Prelude of Maalai Yen Vedhanai from Sethu

Recently I noticed and tried to understand the composition of the piano prelude of the song Maalai Yen Vedhanai Koottudhadi from Sethu. The song is in D Major scale (shankarabharanam) and the notes of the pallavi go like:

GaMaGa  GaMaGa  GaPaSaNi.
maalaiyen  vedhanai  koottudhadi

So Ilayaraja has tried to play on the GaMaGa (F#GF#) tune for the prelude. The piano piece opening is similar to the 'maalai yen vedhanai' tune. But since it talks about the pain of love and also because of the scene before this song, he brings in a melancholic and contemplative mood in the prelude. He does this by employing different chords that predominantly seem to be in its relative minor scale (B minor scale) and doesn't uses the tonic chord of the D Major scale at all. He also uses the Dha1 note (A# accidental note in D major scale) in some of the chords to bring in a little melancholic feel. Towards the end of the piano prelude (0:13 to 0:15 secs in this video), he creates a small break and the chord used there creates a certain tension. And then he releases the tension by leading up to the tonic chord (DMaj7th i think) using it for the first time for the GaMaGa tune (at 0:16). Building up this tension and releasing it is my favorite portion of the prelude. I used to keep repeating this prelude alone to listen to it again and again. From a composition point of view, this was really interesting to me.

Listen to this prelude in the video below:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZkbU5NfxXrg

Chords used in the prelude below. I got this by loading the song in a mac based software called Capo 3.

Bm7 Bm7 | Em7 Em7 | GMaj7 GMaj7 |
A#aug Gm | GMaj7 Em7 | F#7- F#7 |
DMaj7

It showed A#7 at one place which I thought was wrong and change to A#aug above.
It aslo showed F#m7 at the end for the chord which creates that tension. This again I think is wrong. I changed that to F#7, but then I am not sure if that chord is correct.

Music in bird calls

I came across this interesting article on 'The Hindu' regarding music in bird calls. It talks about how one can interpret different classical ragas and talas in birdcalls. It also talks about how birdsongs have inspired western classical music composers as well. Here is the link to the article - Avian Super Singers.

Tidbits:
Raag Hamsadhwani/Hansdhwani and Raag Hamsanadham literally mean "Sound of Swan"

Was flute the earliest developed musical instrument (melodic)? If so, was it inspired from bird calls?
The film 'Ullasam' shows Vikram's character being inspired from a bird song and then uses the same melody for the "Veesum Kaatrukku" song. View that scene here (starts at 11:55): www.youtube.com/watch?v=-hzH_E-u8Ls#t=705

Representing the sound of a bird on a musical instrument in film songs:

There are numerous songs in films that use certain instruments in a certain way to depict a bird sound. Most of them invariably use the flute to depict the bird call. Here are some such songs:

• Idhu Oru Pon Maalai - Nizhalgal - Ilaiyaraaja
  I am not even talking about the opening bird chirp sounds. I am talking about the flute sounds and keyboard sounds in the preludes, interludes and charanams. Listen to the whole song once by clicking on the link above and appreciate the usage of various instruments to depict birds on the evening sky. This song is based on Kedaram ragam which is a janya of Shankarabharanam. Typically the sounds of bird calls belong to the scale of Shankarabharanam and its janya and hence it is so apt here.
• Kuyil Paatu - En Raasavin Mansile - Ilaiyaraaja
  'Kuyil Paatu' translates to 'Cuckoo Song'. Again, the flute is used as a symbolic representation of a bird call (specifically cuckoo). And the raga used here is Shivaranjani, which is quite atypical for a bird sound, but it really fits well. Though this raga is used for pathos situation, I also heard that this raga is also suitable for situations where one is expecting or longing for someone. Considering that, the situation of this 'Kuyil Paatu' song as well as 'Kaathirundhu Kaathirundhu Kaalangal Pogudhadi' seems to suit well and both are based on Raag Shivaranjani.
• Thirakkadha Kaattukulle - En Swasa Kaatre - A R Rahman
  This song is set in the midst of nature. Interestingly, there is no flute sound in this song. The bird sounds are brought out in the form of synths sounds in the opening and as staccato notes on the guitar (charanam). And incidentally, most of the charanam is in Raag Hamsadhwani (sound of swan).
• Ila Nenje Vaa - Vanna Vanna Pookkal - Ilaiyaraaja
  This is another song that celebrates nature. Again we can see the use of flute sounds depicting bird calls. One interesting thing is that there is a flute response to each line of the vocals. I think this song is based on Sudhadhanyasi ragam.
• Oh Butterfly - Meera - Ilaiyaraaja
  This song is about a butterfly (ok, it is an insect, not bird). Look at how the singing and arrangements are very soft and delicate, similar to how you would want to touch and handle a butterfly. Specifically listen to the 2nd interlude - the harpsichord runs, the staccato notes on the flute all symbolize numerous butterflies flying around, exactly the way the picturization was done.

