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ARR's interview in Hindu .....-Intresting Point

Topic started by MumbaiRamki (@ 63.186.8.168) on Sun Dec 12 18:45:07 EST 2004.
All times in EST +10:30 for IST.

http://www.hindu.com/mp/2004/12/13/stories/2004121300340100.htm

1.The 'Yuhi chaala ' song from swades was orginally composed for Lagaan .

2.Harris Jeyaraj worked with him only for 2 films !!

3.On today's music -
"What is today's Tamil film music all about? They are nothing more than fast numbers or remix downloaded. What took me weeks to make music for a "Gentleman" or "Rangeela" can be done today if you have a computer, software and then pre-set the rhythms and you have a disco number! Fast music is no big deal today as anyone can become a music director"

4.Rajiv Menon film in tamizh .

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Responses:

• Old responses
  
• From: observer (@ 208.254.219.2) on: Fri Dec 17 11:30:13 EST 2004
  
  Vijay:
  "Autograph is one of the mediocre albums of the year"
  
  That's just "subjective", right?
  
  "First of all as a music fan, I care more about the quality of the product than about how well it did out there."
  
  Well this whole discussion was motivated by the fact that his music is NOT doing well out there, and its effects and its implications. I sympathise with your emphasis on quality (subjective?), but that is not what this discussion is about. Maybe we should have a separate thread for "Slipping quality in TFM as perceived by Vijay".
  
  
  "I judge the album myself and in addition care more for critical reviews dwelling on technical aspects than for any half-baked skewed publicity-driven top 10 rankings."
  
  Interestingly this reminds me of the sort of sweeping dismissal practised by IR-fans. In their eyes what IR is doing is categorically technically superior to everything on the prevailing scene including ARR. That is the only avenue left for the culturally marginalised. What people forget is that "technique" is a cultural invention and is constantly moving. Given the right set of "technical" tools I could write pages about a single bird-call and raise it the levels of the greatest composition ever.
  
  This discussion was not about is ARR still pleasing the "discerning" few. Even IR is doing that. Or so his fans tell us. But the discerning few are not enough to sustain ARR's success at the levels he's enjoyed in the past. Hence his recent outbursts.
  
  "I have already addressed the commercial failures earlier."
  
  And therefore negated them out of existence? Since they're directly related to this discussion there is no choice for me but to keep them in focus.
  
  I wonder whether you realize that you're doing ARR a disservice by the short-sighted praise you're heaping on his most mediocre tunes. You're driving him in the wrong direction. Recently when he mentioned in an interview that he encourages his directors to reject his tunes so as to give him proper feedback it struck me how much his fans' unstinted admiration is hindering his vision.
  
  
• From: observer (@ 208.254.219.2) on: Fri Dec 17 11:45:40 EST 2004
  
  On Birdsong:
  
  http://64.233.161.104/search?q=cache:kUolH6UBX6sJ:www.phschool.com/science/science_news/pdfs/chordates1.pdf+musical+analysis+of+bird+song&hl=en
  
  Mozart seems to have admired his avian companion’s musical skills. One of his notebooksrecords a passage from the last movement of the Piano Concerto in G Major and the same pas-sage as the starling revised it. The bird imitated it closely but changed the sharps to flats. “Daswar schön”—That was beautiful!,— reads the comment in Mozart’s hand.When the starling died, Mozart held graveside ceremonies, singing hymns and reciting apoem he’d written for the fallen songster. Baptista agrees with two other ornithologists whohave argued that Mozart’s next composition, an odd sextet for strings and two horns, known as“A Musical Joke,” shows starling style. Mozart wrote it only 8 days after the death of his bird,and it includes such starlinglike bits as intertwined tunes, off-key recapitulations, and anabrupt ending.Also, Baptista suggests new evidence for the starling’s influence. He points out that starlingshave the two-part syrinx, or voice organ, typical of songbirds and can belt out two songs at thesame time. Baptista has even documented a starling simultaneously mimicking two birds—a greyfantail and a kelp gull—with the two sides of its syrinx. So, the final cadence of the sextet, essen-tially written in two keys played simultaneously, might honor the starling singing in two voices.Mozart wasn’t the only composer moved by birdsongs. Beethoven may have been such a fanthat he plagiarized a motif from a contemporary feathered composer. Baptista plays the suspi-cious phrases, which form the lilting opening to the rondo of Beethoven’s “Violin Concerto in D,Opus 61.” A birder noted in 1953 that a European blackbird, a relative of U.S. robins, had comeup with the same theme. Almost 30 years later, another sharp listener reported the same black-bird song. Both he and Baptista noted that generations of blackbirds seem to have preservedthat tune, so perhaps it dated back to a time when Beethoven himself heard and borrowed it
  
  
• From: vijay (@ 68.16.25.50) on: Fri Dec 17 12:30:35 EST 2004
  
  "I wonder whether you realize that you're doing ARR a disservice by the short-sighted praise you're heaping on his most mediocre tunes."
  
  First of all its "medicore" according to you, so there we are in subjective territory again. I would be doing a greater disservice to Rahman if I join the "Autograph" bandwagon and dismiss AE or Tehzeeb songs since the movies/albums werent "hits". And secondly I am not a staunch Rahman fan, so pl. remember that the next time you post. I just think he is better than the other young MDs out there, thats it. And as for driving him in the wrong direction that's just your opinion.
  
