urumi and ghatasingari . THe pallavi Uchi Vaguntheduthu start is just lovely with just a minimal addition of kOlaatam like sticks(dont know if there is a name for that stick based instruments in this genre of folk music) .

#2A# THe interlude 1 just goes without disturbing the hill chilling melody.THe humming starts not by spb's usual musical elder sister s janaki but is sung by biological younger sister SP shylaja.Shylaja gives the aarirArO which is strictly a folkish lullaby and she goes with the flow of song.

#2B# Rest of the music director will usually stop with a big of sketch of interlude hummming and the charanam will start. That is true for any one other than Illayaraja be it Hindi, thamizh telugu ,malayalam or rather any 1000 plus other language music directors.They dont get in their head ,the depth of ideas of the spectrum of musical orchestration interlude.IlllayaRaja finds an opportunity to showcase his speciality which is his own brilliant build up of orchestration with suitable arrangment of instruments. I am assuming the instrument after humming that carries the melancholy motif is the same violin playing double role with two different flanger based tuned sounds .

#2C# The first stanza "pattula maadu katti" goes with the course of the motif with voice taking over distinctly. Parai and ghatamsingari is still successfullly graduated as an instrument like tabla ,the balance is perfect.

#2D# There is a complete contrast in second interlude . Shenai takes over with flanger usage of violin.You can damn imagine that the song is taken with some village tribes who are based out of the hill.Illayaraja makes us visualize even the video from just the audio.

#2C# Second stanza is just a replica of first .Oh yes that is how it is, but one line by pulamaipithan the lyricist is just striking to just describe the song . When you hear this second stanza ,you feel like reiterating the thamizh phrase "atha sathiyamA namba manam othukalai"

#2D# Hooray there is also a third stanza .The third strike is odukkal and urumi combination. I am assuming the entry is not shenai but may be even nagaswaram right there. The blow is piercing to give a raw naatupura isai flavour but still the melodic mood of the song is not disturbed despite the aggression of this piped instrument. The male humming in third interlude is none other than the same male main track singer,who else can modulate and still maintain melody than the one and only specially gifted singer.

#2E# What can one say when SPB Sings with a feel.Many singers lose a notion of melody to bring a certain expression or mannerism to song .To the best of my knowlede only SPB retains the highest unadulterated melody .Melody is a function of shruthi , SPB is excessively blessed with shruthi matha . Special mention to all the orchestration team .I am assuming the two special effect and tabla percussion team of Kanniah, Jaichaa , Sundar and may be Prasad did all the percussion special magic.Special mention to superb lyrics from pulavar pulamaipithan. Also all the other instrumentalist who just got the deep idea of Illayaraja to create magic inclusive of the morsing start which still made spb sing more with blended feel.

#3#This movie was released in 1979 .I certainly recollect this song as a popular song and many in family and accquintance used to sing without knowing an iota whether it is folk based,western based , carnatic based etc .Many in my age did not know illayaraja and i just came to know SPB then .In few more years i am just about to know who is actually a music director and who illayaraja is . Putting that personal experience aside see what Illayaraja has done to each of the few crores who had their domicile in India in 1976-1980s.

#3A# Illayaraja encapsulated the complete vishwaroopa structure(vadivam )of a village folk song with right orchestration with no escapism to other genres (not that i am seeing it is bad as he does that too often too).

#3B# Illayaraja with SPB incorporated the right melody and percussion balance with the calculated risk of using special effect instrument as main instruments . These special effect instruments are not usually preferred by any creator for its high decibel entropy and/or its limited range of adaptation.

#3C# Perhaps the most difficult point to understand , Illayaraja and SPB made us understand our Thamizh Isai through its Kalaacharam & parambariyam (tradition and culture)

#3D# Many like me were either born in town or cities . We all went to cities to study. We all dont know what is a village life and what is the musical gestalt of music in village/hills etc.Illayaraja made everyone appreciate without an iota of resistance which is becoming so much of a today for many youngsters.

#4# Most of my writing are strictly personal experiences and I hardly refer anyone else .But this particular writing i would like to acknowledge three of them .One is Tesla Ganesh who is an authority in appreciating illayaraja music , second is my school friend Sriram Srinivasan who is based out of LosAngeles sings nearly like his idol spb and the third is Jaichaa who is raja sir's special effect percussionist .I did not know any of the folk instruments so i had to take their online help . I dont know jaichaa in person , I have not seen tesla ganesh yet but spoken. Ofcourse i do know Sriram Srinivasan.

