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Ilayaraja's Folk Music Sense

Topic started by Vishvesh Obla (@ 63.65.68.246) on Fri May 25 16:37:06 EDT 2001.
All times in EST +10:30 for IST.

The most striking thing for me in the music of Ilayaraja is his fine sense of folk music. Most of his hits have it as a base. (That it faded as he became more and more commercial is a different issue). I think that gave him a originality so much different from the earlier composers like MSV. It is so much there in his early movies like AnnakiLi, Rosapooravikaikari and Ponnu Oorukku pudhusu. I must say he was much original in expressing it than any other Music directors of Tamil Cine Music. Another music director, Salil Choudhury comes to my mind, when I think of folk music in light music. But then there is a subtle difference in the folk music expressed as you see listening to two different songs like Poovannam (Salil Choudhuri) and Unakena Thane Innerama (IlayaRaja). The difference, I feel, is the very spirit of the roots of folk music that was so particular to the place which created it and of which Ilaya Raja had such a fine grasp.

There must be something original to express for an artist to make something permanent and I must say Ilayaraja had it in his fine sense of folk music.

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Responses:

• From: senthil (@ 205.188.195.24) on: Sat May 26 19:07:06 EDT 2001
  
  my main admiration for raaja is the effective use of various musical forms with folk.look at foll songs:
  wcm type of orchestration for a folk song-raasathi unnai, yeriyile elandhamaram-effective use of choral music,potri paadadi penne,aayiram thamarai...
  carnatic and folk-paadariyen, malaiyoram mayile-MV sings the lines in a folksy manner and chitra the same lines in carnatic fashion,
  what to tell what to leave?
  
  
• From: chakri (@ ) on: Thu Jul 12 05:18:37 EDT 2001
  
  please any can help to down load all mp3 songs of ilayaraja .. please send me a mail or why any one build a site of the great jain of music?
  thanks please send me a mail
  
  
• From: mahabs (@ 203.197.138.163) on: Fri Jul 13 12:06:41 EDT 2001
  
  senthil,
  
  i agree with you completely. he is the first person who showed the richness of our folk songs. his blending of the folk music with other types of music is really amazing.
  
  he should be considered to be equal with u.ve. saminatha iyer, bharathi, anna and other great tamilians who contributed very much to the tamil culture.
  
  he is simply an institution himself.
  
  anbudan
  
  mahabs
  
  
• From: S T S (@ c1319060-a.stcla1.sfba.home.com) on: Fri Jul 13 17:18:40 EDT 2001
  
  www.tamilmp3cd.com is one site but they sell.
  
  
• From: Ramesh (@ ss04.ny.us.ibm.com) on: Mon Jul 16 17:50:03 EDT 2001
  
  Hello All..,
  I do accept about Ilayaraja's folk sense..
  But ,on the top of it he enjoyed the melody of all(Folk and all)..
  One simple exmple I will give ,if you get a chance
  listen this...
  Film - Anantha Raagam.
  Song - Kadaloram Kadaloram..alaigal odi...
  
  In this song after the pallavi(before saranam-1)
  one hum will come ,yesudoss did that,it was overlapped voice(between yesudoss voice only)..
  just listen only that,you will feel the(Sea,beach)
  folk + melodiousness in that..
  It was just ultimate...he is simply irresistable..
  
  ramesh..
  
  
  
  
• From: LV (@ 203.197.80.64) on: Tue Jul 17 01:49:58 EDT 2001
  
  i agree with Ramesh. This song in Anantha Ragam by KJY is really amazing
  
  
• From: nvd (@ 203.106.106.81) on: Tue Jul 17 02:20:50 EDT 2001
  
  He is simply an institution himself...
  
  wow, what a wonderful idea of words ...
  
  He's the king of music....IR!!
  
  
• From: rsubra (@ 203.199.224.239) on: Tue Jul 17 06:36:01 EDT 2001
  
  I dont think therez any site which gives Ilaiyaraja Mp3 songs for download.......Either the songs are to hear or to be sold.........Ilaiyaraja's songs are not free over the web
  
  
• From: shankareswaran jayaraj (@ 203.199.238.220) on: Wed Jul 18 01:06:52 EDT 2001
  
  hai guys
  
  why all of you have stopped at folk and melody in enjoying ilayaraja's music ?.You must listen to the songs during the transition period
  i e when people started enjoying western and the likes of it in tamil.(e g agni natchtram ).When Manirathnam brought a new dimension to the taste of tamil movie and the man who did it was ilayaraja.I always wonder that man's ( from a village without the knowledge of what is happening around the world in music) ability to grasp things and attrat somebody's attention with music i e even people from all over the world ( e g gone with the wind)
  
  bye
  
  shankar
  
  
• From: rf (@ pppa81-resalerockford1-3r7238.dialinx.net) on: Wed Jul 18 02:46:29 EDT 2001
  