  Also, I havent praised all ARR tunes for you to think that I am short-sighted.
  If you are going to club me along with other ARR-fanatics then thats your choice driven purely by your imagination(or frustration :-) ).
  
  And I stand by my earlier assertion that Autograph is indeed medciore. The Chithra song in that film which was over-rated (due to the situation and movie's success) - we have heard it 100 times before in the 80s itself. You are confusing the movie's success with the audio quality. Anyways, Autograph wasnt all that big hit of a hit music-wise. They probably achieved the same success that "New" songs did at the max.
  
  And for all your constant harping on 7G Rainbow colony I wonder if it sold half as much as Boys. I know the movie did well but would like to see some figures on cassette/CD sales to find out how good did 7G or Autograph really do in terms of audio sales.
  
  " sympathise with your emphasis on quality (subjective?), but that is not what this discussion is about. "
  
  well, you did discuss about quality and as to what MD introduced what not in TFM and YSR's "freshness" in his tunes and so on. So when you started moving away from commercial aspects and into sheer musical quality, my rebuttals were naturally along the same lines.
  "And therefore negated them out of existence? Since they're directly related to this discussion there is no choice for me but to keep them in focus. "
  
  I havent negated them but have pointed out the reasons and also explained as to what whats happening in Rahman's case is more due to his own choice and priorities(than anything forced by factors external to him). Looks like you have a difficult time comprehending that.
  
  "What people forget is that "technique" is a cultural invention and is constantly moving."
  
  Might be. But if Mozart and Thayagaraja's creations are remembered still 200 years later then there is a reason. There's enough in their music to study and dissimilate for several generations of musicians and music-listeners. 200 years after Mozart, IR applied some of the same techniques to make an impact on the local audience who werent exposed much to WCM. That should tell you why certain techniques stay the same and its the presentation that differs as far as pop music(or IFM) is concerned
  
  
• From: observer (@ 208.254.219.2) on: Fri Dec 17 13:25:40 EST 2004
  
  Vijay:
  
  "First of all its "mediocre" according to you, so there we are in subjective territory again."
  
  Mediocre not only according to me, but also from a commercial impact point of view, from the number of trends he's set, or more precisely NOT set in the recent past, from the maximum praise in recent times going to non-Rahman albums (7GRC not New) and so on. Also Rahman himself admitted to composing some mediocre tunes.
  
  "If you are going to club me along with other ARR-fanatics then thats your choice driven purely by your imagination(or frustration :-) )."
  
  No problem. Let me change that to fans not you.
  
  
  "well, you did discuss about quality and as to what MD introduced what not in TFM and YSR's "freshness" in his tunes and so on."
  
  Those innovations are a matter of fact, not opinion. Are you saying that YSR using Irish music is subjective? His freshness as perceived by me is subjective, but the success 7GRC has enjoyed on the charts relative to New is objective.
  
  "Rahman's case is more due to his own choice and priorities"
  
  Yes, so why is he criticizing others? Their priorities now are the same as Rahman's some time ago, which is to please the public.
  
  
  "Might be. But if Mozart and Thayagaraja's creations are remembered still 200 years later then there is a reason. There's enough in their music to study and dissimilate for several generations of musicians and music-listeners."
  
  All the more reason to not ape their "techniques". An age that relies on the work of past greats is an uncreative age. Technology has driven music to expand along dimensions of timbre, rhythm and space that were never available to the composers of the past. This is true of pop as well as much modern classical music by say Boulez, Elliott Carter Stockhausen and many others.
  
  As for Mozart, Thyagaraja being remembered I don't set as much store by it as some do. The reasons for some people being remembered are complexly historically contingent. There were a great number of Baroque and Classical composers who produced work as great as Mozart's. In any case if all we do is appreciate and re-use their techniques, then 200 years from now people will still only remember Mozart and Thyagaraja, not IR or ARR.
  
  
  
• From: MADDY (@ 203.94.236.216) on: Fri Dec 17 13:46:58 EST 2004
  
  Hey guys i wont believe a word from that Interview...for ur info guys Hindu paper has considerably lowered their standards(refer their political bias for congress and hatred for BJP)....ARR never speaks like that....esp:"Wish comes true gives celine dion a run for her money"....ARR is so polite and he wud never make statements like "MD's nowaydays are remixing and stuff"......these are no way ARR's statements.......ARR will live by his music and die by his music(good or bad)but will never die with his words.......
  
  
• From: observer (@ 208.254.219.2) on: Fri Dec 17 13:55:48 EST 2004
  
  Maddy:
  
  "ARR is so polite and he wud never make statements like "MD's nowaydays are remixing and stuff"
  
  Yes Maddy, ARR used to be polite, yet the strain of dwindling commercial rewards is beginning to tell on his composure (ha pun!). I also linked to the filmfare interview where he's saying something similar. I saw him say it in the Suntv interview.
  
  IR said something similar when he faced commercial reverses, NS did it in Hindi, MM Kreem did it in Telugu. No composer, it would appear, is immune to this symptom of failing powers. I hoped ARR would be immune to it, having been subjected to it in his early days by IR (not directly of course) and NS. But he did succumb.
  
  However I take solace from the fact that he's making amends.
  
  

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