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

Digression

It's time for all of us to celebrate ARR's success instead of questioning the quality of oscar winning works etc.

1. It's the biggest recognition in the world for films - whether HCIRF's accept or not.

2. The fact that many works by earlier oscar winners are average does not bring down ARR's grade. Rather, it only asserts how much more qualified he is than many others from privileged parts of the world who had it easy. (Other icons from TN may also easily qualify for such awards but they should also work for it. This should be recognized by their admirers rather than calling sour grapes)

I hope he'll win more than one! A very well deserved recognition for a talented person!!

End-digression

On initial hearing, Nandhalala is a breezy, sweet work by IR! Like someone said, reminds us of his recent works in MFM.

Need to hear more to enjoy and savour!

writeface: I agree with all that you say!

but you still have not grappled with the essence of what am trying to say!

do we have a way of preserving IR's immortal works for posterity ?? NO

am i asking for a museum or a repository where one can view the works of IR in published notations ? I know thats asking for too much, but can one even have access to his CDs if one wishes to ? NO

ippadiyey, "IR music yen idhayathai varudum, yen aanmaavai sundi izhukkum, kaadhai kuliravaikkum, endrellaam, if we self-congratulate ourselves", sooner or later, a time will come when IR would not have projects to showcase his talents thereby depriving us of the "aanmaavai kalandha isai"!

if nothing remarkable happens this year in the form of a path-breaking album with a worldwide release and all fanfare, I see IR going down the same way like MSV did

We need to do something to not promote Raaja's musical patterns - but also preserve them. Let us write to Raaja.com or Raajangham asking a special project to remaster the best music of his.
Another option before him is to re create his best musical scores and package them into reusable musical scores that anyone in the world can incorporate into their products. In some sort of way this is like letting a Stanley Kubrick use some of the recordings of mozart's music by a symphonic orchestra instead of using a music director for '2001 Space odyssey' This way his music can easily spread across borders and people will hear more and will be more curious.

irir123,

Sorry if I sounded self-congratulatory. That is not my intention.

However, I have given-up on this quest to promote&preserve IR's music and all that goes with it. I understand you have had some luck on this recently with the radio station. I admire such efforts and wish nothing but the best.

In the past, I don't know if anybody in this forum remembers, there have been few attempts made in this direction. One example that comes quickly to mind is getting a Symphony Orchestra to play IR's music. Efforts were made to sign-up CSO (Chicago Symphony Orchestra) and IR for this and eventually it didn't materialize. Then Raaja.com or raajangahm was born and few of my friends worked towards the very end of this. Time only will tell if these efforts have made any difference.

One thing to be considered is: Everything depends on IR himself. If he is not interested in re-mastering it will not happen, If he is not interested in CSO playing his piece it will not happen, however hard you try. This is what I have learnt from the past and have come to terms with it.

Why he is not interested in such things - the stuff that we fans consider to be of utmost importance - there is no answer to the question. That is what IR is. He seems to be seeking something else through his music. That's what Kiru is trying to get at and I fully agree with him.

Wf.

irir123, unga aathangam enakku nalla puriyuthu.

Not releasing RPO was the biggest missed golden opportunity to publicise himself to the world community at the right point of time. Indeed, few days ago, I revisited John Scott's site to read his reply to a person named Anbu of Singapore. (Just reposting that again below.) http://webhome.idirect.com/~rlevy/current_question.html
IR did not want to release for whatever reasons. Apparently, a stupid critic's comment made him angry/upset to withhold it. It is a clearcut example of how he obliged to his VaiRaghyam over the botheration about eminency. It is 9 years since now and he has not intended to review his decision. I would say that we have to consider ourselves lucky if we will ever have an opportunity to listen to it in the future. What a pity to miss such a golden opportunity? What any other MD might have done in such a situation?

With regard to TiS, it is again a slip of a golden opportunity due to mismanagament and poor planning. So many HCIRF have put their time and effort to support and publicise as they could. The good thing was it worked (came out). Bad thing was it didn't work the way HCIRF's wanted. I don't think IR had bothered about it at all. His fans though. Obviously, he is suffering with some strange attitude problems. I dnn't think he is ever going to come out. Not at this age though. We can keep pushing. If it works it is great. But I doubt.

I am very angry at the both Tamilnadu and the Federal Govts for not aiding him enough/awarding him to acknowledge his achievements. So many small calibre achievers roam around with Padma awards. Is the TN govt blind? What is Federal Govt. doing? So many tamil politicians sitting in NewDelhi to worry just about themselves? They have the habit of facilitating artists by keeping their names to the roads, or statues, or bridges only after their demise. What a stupidity? Is it not better for the artist if they do it when they are alive? They won't get another IR for hundreds of years. Have they ever realise that. Hope they do this atleast now before late. They did this to Bharathiyar. And now they are doing this to IR. History will never forgive this.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by writeface

irir123,

...
Why he is not interested in such things - the stuff that we fans consider to be of utmost importance - there is no answer to the question. That is what IR is. He seems to be seeking something else through his music. That's what Kiru is trying to get at and I fully agree with him.

