New age IR's Raga Choices

@ baroque - same tune? I thought the tune was diff.. Same raaga perhaps..
did u listen to the SPB song from the same album - very nice!!

IMPROVISATIONS IS THE SAME. sudhdha dhanyasi, I have mentioned.

chinna thurai, I must have some where, thinking will check out this evening. thanks.:)

see, i read your post, started with 1999(CT), moved to 1995-Rasaiya, went to 1992-mayilaadum thoppil, that's all, I will be trapped by 80s Ilayaraja with kaalaiyil kettadhu....1992 and before ... that's all impossible to climb up to current Ilayaraja for me!:-D HAPPY HAPPY JOY JOY.

Current IR, I buy the album whether I watch the movie or even crazy about the songs or not. Some day I will be in the mood to the ones I ignore earlier.

But Harris, Deva, Yuvan etc... I tumble down on the song while watching movies or rarely listen to see what's new, may be some day I make it assorted collection with the ones i like konja naal poru thalaivaa....,unnale unnale...,kaatrin mozhi... etc..

Last weekend I watched Cheran's Muran. Good work from Cheran. Fantastic ending. But I don't remember any songs. MD fellow yaarunnu kooda theriyaadhu, I don't care also. I will revisit the movie in future.

film makers like cheran, amir khan, vishal barathwaj are sensible fellows. I am curious about them.

IR belongs with Khaiyyam, S.D.Burman etc.

Khaiyyam's two albums coming, I may or may not watch the movie but albums Cd I look forward to and buy.

Hope they do justice to the great man's efforts like Bazar or Akhri khat etc.. Otherwise also Khaiyyam stands tall, sells his music quitely.:)

VINATHA.

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IMPROVISATIONS IS THE SAME.

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I agree. This is similar to the discussions we had on 'sri rama'. For raga enthusiasts and those who've grown with IR for long, I think it's hard not to notice and feel this way..

Interesting to read your likes, vinatha. Keep posting your hindi favorites in raj thread. I follow them regularly.

:)
vinatha

Getting back to the topic of the thread, I will try to post the various ragas Raja used late 90s and 2000s. These maybe the 'same old' ragas or newer / not oft used ragas. In any case we will try to see how Raja's technique has changed from the 80s wherever we can.

Today I want to post two songs based on the ragam 'Sivaranjani'. One is a Tamil song and another one a Malayalam song. The Tamil song is from the movie, 'Sakkara Devan' sung by Malaysia Vasudevan and S.Janaki. This was a bit popular when it was released. 'manjal poosum' from 'Sakkara Devan' here:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_W1OfyWLtL8

Now, let us listen to 'ponnavani paadam' from 'Rasathanthram'. The same Sivaranjani ragam but checks how different it sounds in the charanam. (You can hear the similarity in the pallavi)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ek5uLKxPDVs

'manjal poosum' is a typical 90s Raja melody. The usage of tabla, the real instruments (especially the flute), his favorite singers. Malaysia and Janaki. Raja evokes Sivaranjani very well in this song and gives it a romantic touch. The beats are also very nice. Doesn't follow the normal 4x4 structure. The beat gives the song a different quality altogether.

'ponnavani paadam': One contestant sang this in a reality show in a Malayalam channel. Hearing it Usha Uthup exclaimed, "What a flow!!! I am hearing it for the first time but you can clearly see it is a Raja song. Very high energy". That is true. The charanams especially flows as if they are rivers flowing down the mountains. Unlike 'manjal poosum' you have lot of synth in this. song. The beats again or unique. Synth pads combined with the thavil. The interludes a mix of real instruments and synth. The singers are new age singers, Madhu Balakrishnan and Manjari. Movie was released in early 2000s.

Honestly I don't have much to choose between the two. Both are excellent melodies with their strong points.

manjal poosum.... Vasu and Janu:musicsmile:

good job, Suresh.

I was listening to Shanmuga priya - MSS, this pongal morning, thinking...

last time Raja gave this rag in Tamil was MOGAMUL.

Janakiraman's Mogamul is a classic, the compositions are real stunners.

Veena, flute, violin, longing Janu's humming in Rag Shanmuga priya is a gem of a composition.:musicsmile:

Ilayaraja's shanmuga priya was 1995.

