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Random Thoughts on TFM

Topic started by Gowri (@ 161.142.100.86) on Tue Apr 9 03:06:08 EDT 2002.
All times in EST +10:30 for IST.

Gangai Amaran writes:


Research findings have established clearly that folk music preceded traditional, classical music in TamilNadu. Cave men & tribal men made sounds that devloped into a language. These people gave simple tunes without any rules, but a sense of music was apparent even then.
In my childhood days, there was no cinema as there is now. Performers travelled from village to village telling stories . Songs were interwoven in the sories. The appreciative audience offered these performers whatever they could.This was the beginning of symphony.
During the era of silent movies as recounted by our present CM Dr.M.Karunanidhi, a great lover of arts, musicians used to sit in front of the screen & sing, render music & dialogues at appropriate places to keep the audience enthralled.
To the best of my knowledge Sri Shankaradas Swamigal, a magan was the individual, to the best of my knowledge who gave filip to integration of music, verse & dialogues in a drama. Great creations such as Meenakshi Kalyanam, Yesu can be attributed to this Mahan. He included songs in appropriate places. 'Kayatha Kanagathe' is a prime eg. He established the Bala Nataka Sabha, where only children were involved in enacting all the roles. Then came Sakthi & Vaira Nataka Sabhas.
Nawab RajaManickam was a note-worthy person of these days who enacted plays using grand props & settings. Sakthi Nataka Sabha has gifted to the world of Tamil Cinema such greats as Shivaji Ganesan, V.K.Ramaswamy etc.,The troup used to consist of about 60 members & it was important for each artiste to be thorough with the dialogues & songs of all characters for each actor was made to paly a different role each day. Vaira Nataka Sabha has contributed greats like M.G.R & Nambiar.In the early stages of talkies, people who sought to act in movies had to be endowed with good looks, good voice & capacity to sing.Kittappa, Bhagavathar, P.U.Chinnappa, all great singers & actors of yesteryears were persons endowed with such gifts. As these actors act & sing, the orchestra had to move along with the actor & this recording was done in single track. The records were created with the whole gorup doing a special recording of the same song all over again in the studios. Saraswati Stores of A.V.Meyappa Chettiar was a renowned company that released records of film songs. Gramaphones were owned only by the very rich, who preferred carnatic trend in film music also & hence the songs of those days were based entirely on carnatic music.
We owe a great deal to the Britishers for introducing technology into cinema. Ellis.R.Duncan is one person I can single out, whose assistants after learning the tricks of the trade from him branched out to make their own movies. Drama, thus developed intocinema & in its wake came studios, recording with mike etc. The concept of dubbing was not known in those days. For a song to be perfected the entire troupe would work for months, paid on a monthly basis.
If you look at the chronology of singers, Kittappa was followed be T.R.Mahalingam, who was followed by T.M.Soundarajan,Seergazhi Govindarajan, all persons who could sing in very high pitches.
G.Ramanathan brought a fresh air to cine music. But folk songs were not appreciated in those dyas.Along with Papanasam Sivan who was a great composer he gave a variety of songs. There was no need do to go to a Kutchery. The Tamil film songs were strongly based on Carnatic music tradition.
P.U.Chinnappa was followed by Chidambaram Jayaraman,Tiruchi Loganathan. Gantasala was followed by P.B.Srinivas, S.P.B ,Mano etc., K.J.Yesudoss is a singer who emerged with a diiferent voice. Sivaji Ganesan, the recipient of Dada Saheb Palke award, could sing eloquently, but did not do so in movies giving way to the playback singers. Though T.M.S. claims that he used to change his voice to suit Sivaji & M.G.R. , but his voice defintely suits Sivaji best & it is my personal view that he has not really changed his voice much.
The domination of actors & singers from the Telugu field existed for a time. In order to sing for Telugu actors such as Nageswara Rao, N.T.RamaRao, Adi NarayanaRao, P.G.Lingappa, Chalapathi Rao etc. several singers such as Gantasala, P.B. Srinivas were introduced in Tamil. Other singers from Telugu field are S.Janaki, P.Susheela. Music obviously has no language barriers.
All the veterans of the early days had paved & smoothed the road for us in the present days. The trials faced by Viswanathan Ramamurthy,G.Ramanathan,S.V.Venkatraman are not faced by the present day musicians. Illayaraja's way was smoothed by his peers & in his turn he has shown the way for the next generation.
M.S.Viswanathan started his career as a chorus singer in K.V.Mahadevan's troupe & then became a great music director. He changed the history of Tamil cine music by giving lighter, melodius songs appreciated by all.Sudarsanam & Devarajan Masters were also great music directors of the day. Hindi music was popular then, & several songs were based on hindi music tunes.M.S.Viswanathan- Ramamurthy were great, for, they took the essence from other music but managed to deliver their own creations & hence their music is able to withstand for long.Chandrababu with his interest in western music also got them to make songs for him mostly based on westwern style.
Shankar Ganesh have directed music in several films. V.Kumar was a music director who was brought into film music by K.Balachander from his drama days. Kunnakudi, Deva , A.R.Rehaman are people who entered the film music line from other related fields such as devotional music, jingles, etc.
A.R.Rehaman is an extrememly talented youngster & some of the music rendered by him, can only be done by someone who has a wonderful understanding of music & the medium.

