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Juxtaposing Ilayaraja

Topic started by Naaz (@ 24.87.30.219) on Mon Sep 29 02:28:41 EDT 2003.
All times in EST +10:30 for IST.

This is an attempt to have your views on the diversity of IRs compositions. If we can discuss, in sets of two, contrasting creations of IR, and share with others what appeals to us about those particular tunes, and why we think they are good examples of his melodic flexibility.

The stress should be Separate but Brilliant.

Two sets, and your views.
It will help us all to rediscovers these songs again, and look at them from your "expert" point of view! :-)

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Responses:

• Old responses
  
• From: Whatever (@ 206.175.176.2) on: Tue Sep 30 16:31:40 EDT 2003
  
  Naaz, what about time-of-the-day songs? Dawn, Dusk, Night etc. Here are a couple of songs to start off :
  
  kAlai thendral
  vAnengum thanga venmIngaL
  
  
• From: Whatever (@ 206.175.176.2) on: Tue Sep 30 16:36:10 EDT 2003
  
  Naaz, this is not germane to the topic, but I was curious to know if you read from a script as you compere the programme. I listened to the broadcast last week and your song selection is impeccable. Kudos. The jarring note was the player going kaput, I suppose. Good luck for your future broaadcasts.
  
  
• From: isai_nanban (@ 68.77.8.29) on: Tue Sep 30 17:08:07 EDT 2003
  
  "Seasons with Ilayaraja (this is partly inspired by isai_nanban's suggestion of "cool clime" songs.) If we can come up with differing sets of 4 (Vasantham, Kodai, Ilaiudhir, Kulir - sariya??)
  That would give me 16. Opening and Closing song - I decide :-) "
  
  Naaz, perfect idea- IR's music is basically about "moods" related to nature - that is the foundation of folk music - where all music really began, which laid the the basis of devotional classical music, that is another topic.
  
  that is IR's song can evoke very deeply lost feelings of the past village lifestyle etc... but, in this vein you can alos bring out songs that evoke urbane moods - those many jazz (brass works), western classical songs (nenjathai killathey) electronic moods (synthetic life style)
  blues (eg: Ninaivellam nithya, mouna ragam songs); broadway type dance moods (oho megam vanthathu; chandirarum suriyanum ) etc...
  
  variety of categories from one composer - isn't that "genre"ifying thing fulfilled by IR for Indian music!!!!
  
  
• From: Naaz (@ 24.87.30.219) on: Tue Sep 30 19:24:27 EDT 2003
  
  suresh -
  
  I accessed your briefcase. The folder was empty?? (I confirmed it three times :-)
  Could you please look in? (I have rajarishi, chittukuruvi, and kazhugu songs. I also have a few of the others - but all middling copies.)
  
  Whatever -
  Thanks for tuning in. The technical glitch (co-op radios don't update equipment as regularly as they should)was rather unfortunate. It annoyed me no end too.
  I make a few "highlight" notes about each song, but I don't go over-prepared, and try to make the commentary more conversational (not chatty though,) and less of a lecture. I make up for that with "pure" classical shows, - where I teach myself things by presenting them on air!:-)
  
  isai_nanban -
  
  Perfect Ideas come together with Perfect Files :-)
  Please suggest your "thoguppu" of fours, and let me know (thru email) if you have MP3s to match.
  
  
  
  
  
• From: suresh (@ 202.88.155.34) on: Tue Sep 30 22:32:57 EDT 2003
  
  Naaz
  Did you look up the folder 'ForNaaz'? I checked, they're there. See if this link works
  
  http://asia.f2.pg.briefcase.yahoo.com/bc/sure31/lst?.dir=/ForNaaz&.view=l
  
  
• From: Naaz (@ 24.87.30.219) on: Tue Sep 30 23:39:59 EDT 2003
  
  suresh -
  
  Sorry, but it still says "folder is currently empty." What gives??
  
  
  
• From: Raghu (@ 203.200.198.9) on: Tue Sep 30 23:41:54 EDT 2003
  
  Naaz
  
  To my knowledge counterpoint and contrapuntal refer to the same things.
  
  Raasavey unna naan enni thaan - I think the rhythm section uses female chorus instead of any regular rhythm instrument.
  
