A question regarding music

Hi all,

I know that a lot of you are very well versed in music...so i figured i can post this question here in this forum. My fiance is american and he loves indian music. However, there are some Lata Mangeshkar songs that absolutely hurt his ears...probably the pitch is too high. After he mentioned it i started hearing the songs more carefully. There are some songs where i find no difference between yelling at a high 'Ga' and Lataji's song... 😒.

Why is this? I mean people are always saying what a wonderful singer Lataji is (and i agree) but some of her songs literally can hurt the ear if heard on earphones or on a loud system.

Thank you in advance for your input,

-Kruti

Originally posted by: adwarakanath

Kruti, talk about her voice being thin like a wire 😆 😆 .

Well, blame the recording system of those days...and the compositions. Lata has done songs in the third octave. An avergage american wouldn't have heard even the 2 and a half octaves. That's why it'd hurt 😊

That makes sense, but i know that there have been more than one song in SRGMP and some films that has reached the third octave...and that does not hurt the ears. I think you are right about the recording systems affecting the quality of music. Thanks for your response, though...i enjoy reading your posts very much!😊

I heard at the age of 4 once she cried very louldy and her father Dinanath mangeshkar was so impressed with that rona, he decided to teach her music. 😊
Talking about todays technology, she said when she was recording aayega aanewala aayega(Ashok Kumar ghost movie, forgot the name) they had to do some echo effect and those days there were no technology. So she had walk back slowly from the mike to get that effect

It depends which songs you r talking about.
sonce last few years, her vioce has gone thick and it is suitable only for certain types of songs.

Originally posted by: krutilynn

Hi all,

I know that a lot of you are very well versed in music...so i figured i can post this question here in this forum. My fiance is american and he loves indian music. However, there are some Lata Mangeshkar songs that absolutely hurt his ears...probably the pitch is too high. After he mentioned it i started hearing the songs more carefully. There are some songs where i find no difference between yelling at a high 'Ga' and Lataji's song... 😒.

Why is this? I mean people are always saying what a wonderful singer Lataji is (and i agree) but some of her songs literally can hurt the ear if heard on earphones or on a loud system.

Thank you in advance for your input,

-Kruti

Hi Kruti,

This is my experience too....many of my american musician frnds do not like Hindi movie songs esp. sung by females...

oh i feel her current songs r the ones that hurt ones ears....altough i liked her luka chuppi song from rang de basanti...i have always felt her voice was too thin...have no idea abt music so wudlnt know abt the octaves thing...

No doubt Lata's voice a little shrill in the old days (think Jiya Bequarar Hai)
but no one can question her technical prowess, training and god gifted
talent.

It is time for Lata to stop singing now.All her songs of last 4/5 years have lost her caliber including those from Veer Zaara.

Ya, i agree some of her new songs are also too sharp to be carried out for the modern actresses - what suited soft spoken actresses such as waheeda rehman and nutan and asha parekh, etc. just does not work for the bubbly actresses like Kajol, rani mukherjee etc. Even in DDLJ, i loved the song "kaisa hai kaun hai voh jaane kahaan hai" (dont remember the mukhda right now) and loved the dance by kajol...but when i saw the song together, it seemed like kajol was listening it to it on the radio...haahhahaha...
I have had the same experience with many other Lata songs...her voice is very well matured and trained to suit most of the modern actresses, IMHO.

Well see I guess the pitch reflects the taste in a person. For example in pre Lata days nasal Punjabi sounding female voices were in style until Lataji changed that and then she rocked the industry for 40 years...