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Responses:

• Old responses
  
• From: Gowri (@ 61.6.38.132) on: Fri Apr 12 04:13:17 EDT 2002
  
  WhyNot
  Oh no! TFM is much bigger than personalities. In fact the longer one lives, the more one realises how much one does not know. :)
  
  Here is something for contemporary music fans:
  
  
  Great ghazals from the south
  Leicester Mercury, August 11, 2000
  Copyright (C) 2000 Leicester Mercury; Source: World Reporter (TM)
  
  Ghazals have traditionally been associated with north Indians the likes of Jagjit Singh, Pankaj Udhas, Anup Jalota and Peenaz Masani, who not only have a good grounding in Urdu, but speak and think in the language as well. So, when a south Indian brahmin called Hariharan burst on to the ghazal scene in 1977, many were taken by surprise.
  
  He ought to have been producing Carnatic music or else belting out Tamil film numbers with the likes of S P Balasubramaniam and Yesudas. But Hariharan stuck to his ground.
  
  Over almost 25 years he has created a body of work few Indian singers can rival. While other artistes came and went, this versatile impresario has been going from strength to strength, making up his own rules in music and setting standards for others to follow.
  
  "I guess I was there in the right place and at the right time," said the singer. "Ghazals really started happening in India during the early 80s. By then I had already made a name for myself and people took to my brand of singing with ease."
  
  Hariharan describes his style as a "fusion of gayeki, Urdu poetry and contemporary sounds". He has even coined the term "Urdu blues" to illustrate how his latest album, Kaash, was conceived a couple of months ago.
  
  "I listened to a lot of rhythm and blues and found a lot of similarity in the singing of blues and ghazals," he said. "Otherwise it is a culmination of work with various artiste collaborations going on for more than a year. That is how Kaash happened." Ustad Rais Khan is featured on the sitar, Ustad Sultan Khan on the sarangi and Sivamani on tabla. With one complementing the other, Hariharan's silken voice weaves a splendid tapestry of sublime melody and profound meaning.
  
  And yet the label of a "ghazal singer" makes him uncomfortable. "Learning the grammar of music does not restrict one to classical singing," said Hariharan. "So why do you want to slot me? I would rather be seen doing middle-of-the-road stuff."
  
  This explains why Hariharan has made forays into English pop and is one half of the Colonial Cousins group with Leslie Lewis. The debut album was a smash hit, the second was a disaster ("It just didn't work out") and the third is being scheduled for this Christmas.
  
  Hariharan has also been active on the concert circuit. He said: "I love extempore. I just take off! Once I sang in Indore no film songs, only ghazals, and an audience of more than 25,000 sat all night to hear me. The reception in smaller cities is much the same."
  
  Despite his track record and an enviable fan following, Hariharan is not one to carry any starry airs. He is down to earth and makes no bones about calling producers for work, encouraging up-and-coming singers and doing the publicity rounds. "I am an artiste, he said. "Why should I shy away from doing whatever is necessary to popularise my art? An artiste must always think ahead of his time. "Only then will he be able to successfully enlist the participation of the younger generation in his music."
  
