Home   Forum   Wiki   Notes   Register   FAQ   Sitemap   About Us   Contact Us  

Raga maligai in TFM

Topic started by Badri Raghavan (@ 206.103.12.125) on Sun May 17 23:57:43 EDT 1998.
All times in EST +10:30 for IST.

hi friends,

Time and again we come across songs that have many raagas interlinked to each other. here is an effort to get those songs in a single place and discuss any commonalities between them. i shall kick off by giving 2 raga maligai"s ezhu swarangalukul (abhoorva ragangal) and
oru naal poruma (thiruvilayaidal)

here we go!

---

Responses:

• From: Udhaya (@ 205.218.142.217) on: Mon May 18 14:12:58 EDT 1998
  
  There's a 70s song sung by SPB with Raga Maligai in it: Nee Oru Raga Maligai, En Nenjum Un Kaadhal Maligai.
  
  
• From: Rajaraman (@ 192.122.135.224) on: Mon May 18 21:51:19 EDT 1998
  
  Few more:
  
  theeraatha vilayaattu pillai - naam iruvar
  veenai kodiyudaya vendhane - sampoorna raamaayanam
  sugamaana raagangale - mridunga chakravarty (this is similar to "7 swarangalukkul" in the `coming back to first raga' idea.)
  enna samayalo - unnaal mudiyum thambi
  sanga thamizh kaviye - manathil uruthi vendum
  adhisaya raagam - apoorva raagangal
  kelviyin naayagane - "
  
  and almost all of Rahman's classical style songs : )
  
  
• From: Geetha (@ gatekeeper.oracle.co.uk) on: Tue May 19 05:13:00 EDT 1998
  
  En Veetu Thotathil Poo elaam kettuko - Gentleman - MD ARR
  
  
• From: haris (@ 206.103.12.125) on: Tue May 19 06:10:14 EDT 1998
  
  Geetha,
  
  I am surprised to see that 'en veetu thOttathil Poo ellAm kettuppAr' is in ragamaligai. i know that this song is inspired from a classial(devotional?) song 'nAdha bindhu kalAdhi namo nama' in chenchuruti. i will be happy u can tell me the ragas present in that song.
  
  
• From: Geetha (@ gatekeeper.oracle.co.uk) on: Tue May 19 12:14:16 EDT 1998
  
  Haris: 'En veetu' starts in Senjurutti and then goes to Hamsadwani and then Kalyani
  
  Sivagaami Aada vantha Nataraajan Ennaseivaar - I'm not sure of the movie name, but it has Sivaji doing Bharathanaatyam for it, I think with Padhmini. The Ragams are AMRITHAVARSHINI and CHARUKESI.
  
  
• From: Kanchana (@ ww-tc02.proxy.aol.com) on: Tue May 19 12:23:22 EDT 1998
  
  Geetha:
  sivagAmi Ada vandhAl is from pAttum bharadhamum starring Shivaji & Jayalalitha.
  
  One more to list:
  mAsilA nilavE--ambikApathy; MD: GRamanathan
  
  
• From: aruLarasan. (@ psiphi.umsl.edu) on: Tue May 19 14:25:19 EDT 1998
  
  another one: thEsulAvadhE MD Adhi nArAyaNa rao.
  
  another one: yEzhuswarangaLukkuL eththanai rAgam
  
  Can someone post the definition of rAgamALigai. If we want to list all the
  songs that have shades of more than one rAgam, we would end up listing all
  songs (especially ARR's).
  
  
• From: Rajaraman (@ 192.122.135.224) on: Tue May 19 21:59:57 EDT 1998
  
  aruLarasan,
  
  It is rAgamAligai, i.e maalai of raagams. You get the idea, right?
  
  A song with shades of two raagams, strictly speaking, is not a raagamaalikaa.
  
  
  
  
• From: Sathiya Keerthi (@ synergy.nus.edu.sg) on: Wed May 20 00:45:41 EDT 1998
  
  I have read the following mentioned in an article
  on S.M.Subbaiah Nayudu:
  
  'Kanniyin Kaadhali' endra padaththil (this is the
  movie in which Kannadhasan penned his first song)
  kaalaiyilE endru aarambikkum nadanap paadalai,
  S.M.S. varikku vari raagam maaRum raaga maaligaiyaaga
  uruvaakki than isaip pulamaiyai kaattiyirukkiRaar.
  
  Has anyone heard this song? (Manisekaran, help!)
  
