Ramesh on Music: 2005

Raa Raa

In one of my previous posts, I talked about shruthibedham taking the kavithai kelungal song as an example. Now lets analyze the "Raa Raa" song from Chandramukhi. Vidyasagar has done a similar experiment with shruthibedham in this song. In this film, at one place, the chandramukhi character asks rajini to sing a song in Sudhadhanyasi raagam. But this song is not exactly in Sudhadhanyasi. The kannada version, from Apthamithra, which also begins with the same Raa Raa is in sudhadhanyasi, I believe.

This song, from Chandramukhi, is set in F minor (4 kattai). Sudhadhanyasi in F minor is F G# A# C D# F (or) Sa Ga2 Ma1 Pa Ni2 Sa, whereas the scale of this song is F G# A# C E F (or) Sa Ga2 Ma1 Pa Ni3 Sa - Just a half note difference. This scale is the same as "Sindhiya venmani" song in a Vijayakanth film. I read somewhere that this scale is the Srothaswini raga.

In the later half of the first interlude (after the thom thom thom portion), he does a tonal shift and changes the shruthi to E major (3 kattai) in Pantuvarali raagam. i.e., The Ni3 now becomes the Sa. The scale of this is E F G# A# B C D# E (or) Sa Ri1 Ga3 Ma2 P Dha1 Ni3 Sa. Then in the 1st charanam he again goes back to the original scale in F minor (4 kattai) and stays there in the second interlude too. This second interlude, with all those trumpets and strings, has more of sudhadhanyasi shades, with an occassional Ri2 popping up.

In the second charanam, the scale shifts to Hindolam raagam in C minor (1 kattai). The scale of hindolam is C D# F G# A# C (or) Sa Ga1 Ma1 Dha1 Ni2 Sa. It again goes back to F minor (4 kattai) during the pallavi after the stanza.

If you see compare the scales of the different raagams and the corresponding tonal shifts (shruthibedham), you can see that many of the notes (absolute notes) are the same, but are played in a different scale / shruthi. Here is a table comparing the various notes.

Srothaswini
(in 4 kattai)

...

Pantuvaraali
(in 3 kattai)

Dha

...

Hindolam
(in 1 kattai)

Dha

...

Western Notes

...

It is a wonderful composition and looks like he has followed IR's footsteps with respect to the tonal shifts (shruthibedham). One difficult thing in such a composition is the shruthi of the mridangam should also be changed as the shruthi changes. I don't think Vidyasagar has done that here. But IR has done that and is easily identifiyable in the song Vaidehi Raman.

On the whole this is a very good composition and suits the climax situation very well. It creates an anxiety of what would happen next. The singers Binny and Tippu have done full justice to the song. It was a pleasant surprise to hear Tippu in a classical song.

Summa Nachchunnu Irukku

No, this is not about Thamizh Murasu. Heard a song from Pudhukottaiyilirundhu Saravanan on radio yesterday. It is a 'kuthu' song - "Naatusarakku nachchunuthaan irukku" sung by Dhanush himself.

Let me tell you upfront that I HATE this song. May be because of the lyrics or may be because of the tune or whatever. Generally kuthu songs make one dance instantly due to the fast nature of the beats (6/8 is generally faster than 4/4). And actually now a days there are a lot of kuthu songs being composed in Tamil films, most of them relying solely on the dhabankuthu beats, and not all succeed. So in addition to the rhythm, a good melody(??#!!?@!) ingredient is also needed, I guess.

Actually, this song is in the scale of Shanmugapriya raagam. Dhanush does a fair job in singing in scale. It is really tough, believe me, for a person who is not a natural / trained singer to sing correctly in scale. Interestingly, the tunes of the 3rd and 4th lines of this song (enna size-u ithu...) is exactly the same as one of the interludes of "Ooru vittu ooru vandhu" song from Karakaatakaaran. It is also in the same shanmugapriya ragam, but much much better. Yuvan seems to be influenced by his dad's music - like a small part in the theme music of 7G RC resembling the theme music from Johnny.