  Please tell me which all MP3 you still require and I'll upload them if I have them with me.
  
  Hope that helps.
  
  My next posting will be about my observations on Maestro's ability in building a crescendo.
  
  Raghu
  
  
• From: Naaz (@ 24.87.30.219) on: Tue Sep 30 23:59:41 EDT 2003
  
  Raghu -
  
  I am glad you confirmed that bit. For all along, in my limited understanding, I understood it to be the parallel strain that runs as a contrary melody to accentuate the voice/instrumental melody. I fully get what you are saying now.
  
  (Thanks for the email address. I will wait a bit for the rest to confirm what their "thematic" preference is, and will email you a request list for the tracks that I don't have in my possession. Appreciate the offer.)
  
  
• From: suresh (@ 202.88.155.34) on: Wed Oct 1 00:18:30 EDT 2003
  
  Naaz
  :(( It was a dumb mistake, I better not expose myself. Should work now, pls check again.
  
  
  
  
  
• From: suresh (@ 202.88.155.34) on: Wed Oct 1 00:54:21 EDT 2003
  
  That 'Dawn, Dusk, Night' theme is perhaps the easiest compilation for IR (apart from the flora fauna list such as 'Maan, Kuyil, Mayil, Poo' etc.), especially for such a limited no. as 15. Offhand, these ones..
  
  DAWN
  Putham puthu kaalai (Alaigal Oyvathillai)
  Kaalai thendral (Uyarntha Ullam)
  Athikaalai nerame (Meendum oru Kaathal kathai)
  Kaalai paniyil (Gayathri)
  Kaalai nera poonguyil (Amman Koyil Kizhakkale)
  
  DUSK
  Pon maalai pozhuthu (Nizhalgal)
  Maalayil yaaro (Chatriyan)
  Andhi mazhai (Raajaparvai)
  Thaalattuthe vaanam (Kadal Meenkal)
  Manjal veyil (Nandu)
  
  NIGHT
  Pani vizhum iravil (Mouna Ragam)
  Enna satham (Punnagai Mannan)
  Nilavu thoongum neram (Kunguma Chimizh)
  Ilaya nila (Payanangal Mudivathillai)
  Kalyana thenila (Mounam Sammatham)
  
  I have the MP3's for all these in case..
  
  
• From: Raghu (@ 203.200.198.9) on: Wed Oct 1 01:04:43 EDT 2003
  
  A humble request.
  
  Making collections based on lyrics signifies the lyricist's thoughts more than the composer's. I agree that film music is dependent on the movie story as well as the song lyrics as its guiding cues but still our maestro manages to fly really high even while operating in a constrained environment.
  
  My suggestion is that the collections should be based on musical concepts rather than lyrical concepts.
  
  Once again just a humble request. Please disregard if not appropriate.
  
  Raghu.
  
  
• From: Raghu (@ 203.200.198.9) on: Wed Oct 1 01:13:33 EDT 2003
  
  As promised earlier, the posting on Crescendo.
  
  Listening to crescendos built by our Maestro, one will experience pure awe and wonder. This article is an attempt in sharing some of those joys that I have experienced. For this article I'll focus mainly on the cresendo built using instruments as against human voices. Such crescendos can be observed in preludes and first interludes, rarely in 2nd or 3rd interludes.
  
  Crescendo - A gradual increase in the strength and fullness of tone with which a passage is performed. A wave (alai) comes to mind immediately. It gradually builds gaining size and height before making a splash near the shore.
  
  Digression
  It is also similar to the technique of building suspense in a movie to an unbearable extent , before releasing it all in a matter of a few seconds. Most Hitchcock movies would fall in this category. "Kaadhal kottai" is a bad example of the usage of a similar principle. Instead of coming up with many suspenseful twists and turns, the director runs out of ideas and prolongs a single point of suspense much beyond its shelf life. Unfortunately for us tamil audience, this movie became a hit and spawned innumerable inspired movies and TV soap operas. This has become the stock-delivery of lazy story-writers. Yesterday I was forced to watch "Metti oli", where some people are trying to locate a guy named Madhusudhan. After 3 unsuccessful attemtps, they have managed to locate "some" Madhusudhan in Kaanchipuram. Now they are going to Madhusudhan's place in Kancheepuram. I'm pretty sure that this Madhusudhan is a wrong Madhusudhan.
  