  Is it a remarkable feat to make a varikku vari
  maaRum raaga maaligai? (Raagaaraman, help!)
  
  
• From: Rajaraman (@ 192.122.135.224) on: Wed May 20 04:58:37 EDT 1998
  
  Sathiya Keerthi,
  
  Yes, it's tough to compose "one raagam for every line" songs because the essence has to be brought out in a single line without sacrificing the
  melody. There are a few such compositions in carnatic music, e.g "nalinakaanthimathim" and "aarabhi maanam".
  
  TFM-la ithe style-a vantha innoru paattu
  
  Naattayum naathathaal vendriduven - Agathiyar
  
  
• From: Sathiya Keerthi (@ synergy.nus.edu.sg) on: Wed May 20 06:51:42 EDT 1998
  
  MSV wrote the following in one of his series of
  articles in Vikatan (I think):
  
  en guru naathar Subbaiah Nayudu oru paattai record
  paNNuvadhaRkkuL aayiram thadavaiyaadhu paadip
  paarppaar. 'Krishna Vijayam' endra padaththiRkku
  N.C.Vasanthakokilam paadaNum. 24 raagaththilE oru
  single paattu. appO editing room-il 'playback'
  vasadhiyellaam kidaiyaadhu. Nayudu-vin assistant
  aana naan andha 24 raagamuLLa paattai netturu
  paNNi Vasanthakokilaththidam oppippEn.
  
  I guess the song he was referring to was a (BIG)
  raaga maaligai. I have no idea what that song was
  and whether it became popular or not.
  (Manisekaran-- any idea of what this song is?)
  
  
• From: Geetha (@ gatekeeper.oracle.co.uk) on: Wed May 20 07:57:00 EDT 1998
  
  Sathya Sir: Was it 'Thikku theriyaadha kaatru', sung by NC Vasanthakokilam? I think it starts in Behag and then goes on to a variety of Ragams. Maharajapuram Santhanam has sung this in a brilliant fashion.
  
  
• From: Geetha (@ gatekeeper.oracle.co.uk) on: Wed May 20 07:57:10 EDT 1998
  
  Sathya Sir: Was it 'Thikku theriyaadha kaatru', sung by NC Vasanthakokilam? I think it starts in Behag and then goes on to a variety of Ragams. Maharajapuram Santhanam has also sung this in a brilliant fashion.
  
  
• From: Geetha (@ gatekeeper.oracle.co.uk) on: Wed May 20 07:58:47 EDT 1998
  
  Kanchana: Thanks for the info on Sivagaami aadavanthal....
  
  
• From: Sathiya Keerthi (@ synergy.nus.edu.sg) on: Wed May 20 08:09:30 EDT 1998
  
  Geetha:
  
  You may be right. I have asked Manisekaran to
  help me with details of that song.
  
  (BTW, madam, please "Sir" pattaththai vittudunga
  en peyarilirundhu. :-))
  
  
• From: Udhaya (@ 205.218.142.217) on: Wed May 20 13:35:17 EDT 1998
  
  There was an old movie where T.K.Bagavathy played Raavanan and sang a song playing the veenai that touched on many ragams. Anybody know what I'm talking about?
  
  
• From: Ravi (@ envy.cs.umass.edu) on: Wed May 20 14:23:52 EDT 1998
  
  Udhaya: The song u r referring to is veenai kodi udaya vEndhanE. followed by 'sangeetha sowbaagyamE'. I am not sure whether that is realyl a raga maaligai since the song breaks, with some dialogue in between before changing ragas.
  
  
• From: Udhaya (@ 205.218.142.217) on: Wed May 20 17:58:14 EDT 1998
  
  Thanks, Ravi. Good point. But do the dialogues appear in the song's LP version? There are some songs like "Ilaya Nila" which had dialogue interruptions in the movie but on the radio and LP releases it had no breaks.
  
  
• From: Ravi (@ sloth.cs.umass.edu) on: Wed May 20 20:25:08 EDT 1998
  
  Udhaya: The dialogues are on the LP version. Atleast I have heard it on tape with the diaogues, long before I saw the movie. BTW the movie is 'Sampoorna Ramayanam' with NTR as Ramar and Sivaji as Baradhan. The later portion of the song was sung by CSJ. Can any one say who sang the 'veenai kodi udaya' part?
  
  
• From: Rajaraman (@ 192.122.135.224) on: Wed May 20 21:23:55 EDT 1998
  
  Ravi, I think it's Trichy Loganathan.
  