Speaking of Yuvan, Dhanush and 7G, 'Pudhupettai' audio is launching today I guess. Yuvan seems to save the best for Selvaraghavan and we can expect good music from them. And as usual, they would probably release a seperate OST album after everyone buys the Cassettes / CDs. And there would also be people to buy both. I myself bought kaadhal konden cassette first and then bought it once again (just for that 'thathi thathi' song) after some 4 bit songs were added and released seperately.

Kavithai Kelungal

Randow Walker analyzed the Vaidehi Raman song in his blog. I would suggest you to read the above post first before continuing. Ilaiyaraaja has used the concept of shruthibedham in many of his film songs and albums such as "How To Name It", "Nothing But Wind" and "Thiruvasagam". Today I will deal with one such song - "Kavithai Kelungal" from Punnagai Mannan.

It is a wonderful composition. The song starts with a small hindustani kind of alaap. The prelude and the pallavi is in raag Jog. It is in C scale (oru kattai). The timing is 4/4 adhi thalam.

When the pallavi ends, there is a small male humming which ends in the note D# (Ga1). From here the scale shifts to D#. This Ga1 now becomes the Sa from there on. Now we are in the first interlude and the scale is rendarai kattai. There are some jathis and nadais in tabla after which the first saranam starts in Malayamarutham ragam in the D# scale (rendarai kattai) which was shifted after the pallavi. Interestingly the saranam starts with the line "netru en paatil shruthiyum vilagiyadhe" !!

When the first saranam ends, the pallavi again shifts back to C scale (oru kattai) Jog. Again just before the second BGM interlude, the scale shifts to D# (2 1/2 kattai). The timing also changes to 6/8 (tha ki ta | tha thi mi) jagana jagana... The rest of the song is based on the raag chakravagam (ahir bhairav?) which is somewhat close to malayamarutham.

To give you the relationship between these 3 raagams and the scale shifts, refer the following :

Jog
(in 1 kattai)

Dha

...

Malayamarutham
(in 2 1/2 kattai)

Dha

...

Chakravaagam
(in 2 1/2 kattai)

Dha

...

Western Notes

...

Most of the absolute notes are the same, but the shruthi is different. I think this is called shruthibedham and in western, tonal shift. Very interesting compostion !! Ilayaraja has done lot of such stuff. For example refer here: http://www.raajangahm.com/music2.html

Vidyasagar has also tried this approach in Raa Raa song from Chandramukhi, which I will analyze in my next post.

Regards,
Ramesh

Importance of bhavam

Have you heard the different renditions of the "shenbagame" song from Enga ooru paatukaaran? One is a happy version by Mano and Sunandha. The other one is a sad version by Asha Bhonsle. Both versions are basically the same tune and with the same tempo, but you can experience different emotions by the way the singers render the song. First listen to the duet, which is the happy version. Now look at the way Asha renders the song for the sad version. The singer has to basically get into the mood of the song to get the right emotion. This song taught me the importance of bhavam.

Someone observed that Ilaiyaraaja uses the same tempo for both happy and sad versions of a song. For eg) Povoma Oorgolam, Vaa Vaa Anbe Poojai Undu, Vellai pura ondru yenguthu, etc., while many other music directors reduce the tempo for the sad versions. For eg) Poraale ponnuthaiyee, Nila Kaaigirathu (this one is an excellent song), etc. Ilaiyaraaja uses the same tempo and almost the same beats and yet achieves the required emotions. The singer has a major role in such songs. BTW, even IR has uses slow tempo for sad versions such as "Kuyil paatu o vandhadhenna ila maane".

Coming back to the shenbagame song, it is an excellent soothing melody. I especially like the prelude very much. I read that it is based on the scale of sindhubhairavi raag, which seems to be one of IR's favorites. Enjoy the song !