Hear with your head phones AND/OR right blue tooth speaker.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V4kOrScGQ68

Uchi Vaguntheduthu | Pulamaipithan | SPB |Illayaraja | Rosapoo Ravikaikari |1979

- Rajesh dated Aug 16th,2020 , 2nd Fortnight Aug 2020 Edition

p.s I wrote four posts and saved in my notepad . I will end this series publishing my last post exactly a fortnight from now featuring carnatic-western-folk mix .

Sripathi Panditaradhyula Balasubrahmanyam -God Of Melody---GetWellSoon Sir along with your wife savithri both battling direct pandemic virus.

=============================================
Please share the below link to outside world inclusive of FaceBook and twitter.

GetWellSoon Sripathi Panditaradhyula Balasubrahmanyam Sir and his wife Savithri.

Illayaraja & SPB -Uchi Vaguntheduthu - Extreme Village Folk

www.rasikas.org/forums/viewtopic.php?p=365586#p365586

- Rajesh dated Aug 16th,2020 , 2nd Fortnight Aug 2020 Edition

[rajeshnat]

Illayaraja -EariyilE elantha maram - Three oceans of Carnatic + Village Folk + Western meet in just 5 mins
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
In last 3 fortnights we saw Illayaraja with his extreme carnatic classical , western tunes and folk with illustration of just one song for each. This fortnight we take up one of the most brilliant composition where Illayaraja mixes all three genres to create a magical effect . This would be my last part of the four part series and I intend to take break for some time .

The simplicity of this song EariyilE elantha maram is very janaranjakam but bit deeper if you go one can spot the three oceans of carnatic , western and folk complementing and creating a wonderful synergy . The song visuals helps bit more to understand the writing but deep down in the backend everything is a well thought and thorough musical composition that definitely does not need any visuals.

#1# If it is carnatic it has to be based on a raga. Ok quite evidently the raga of the song is predominantly appearing like shankarabharanam ( Carnatic lesson #1 ). Illayaraja generally teases with his imagination where he also creates a certain mystery where he goes also bit away from the main choosen raga . I also hear a bit of suddasaveri raga in its mix ( Carnatic lesson #2 ).

#2# The song start is with an alapana sketch one can say "sa pa sa" basic class opening ( Carnatic lesson #3 ). The lead actor sings and trains a bunch of kids to sing . Just like a carnatic music class, you have all kinds of students with all kinds of sruthi fluctuations .There is one blue eyed boy singing who is emerging as a winner(in this case it is actually s janaki the lady who is singing for the young boy )

#3# The teacher sings the pallavi EariyilE elantha maram in a folkish tune ( Folk Lesson #4 ) with s janaki repeating . Immediately for the kids the western choir is taught where the kids chorus are asked to sing in lower choir notes ( Western Lesson #5 ).The blend of western and folk is just mixed with greatest imagination from here on with steady anchor of carnatic ragam. The guitar strum is heavenly with rich western harmonics

#3A# S janaki sings the traditional carnatic basic swaras "sa ri ga ma pA da ni sA" liberally with chords of the western guitar .POst janaki swaras another quick round of repetition by chorus with guitar( Carnatic Lesson and Western Lesson #6 and #7).

#3B# Immmediately for the same carnatic swara notes western choir of two pitches namely soprano and alto follows right away the tune is strictly heading towards folk here.There are two sets of female chorus voices singing folk with words "than na na tha na na" in western harmony ( Folk Lesson and Western Lesson #8 and #9)

#3C# I personally call S janaki amma is one musician of intense musical expressions . Goose bump follows when she just sings in a flash just the word EariyilE roughly 5 times with another 2 times intermittently by chorus . Heavenly demonstration of western choir usage with different harmonics with fokish touch. i also hear a bit of sa pa sa of carnatic music class there. The motif of the entire song that follows is actually previewed in few seconds with just quick 7 step rendition of varying pitches with the phrase EariyilE ( Folk , Carnatic and Western Lessons #10, #11 and #12)

For this song this 1 min and 45 seconds prelude is more than enough , but hey the song has to begin.

