Global recognition for IR's music.......

irir123 and Suresh, I agree with both of you. raagas, I think you meant Plum who shared that snippet. I think I am not surprised by that. IR always wants to try new instruments ..but please read it does not necessarily translate into new sounds. Sound is an after-effect, how you play and how it expresses the note is important. I am told he buys new instruments every now and then and learns to play it to some extent. Probably he knows to play many more instruments than other well-known MDs. Yes, as raagas, conjectures, his attitudes might have changed over a period of time..probably focussed totally on composing ie. notes rather than the instruments. Just like WCM composers, it is upto the conductors to select the instruments and pace. Just that being in the film/popular music he is forced to select instruments.

>>Found a die-hard IR groupie blog and this post: This guy got a letter from IR in 1978<<

You're probably referring to the blog by the brother of our seasoned hubber, Usha Shankar (tvshankar):-) He has also given some nice WCM lessons there. I don't have the link now..hopefully Usha Chechi will provide us the link here...

I think its fascinating if you look at the evolution of IR's music through the 3 decades of his career. He started with a folkish sound in his music, slowly moved into modern music then ventured into some classical and then some fusion stuff. The one thing i noticed in his albums has been that he never was interested in doing complete western pop oriented songs with instruments and rhythms dominating the melody even during his peak years. If you look at his fast numbers they were more on the soft side with Jazzy orchestration and still had melody at its base. There might be a few exceptions to this.
Coming to the topic of sound. I think sound for an MD is more of establishing that this is the way his songs are going to sound and the instruments and rhythms are going to sound in this way . This is more of an MD trying to establish a distinct identity to his songs.
As far as IR is concerned he always tried to match his music sound to the movie theme in most cases. As for he not doing much with sound in 90's i think he tried to when he got some good movies, Guru, Hey Ram are good examples. EVen Kadhaluku Mariyadhai had some new sounds(for IR i mean) which atleast i did not hear before in a couple of songs.
But now the trend is making hip modern sounding Rhythms .After departure of Maniratnam i dont think IR worked with any director who would have had the courage to ask IR to do some really modern sounding songs which match the current trends. They are mostly happy to take what he gives given his stature of a legend. This has created an impression that IR is kind of a veteren MD who can just give nice melodies and his trademark brilliant orchestration and BGM not that IR really minds that. But if properly pushed and inspired i have no doubts that he can come up with equally modern sounding rhythms and songs as well. But its highly unlikely there is any director out there. Maybe Balki if he stops asking IR to recycling his old hits can make IR come up with something. Lets hope.

'Ilayaraaja taught me great discipline'- A R Rahman


The philosophy that underlines his quest is simple - a good human being makes a good musician. In an interview to PEOPLE at his Chennai residence-cum-studio (the ground floor houses his studio, the Panchathan Record Inn) after his Golden Globe win, Rahman repeatedly emphasises this. "Being a film music composer is not just about scoring good music. It is also about having ethics, commitment, passion and friendship," he says.
It was his father, Malayali music composer, late R K Shekhar, who showed him the way. Rahman remembers how he was a man who always valued musicians as "human beings first."

"My father was a hard worker and never judged musicians by their compositions. He had great respect for them as people and I learnt the same. He was always ready to help those who are in need."

In the 1980s, Rahman work as a keyboard player with legendary south Indian composer Ilayaraaja, which turned out to be his other learning ground. "Ilayaraaja taught me great discipline," says Rahman. "With other musicians, I always saw that there were people, who would drink and smoke. With Ilayaraaja, things were always systematic and disciplined. He was dedicated towards work and, once again, respected every musician."

Those who know Rahman well observe that the musician strives to live by the same tenets. Suhasini Mani Ratnam, wife of director Mani Ratnam, Rahman's good friend sees in him, a child-like innocence at heart. "I have seen A R Rahman showering lot of sympathy on children and people in need," says the actress. "His family has a very positive influence on him and I guess that makes his music more sensitive."

http://specials.rediff.com/movies/20...f-a-genius.htm

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thamizhvaanan - humble request - pls refrain from bringing in any other MD here even if you are not using the name! we are not concerned about whats happening to other MDs - we are more concerned about whats NOT happened to IR and trying to find out the reasons - none of the points you gave point to that!

After reading Thamizhvanan's post, I'm reminded of what Sujatha said somewhere about gimmicks that he initially did (like printing letters like a staircase to indicate someone getting down etc) just to attract and arouse curiosity.

Sujatha stated that though these can draw initial interest, there should be substance to sustain and keep them. IMO, the novelty of sounds and such could help score initially but without true musical substance one cannot keep it for long.

We can easily see which MD's have held it for long:-)

Back to the topic - How can IR get global recognition? Very simple!

IR needs to work with talents outside the country, on projects of "real global appeal" (not the TbI kind). For this he has to have "stuff", interest and ofcourse, proper networking.

Interestingly, he has enough stuff in that context.

We really don't know about his current level of interest. Definitely he had interest at some point of time in his career (RPO). For many reasons, it didn't came out and all that he gained was probably some experience and development of taste for such orchestras which frequently landed him with the Budapest team later. The question is, does he have the same drive in that direction now? Can't say.

Proper networking (i.e. working with the right kind of people to go global) - total washout in this case. Where, he doesn't even work on correct filmi projects LOCALLY now, national and global are totally out of question unless some miracle happens!

Thamizhvaanan, I am deeply disappointed by your post. This wasn't what I posted that link here for. If you re-read your post, you are basically venting against IR and taking cheap potshots at him. I dpnt know about your experience with rabid IR fans but the last few pages in this thread which I have seen have been free of malice and rancour. Please do not bring your politics here.

When I wrote that post, I could have also said "0look when IR was rahman's currnt age more or less, he was thinking along similar lines on new sounds.Let's see when rahman gets to IR's current age, does he keep up with maadern trendds."
I didn't.why? Because that would have been silly, and I respect rahman.
If you had an iota of respect for IR, please delete your post.
You don't have to ofcourse but I would appreciate if you did

App, oh related to a hubber-a?
Interesting

Quote:

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Originally Posted by irir123

we are not concerned about whats happening to other MDs

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:rotfl: if that was really the case, then TV would have never come here.....just look at threads in this section and this thread too, where ARR was discussed a lot, much to our discomfort.......