Illaiya Raja FURTHUR UPDATED - Page 9

Thanks Deepaji for links:
Here I forward some great articles on his music:

Song: Keeravani… (Telugu)
Film: Anvaeshana
Scale : Keeravani

Monday, July 28, 2003

This is the seventh in the series of articles celebrating the music of Maestro Ilayaraja, from a technical standpoint. The article treats the Maestro's music as a textbook on music composition and presents certain technical and non-technical nuances in his music that may be of interest to students of music composition and orchestration as well as to listeners with a technical background in carnatic and western classical music.

The content presented in this article is just an observation made by the author. Please feel free to indicate any analytical errors that you may find.

This song is yet another perfect example that shows Ilayaraja's technique of blending the east and the west. The composer uses his unusual western orchestration skills to harmonize melodies in Keeravani (21st melakartha) raga.

An interesting point to note about the orchestration of the interludes is that they contain disconnected sets of phrases. Though the dramatic changes in the orchestration may seem to lack musical continuity on one hand, the same changes maintain the attention of the listeners with their rich melodic and harmonic content on the other.

The prelude presents a vocal harmony on a raga based melody. The pallavi has an interesting structure. It momentarily stabilizes on the tonic and then follows a few progressions that lead to the repetition. The intelligence of the composer is hidden in the fact that he uses this tonic junction to conclude the song at the end.

In the two-part vocal counterpoint at the end of the first interlude ,one voice sings the notes and the other hums a melody (both in Keeravani raga) and both the voices harmonize to form a beautiful two-part counterpoint.

Using unstable landing notes (ni), complicated phrases like gm pp Snn n nnS np (in e gaganaalalo...), progressions like RRR G SSS R NNN S DDD N... are found very natural in Ilayaraja's compositions.

Bach's influence on Ilayaraja is clearly heard in the instrumental counterpoint (keyboard and guitar with bass) which begins the second interlude. Ilayaraja stamps his trademark once again in this song, through his outstanding bass patterns throughout the song.

Thanks to Maestro Ilayaraja for giving us yet another song to celebrate.

LINKS BY KD286

Song: Lalitha Priya Kamalam Virisinadhi.. (Telugu)
Film: Rudra Veena
Scale : Lalitha

Monday, March 17, 2003

This is the sixth in the series of articles celebrating the music of Maestro Ilayaraja, from a technical standpoint. The article treats the Maestro's music as a textbook on music composition and presents certain technical and non-technical nuances in his music that may be of interest to students of music composition and orchestration as well as to listeners with a technical background in carnatic and western classical music.

The content presented in this article is just an observation made by the author. Please feel free to indicate any analytical errors that you may find.

This song is a masterpiece in Lalitha raga, a raga that has been used rarely in film music. Though it is a duet song it has been painted with semi-classical colors probably because the story of the film has a backdrop of classical music and dance.

One can easily grasp the structure of the raga after listening to this song. Throughout the song, the composer has made the sa as his home (most of the cases higher sa) and has visited the other locations in the raga, returning back to this home. This is a common practice in carnatic music where in the performer rotates round a single note. Ilayaraja has attempted to use a similar technique in film music, through this song.

The song is loaded with a number of soothing phrases in Lalitha raga. The composer touches the higher dha during the end of the charanam. This is a unique feature in this song since it is a rare event in south Indian classical music to reach as high as the dha in the higher octave. The song does not go lower than the ni in the lower octave. One of the reasons for this could be to maintain the pleasant and romantic mood of the song situation and to avoid the feeling of pathos that the lower notes are known to evoke.

The song starts off with the chiming of temple bells symbolizing the sanctity and divinity of the relationship between the characters in the song (who happen to be a brahmin boy and a harijan girl). This is followed by string arrangement and short dialogues between guitar, flute and piano. A typical "Ilayaraja" kind of orchestration for a short thirty two second prelude!!

A unique rhythm pattern in the first interlude, the piano and strings harmony in the beginning of the second interlude, the haunting melodies on the flute in both the interludes are some of the aspects that come up to Ilayaraja very casually, and that make a strong impact on the listeners with their creative and unique sound palette.

Thanks to Maestro Ilayaraja for giving us yet another song to celebrate.

thank u sinha ji for posting the articles here.....i dont have much knowledge about music.....but these songs are such masterpieces......

"taralirada tane vasantam" another song from the film rudraveena is also very beautiful....i think it has some wood cutting sounds at the beginning of the song...so hard tools sounds may be.......

That chubby young girl has grown to be hot now abhi...:) She's my friend's sister...u want her no?? 😉

Illayara was at his best during late 70's and 80's.

http://www.musicindiaonline.com/l/26/s/movie_name.4957/
Listen to this song Panivilum malarvanam , plp.