#4# The tutor teacher illlayaraja has identified the blue eyed singer s janaki singing as young boy and the gumbaloda govinda students are just ready with their soprano and alto lessons . S janaki carries forward with the pallavi line "Eariyile Elantha maram" with the chorus going with precision "thangachi vecha maram". Percussion heats up well with fantastic simple rhythm. S janaki shows her class again with a little significant variation of musical expression with she ending the pallavi little with a little more significant variation for the same pallavi line Eariyile elantha maram
( Folk Lesson and Western Lesson #13 and #14)

#5# First interlude is fantastic .The visual sequence is a train coming where illayaraja gives a distinct western tune with a brilliant metallic flute joining synthesiser and omnipresent bass guitar . The kids in chorus sing a western "la la laa laa".( Western Lesson #15 ) The tune suddenly comes with a street koothu melodic folk drop where you can see kids also visually dancing that way . ( Folk Lesson #16 ). The train reverses visually in a flash with kids joining in western harmonics of another western tune with a surprise s janaki doing an opppari oooooooo folk tune ( Western and Folk Lesson #17 and #18 ). I am assuming the song was picturized in and around the hills of kodaikanal-madurai not very far from illayaraja's village panniapuram.

#6# S Janaki continues to sing more in a raised soprano fashion with the first stanza she sings in soprano "velli malaiyile" with the chorus repeating in alto the lines "thenaruvi thenaruvi" . THe joy of illayaraja song is how he bridges generally the charanam to the pallavi .THe bridging line is the line senduga melE in soprano and anandam taanE pogayile in alto and he reaches the motif line EariyilE with s janaki striking perfectly with her expressions.( Western and Folk Lesson #19 and #20 ) Many music directors strugggle to get this rich coupling from charanam to pallavi but not a case at all with isaignani illayaraja.

#7# For the second interlude ,The striking aspect is the interlude is built only with carnatic and folk percussion instruments . Apart from vocalization of thavil and nagaswara sounds like dum dum and pee pee , folk instruments like udukai, urumi and carnatic instruments like kanjira and ghatam are all picked to make a meaningful tani avartanam . There is also a very slight basic western strumming ( Carnatic , Western and Folk Lesson #21, #22 and #23 )

#8# The brilliant musically expressive s janaki like the first stanza leads the show with "allikulathilE "with chorus getting joined "thAmaraiya thAmaraiya" ( Western and Folk Lesson #24 and #25 )

How a musical composer without a single iota of discontinuity mixes liberally carnatic, western and village folk to create such a musical experience with zero drama and zero prose effect . 25 distinct lessons learnt from just a 5 mins plus song.Thank you God Of Music- Illayaraja Sir.

Hear with your head phones AND/OR right blue tooth speaker.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_LS42vOxDAw

EariyilE elantha maram| S Janaki and Chorus with minimal Illayaraja| Panchu Arunachalam | Illayaraja | KaraiyellAm Shenbagapoo | 1981

- Rajesh dated Sept 01st,2020 , 1st Fortnight Sept 2020 Edition

p.s I wrote four posts and saved in my notepad 2 months back . I will end this series publishing this as my last post .
====================
Please share the below link to outside world inclusive of FaceBook and twitter. We will cash in God Of Music Illayaraja to bring more readership and from there more writers to rasikas.org

Illayaraja- Eariyile Elantha maram - 3 genres of music meet :
--------------------------------------------------------------
With Eariyile Elantha maram , Three oceans of Carnatic + Village Folk + Western meet in just 5 plus mins with only Music and zero distractions.

www.rasikas.org/forums/viewtopic.php?p=365963#p365963

- Rajesh dated Sept 01st,2020 , 1st Fortnight Sept 2020 Edition
p.s I am taking a break from writing as it takes time to write , if i am motivated and have time will continue to write more about illayaraja.

[Pratyaksham Bala]

Example of Hyperbole !

[rajeshnat]

The doyen of Carnatic Music - supernova Semmangudi Srinivasa Iyer talks about Maestro Illayaraja for just 3 mins. A rarest of rare occassion where Illayaraja composed a varnam (in abhogi) and a bunch of krithis of different dieties . I have kept the pointer only when Semmangudi talks about Illayaraja. All the krithis and varnam is played by the genius Mandolin kadaksham Srinivas. What wisdom when semmangudi says sollAmal sollanum sahithyathai

God of film music Illayaraja is celebrating with his crores ond crores of fans . I am sure atleast 5 crore rasikas will play some score at this second .

https://youtu.be/wPC7f3D3pTc?t=4126

When you have time atleast hear that ragavardhini after the speech of SSI..The genius mandolin srinivas with Illlayaraja sir is surely special

Today - June 02nd ,2021 is Raja Sir's 78th brithday.

[rajeshnat]

The Hindu writeup of a much publicised event in music academy event where ra ga sisters are performing connecting the greatest music director of our lifetime - Isaignani Illayaraja. This is happening on June 05-Sunday, hope some one goes to academy and writes a review in concert review thread.

https://www.thehindu.com/news/national/ ... 488340.ece.

