Raaja - comparing 4 decades of musical output

I think we have to take the next step in discussing Raja's inputs from a historical perspective.
So far we have covered nostalgia, style and lyrics sufficiently.
I thought one thing we have not covered and which can enrich us is the evolution of 'Technique'.
By Technique I mean the things that we associate with Raaja like the vocal counterpoints, orchestral counterpoints, preludes, interludes, instrumentation,fusion, choral portions, scale transitions and so on. All of them need expert participation and we can probably coagulate all the blog links of experts like Vicky and Ravi Natarajan in one place for this purpose.

From my personal listening experience, Over the decades whatever has changed, one thing remains steadily fixed as far as Raaja is concerned - that is the 'Fidelity' of context. By that I mean the relevance the musical piece has to the drama on screen is paramount with even melody coming in secondary - a reason why he was able to create 'noise' and put it in some of his songs like the 'Thenampettai super market' which got on to my nerves everytime I heard 'En Kanmani' or the unnerving gruffness that underlines 'Ennada Paandi'.

jaiganes,
epo start panna poreenga....... Unga writings ai........

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Originally Posted by tvsankar

jaiganes,
epo start panna poreenga....... Unga writings ai........

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naan podhuvaa sonnen - everybody has to do nnen.

To start with,
Raja began as a MD when he wasnt expecting - a stroke of luck, So all things considered, he wasnt ready to start off with an experimental score - So he begins with home base and 'Annakkili onna thedi' happens. Now what were shots in arm for him was the subject , the talented duo of Devaraj Mohan and a Singer extraordinairre S.Janaki. Now I cannot recall a more momentous coming together of people chosen by destiny than this. Not to mean that either of them wouldnt have made it big without each other with their big loads of talent and dedication. As it is in the word 'talent' much lies 'latent' and destiny brings things together for the latent thing to emerge. Just that these things were very ready. Raja was ready , Janaki was ready and Devaraj mohan duo were ready and the moment happened what unfolded was magical. We have read the song of the Solitary Reaper in William Wordsworth 's poem and we probably know the meaning of the word melancholy and a beauty that surrounds the word melancholy that deserts the word 'sadness'. Till then very many directors had tried to bring 'sadness' of a single woman on screen, but they eventually had ended up conveying it only as over dramatic 'sadness'(Bhagyalakshmi comes to my mind). AnnakkiLi was the first movie I remember to have brought out the nagging disappointment of unrequited Love of a lady as melancholy and this is must have been right in the slot for Raaja who has grown up on fertile grounds of emotions of a sacrificing single mom and must have immediately resonated with the right emotions for the subject and the script of Devaraj Mohan who come themselves from the earthy Puttana Kanagal school of film making. Such a novelty and depth at an emotional level from a story instantly inspired everyone associated with the project and no wonder AnnakkiLi onna thedudhe left an unforgettable imprint on every heart of thamizh nadu. This emotional effect of Raja is his forte and if there is a Raja song that doesnt move you or me, then the depth or 'kick' is not there in the source in the first place. And this is a very serious factor to consider in his filmography and musical analysis. So this is point #1 to remember when we analyse Raja.
He attaches himself to the characters and story at a more deeper level than any other music director and hence his music has not been that experimental in films that have beautifully written characters with lot of emotions for emotions and music are one and the same and trying to add music to already musical characters will only overflow.
So I proceed to write the first axiom to understanding Raaja's film music or music in general:
Axiom 1 : Emotions from characters real or fictional is the first layer, the aadhara shruthi - that is largely invisible in any score sheets . This thankfully has not changed from AnnakkiLi(1976) to Paa(2009).
And this is not my deduction - it is his statement as he has told in the making of thiruvasagam video. now comes the easy but voluminous jobs of compiling songs that affected us at a very emotional level. Beginning with AnnakkiLi onnath ThEdudhe to Meri Jaan in Paa. [/i]

jaiganes,
Great post from you.
padikaren ellathaiyum...

Suresh oru post panni irundhar...

endha thread la nu theiryalaiyae...

avasarama padichen adhai.......

enga iruku andha post?

3 naala - thread ellam romba active agi,
enga edhai parathen nu thedi parka mudiyalai........

suresh - enga post pannineenga..