Ilaiyaraaja's Bass

Aakarsh blogged about IR's bass while analyzing a song from Pallavi-Anupallavi. No doubt IR is a genius when it comes to orchestration, especially the Strings orchestra and the Bass work. The bass track of his song will be a seperate tune by itself providing beautiful counter melodies to the main tune. If you are wondering what is a "bass", refer wikipedia. Bass is one element of a song, without which the song would sound very empty. The bass gives a very good filling. Even songs with virtually no instruments used such as Raja Rajaadhi Rajan from Agni Natchathiram and Raasathi En Usiru from Thiruda Thiruda have used the bass guitar at a few places.

Some of the songs of IR which has very good bass tracks giving good counter melody are listed below. I know there are a lot and I would have missed many. Feel free to add them in the comments.

Enakku Piditha Padal from Julie Ganapathy
Ninnukori Varnam from Agni Natchathiram
Ilankaathu Veesudhe from Pithamagan
Devanin Kovil Moodiya Neram from Aruvadai Naal
Vaan Megam from Punnagai Mannan
Kadhal Oviyam from Alaigal Oivathillai
Raasave Unnai Vida from Aranmanai Kili

Since I don't recollect much now, I will add later whatever I recollect in this post. On the topic of IR's bass, one thing which I want to discuss is about a peculiar style which is present in the starting lines of the charanam of the following songs:

Devan Kovil Dheepam Ondru from Naan Paadum Paadal
Kodiyile Malligai Poo from Kadalora Kavithaigal

If you listen to the charanam starting, the bass tune is either the same as the lead or it plays in seconds. I am not sure. This sound is very different and gives a real nice effect.

Finally here is a nice article about bass nuances of IR, that I read sometime back - http://www.geocities.com/ilaiyaragam/rajaresearch2.htm

Manvaasanai

I became a big fan of this song, very much so especially after the Ilaiyaraaja show in Chennai. And SPB was just awesome during the show. He was singing perfectly with ease.

"Pothi vecha malligai mottu" from Manvaasanai

http://www.musicindiaonline.com/l/26/s/movie_name.4860/

The song is in 3/4 ( tha ki ta || ). I wouldn't attach any ragam to it because it changes shades during the interludes and charanams. But I guess the pallavi is in sudha dhanyasi - not sure though.

Some portions which I love in this song:

The prelude: Prelude is too good - very soothing and very konji-fying, especially the starting violin and the piece just before the pallavi.

Pallavi: The song doesn't start on the first count (start of the bar), but rather 2 counts later. And the accompanying music also plays along with the voice only after the 2 counts and that too for the 1st line alone and remains silent for the next line. This creates a good effect. The tabla also doesn't play for the 1st count, but only for the second and third counts. This type of tabla beat can also be observed in "mounamana neram" from Salangai Oli.

First interlude: I like the this interlude towards the end where the bass plays beautiful counter points(??) with the guitar and nadhaswaram. It is just awesome, mainly due to the bass track, just before and during the nadhaswaram part.

Pallavi after First Charanam: Now there would not be any beats but just hand claps for the 1st and 2nd counts. During the IR show in chennai, the percussionist started clapping and very soon the whole crowd got engrossed and began to clap according to the beat.

This again assured me that 3/4 is the most natural rhythm to the human - an observation which I had made. Even our heart beats in 3/4 , I believe! Not to mention Ilaiyaraaja's "Paruvame" song - with the lead couple jogging around in 3/4 timing. Normally if one were to compose for a jogging situation, composers might choose 4/4 ( tha ka thi mi | tha ka ja nu || ). But here IR has chosen 3/4 and it has suited very well. Similarly in the "Om Namaha" song from Idhyathai Thirudathe, you can listen to the heart beat sounds in 7/8 timing ( tha ki ta | tha ka thi mi || ) where normally anyone would use 3/4 or 4/4 for heart beats. That is Ilaiyaraaja for you.

Welcome to my blog !

Hi ! I am planning to blog whatever I know on music - mostly indian music, and mostly film music, and that too mostly tamil film music. To start with, I might analyze film songs with respect to the composition and ragas. I might be wrong in some aspects, so kindly forgive me if wrong and feel free to point it out in the comments section. I basically play the keyboard a little bit and try my hand at composing small pieces for my own satisfaction. I would probably blog once a week. Looking forward to interacting with you all through this blog.