Also maestro has just entered 80 years and he made a visit to Tirukadaiyur kovil(near mayavaram)for his satabhishekham (just kept the pointer for you to just see it for a minute plus)
https://youtu.be/32PEjcSSPvQ?t=67

[RSR]

This forum is mainly for CarNatic classical music. And we have a set of criteria for CM vaak-geya-kaaraas. It is not mere orthodoxy. but respect for tradition. HM and CM had common grammar before 1300.
The basic tenets were re-asserted during Vijayanagar empire-1500 and since then, there have been musicologists . The difference between a musicologist, 'utthama vaak-geya-kaara; and musician has been clearly established over the past 500 years. ..It is true that composers have adopted some music from post-1300, North-Indian music, which goes today by the name HM. Nothing to frown at, as both CM and HM are Indian music. and even Rabindra Sangeeth.
-
Over the past three centuries, no studio-orchestration , has been allowed in Classical CM platform. , even if the music was CM.
When even Western instruments have not been allowed in CM platform (except violin, that too in 1800 only, ), where is the question of mixing the ideas of WCM in CM classical music?
-
Let us consider classical HM, even today. The standard accompaniment, is Saarangi and Tabla only. Similarly, for vocal CM, the standard is violin and mrudangam.
It was Film music, both in Hindi and south indian films which introduced western instruments. The trend began around 1935 and gave us many legendary film music directors, with solid background in HM classical . Though, they used western orchestration, soometimes stunningly, the melodies were based on Indian musiic system.
-
We had similar talented music directors in Thamizh films also. The great Papanaasam Sivan himself, came into prominence through films. But, he was not a mere film-music director. When we consider the number of his chaste CM compositions, outside the film world, it far outstrips the number of his film-compositions. What is more, even some of his compositions for films, were of such fine quality, that they were rendered in traditional CM platforms.
-
The main point to be noted is that no accepted vaak-geya-kaara
in the last century, ever mixed up WCM concepts into traditional Indian music.
-
why not ?, one may ask. No problem , so long as it is not show-cased as traditional, CM improvement. Just because the theme is traditional and even devotion-oriented, it cannot pass for CM.
-
This is not a value judgement . No Hindi film music director ever claimed equal status with 'composers' of HM . ( Do we ever have music composers - not tunesmiths- in HM ?----if atall,it is a very recent post-1990 phenomenon)
-.
Many critics frown , even if a vocalist mixes HM idiom in rendering CM, even if the raagas are common. How much more we should object when not merely WCM instruments but concepts are used in CM , ? Only film music gives that 'unwanted liberty''.
-
The question is not whether the composer has mastered WCM atall. or it is moving, or it is liked by filmgoers or it has won recognition and fame from western world.
It is just 'corruption' of traditional standards in defining who a CM vaak-geya-kaaraa' is.
The best solution is to have a separate section for South indian film-music, if at all
OR have it in General discussion , where anything goes.
or ' CM-WCM fusion music'
OR in the lounge.
It sounds jarring to find this thread in the same SECTION as for the TRINITY.

[rajeshnat]

RSR
we only have vidwan and vidushi or vaggeyakkara thread. this explanation was given 2 times in last 4 years . it is a thread to refer in future. we have vaggeyakkaras of stature divine trinity to some one next door ,it is ok. if it goes to general discussions no one will see in future. there is some stickiness after even 20 years when it is in either vidwan /vidushi or vaggeyakkara that is all, not a perfect thread , but given what we have that is all we have

Check the thread viewtopic.php?p=343336#p343336 in first thread, see the joy of how many vidwans and vidushis have posed .

I am wishing raaja sir on his 79th birthday , i have no other post possibly next june 2023 to wish him then

[nAdopAsaka]

I appreciate the passion of both rajeshnat and RSR for film music.

As I see it, Trinity and perhaps a few others are distinguished entirely by virtue of their deliberate renunciation and poverty.

All the others have sought/acquired “commercial” success, “fame”, talent competition “awards” etc. etc.

Without demeaning either, there is no equivalence between the two sets.

I also think that the voice, (the pinnacle of our music), is itself affected irreversibly and indelibly in attempting to master one or the other genre.

Whether one group or the other should be or can be banished to “another” place, (which is still only a few mouse-clicks away) may not matter.