  Coming back to our main topic, our maestro has given innumerable songs with crescendo(s). In my opinion a good music director is one whose is capable of sustaining the listener's interest without the help of the singer's sweet voice (SPB, SJ) or the lyricist's meanigful lyrics (Vairamuthu). What better place to demonstrate this than in preludes and interludes? Our maestro's songs live and die by this dictat.
  
  This may explain why our maestro doesn't mind poor singers or poor lyrics. I'll take a "Lovvunna Lovvu" any day instead of a "Siru ponmani asaiyum". Unfortunately, I guess, I'm not representative of the listening majority of Tamilnadu.
  
  Lets us see some of our Maestro's songs with crescendos.
  
  Example 1
  
  Metti oli - Metti - Chinna alai. Listen to the first interlude (begins at 114th second). A Solo violin builds on the tune established, with guitar chords. The tune gradually is taken over by Flute-Strings counterpoint to build a small crescendo (142th second inmy version of the recording). The crescendo is resolved by the piano. Though a small wave it is still very beautiful.
  The prelude is a lovely counterpointed crescendo too using human voices (Maestro , SJ). You can observe the volume, pitch and tonality increase in strength.
  The second interlude also is a voice based crescendo. SJ's humming starts as "Thuruthoo thuthoothu thuruthoo" (your mouth cannot open fully to pronounce "oo") and later becomes "Thana naa Thana naa" (the mouth can open much more fuller for the "aa" sound, giving a richer tone).
  
  Example 2
  
  Pongadhavey - Nizhalgal. Periya Alai. A stunning crescendo in the prelude. A lead violin introduces the melody, joined and counterpointed by strings, in a slow building of the wave, gradually gaining strength in volume to reach its highest point of tension before culminating in Cymbals (just before the veena starts). This occurs at the 29th second of the song. While you are still trying to recover your feet from having been swept of by a massive prelude WAVE, a next one seems to be approaching soon (first interlude). Flute and lead violin indulge in a jugalbandi of sorts with decreasing bar lengths, the flute gives way to strings, which accentuate the tonality of the lead violin, gradually gaining strength. Here our maestro chooses to end the crescendo with much less fan-fare using sharply punctuated Flute.
  
  If I were allowed to take only one song to a deserted island, it would have to be this song.
  
  Example 3
  
  Kai veesum thaamarai - Kairaasikkaaran. Niraiya alaigal. Listen to the second interlude. Here the same tune is played in succession by 3 different instruments. I don't have the recording here so I don't remember the instruments or the exact time at which they occur. The crescendo is resolved in a wild flute & another strange instrument combination. This resolution when isolated sounds pretty eerie but it fits well when listened in continuation with the building of the crescendo
  
  Example 4
  
  Yaar dhoorigai - Paaru Paaru Pattanam Paaru. Miga periya alai. Piano emphasises the melody built thus far. It then begins to explore the higher reaches of the tune, before being taken over by Strings completely. The interlude starts at the 112th second and the first crescendo is reached at 137th second lasting a full 10 seconds. The feeling experienced is pretty similar to ..., well never mind. To me these kind of songs are very hard on the singers, I mean they are just furniture in the songs. They can stand upside-down and still not be able to take the listeners to the point of ecstasy that mere instruments have already taken them.
  
  Raghu.
  
  
• From: Naaz (@ 24.87.30.219) on: Wed Oct 1 01:42:24 EDT 2003
  
  suresh -
  
  It worked! Thanks1
  
  raghu -
  
  Yes, IR is the composer, and his arrangements have to be the focus. But, with particular reference to listener (or the programme, or even otherwise) lyrical identification is also simulataneous. You'll be happy to know that I have play How To Name It and Nothing But Wind back-to-back for one edition. Lyrics also help in "thematic" arrangement (for purposes of compilation.) But, by all means, highlight what you think is important/significant musically. I am sure there must be many who will listen to the song after reading your notes, in a new way.
  
  An entirely different idea is forming in my head.
  I've presented Days and Nights with IR (the Kaalai and Maalai songs) - but I might select a few more from suresh's list. Keep them coming!
  
  

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