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One of my favorite Sivaranjinis... Ennena paada paduthuraan (Aandaan adimai, 2001). The tune, the flutes, the violins, the keys... terrific would be an understatement. There's some scale change that happens with the Veena's entry in the 1st interlude I think, but the song otherwise seems to be fully in Sivaranjini.
V_S,
Yes. That's why I pity people who are unable to hear Raja. I mean, this is right in front of you and you don't even know what you are missing!!!
KV,
Raj's blog has lots of very rare songs. You can also check his other blog, which is also dedicated to Raja.
KV,
That is a super Sivaranjani indeed. The surprising part is that Sivaranjani is supposed to be a melancholic raga and is generally used in slow love melodies or sad songs. Raja goes ahead and uses this ragam for all situations!! 'ennenna paadaai paduthiraan' is an excellent example of his lateral thinking. Thanks for pointing to this song.
Let us take another ragam which Raja has used effectively in the 80s and again used it with equal effectiveness in late 90s and 2000s. Before proceeding further, let me say this is not one raga but actually two ragas :) For me all these melodies sound very much like Hansanadam but people like Violin Vicky have argued that some of these songs are in Saranga Tharangini ragam. Thiraipaadal also lists them as Saranga Tharangini. To my ears, which have never heard Saranga Tharangini in classical music, these sound very close to Hamsanadham. So let me call these songs as being in Hansanadham / Saranga Tharangini.
Raja was ofcourse the pioneer when it comes to getting Hamsanadham into film music. (As with many other ragas as well). 'thenral vandhu ennai thodu' was the first one to hit us hard. A stunning debut for Hamsanadham into film music. Then there was 'Om Namaha' from Geetanjanli (Telugu) and 'Sorgame Enraalum'. Each a gem in its own right. These were in the 80s. Then till late 90s I don't think Hamsanadham made its appearance.
In 1997 came the movie, whose music I still consider one of the best in Indian Film Music history, especially in terms of orchestration. 'Guru' was the name of the Malayalam movie. It had a lovely Hamsanandhi /ST song, 'minnaram manathu' sung by Sujatha. Right from the prelude it has class written all over it. Be it the chapu of the mridangam, the violins, the bass that follows all the while, the flute which comes in once a while.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oGFv9qev98g
In the 200s came another song in the same raga(s) and many consider it one of the songs of the first decade of this century. L Subramaniam fell out with Kamal during the making of 'Hey Ram', which left Kamal with no option but to approach Raja. And in a way it was our luck because Raja created this outstanding gem. Summoning Ajoy Chakravarthy from up North, Raja would weave magic, the likes of which are only possible for a magician like him. Starting with those thundering drums, 'isayil thodangudhamma', with its energetic melody, lovely use of chorus and the enormous amount of energy the rhythm section generates, the shenoy interludes quickly became an all time favorite of many people. There is almost no singing competition in which this is not sung. An outstanding composition in every sense of the word. Even among his great compositions in this ragam, this one stands tall
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ox0gJ...eature=related
Raja also tuned a devotional song in this ragam sung by Bombay Jayashree for the Ramana Geetham devotional album. This is a more traditional tuning in keeping with the nature of the album. 'Sree Matrubutheswari' :
http://www.thiraipaadal.com/tpplayer...051%27&lang=en
Quote:
Originally Posted by Sureshs65
suresh, saranga tharangini notes explained here -- http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NxEYC...layer_embedded
Suresh,
I think you can add suddha sarang also to the mix and make it a 3 member family. Most of the hamsanadham songs have a mixed flavours of all the three. Nevertheless, the final effect is fantastic - thendral vandhu for the wonderful 'ludes' and 'isaiyil' for ajoy's vocal acrobatics (besides the great melody).
Thanks Vel for the video link. I wanted to post it but thought my post was already too long :) Sreekumar struggles in it.
RR: Honestly I haven't heard much Suddha Sarang. But as you say the final effect is always fantastic.
This has reference to the earlier posting by KV (#61 at page 7 of this thread) regarding raga of "Chandrabimbathin".
After fully repeating the song in keyboard of the melody song part (excluding the harmony/chords point of view), I fully endorse the views of KV viz. (a) the Swara mapping as S G3 M1 P D2 N2 S and S N2 D2 P M1 G3 S (b) elimination of Sriranjani (c) not in agreement with Madhyama Shruthi based song etc etc.
As I hear, tha scale starts in F, with F-A-Bb-C-D-Eb-F with G totally missing (meaning a harikhamboji based raga with Ri missing). IR has given umpteen number of songs with this Ri omission, like Kootathile Kovil Pura etc. The "Ponnil Vanam" song also follows the same scale but somehow, gives the feeling of different dimensions (of course not like khamaas).
I doubt, requirement of chord/harmony formation, will necessitate to shift the Shadjam from F to C, because there are numerous cases of Carnatic Ragas with various missing swaraas, where IR has treated with chords using the other equivalents or even using the missing swaras.
Coming to name of raga, while Pravritti as mentioned by KV is coming under 16th mela, I find the "karnATaka khamaas" which follows the same swaras is coming under 28th Mela appears to be logically correct, according to me. This raga name I found in the kARNATIC web site. Again, unfortunately, I am unable to get any Carnatic song equivalent in karanAtaka khamaas, to verify.
Similarly, another song from Kolangal "Mouna Ragam" appears to follow the scale of "karnATka Suddha Saveri".
I hope discussions may be revived about these songs also in this thread, to showcase IR's new raga choices.
CSR,
that's a good guess! I did notice D2 but is it prominent in aarohanam? Will be good if you can post the full notes of the song. (You can just post a screenshot if there's formatting issues.)