[RSR]

@rajeshnat at p-58
ilayaraja-from-solvanam
--a good article about the album - how shall we name it
----- article is in Thamizh.
https://solvanam.com/2009/12/25/how-to- ... %e0%ae%9f/
You may remember, that I had created a list of all the composers in this section with direct access links. and placed it here.
viewtopic.php?p=349327#p349327

ALL the composers in the section are music-lyricists, ie, their lyrics came spontaneously along with the music and that music was firmly rooted in CM raaga traditions. May be, some were re-tuned but still they definitely differ from just 'written poetry.'. Not one in the list , composed for studio-orchestration nor with any mixture of HM style, leave alone WCM.
i did read all the posts in this thread before posting my comment in this thread.
I have heard that ILayaraja was deeply influenced by Salil Chowdry. Salil also tried to blend folk tunes, HM classical ragas and WCM orchestration and ideas. Naushad also had deep knowledge of WCM. CR was 'notorious' for introducing very unconventional instruments in background music. Beyond doubt, they all gave us great many grand tunes. The issue is entirely different.
- It is just about creating a new section - along with Hindusthani music, Light classical music etc, and naming it as 'CM-Fusion'. It is nothing very difficult to do with so many network and software savvy seniors in this forum admins.
-
Sujatha's comment in solvanam article is apt.
--------------------

[rajeshnat]

80 distinct reasons to celebrate God Of Music 80th Birthday. Illayaraja Sir birthday is actually June 03rd ,2023.
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Personally one of the greatest inspiration who has made all of us happy especially me. I would personally put him even above Thiruvalluvar, Bharathiyar, Kannadasan and he is the greatest creator of art with few carnatic musicians nearly equalling him . 80 reasons with a right youtube url . 8 mins read , dated June 03rd ,2023

1 to 20 reasons(part 1 of 4) are:
----------------------------------
1. In first year 1976, raja experimented in his first 5 movies where he brought in two giants spb and s Janaki in the below song Oru naal unnOdu oru naal- uravaadum nenjam
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N7U7M8YPFTg

2. God of music interludes have a stand alone aura with a likely humming prelude .They are as memorable just like the song. For Eg Paadu nilave - Udayageetham
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Jx4Jt1rO8Fs

3. God of Music understands the role of chorus far more than any one . YOu see that in Poondalir aada - Panneer Pushpangal
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B6dqwWOHZLw

4. Raaja sir taught all of us Indians western music - Eg Theme love tune - Punnagai Mannan
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UEoRWuRBNV8

5. He taught us Folk music for many city dwellers who hardly knew the value - Eg maanamulla ponnu - Chinna pasanga naanga
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2qyiSVe-Mug

6. Raaja sir some times mixes folk and western in the same song as each stanza - Pazhamudhir cholai - varusham 16
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6PIRjbAtONw

7. Some times he keeps the tune as folk , where as the orchestration as western executes ideas in Eriyala illandamaram - Karaiyellam Shenbagapoo
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bxkBUsZjaMA

8. At times he creates one interlude as folk and another interlude as western where he uses the his notations to such perfection in O Vasantha raja - Neengal Kettavai
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Sxk9456fAa8

9. At times he keeps folk, western and carnatic ragam like mohanam so mixed that you are not able to make up your mind of the genre of the the song .Is this western or folk or carnatic in Naan Undan Sezhaga venom - Ullaasa paravaigal
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hbPFxcqrfmo

10. God of Music has even composed a song in German language iche liebe rich - Puddupaatu in
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oHyy3u4VllM

11. God of Music has even composed an English song - Love And Love This is in
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cSFyWEyUeA8

12. God of Music composed albums in 1980 after heaviest spiritual influence guided by Goddess Mookambiga , kanchi mahaswami and ramana maharishi .Here is one from his earliest album amma janani, Geethanjali.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=klm1rt_ ... 3h&index=3

13. God of Music brings in Goddess of Musical expressions(S Janaki) and finds her expressions so noticeable . No female musician in indian film music has sung with such fidelity in  Thalaatum Poongaatru Naan Allava - Gopura Vasalile lifting female singers to never seen astronomical heights
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ubuTdb8-EzE

14. Women musicians were not treated in par before illayaraja , But raaja especially recognised merit or merit sake and considered S Janaki for her sheer merit without bringing any gender bias.He gave her songs to illustrate power of voice with directors like his close friend bharathiraja in Dhoorathil nan kanda - nizhalgal
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cxgzG2A9t8c

15. The power of God of Steady Modulation - kj yesudas voice is understood best by only Illayaraja in the song En Jeevan paaduthu - Nee than Kantha kuyil
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L9jvFnFYDJM

16. Young Chitra did get an award which turned out to be the first national award in thamizh for god of music in Paadariyen Padippariyen - Sindhu Bhairavi
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6yRc4Ux7pgs

