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A request to amateur composers who visit this page

Topic started by Vijay (@ 212.137.205.127) on Thu Nov 16 16:58:22 EST 2000.
All times in EST +10:30 for IST.

I'd like to request amateur composers who visit this page to tell me if they've uploaded any of their work onto the internet and if they have, please tell me where I can listen to it. Thank You.

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Some composers to check out (in no particular order): Jay, Srikanth, Ganesh, Eswar, Sridhar Seetharaman, Kumar, Rjay. Vishwesh Obla

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Responses:

• Old responses
  
• From: Subbiah (@ 203.126.142.232) on: Mon Feb 16 00:51:41 EST 2004
  
  Aditya,
  Thanks for your encouragement. I will try to upload 'Pani_Vizhum.mp3' this week.
  
  
• From: rajeshrs_tvm (@ 202.88.237.131) on: Tue Feb 17 09:26:16 EST 2004
  
  Pls provide me with a link or guidance on how to
  start with a minimum setup for a studio.
  -equipments needed.
  -expenditure
  -softwares and hardware needed
  -basic knowledge nedded
  
  pls dont ignore .this is a serious query
  
  thanks a lot
  
  
• From: anand (@ 132.183.136.57) on: Wed Feb 18 16:42:22 EST 2004
  
  Subbiah
  
  I see that you have put lots of effort. It sounds good given the instrument. I havent heard the original song tho. But I look forward to Panivizhum.
  
  I do have a friendly advice. I would suggest you write your own pieces. You cannot go far remixing existing stuff. Even if you do so, its probably a better idea to use western orchestral scores (I mean of classical/art music types) rather than film music. That way you atleast learn orchestration, principles of harmony and stuff(in fact Illayaraja had a solid grounding in this). Also I do not see much future to the genre started by Illayaraja... esp. considering the fact that it is already more that a decade of Rahmans music and he himself is becoming outdated! Illayaraja was a melodic genius no doubt, and I am a big fan, but if you look at the big picture his genre is sort of exhausted. you can create how much ever music of this kind as you want but they will sound like a bad copy of the master himself.
  
  you see, that is the curse of popular music, it is so hungry for innovation that the possiblities get exhausted very quickly and people get bored.
  Just imagine how many times a symphony of Beethoven or Kirthanai of Tyagaraja has been performed over and over again(not just played in a cd!) over hundreds of years...and there is always an audience. That is the quality of art music. It is balanced and evolves on a solid basis that helps sustain it much longer.
  
  But then, if you are doing all this just for the fun of it, please ignore all of this. It is agreed that there is no limit to how much fun you can have with electronic music.
  
  good luck and keep making the music!
  
  
  
  
  
  
• From: Subbiah (@ 203.126.142.232) on: Thu Feb 19 23:32:52 EST 2004
  
  Anand,
  Thanks for your encouraging feedback. Your views are interesting. I had done a little of own composition earlier. I will try my best again to create something fresh.
  
  Unfortunately most of my exposure has been to Tamil Film music + carnatic only. I am yet to explore the pleasure of Western classical. Will do that too.
  
  With this little exposure, I still find it exciting to try and play Raaja's compositions. It is truly a tough + fun act. At the end, it is always frutrating that I am unable to reproduce full beauty of the original. Compared to there is definitely more freedom when we compose something original - because atleast this 'comparision with original' problem is not there !
  
  Thanks again for your time.
  
  
• From: rajeshrs_tvm (@ 202.88.237.35) on: Sat Feb 21 02:30:56 EST 2004
  
  anand..
  one of the sensible views i had read recently.
  !!
  
  
• From: sarat (@ 68.190.55.38) on: Sat Feb 21 09:45:33 EST 2004
  
  http://www.pbs.org/newshour/gergen/november96/gould.htm
  
  An interview with the late Stephen Jay Gould, one of the more famous evolutionary biologists of the 20th century.
  
  
  DAVID GERGEN: I understand that. Let me ask you this. You also write about German composers. You had this period from the late 1600's until the early 1800's, a very short period, when you had Bach and Beethoven and Mozart and Hayden, you know, these wonderful German composers.
  
  STEPHEN JAY GOULD: Their full life span is between 1685 and the 1820's. Where are they today? And I speculated in there that if this concept of right walls has any validity, it’s conceivable, I’m not sure that this is so, that you can run out of accessible styles; since the arts demand innovation as a criterion of genius, it’s possible in certain fields that you can run out of accessible styles. The arts loves to say, well, the avant garde isn’t understood; the next generation will. And maybe that’s often true, but it need not always be true. Maybe you can really run out of styles that intelligent people can comprehend, and perhaps that’s happened with the classical music tradition. I’m not sure that’s the explanation.
  
  DAVID GERGEN: Do you think the same paradox holds, that you may not have the Bachs and the Beethovens but the general level of musical composition has improved, or do you think--
  
  STEPHEN JAY GOULD: I think there have to be Bachs and Beethovens. We may have--there are so many more people. Musical training is available to so many more, but it may be that we’ve hit a right wall in terms of accessible styles and since we demand innovation as a criterion of genius, there may not be more innovative styles to be found.
  
  
• From: Anand (@ 66.30.193.155) on: Sun Feb 22 01:31:03 EST 2004
  
  Very interesting quote from Sarat. I have heard Gould's opinion on classical music before, but I slightly misunderstood (on reading this interview).
  
  I would agree that the classical style is outdated today (well, after almost 200 years of creative work resulting in 200 of symphonies!).
  