  Hariharan added: "I am having a great time singing. What matters is that a singer must have a strong personality, especially on screen. Only then will people listen to him."
  
  Does this make him feel any less a south Indian Brahmin today? "I have always lived by my own rules," he said. "Just as I sing for Ismail Durbar and Anu Malik, I also sing for many south Indian composers, including Illayaraja and A R Rahman. I see no conflict between the two streams of music."
  
  He added: "The question that needs to be addressed is whether our present-day music composers are capable of ex ploiting the potential of singers. There are a few exceptions. For example, Rahman has made me sing some brilliant stuff."
  
  
• From: Prabhu (@ 203.199.120.7) on: Fri Apr 12 04:25:54 EDT 2002
  
  The Hindu group of publications have released a book "The Hindu speaks on Music". It has cobbled together a number of articles that have appeared in the pages of the Hindu over the past century and has stories and interviews with a number of practitioners of Carnatic music for the past 150 years.
  It is priced at Rs 125 and is upto 650 pages.
  
  
• From: Gowri (@ 161.142.100.86) on: Mon Apr 15 00:17:45 EDT 2002
  
  Kannadhasan in brief
  
  Born: 24 June 1927, cirukUdalpatti
  
  Parents: Caathappan and Visaalakshi
  
  Given name: Muthaiah
  
  Brothers and Sisters: 8
  
  Education: Elementary School at cirukudalpatti, High school at Amaravathi pudur, upto 8th Std.
  
  First job: Thiruvattiyur, Ajax Company
  
  Literary job: 1944 as Editor of "Thirumakal"
  
  First poetry: in 1944; 1945-46 Film Music,
  
  Editor 'mEthAvi'; 1949 Editor 'candamArutham'; 1949 training in film field
  
  first song: 1949, Film-kanniyin kAdali, song -kalangkAthiru manamE
  
  Politics: 1949 D.M.K member of the early days
  Marriage: 1950 Ponnazhagi-Parvathi
  
  First literary work: 'mAngkani', written while in prison (1952-53 Dalmiapuram name change protest)
  story, dialogue: 'illaRa jyothi' in 1952 while in jail
  
  First newspaper: 1954 'thenRal', then 'thenRal thirai', caNdamArutham (twice monthly); 1956 - 'mullai' literary monthly
  
  Election: 1957 Lost in the II General Election contest from ThirukOzhtiyUr constituency, representing DMK.
  
  Film Production: 1957 'mAlaiyitta mangkai'; 1958-59 'civakangkai ceemai', 'kavaiyillAtha manithan'
  Change in Politics: 1960-61 Leave DMK party, start 'thenRal' daily
  
  New Party: Tamil Nationalist Party under the leadership of Sampath; 'thenRal thiRai' daily start; 1962-63 join Congress
  Again Films: 'vAnampAdi'; 'iraththath thilakam'; 'karuppup paNam'
  
  Travels: 1970 to Russia; to Malaysia in 1971, 1975; to USA in 1981
  
  Awards: Received best song composer award from the state and central government; State Poet 1978; Sakitya Academy Award in 1979 for 'cEramAn kAthali'; Annamalai Memorial Award 1979 for Best Poet
  
  Last Days: Travel to Chicago on 24th July 1981 for health reasons; died on 17 Oct 1981; body brought to Madras on 20 Oct 81, last rites on 22 Oct 81 with full government honours
  
  pen names: kAraimuthup pulavar, vaNangkAmUdi, kamakappriyA, pArvathinAthan, Arokkiyacami
  
  Contributions: Epics, storys, essays, poems, drama, biography totalling 105. Many yet to be published; composed over 5000 film songs
  
  Family: 2 wifes, 9 sons and 5 daughters
  
  Source: http://members.tripod.com/~kkalyan/kndsn.html
  This site discusses his literary contributions, has a list of his publications as well as some lyrics to his popular songs.
  
  Enjoy!
  
  
• From: vengayam (@ 203.200.84.66) on: Mon Apr 15 01:28:14 EDT 2002
  
  prabhu,
  first song: 1949, Film-kanniyin kAdali, song -kalangkAthiru manamE .
  
  What was that again? kanniyin ? kadali. ketkave asingamaa irukkuduppa!
  
  

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