17. Illayaraja gets his first national award in the movie saagara sangamam (salangai oli) in 1983 . One of the song in that movie is vedham anuvilum - saaagara sangamam-salangai oli in expressive hamsanandi ragam
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IcstA6Pal8A

18. Raja sir has written so many complex notations with so many instruments at times he creates a sensation with just the preludes and interludes - Sundari kannal oru sethi , thalapathi in https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p9O9A3hrvXo

19. Raja produced and composed two English albums How to Name it and Nothing but wind.Here is one of them
that blends both indian and western music . There are two heavy ragas simhendra madhyamam and shanmughapriya for this popular western tune in
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H2mUCoTR3u8

20. Raja tried to orchestrate tiruvasagam and it came out pretty well in Poovar senni Mannan, Tiruvasagam in https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Nk8s-g5gzyM

[rajeshnat]

21 to 40 (part 2 of 4)reasons are
-------------------------------
21. Raja brings an orchestration so heavily to the movie that after many years and decades we only remember the orchestration bgm part far more than movie itself . This is illustrated in the bgm of the movie Pallavi anu Pallavi https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7SznyPpRfJM

22. Some backgrounds like raajapaarvai in BGM made us realise where many of us feel how music can even make differently able people give their best.Music is surely blind Here is an example in raaajaparvai theme interlude suiting the hero who is blind with his phenomenal violin and whole range of instrumentt . He picks up breezy pantuvarali ragam in this tune in https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y9oIYXmHQIc


23. Raja understands malayalam so well and in his first few decades his Malayalam songs were phenomenal . One of that is thumbi vaa thumbakuathin , olangal
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8qFaIALEvrY

24. Raja creates rare magic in Kannada language with the song keladE nimageega , Geetha where this drama based song gets featured differntly in thamizh as a complete contrast . Hear the original kannada verion of KeladE nimageega ,Geetha in
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bPRCdOKFHr4

25. Illayaraja in Telugu is as prolific as near thamizh . Some songs in Telugu which were tuned so well never came into thamizh . One eg is veyyari goddaramma , Pelinchu Pelladu in https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O3PoBNexENY

26. Some Telugu songs where spb and sjanaki have sung together were all memorable and their contrast and excellece was magic .Here is one of them kOnalo sanna jaaji - Maharishi in
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-jV8pS5pneA

27. Raaja sir got a national award for a telugu movie rudraveena .Incidentally he tried to bring a not heard KJ Yesudas into telugu world with chitra in lalita priya kamalam - rudraveena in https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oIWwPRabz7I

28. Raaja brought in baritoned and unique voices like Malaysia Vasudevan in songs to beat the summer heat where voice is some kind of yoga nilai voice . These songs permanently beat summer heat like Kodai kaala kaatre - panner pushpangal
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L2DQabNM6Vk

29. Raaja also made good classical singers like Vani Jayaram to take a break with their voice power in a different avatar In naane naana - azhagai ulna aatartikiren
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NmU-jroGDeM

30. Raja also stays relevant even in 2023 with the song vazhi neduga kaatumalli , viduthalai
Hear a version of one of my friend Sriram Srinivasan from Los Angeles who is the only most relevant and most authentic vaarisu of SPB. The original is illayaraja-ananya bhat but this is like movies of 1980s where near spb - sriram srinivasan sings
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nTIQbJua0qY

31. Illayaraja background music or rerecording is most sought after , Here is a clip from BGM of Mouna raagam which is oscar range with a permenant chase especially string sections
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ygtBewZNuUU

32. Raja brings in young voices even after the millennium and connects to Mahakavi Bharathi in nirpathuvE nadaputhavE - Bharathi in
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B5hPTo8qS0k

33. There is another latest in 2023 with where raja at 80 stays relevant even now to 18 year old . The song is unnai alllal enge Selven - Sri Ramanujar where vaali is believed have to pen his last song in raaja sir tuning in one of his most sought out maayamaalavagowlai ragam
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JkDUb08XT8c

34. For a change raja with his family of his children and his brothers children all sing in chorus in Anjali Anjali Anjali chinna kanmani - Anjali
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iC9gSQx3d_0

35. Raja has a terrific younger brother Gangai amazon who is a brilliant lyricist in siruponmani asaiyum - Kallakkul eeram
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qPPvYrVQJBg

36. Raaja arranges scores of instruments and at times it is a mind boggling to know how he arranged this many in each interludes in kaadal kasakuthayya - AAn paavam
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o4WthgYpC78