  But I will not agree that "there may not be more innovative styles to be found". Here is why...
  
  after Bach, whose composiotions outnumber anyone else's, it probably would have seemed that music has nowhere to go. Well, then came Haydn with 100 symphonies and Mozart with 40. Agreed that not all of them are unique in ideas (I am sure you can shrink mozarts to 20 great ones at max!). Mozart seemed to have created "new music" at that time. Now, was there new music to be written? just play Beethovens Eroica (1803?) and Mozarts late symphonies back to back (or even Beethovens 1st or second). You cannot but be amazed at the dramatic difference in ideas! The opening bars of eroica are just so beautiful that they sound contemporary to my ears.
  
  Beethoven ushered in the romantic era, and 100s of composers wrote 1000s of works infulenced by him.
  
  Well will there be new music now ? ah, listen back to back, to Stravinskys Rite of spring (1912 ?), and just about any music preceding it. The difference is just mind boggling. I dont want to move further as I am not knowlegeable about 20th century 'music' (Cage etc.)
  
  I have to go ... but anyone else has any comments? will we run out of new musical styles?
  
  Let alone new ideas, I still see a lot of scope in expanding the ideas of late impressionist composers like Debussy.
  
  cheers
  
  
• From: music-man (@ 61.1.200.181) on: Sun Feb 22 23:11:41 EST 2004
  
  Can anyone help on the following musical score?.This score comes in the film “Excalibur” and also in the “Old Spice” advertisement.
  
  
• From: vijay (@ 68.51.215.28) on: Mon Feb 23 00:38:09 EST 2004
  
  music-man, the composer of that piece is Carl Orff and the name of the piece is Carmina Burana or something like that
  
  
• From: Eswar (@ 202.54.154.163) on: Mon Feb 23 01:11:05 EST 2004
  
  Anand,
  
  It seems you are not very impressed by "20th century music" as you call it. But, would it be fair to say that they are not "as good as" old music and musicians have somehow lost the talents. I am not sure if composing music using technologies is as bad as they make it to be. Perhaps, a problem with adjusting? or a personal preference difference between old folks and the new folks? Whatever it be, if it sticks to your mind and intoxicates you with the charm no matter old or new, I believe that is music. No music is noise. For a blacksmith the iron hammer hitting hot rods is music, and for us it is noise. I believe that music can and will change as the days go by, and it is inevitable. If by putting down new music, they believe that old music will survive, then that is not right. Old music lives because of it's charm, and "new age" music will live because of it's charm.
  
  Ofcourse, it is all my humble opinions.
  
  -Eswar
  
  
• From: bb (@ 206.154.118.2) on: Mon Feb 23 15:10:46 EST 2004
  
  Updated link to Vishwesh Obla's page above.
  
  
• From: music-man (@ 61.1.200.244) on: Tue Feb 24 08:52:02 EST 2004
  
  Thank you for the info.
  
  
• From: Srik (@ 64.80.98.165) on: Wed Feb 25 12:28:08 EST 2004
  
  Hi all,
  Our next release is out, Please download and enjoy the song from my website.
  
  kAdal vali
  Lyrics: Priya | Vocals: Sunder & Radhika |
  Production Credits : Sridhar Seetharaman
  Music: Srikanth
  Digitally Recorded at Studio1234, USA Release:Feb 2004.
  
  http://www.srikanthd.com
  
  Thanks.
  
  
• From: kiru (@ 192.138.150.249) on: Wed Feb 25 13:33:14 EST 2004
  
  I think the current quality/nature of music should be viewed in the context in which it is made. What was the social climate/environment like when Beethoven or Mozart or Thyagaraja lived ? What motivated them to write their music (like coronation of King George) ? Who was their audience ? If the same social situation/audience/motives does not exist today, then the music will not be like that. Is it possible we are now making music for the least common denominator ? whereas in the past it was targeted to the maximum possible taste ?
  
  
• From: Anand (@ 132.183.136.57) on: Wed Feb 25 15:14:04 EST 2004
  
  Easwar
  
  let me first clarify that by '20th century music', i was referring to art or serious music rather than popular music. so The Beatles or Illayaraja will not fall in this category, but rather, stravinsky, bartok shoenberg and others (you can actually find info on the web about '20th century music). Unfortunately I do not believe there was any new art music in India in the 20th century...there may have one ot two carnatic composers but nothing beyond that.
  
  now, that brings us to the point you sort of raised. Isnt music supposed to be enjoyable rather than 'serious'? shouldnt a measure of good music be just the intensity of emotions it can creates ? That way, a country music song might have the same emotional effect on person A as does a Beethoven string quartet on person B.
  my answer is, yes of course. But, listeners vary so much in their appreciation levels and skill, and there is an abolute or objective difference in the qualty of music. The content and thought behind a beethoven quartet is far greater than a typical pop song. Of course, one might say, who cares, and they will be right to say so. You dont care as long as you appreciate it and you have every right to enjoy and be proud of what you like.
  
  One basic issue is that it is a weird concept for most people that music appreciation needs training. If someone who loves pop music sith me (I assume and suppose they will have a musical ear), I can go through every phrase of Beethovens Eroica and describe why it is has more content and formal structure than a pop/rock music song. I am sure the person will apreciate it if someone does this explanation. This is ear training. The same holds for carnatic music or even Hindustani. The moment you see the beauty of what is going on, you will want to come back to it again and again. You will see that here is whiskey compared to soda (pop music). Of course sometimes you do need soda for a change, so I am not lowering it in anyway!
  
  so esentially my point is that the more trained your ear is in listening, the more it can appreciate that music can be a high art form, and there are objective levels to it.
  
  but just as you admit, my opinions maybe totally wrong, but I will keep rethinking them.
  
  cheers
  
  

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