IR's Song Of The Day - Part 2.

Today pick - unnai naan parkaiyil

Hi nga usha....the link u gave is not working for me...but i am sure yr pick will be a good one ;-)

kiru,

One of the reasons why lot of guys with some carnatic training seem to look up in wonder to Raja's music is that he is able to mix one raga with another but you just cannot see where the change happened or if it has happened at all!!! The continuity and coherency in tune exists, sometimes because of tightly holding to a raga and sometimes even by shifting the raga!!! There is a certain magic in how he does it that I am unable to understand.

Take the case of the song, 'mandiram idhu'. It definitely seems be a case of multiple ragas strung together but the song appears as a whole and not as multiple pieces. And it is not a ragamalika. Raja gets the mood he wants by mixing up ragas.

Other great music directors in the past also have abruptly changed the mood of the song by introducing some 'anya' swaras but it was limited to a phrase or towards the ending of a phrase. Rarely have I heard a song being strung together with multiple ragas. You probably need to understand the swaras and grahabedham to understand what he does. I don't know about them but I can tell that he uses multiple ragas in the same song but the song sounds as if it has a single intended sound.

(To illustrate, not a Raja song, this is Raveendran's Malayalam song, 'thamburu kulir'. Check out this song and the singer. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZJV4JOU2lz0
As she sings the charanam, 'kaathu pol' there is a distinct shift in the sound, a sort of unexpectedness which is pleasing. This has been done many times in the past. Vidyasagar, who came as a judge in SPB's program, was mentioning about MSV coming up with such exquisite deviations.)

Quote:

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Originally Posted by kiru

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Usha, this was discussed here and consensus was IR sticks to a particular raagam for most of the songs. Hypothetical % given was around 50-60%. Only some popular songs and songs in which he has tried some grahabEdham or similar techniques deviate. I am positive about this because one of the main things I like about IR songs is there is a continuity in the tune and this raagam based composition approach was cited as a possible reason.
IR has denied he picks a raagam first and starts composing, but his actions/record dont seem to support this :-)

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kiru,
THanks for the response. Ungala pola enaku solla theriyalai.
Ennai madhithu sonnadharuku Big Thanks to you kiru.

as u told,
"IR songs is there is a continuity in the tune and this raagam based composition apporach was cited as possible as
reason"

Yes kiru. Romba azhaga - short and sweet a sonnenga.

Idaiyae oru topic a eduthu - thread start pannalam.

Ragam vishayathilum - Characater um situation um Role play
panradhu kiru.

kiru,
Suresh ungaluku reply seidhu irukar parungo.
Romba periya vishayam ellam solli irukar.
parthukongo.

suvai,
ipovavadhu link work aradha. download
seinjeengala.. pl reply me....

Today pick - Vetti vetti veru

Singer - ARun mozhi

Film - Manikuyil

Simple tune.Arun mozhi voice - i like His voice..

Starting with Arun mozhi voice - Affectionate voice.

Behind the voice, Solid Gutar starts...( Friendly guitar.
Supports Arunmozhi's feelings.... and expressess on behalf of him..


Now, unexpected rhythm comes with my favourite Flute..

Flute - takes the first place, rhythm then follows....

(At the starting, Rhythm always gives the space for others... but
during the journey, it never give up.... with a little bit space for others..haahhaa...)

As usual,violin is joining in a Majestic manner....

This violin piece is lenghty one.Leads the singer to the
forrest.....

Stanza starting with this combo in a nice way.....

Arun mozhi's Bhavam - Nice one. Friendly Voice.....

2nd interlude


Solid Guitar calls the violin... with the help of santhoor...

Violin is on the way...... so easily joins with them....

Beautiful song. Could say the word - Beautiful to a song..
TAts IR music......

gives an imagine of greenish forest , a big water falls...
etc.......
want to hear the song in a real forest.
so i should go to a forest and want to hear the song .....

Like the lyrics so much..

Vetti vetti veru
adhan vasamae
katti vecha podhum
vandhu veesumae

katti vecha paatum
kalam ellam Vazhum (These lines are Dedicated to
our Dear Raajaa Sir.)

vetti vetti veru - Arun mozhi

http://www.thiraipaadal.com/albums/ALBIRR00346.html

Usha, nice song. For long, I used to ignore this in favour of "kaadhal nilAvE" from the same film. Heard recently and realised that behind the facade of just another rural, simple song, there is so much sophistication packed into it. You have described well. Great post Usha

Usha..thanks for the compliments. I am trying to learn from knowledgable posters here (you, Suresh, etc etc).
Suresh, I agree with you. Maybe IR sees commonalities between raagams and this is his way of showcasing it to others. He probably sees commonalities between Indian and Western music as well. (Damn..the malayalam MDs do know to compose Indian music very well !!) Still, what is the percentage of songs which are set in a single raagam vs multiple raagam ? I'd guess the single raagam's are the most.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Plum

Usha, nice song. For long, I used to ignore this in favour of "kaadhal nilAvE" from the same film. Heard recently and realised that behind the facade of just another rural, simple song, there is so much sophistication packed into it. You have described well. Great post Usha

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Exactly..the way Usha is wont to describing the songs recently (maybe I am noticing it only now) ..from start to finish ..including the preludes and interludes is exactly the way IRs songs are supposed to be enjoyed. I dont think IR differentiates the vocal parts from the instrument parts ie. prelude transitions smoothly to pallavi to interlude to charanam etc My theory is he is building it like a WCM composition and just uses voices because the market wants to hear the lyrics. Many songs can probably be ported to a "symphony" or "concerto" if you replace the vocal with violins.
In other words lot of effort goes into composing the interlude to be the part of a whole and if people ignore it (which I think most lay people do) a good % of IRs efforts go un-appreciated. Amazing that the man does so many things whether people really notice them or not. He probably has his own standards and enjoys meeting/beating them probably .

kiru,

Very well said about IR's compositions. I remember reading a post of Violin Vicky in his blog regarding Raja's usage of bass and he concludes very well.

Here is what Violin Vicky says and I am sure all of us will agree with his assessment. "The point is, many tamil music listeners doesn't even know something called bass guitar exist. Still why is he composing such superb bass tracks song after song. It's the same way that god has created so many beautiful landscapes, animals, plants and flowers in this universe which most of us are unaware of. Why did he create so many things that go unnoticed?

The answer I think is, that's the joy of creation..."
(http://www.geocities.com/violinvicky/BossOfBass.html)