With this composition and rag, I can start with 1995, go down to salangai oli or aan paavam of 80s, still climb

up back with enthu and blast several times

No trouble 90s IR retaining me!http://www.mayyam.com/talk/images/sm...musicsmile.gif


http://www.paadal.com/album/tamilson...il-movie-songs

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-Kgyb_A86xk


I never seen this album in CD. One time, I was able to buy only cassettes of some Ilayaraja albums.
:roll:


PONGAL WISHES TO YOU ALL!

vinatha.

Suresh brought to my attention about this debate on Raja's new age work. On other Raja forums, I have been a torch bearer for both Raja's work on non-Tamil films as well as his work in the last 22 years (post 90s). I realized that the initial discussions in this forum was trying to fit Raja into the CCM box (various ragams, techniques from CCM). For almost 6 years, I have been trying to box him in three other boxes. The WCM box, the Techno-baroque box and more recently an arrangement box (choir, clever folk arrangements etc).

The long and short of most of my analysis has been one thing: you cannot box the man, however many boxes you have. I am sure, somebody tried to find the rock and roll/disco box even in the 80s for him. Most analysts try to come out with a grand phenomenon at the end and try to link every argument they have to that phenomenon. You just cannot do that with Raja. Perhaps, it may be due to the fact that we live during his time. Even Bach was not boxed into his baroque exploits during his time. Only when somebody chose to understand the genius several decades after his time, the world recognized it.

If this approach of trying to analyze him may prove futile, why do it? There is a joy in failure, and I thoroughly enjoy it. Take a set of 25 songs from various decades and scan it looking for one pattern (folk, arrangement, ragams what have you), you will get an answer. Reanalyze this same set with a different criteria, you will get another result set. That's the sheer genius of the man. But, you learn new things with every scan. All I see in these emails is just that. Different views scanning the same subject from different perspectives. Recently, I took up one song from Raja's 90s - Kottum Kuzalvizhi from Kaala Paani. You can write about this song from a violin arrangement perspective alone. You can also look at the choir arrangement and write from another perspective. There is an opera element in that song that has been very cleverly arranged by Raja. That's the third perspective. All these three perspectives are from analyzing only the interludes in this song!

Unlike most Raja fans, I became serious about his music, only after hearing Cheeni Kum, supposed to be a light version of his several heavy 80s work. My focus has been primarily to uncover most of his 90s and 21st century work as I had taken my focus off Raja for those two decades. I did not have the 80s baggage and viewed it as another phase of his career. There is so much to be uncovered and ignoring Raja's post 90s work will never reveal a complete picture. For instance, his Maya bazaar Capella work (Naan Porandhu Vandhadhu) has its origin in Kelade Nema Geega from Geetha in the early 80s.

With age, there are a few undeniable things - he is not able to do as many films, (nor are there commercial opportunities), not able to connect with the current generation and somehow got himself painted as a specialist. However, I see very few compromises, come what may from Raja. His best Capella work came when he was completely down!

Cheers

Ravi Natarajan
http://geniusraja.blogspot.com

Ravi,

Nicely put. I updated you because of your interest in Raja's later works. As you say, Raja has not compromised on his music and I believe in that. Again as you said, it is difficult to box. I think it was Plum who said here that which ever way you cut him, Raja still shines. He is a true diamond.

Vinatha,

Raja did give that wonderful Shanmukhaapriya in 'Moga Mull'. He later used that in a very new age way in this outstanding song from Malayalam 'Friends'. 'sivamallipoove' remains an eternal favorite of mine. Outstanding orchestra, superb use of the synthesizer and Chitra's glorious vocals.

http://www.raaga.com/player4/?id=178...19720863547394

Songs like these are proof to me that Raja has neither aged, nor his imagination come down. He is just looking at the same raga with a different lens and he sees new colors. If we refuse to see it, we are the losers, aren't we?

good good, suresh,

malayalam sivamalli..... chithra composition is a good one.

I am kind of running between my sankaranthi koottu etc..:) & my favorite music

composers...it was in my mind to post too.

still usage of shanmugapriya was 1999 and early.

more than decade +2 yrs for those of you noting his raga usage.....mmmmm....

thanks for the composition for my pleasure while I finish my pongal items.

without IR sangeetham, no day or festival is complete for us.:musicsmile:

vinatha