By far the best use of guitar and violin together...u shd tell me what u thk Sinha saab...

Originally posted by: vidyaah

That chubby young girl has grown to be hot now abhi...:) She's my friend's sister...u want her no?? 😉

Illayara was at his best during late 70's and 80's.

http://www.musicindiaonline.com/l/26/s/movie_name.4957/
Listen to this song Panivilum malarvanam , plp.

By far the best use of guitar and violin together...u shd tell me what u thk Sinha saab...

by ur friend u mean...."Shalini" or her brother.............so cool.........😊

Originally posted by: adwarakanath

Thanks Sinha Saab!

I myself haven't listened to any Tamil songs (i could KICK myself for it 😡 ), and not many Telugu songs. I've heard Swatimuthyam and Sagarasangamam though. Swatimuthyam.....DIVINE. That's it. I think I've heard Anjali too...if it's the film with that little chubby young girl.

Thanks!! 👏 👏 👏

listen to the songs of "Srutilayalu" too....i promise u wont regret it.......

Originally posted by: vidyaah

I mean shalini...not robert :)

wow...thats so cool..............👍🏼

Originally posted by: vidyaah

That chubby young girl has grown to be hot now abhi...:) She's my friend's sister...u want her no?? 😉

Illayara was at his best during late 70's and 80's.

http://www.musicindiaonline.com/l/26/s/movie_name.4957/
Listen to this song Panivilum malarvanam , plp.

By far the best use of guitar and violin together...u shd tell me what u thk Sinha saab...

How about Poove sempoove sung by Yesudas from Solla Thudikuthu Manasu?.

Song: Om Namaha (Telugu)
Film: Geethanjali
Scale : Hamsanadham

Friday, February 12, 2003

This is the fifth in the series of articles celebrating the music of Maestro Ilayaraja, from a technical standpoint. The article treats the Maestro's music as a textbook on music composition and presents certain technical and non-technical nuances in his music that may be of interest to students of music composition and orchestration as well as to listeners with a technical background in carnatic and western classical music.

The content presented in this article is just an observation made by the author. Please feel free to indicate any analytical errors that you may find.

This is a wonderful semi-classical melody for a romantic song situation. This song plays the role of explaining the fact that real love is a feeling that blossoms from the bottom of one's heart and that it cannot be expressed in words. The composer has brought out this fact through this song and has showed how music could be used to evoke the feelings of love, romance and emotion.

Hamsanadham is a pentatonic and symmetrical scale ( s r2 m2 p ni3/ C D F# G B). The composer has used a range between the lower pa and the higher ri (approx. alto and soprano), in composing this song (the pallavi and charanam).

The song takes off at the middle sa and presents soul stirring phrases in Hamsanadham. The most touching phrases in the song are the slide from ni to pa (that sounds like sa ni sa ni pa) and the slide from ma to ri (that sounds like pa ma pa ma ri).These slides occur at several places in the song (the pallavi begins with this slide) and is typically found in classical compositions in Hamsanadham..

Note how a single melody has been turned into a whole pallavi in this song. A melody is sung with middle sa as tonic and then repeated twice with pa as tonic (a perfect 5th above) and then repeated once again with middle sa as tonic. A beautiful slide from ni to pa. (ni ni ri ni ni pa) clubs these melody lines.

The usage of unstable landing notes (D) and unexpected accidental (G flat) mark the image of the composer.

In this song, the last note of the charanam and the first note of the pallavi are the same (middle sa). This causes an overlap of two notes (essentially same note). This is clearly noticed at the end of the second charanam. A related feature is that the pallavi of the song stops with the first note (sa..lyricised as Om), immediately after the first charanam and the second interlude takes off. In brief the composer demonstrates how creative features should be added to a song to make it sound distinct from others and to hold the attention of the listeners.

The song has a constant rhythm pattern on the percussions symbolizing the human heart beat, in its backdrop. This must have been obvious to the composer in order to match the song situation.

The first interlude starts with a beautiful tremolo on a santoor like instrument, which is further used to harmonize the strings. Ilayaraja's command (and trademark!) in writing bass lines is obvious in this song. The interludes have simple melodies on strings and flute, excellently harmonized with bass lines and chord progressions.

Thanks to Maestro Ilayaraja for giving us yet another song to celebrate.

Originally posted by: adwarakanath

I've heard Poove Sempoove and it gets a 👍🏼 from me!!

Nice, vidyaahji, you can tell her I have watched the kannada version of Anjali about 20 times...and please yes, can I have her phone number if that's the case? 😉

Wow, those drums with the guitar and violin sound super! and the song is MINDBLOWING!

Add Yesudas to the equation. That song is nothing but divine.

I would make HR listen to IR's song for 14 years before he composes his next film.