IR's New albums - Ver 2008/2009

Good posts by Kiru, MSK and eagle. I completely agree with Kiru's observation
IR has reached such a level of consciousless competency that music comes naturally to him and falls in its place without any wasted notes or "aba swarams". His music is akin to a flow of serene stream, with no jerks and no running inspate. May be he doesnt decide on a raga for composing, but the musical patterns that cross his mind during that magical moment conform to a particular raga like "sudha dhanyasi" or "mayamaLavagowlai" etc. Recalling his new raga invention during ARR felicitation, IR does bother about what raga his composition fits into, may be after and not before. Raja himself states that good music adheres to laws of mathematics like "kaala pramaanam"

Infact, some of the ideas too, like shruthi-bhedham etc, occur naturally. He doesnt have it as an agenda, to showcase something outstanding but does it in a very non-challant manner. exceptions could be only when the situation demands a change in the colour or mood of the song, he might switch to a different raaga. but mostly, music just flows. and at a very broad level, it is the same for most composers - music just coming in. Thats why some songs (by every composer) have parallels in other songs (by them). just like how you can sometimes predict the tune/beat played by a classic instrumentalist, sometimes, we can predict the same about some songs of composers. and it doesnt mean repetitiveness, it is just logical for that composer to end that particular tune that way, according to his style. it comes naturally to him.

it is very true in the case of IR too... be it any music, it just comes to him...like a stream

Could not something about the situation he composes for count for most of his musical decisions?
In independent albums, he has leaned heavily on the masters. His 'How to name it' has a glorifying argument of unity between Thyagaraja's 'Thulasi dala' and Bach's orchestral works, both spiritually inspired and driven with the same bhava.
His 'I love mozart' was a direct praise of mozart's music created in typical mozartian fashion.
Like poets praise poets in poetry, Raja has praised Thyagaraja, Bach and others in their own musical form in these albums.
Now for this, he chooses a musical strain from their works that identifies them 'uniquely' and creates strands with precision and care to bring them in one strand without 'shruthi bedham' - (recall sruthi matha and layam pitha) This is to me his underlying genius. Once you have the strand in the mind ready, inspired by the central theme of musical work, if it is a song in film, then the situation and characters, if it is an independent album, the theme of it (recall India 24 hours ), then all he sets about doing it is to avoid things that are out of place there (che che idhu sariya varaadhu in thiruvasagam putril vaazh aravum song), normalizing it to the point he is left with just the bare minimum of notes that expresses the feel and theme succintly. Probably that is why we feel it is so precise and a great example of being minimalistic while not sacrificing the grandeur.

I think all of us who have listened to IR a lot are on the same page here. Whether it is people like me who are music ignoramuses or knowledgeable people here.
In the ceremony referred here, IR's reference to BMK's 27 notes etc show how technical he is. He is a much more serious composer than other film music composers, to understate it. I think Kamal called him isai vingnani. I think this is a very very astute observation. NOt only he is able to compose in the indian music paradigm (which I call "linear") but also in the Western paradigm of harmonies and more specially counterpoints/counter harmonies. In the Italian tour CD, he plays a 3-note composition linearly and then says, "idhai orchestravukku piricuhu koduththa eppadi irukkumnu kElunga". So a linear composition is broken into multiple parallel strains/thread of music. People here who are into software, will understand the challenges in multi-threaded programmaing, same sort of challenges exist in music too. More later.

From Guitar Prasanna's article on IR ( found here: http://www.raaja.com/Rv-prasanna.pdf )

Quote:

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“Have you written invertible counterpoint up a tenth?” Raaja (I am taking the liberty to call him affectionately as “Raaja” since he is after all, a “Raaja” in what he does!) has asked me this question a few times– a question I don’t encounter much, at least in India. In an age where most musicians (of course only in India!) spend their time reading the latest software manuals rather than reading books on harmony, counterpoint, orchestration or Carnatic ragas or whatever, Raaja is and has always been an anachronism.

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Nothing brought it out better than the speeches during the ARR felicitation - compare IR's speech full of music terms, with Harris Jeyaraj's speech about keyboards and manuals... ramarkable!

Thanks for the article Ananth. Found it to be quite nice.

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Originally Posted by kiru

So a linear composition is broken into multiple parallel strains/thread of music. People here who are into software, will understand the challenges in multi-threaded programmaing, same sort of challenges exist in music too. More later.

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Its quite fascinating if you try to explain music in non musical terms...

In many ways Raja is very similar to Tyagaraja. Many people swear that Tyagaraja's compositions are as spontaneous as you can get. At the same time, great musicologist like S Ramanathan and S R Janakiraman marvel at the fact that Tyagaraja adhered so strictly to the grammar and in some cases defined the grammar. There was a combination of precision and spontaneity in his compositions. Though Raja deals with a different form of music, I see the same combination of spontaneity and precision in Raja's works.

"THE WORLD OF MUSIC" journal reviews Ilaiyaraaja's "THIRUVASAGAM - A CLASSICAL CROSSOVER"

http://www.vwb-verlag.com/Katalog/m816.html

Reviewed by Hollie Longman

irir123, congrats on another achievement. But just one thing to clarify. Thalaivar has done symphony, India 24 Hours,miss world 1996(music) and a orchestral piece for a international music festival just two years back. I feel he does have recognition amongst global musicians just that we do not hear of it that much. :?