37. Raaja makes lyricist Like Vaali to showcase his literary and historic skills with spb,uma ramananan and young mahanidhi shobana singing in Sri Ranga naathanin - Mahanadi, giving a glimpse of how happy family was aligned with thamizh culture till movie takes turns
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e3MIBuCZRl0

38. Raaja brings Vairamuthu and collaborates with such excellence in very first song where they collaborate in ragam kedaram in ithu oru pon maalai pazhudu - nizhalgal
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ux0LERGc1cc

39. Raaja some times such high class duets in such top speed with his top draw singers spb and s Janaki in Ila manathu Pala kanavu - Selvi
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MuUJ46bjt7g

40. Raaja even gives chance to averge singer like kamal Hassann to pair with s janaki and still produce great tune in ninaivo oru paravai - Sigappu Rajakkal
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xeyWdplou6U

[rajeshnat]

41 to 60 (part 3 of 4)reasons are
--------------------------------
41. Raaja standardizes most of his tunes with a clear cut ragam. Here is a maayamalava gowlai example in Carnatic style where he slowly shows the metamorphosis of kid to adult in the song Rama Namam Oru Vedame - Sri Raghavendra
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wRfjzW_KKpM

42. Here is the Same maayamalava gowlai example in Western style Kaadhal Kavithaigal - Gopura Vasalile
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-fN5Zs-ej4o

43. Raaja is proliic keeeravaani He includes keeravani in the mudhra of the song KeeravaniL idhayamE - Paadum Paravaigal
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wG7gmPc049E

44. Raaja brings even bilahari which is so carnatic and mixes effortlessly with western orchestration in strings but beats stay carnatic in koondalalilE megham vandu, bala nagamma
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5Yw1C3sRUS8

45. Kalyani is a ragam that is been handled by many musicians but in one song he handles all shades of Kalyani Janani Janani - Thai Moogambigai
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PFPX9OgqEG4

46. Even Carnatic and hindustani musicians attimes struggle to disambiguate Kalyani From Yamuna Kalyani . But raja sir does so well even for Yamuna Kalyani Yamunai Attrile - Thalapathi
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KV8Wpnpm_lg

47. Raja sir defines suddhadhanyasi in Vizhiyil Vizhundu - Alaigal Oiyvathilai
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ap3Esbf_MTM

48. Rare ragas like srothaswani don’t even have krithi in Carnatic music. But raja sir brings that in Sindhiya Venmani - Poonthota Kavalkaaran
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-pmV_-FHE2E

49. Raja sir picks right raga , for sorrow and melancholy he picks and masters in subhapantuvarali in the song Vaikaraiyil - Payanangalmudivathillai
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lPLlnzW4kOQ

50. Rare ragas like Jog find its way as a hit in  Metti Oli Kaatrodu - Metti
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UOniBREPULo

51. Rarer ragas that escapes carnatic world like madhukauns finds its way in Nalam Vaazha Ennalum - Marubadiyum
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ctT5f9KzC1g

52. Raaja defines this writers favourite raga brindavana saranga so beautifully in kallukulle vantha eeram enna - manithanin marupakkam
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qhNiOcq87Oc

53. No music director has understood string section instruments like violin, viola, cello,double bass as much as Illayaraja sir in kann malargalil - Thai Poonam
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l2EMioti0b4

54. The blend of guitar and piano is so intertwined only with raja sir in Johnny BGM
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p7TMKttTf3A

55. We all know what is bass guitar and the power of chord progression in many songs , One of them where jayachandran joins s janaki is in kodiyilE mulligai poo - kadalora kavithaigal
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dNjVVn9SSv0

56. Spb rarely sings malayalam ,there is a lovely song tuned by raja sir where chitra pairs Thaarapadam Chedhoharam - Anasharam
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wCIVhoHcV0w

57. God of Lyrics kannadsan and God Of Music Illayaraja also paired in many songs .one of the most meaningful 3 stanza song is azhagiya kannE - Uthiri pookal supporting classic directors like j mahendran
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rPDC9KzVZrI

58. How can one forget Kannadasan Illayaraja pairing with Balu Mahendra where Yesudas song the most iconic song which also moved to the Hindi world as the song Surmai Akhiyon Mein - Sadma
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oJQL9Wf6O4I

59. Raja creates layers of orchestration so unparallel that no musician did it like in vaanam keezhe vandal enna - ThoongathE thambi thoongathE
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fQc0JNazRFA

