Sundari Kannal Oru Seidhi - Strings section

When I went to the Ilaiyaraaja Live concert earlier this week, the orchestra was doing rehearsals / sound check of the 1st interlude of Sundari Kannal Oru Seidhi song. Each section was being played separately and I captured the audio of that rehearsal. I then listened to the individual sections and I tried recreating it using my keyboard and my computer. Here is the final version of the Strings section. I have skipped the chorus section and the horns section here.

Sundari Kannaal Oru by sripathyramesh

You can listen to the individual sections here:

Sundari Kannal Oru - Individual Sections by sripathyramesh

Let me know your feedback and drop in your comments. If you want to know the exact notes or want the midi file, let me know.

Endrendrum Raja - My experience at the concert

I attended the "Endrendrum Raja" live concert by Ilaiyaraaja earlier this week. It was a great experience similar to the previous Ilaiyaraaja live concert which happened in chennai around 6 years back. I absolutely loved the 34 piece Strings section. The sound of the violins was magical and they played it to near perfection. The numbers I enjoyed the most were Schubert Symphony No. 8 along with Idhayam Pogudhey, Paruvame, Chinna Kannan Azhaikiran, Poove Sempoove, Edho Mogam, Madai Thiranthu, Ayiram Thamarai, Sundari Kannal Oru, and Title music of Azhagarsamiyin Kudhirai. The others were good too. As I left before the show ended, I missed out on classics like Idhu Oru Nila Kaalam, Ilamai Idho Idho.

This concert was not as perfect as the last Raja concert in Chennai held 6 years back. There were a few issues with sound balance, certain singers did not prepare enough, etc. The previous concert was much better to me in terms of near perfect performances, even better selection of songs, lot of singers, less errors, etc. But above all, this concert was still worthwhile and there were enough magical moments. Expecting more such concerts.

This concert will be telecast on Jaya TV during the Pongal holidays. The making, rehearsals, etc will be telecast on Jan 14th and the concert itself on 15th and 16th. Don't miss it!

Before winding off, here is the video of a small demo of a 2-note composition by Ilaiyaraaja - just 2 lines.

https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?v=348203421872881

Raja uses only the notes Sa and Ri in the scale of Dm. He sings Sa Ri Ri Ri | Ri Sa Sa Sa | Sa Ri Ri Ri | Ri Sa Sa Sa | Sa Ri Ri Ri | Ri Sa Sa Sa | Sa - - - | with the note D as the Shadjamam. So he basically sings D E E E | E D D D | .... Then he asks to give the chords A and Dm to give a color to the song and sings it again. Then he changes shruthi and asks to give chords F#7 and Bm alternatively while continuing to sing the same notes D E E E | E D D D || In effect the notes in the new shruthi become Ga Ma Ma Ma | Ma Ga Ga Ga || Interesting to note this!

Endrendrum Raja - Live Concert by Ilaiyaraaja in Chennai on Dec 28

I attended the previous Ilaiyaraaja Live Concert in Chennai in the year 2005 and it was just great. Around 5 hours of pure awesomeness. All songs performed were 100% pure live orchestration with absolutely no minus-one or sequenced tracks. This time again Ilaiyaraaja is performing with his orchestra live in Chennai on Dec 28 2011, Wednesday 6 pm onwards. The venue is the same Nehru Indoor Stadium.

Get ready for the show! Tickets are priced at Rs. 500/- and Rs. 750/- per head.

Book your tickets now at http://www.jayanetwork.in/.

Here is a video of a rehearsal session. In this video, the orchestra is rehearsing the 1st interlude of 'En Iniya Pon Nilave' song from 'Moodupani' - one of my favorite songs.



Eagerly awaiting the concert!

Endrendrum Anandhame - Ilaiyaraaja

Rajiv Shankar introduced me to the song "Endrendrum Anandhame". It is a funky song by Ilaiyaraaja and is set in Sarasaangi raagam!

Listen to this song here:



Another intersting thing Rajiv pointed me out was the play in the time signature. The pallavi and rest of the song seemed to be in 3/4 except for the anupallavi - 'vaalibathin rasanai..." in 4/4. The beat seems to be similar for both portions. That is because for first 2 lines the beat plays 4 bars of 3 counts each and for the next 2 lines (vaalibathin..), it plays 3 bars of 4 count each. Very interesting to note this.

What I later noticed is that the melody (mainly charanam and 1st 2 lines of pallavi) seems to be in 6/8 time signature rather than 3/4. But the beat and bass follow 3/4 time signature. I don't know how to explain and so I added a tabla rhythm over the song to try to demonstrate that. Here is that version:

Endrendrum Anandhame by sripathyramesh

Beat   : 1 2 | 3 4 | 5 6
Melody : 1 2 3  |  4 5 6

I may be wrong too. So please correct and educate me if I am wrong. What do you think?