And there could be numerous other songs similar to the ones mentioned above. Maalayil Yaaro could be one such song. 

And here are some songs from independent albums that represent insects:

• Poo Eru Konum - Thiruvasakam - Ilaiyaraaja
  This one is related to an honey bee. Observe how the music accurately brings out the representation of a bee flapping its wings and flying between flowers. It uses tremolo, pizzicato, fast phrases and trills in the Strings section and the Flute - all to bring out the effect of a bee flying. This song is predominantly based on Raag Sudhadhanyasi and some parts in Raag Madhukauns.
• Mosquito - Connections - A R Rahman
  This track from Connections uses the Saarangi instrument effectively to create the effect of a mosquito buzzing around your head (listen on headphones). Of course there are some sound effects (like resonance?) added to the instrument to effectively bring out the effect.

Speaking of birds, flutes and hamsadhwani, here is one of my compositions which is set predominantly in Hamsadhwani raga. I have used the flute instrument in this song. I didn't intend to represent a bird call, but may be because of the raga and how it has been played (by Dilip), I now hear a bird call, especially during the opening of the song.
Mudhan Mudhalai - Sripathy Ramesh

Another related blog post on bird song with respect to Western Classical Music: 

http://sinfinimusic.com/uk/features/series/classical-connections/birdsong

My thoughts on Megha and Kalvane analysis

I was eagerly awaiting Ilaiyaraaja's 'Megha' album the moment I saw the recording clips posted on YouTube much before the release of the audio. I had good expectation of the album based on the melodies I heard and also because of the fact that IR was collaborating with the Hungary musicians after Neethane En Ponvasantham. Here are my rough thoughts on the album:

Mugilo Megamo:
I loved this song when I watched the recordings on youtube. The melody was really nice with the typical Ilaiyaraaja touch (esp the pallavi end and charanam end). The start of the charanam is also really good. I loved Ilaiyaraaja's rendering more than Yuvan's as IR gives more soul to the song in his singing. I guess it is always the original composer who can give the right feel to a song as per his original intent.

Chellam Konjam:
This is a very peppy song with some good drumming. As Rajiv mentioned, the bass lines ascending on the first line and descending on the second line is the first thing that caused my attention. And that too the timing of the bass in the 2nd line seemed tough to grasp. The chords backing the lines "vinmeen keten vaanam thanthai" in the pallavi sounds really nice and typical of Raja. And when the song breaks into "megam megathodu konji", you invariably swing your heads, in sync of the song's rhythm. A peppy song.

Enna Vendum:
This song has very good drumming. It sounds a little old style though, probably due to the tune and priyadarshini's voice. Neverthless, enjoyable. The 4 bars of just the beats before the 1st charanam is my favorite portion. It is not a regular pattern I believe.

Jeevane Jeevane:
To me, this didn't appeal me yet. May be it is lengthy and a bit monotonous.