  
• From: badri raghavan (@ 206.103.12.125) on: Thu May 21 01:24:47 EDT 1998
  
  
  btw, there is one more varikku vari ragamaligai sung by maharajapuram which consists of
  saranga, saveri, mohanam, nayaki (pallavi)
  saramathy, sama, thodi, vasantha (anu pallavi)
  bilahari, ahiri, nattai and some more (charanam)
  
  yes, veenai kodi udaya vendane is a beautiful RM and the dialogues only serve to give the characteristics of the raaga. the final one "kaiyilai nadhanai neengal kavarndha ragam" and Trichy Loganathan takes up Kambodhi and it chills your spine and all the nerves for a second. a truly memorable performance by TL.
  the other ragams are sankharabaranam, bhoopalam, kalyani, atana, vasantha.
  
  thanks udaya for bringing it up!
  
  
  
• From: udhaya (@ host17.globalcenter.net) on: Thu May 21 02:54:22 EDT 1998
  
  There are two more old songs that certainly seem to have many ragams, but I'll let you guys qualify whether they are faithful to ragamaligai.
  "Kannum Kannum Kalanthu Sontham Kondaduthae" a dance contest song that is awesome to watch and hear.
  The other song is the manysplendored dance tune from Uttamaputhiran where Shivaji dances with all his courtesans. Sorry, I forget how that song starts.
  
  
• From: Sathiya Keerthi (@ panorama.nus.edu.sg) on: Thu May 21 03:33:48 EDT 1998
  
  My knowledge about raagaas etc is almost nil,
  but anyway let me make this provocative comment...
  
  I thought a (good) raaga maaligai is one that
  has the following three properties:
  
  1. Several (say > 2?) raagams should be employed.
  
  2. Transitions between two raagams should be so smooth
  that a layman (like me) should not be able
  to notice that a change has occurred.
  
  3. After transiting from raagam A to raagam B
  one should stick to raagam B for some minimum
  time (say, at least until that raagam's definitive presence
  has been established) before moving over to another.
  
  Otherwise, what is there? I can simply pull out a few
  lines each from 10 different songs (each made
  in a different raagam) and sing them in
  sequence to make a raaga maaligai; is it not?
  In that sense, some of the songs being mentioned,
  such as:
  veeNai kodiyudaya vEndhanE,
  yaaradi nee mOhini (Uththama Puththiran)
  maasilaa nilavE
  don't look like (good) raaga maaligais to me
  because I can easily detect transitions, even as
  a layman.
  
  I also find that, in the above postings, when
  people mention ARR's songs as raaga maaligais,
  there is a certain hesitation; what is the reason?
  Is it because those songs lack property (3) I
  mentioned above?
  
  I hope some expert will angrily react (giving details)
  to what I have wriiten, because then I can get
  my understanding of the definition of a raaga
  maaligai cleared up.
  
  
• From: Rajaraman (@ 192.122.135.224) on: Thu May 21 05:09:14 EDT 1998
  
  Sathiya Keerthi
  
  I don't claim to be an expert but let me air my ideas.
  
  I don't think (2) is needed for ragamalikai. In fact, it's difficult to have this. IMO a sequence of ragas is by itself nice to listen to.
  
  Bones SK style-a sollanumnaa,
  
  Malligai poo maalai , Kathamba maalai
  Carrot Halwa packet, Mixed milk sweets packet
  
  Ippadi variety-ai naama rasikkirom illayaa?
  
  
• From: badri raghavan (@ 206.103.12.125) on: Thu May 21 05:26:57 EDT 1998
  
  Sathya,
  
  your definition of raga maligai has indeed achieved its objective of provoking somebody (not necessarily an expert). by the grammar of carnatic music there ought to be some norms for a raagamaligai but i am sure they wouldn't be as restrictive as yours. who is a layman and how is his laymancy defined?
  
  i think it is fair to say that raaga maligai is a sequence of raagas with clearcut dilineation. it could be one raaga per line or one for a stanza.
  
  i fully agree with u that they should convey the essence of the raaga in the short duration they are sung.
  
  as regards ARR's songs, you find a blend of two raagas interspersed frequently which does not make it a RM. If i take the arohana of one raga and the avarohana of other and use it in a song, it is a different raaga and not an admixture or a sequence.
  
  i am curious to know RM's where you could not detect the transitions.
  
  

---

List all pages of this thread

Post comments