Wf.

---

Actually, I think IR does not consider what we consider as important as important at all. We might like his old film songs. But I think he has evolved from that stage long ago and he might consider it musically inferior.
I maybe wrong or just influenced, I find the orchestration in his new albums to be 'completely smooth' (eg. cheeni kum) whether we think the melody is fresh or not. Also, he does not seem to mix ICM and WCM that much, earlier many of his ICM type songs had a bass line, nowadays he keeps it completely ICM.
Popular music is characterised by the rhythm patterns, IR has tried to free himself of the rhythms. He tried to do this in the interludes earlier now market situation is forcing him to continue the rhythm to the interludes. So he takes refuge and rejoices in doing BGMs.

If I understand irir123 right, he wants IR to maintain his "commercial relevance" so as to be around to do classical works that can be sellable. I completely agree with this. But can IR work in an environment which is characterized by rap sounds, accented singing etc ? (even though vikram movie had a sort of rap/techno sounds long ago).

I think it is Kamal who said, that IR is not isai gnani - he is swara gnani - because he knows the significance of each and every swara and how to sequence them. I think he has a point.

Re: Suresh's point - I am told the melody part of music is universal and the rhythm pattern is the one that adds the local flavor. ARR was successful because he was using western rhythm patterns and his music cannot be immediately identified as south indian. Another example would be, Mozart's Eine Kliene Nachtmusik would be popular both in Europe and Asia, across cultures. The reason Western pop music is popular is not just they are easy to follow but also has a 'image' associated with it, which is reinforced by the music label marketing machinery.

People like VM Bhatt have won a Grammy in the World music category. I think TIS can easily win if we lobby for it.

Kiru - TIS was most probably conceived and done with a specific aim to reach a very wide audience - thats the reason why Stephen Schwartz (Oscar winner) and Richard King (Grammy winner) were sought and used!!

having done all of that preparatory work, shouldnt the project have been deftly given a final complete touch by getting it released through a decent label ??

thats what bugs me - both Schwartz and King are very well-known names in the music industry - having used such names, why wasn't such an association used for accomplishing maximum marketability ?? and that too, TIS was an album which involved the private contributions of several fans, whose only fault was they shared a common passion for IR's music! shouldn't IR have done justice to their eagerness by at least releasing the album through a decent label ?? isnt it absolutely pathetic that TIS copies are not available anywhere online except Amazon.com ?? CDBaby, an obscure site used to have TiS CDs long ago, but TIS has remained out-of-stock for more than 2 years now - TiS is a big 'sodhappal' story!

another of his great work, GURU (Malayalam) CDs were not available most of the time anywhere and one relatively dumb instrumental version of the same gets released in a lowkey fashion, entitled MUSIC MESSIAH - have you read the sleeve notes for MM ? they looked like they were written by some primary school kid! ridiculously naive and amateurish and gave me an impression that the sole intention was not to reach the audiences/buyers!

frankly speaking, IR's pretensions in the name of his recent albums (barring NK,UO and NL) simply suck bigtime - and its indeed painful that after a giant creative step like TIS (which should have, by all means, been a GIANT step for IR career-wise too!), IR has actually jumped down several steps in terms of creative output!

Well. I have been just thinking about this topic a little more aggressively. Leaving out IR's personality issues, i started thinking about other external factors responsible to become Internationalised. I feel the key lies on tapping our own resources first before going international. ARR's main strength is north india + expatriate indians (out of which atleast 60% is north indians). So far his popularity has been minimal with mainstream whites. It is Bollywood that served as launchpad in the Hollywood. Had he been concentrating only on south indian films, he might have been limited to that boundary. Unlike tamilians, the north indians have a better reach to the western community through different means. so once your step is firm in Bollywood, this will automatically give a reach to outside indians. It will take care of Middle east, Parts of Africa, London, Canada etc. Think about the poularities of shah Rukh Khan, Akshay, Amir etc. Where is kamal in this list? in fact some north indian movies are made completely outside india. unless you tap Expatriate North Indian resources, giving a better shot to bigger stage. Americans know only Bollywood. That too very limited knowledge. They don't know anything about any other regional centers. In the 70s and 80s IR felt very comfortabe, ruling the south indian arena totally ignoring Bollywood. the concept of globality came only in the mid and late 90s. So, the time period is not the same now as it used to be 20 years ago. ARR kept his wings spread to flow with this wind. Of course his creativity has helped him. He understood the moods of north indians and filled their cup with right juice. Just my thoughts..This is nothing to do with Indiviuval musicians knowledge. It is all about exposure and opportunity. Well. beyond that your personal behaviors can help in making or breaking.

Exactly my thoughts Fliflo :D

dear friends , lets discuss.