  If you go to raajangahm.com and read raaja's biography it says he travelled to several thousand villages all of TN and Kerala. Also took his purpose with his brothers to villages in Karnataka, Andhra and i believe to Bombay... now, he could not have been anything but folk all the way. In the 60s and 70s when everything was fine with the world, heaven was in there, birds sang, trees swayed and innocence ruled, raaja imbibed everything that came with it through is rustic journeys. that is why we can feel in almost all his songs till date a feel of the rural TN and it is very nostalgic... raaja also brought the cosmopolitan feel as early (Yen Kanamani) as he brought a kada thengayo or aatukkoti muttayittu etc... it is just our fortune that raaja brought it to us. today where is the villages? all in the plastic world of computer commerce (com com sounds bettern than c2b..)
  
  so, i doubt we can say another raaja ever again. all the great emotions and moods of music is mostly hidden in the innocence of folk sounds. That is why I feel, Raaja cannot be repeated in music again. Not that there was ever anybody as complete in folk sense as Raaja...
  
  
• From: Normal Man (@ 1cust131.tnt1.mel2.da.uu.net) on: Wed Jul 18 03:39:04 EDT 2001
  
  I ever wonder, if an individual is made to live back in the atmosphere/surrounding which he loved and successful, would his brain switch back to its previous state. This is something like restoration concept in the PC's. If the human PC's is able to restore to its previous good version(unless its totally messed up), why not humans. So if IR is again made to live say 1/2 years in total anonymity in the deep villages, would be give us an another Kavi Kuyil or his old folk fusion??
  
  
• From: deeno (@ ) on: Wed Sep 8 11:26:29 EDT 2004
  
  ARR is the best
  
  
• From: eden (@ 136.1.1.33) on: Wed Sep 8 13:10:04 EDT 2004
  
  A couple of months back, I read an interview of pushpavanam kuppusamy in `thendral' (free periodical for Tamils of North America - interview probably given during his recent trip to U.S.).
  
  It had an irritating remark by him that `RECENTLY' cinema ALSO has started looking at folk music especially because of Ilayaraja.
  
  This fellow sounded as if the mass media popularity among the public (for folk music) was achieved by him for years and only `recently' (means post 2000 or what?) film field has become aware of it:-)
  
  He had probably been away from TN for 25 years:-)) Or by `recently', does he mean his personal entry to film fields / satellite TV?
  
  I always thought the mass media publicity for folk was achieved one stroke with annakkiLi (something that could not have been done in years by the likes of kollangudi karuppAyi / AIR / Doordharshan / Universities etc.).
  
  There had been many beneficieries of the trend that followed, including Bharathiraja, grAmarajan etc. In this chain, the latest ones to reap benefits are the kuppusamy's and the paravai muniyammas. True, the kuppusamy's would have been doing a great job of researching / publishing / putting forth great effort for folk songs etc for many years. However, it doesn't give him authority to make claims that he has been the one solely instrumental for popularising folk music and films have started using them only `RECENTLY'.
  
  What audacity people have once they get some media attention!
  
  
• From: eden (@ 136.1.1.33) on: Wed Sep 8 13:24:17 EDT 2004
  
  Normal Man,
  'total anonymity in the deep villages' - ippO enga ayyA irukku? I want to go and live there :-))
  
  `Development' has many positives, but one negative is loss of nativity...the kind of disconnect that villages had for years have been corrected rapidly by telecom and slowly by roadways / transport...
  
  ...may be places like `silent valley' in Palakkad dist of Kerala might provide `some' disconnect from the `fast' world into native/natural environment...or may be some places in the foothills of the western ghats in TN (mEttuppALayam / thEni etc?)
  
  
• From: thumburu (@ 83.89.145.50) on: Thu Sep 9 16:33:27 EDT 2004
  
  NadodiPaatukaaran songs are highly underrated gems among IR's musical achievements. The most notable songs are agaaya thaamarai which is a classical song and the other song is 'vanamengum shenbagapoo' sung by SPB. IMO, this song is one of the best folk based melodies in 90's with usage of minimal instruments (just flute and tabla) and varying rythm in the song.SPB's rendering adds more lustre to this great song
  
  
• From: Kupps' visiri (@ 12.10.219.36) on: Thu Sep 9 20:24:17 EDT 2004
  
  "True, the kuppusamy's would have been doing a great job of researching / publishing / putting forth great effort for....many years."
  
  Don't even remotely give us the hint that you are referring to our own Kupps;-)
  
  
• From: hehehewalrus (@ 130.127.104.187) on: Thu Sep 9 23:51:32 EDT 2004
  
  Kolappals come naturally to our Kupps, he doesnt need research for that :)
  
  
• From: rajasaranam (@ 210.214.229.240) on: Fri Sep 10 07:07:27 EDT 2004
  
  thx deeno for reviving this thread :-)
  
  

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