Usha,

I had posted this in the rhythm thread. Thought it would be better here as this is more relevant to the discussion. So pardon my double posting. Here goes what I had posted earlier:
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Jai,

As you and others rightly point out, what Raja has been doing is to unify everything without making any one of them distinct. Actually Raja makes one form distinct, .i.e., if he is making a folk song, the spirit is bound to be that of a folk song. What he does is that he uses resources from every part of the world to service this folk song. So the folk song would be accompanied by western classical, Indian classical, jazz, rock and what not but in spirit it is not a folk song mixed with other forms but it is just a folk song!! (This is one reason why lot of people don't get it nowadays!!!). Same thing happens to a carnatic song. It can have a bass guitar, a jazzy sax but eventually remains a carnatic song. The unification he achieves is unparalleled. Even in the great Tiruvasagam, I never tire of repeating this argument, what he does is to keep the bhakthi bhavam intact inspite of all the orchestration. So if you keenly listen to 'Tiruvasagam' for a few times, what remains with you is something that touches your soul and not the grand orchestration. I remember the video in which Raja says that he has not given grand music or tried to worry about how note combinations can be done etc, but that he had given simple music which will support the emotional content of Tiruvasagam. I was then thinking, "who is this man kidding?" Wasn't this grand music? It was only after multiple listens did I understand what Raja said. The music was 'just right' for Tiruvasagam.

This is one reason why I am not one of the advocates of 'Raja needs to move away from film music' stand. For Raja's aesthetics is based on emotion and films with the cliched or new situations provide this. Based on these emotions Raja weaves his cloth, bringing to bear every musical form that fits. And the various musical forms come in only if they can service the emotion at hand. Otherwise they are ruthlessly discarded. This is something which we need to talk about as well. As how Raja does not get anything in, just to prove that he can do it. It has to with his aesthetics. Very rarely do you get such an amazingly talented artist who always wants to be true to the intended emotion and doesn't do anything just to display his skills or knowledge. We could see this in the older MDs and Raja is a true follower of these great MDs.
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In short, I agree fully with the Axiom 1 proposed by Jai.

can not be more aptly presented. kudos to jaiganes and suresh.

Even as late as 'kaatrinil varum geethame' - a video is available in youtube where vaali and raja discuss during composing - one would be amazed to see how emotionally raja is charged with the characters and the situation. it is so obvious in his voice while explaining the situation to vaali.

so, if provided with well chiselled characters and great situations, raja does his part just as he did in annakili.

In other words, does it mean that comparing decades using "IR's focus on the emotional quotient of songs as applicable to characters / situation " is a futile exercise? :-)

May be, but at least for one emotion, I think age has taken its toll - "thuLLum iLamai" stuff. His score for such characters during 70's/80's was a lot more spontaneous as compared to later years where it sounds 'measured and labored':-(

Compare 'vAdi En kappakkezhangE' and 'eLa vayasu pasangaLaththAn', for e.g.

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Originally Posted by Sureshs65

Actually Raja makes one form distinct, .i.e., if he is making a folk song, the spirit is bound to be that of a folk song. What he does is that he uses resources from every part of the world to service this folk song. So the folk song would be accompanied by western classical, Indian classical, jazz, rock and what not but in spirit it is not a folk song mixed with other forms but it is just a folk song!!

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Suresh,

Can you please throw in a example for this statement? I am one of those who "don't get it". An example may make it easy to understand.

By the way, you are one of the "rare" posters in this forum who write with lot of substance. Keep it up!!

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Originally Posted by genesis

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Originally Posted by Sureshs65

Actually Raja makes one form distinct, .i.e., if he is making a folk song, the spirit is bound to be that of a folk song. What he does is that he uses resources from every part of the world to service this folk song. So the folk song would be accompanied by western classical, Indian classical, jazz, rock and what not but in spirit it is not a folk song mixed with other forms but it is just a folk song!!

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Suresh,

Can you please throw in a example for this statement? I am one of those who "don't get it". An example may make it easy to understand.

By the way, you are one of the "rare" posters in this forum who write with lot of substance. Keep it up!!

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i know it is not a question intended for me - but still..
http://www.youtube.com/results?searc...rch_type=&aq=f

I found these videos of Raja talking abt his early days and influence of JK among other things - he also tells a snippet about how he sees various forms of music - I dont know which exact part had it - probably part 3 or 4