60. Once raja sir was sick and hospitalised with he unable to speak . Raaja sir whistled and created this tune kaadalin deepam onru - thambikku enthu ooru
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2C78pEVf9oY

[rajeshnat]

61 to 80 (part 4 of 4)reasons are
--------------------------------
61 . Raaja has paired with MS Viswanathan and created magic where tune was done by MSV and raja did the orchestration in vaa vennila unnai thanE -mella tirandhadu kanavu.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u8cmK1ePvuM

62. Illayaraja is a master to create a short version of melancholy tracks that is so different than happy track . Here is one morphing bit into sivaranjani ragam wher both male and female versions have different tunes in orchestration . The song is oru raagam paadalodu - aananda ragam
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TWSaXhbao0E

63. we understand naadaswaram and thamizh culture so well with this song penned by pulamaipithan where P susheela pairs with uma ramanan.The song is amudhE thamizhe- kovipura
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bg70cqREuX0

64. Illarayaraja arranges veteran singer PB Sreennivas to pen lyrics and tunes a hindi song for a thamizh movie in kaise kahoon - nandu
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mAa88aC_yFc

65. Illayaraja experiments and succeeds in education of counter points with voices singing in as shadow where spb and p susheela sing together in the song en kanmani en kaadhali - chittukuruvi
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1q27kfl2hwg

66. Raaja is a percussion giant ,hear his usage of tabla and mrudangam in tandem where jayachandran and sunaada sing together in kaadal mayakkam , avmin pudumai penn
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hDHnmvmy0yQ

67. Raaja usage of drums is legendary . Here it is with chitra singing with difficult beats in charanam santosham inru - manithanin marupakkam
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qwsnsF21Wzc

68. Raaja brings in rare instruments like bulbul thara and plucks it so distinctly in songs such as malaioram veesum kaatru - paadu nilave
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BgbafEuP8RE

69. Raaja is a flute maestro here is one with a great opening in flute in naan paadum mouna raagam - idhaya kovil
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QE8s_nyXhmo

70. Raaja taught all of us taanam which many of us know is a carnatic style in the song poovil vandu - kaathal oviyam
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tOkFty1_Umk

71. hindi based singers like lata mangeshkar who have got national reach got better musical reach only after they sang Engirundho - en jeevan paaduthu
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kT9GDDMOHSQ

72. Raaaja got a national award for only orchestration for the movie merkku thodarchi malai in https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Tmg-JbqK0o0

73.Moutain and hills based folkish song with special chorus had special melody in meen kodi theril- karumbu vil
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cubD0jeCXC0

74. Guitar occupied such a special place with the song illaya nila - payanangal mudivathillai
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AsN_9uXAoNE

75. Some times illayaraja skips all percussion and carries the whole movie with just one song as a title voice with raw voice hoooking us right there with the whole movie . The track is then paandi cheemayile - Nayagan
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QS4R7hV-ntM

76. The song can be a dhappan kuthu with even whistle . Raaja sir never forgets melody in annaathE aadura - apoorva soghadharargal
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n08BfbvzWPU

77.Some times with just half a charanam illlayaraja creates wonderful orchestrationa and a short snippet soong in varacholli inneram - singaravelan
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XiaBIaYkutk

78.Vaali writes about illayaraaja as a biography in the song naan yaaru enakEdu theriyalaye - chinna jameen
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9Arf3MZrYEI

79. God of Music challenges so much that he even makes one of the greatest singer to hold his entire breath in the song mannin indha kaadal anri - keladi kanmani
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N50x4fVBLtA

80. Finally as 80 this song never got released in movie chek the singer , lyricist and composer
Kaathal un leelaiya | God of Music | God of Music | God of Music | Japanil kalyanaraman | 1985
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=23naJor4hHs

Gratitude , Gratitude from this writer rajesh for showing what creativity in music means !!!

- Rajesh Natarajan, dated June 03rd,2023 that is the actual God of Music - 80th birthday

[rajeshnat]

========For Whatsapp or FaceBook Forward ===================================
God Of Music - Illayaraja on his 80th birthday which is June 03rd, 2023
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
80 reasons to celebrate one of the greatest musicians of this millenium . 8 mins read with a line or two for each reason and a youtube url . Gratitude ,from this writer Rajesh Natarajan for Illayaraja sir showing what creativity in music means !!!

Please do forward to all your groups , i am sure you all like God Of Music - Illayaraja. Took almost 6 hours to research and 45 mins to write

www.rasikas.org/forums/viewtopic.php?p=379426#p379426

- Rajesh Natarajan, dated June 03rd,2023 that is the actual God of Music - 80th birthday