Putham Puthu Kaalai:
This is a re-recorded version of the popular Puthu Puthu Kaalai song sung previously by S Janaki. This version is sung by Anitha. Though it is good overall, I felt Chitra or Shreya Ghosal would have done better justice to the song in today's times. Also I felt the song could have been sung in a more relaxed pace. There was some variation in the manner the 1st interlude ended (bass+epiano) and the 1st charanam started. The timing was a little different than the original one, but still in time, unlike the timing confusion in the prelude strings.

Kalvane:
This is a very Jazzy number and I loved the Strings section in it. It sounds so nice, especially the Strings backings in the pallavi and the first interlude. This has something different going on in the charanam. The song seems to change color in the charanam and so I wanted to understand what happens there. Here is my observation:

The song is predominantly set in E minor scale. When the charanam starts, the song is still in E minor in the first few lines. Then you can notice that it totally changes color. That is because, the scale changes from E minor to C minor. That is, the Dhaivatham of E minor becomes the Shadjamam and the scale now is C minor. The melody goes like SS, gRS ,P in C minor.

Then in the last line of the charanam, the song again changes scale to G minor scale I believe. The notes are almost same as that as pallavi (SRg SRg SRg mPmR), but in a different scale, G minor.

IR has used this technique in many of his songs. The technique is that of ending the charanam with same tune as pallavi, but in a different scale or starting from a different note/octave in the same scale. Example of same technique used in other songs:

• Kodai Kala Kaatre, 
• Poova Eduthu Oru, 
• Satru Munbu, 
• Vaanaville, 
• Nee Thoongum Nerathil, 
• Kalvane,
  ...and there could be many more such songs. 

Coming back to the Kalvane song, after the last line of charanam, the song comes back to the original E minor scale. Same notes (SRg SRg SRg mPmg) but this time in E minor scale. So I think there is atleast 1 scale change and may be even 2 scale changes in this awesome song. And I haven't gone into identifying the time signature of this song yet. I am guessing it could either be 4/4 swing or 6/8.

Here is my rough try just for demonstration and understanding purpose. Please ignore all the imperfections of my playing.

Overall:
Overall, I liked the album. It uses the same sound palette as that of Neethane En Ponvasantham (because of the same hungary musicians) and it is good to listen to full acoustic music. It doesn't reach the heights of Neethane En Ponvasantham, but neverthless it is a very likeable album.

Enga Pona Raasa vs Vinnai Thandi Varuvaaya

A R Rahman, Shakthisree Gopalan & Keba Jeramiah
jam together before recording ‘Enga Pona Raasa’.

This post is a comparison of sorts between Enga Pona Raasa from Maryan and Vinnai Thandi Varuvaaya from the movie Vinnai Thandi Varuvaaya. It compares these two songs and brings out the similarties of some of the technicalities used by A R Rahman in these songs.

Enga Pona Raasa is a nice song from Maryan. It is not the pick of the album, but it was interesting to me while looking at the technical details. Lets dive into the comparison.


Arrangements
Both the songs are solo songs and have the acoustic guitar (more than 1 acoustic guitar) as the main accompaniment. Vinnai Thandi Varuvaaya has additional backing vocals during the stanza portions. The guitar accompaniment is the first similarity you might notice between these two songs.


Time Signature Changes
Yenga Pona Raasa is interesting. At first listen to some, it might sound as 3/4. Actually it is in 7/8 with the guitar arpeggio pattern as 123 123 1 | 123 123 1 ||. It can also be construed as 123 1234 | 123 1234 ||. Listen to the song from 0:22 to 1:22 to understand the pattern. From the interlude at 1:42, it adds an additional count to the bar and switches to 4/4 with the pattern as 123 123 12 | 123 123 12 || and continues the same in the Saranam. During the last 2 lines of the saranam at 2:26, the melody switches to 7/8 while the guitar rhythm continues in 4/4. And then it is back to pallavi in 7/8.

A similar time signature change can be noted in Vinnai Thandi Varuvaaya as well. This song is set in 4/4 with the pattern as 123 123 12 | 123 123 12 ||. However mid-way at 1:58, the song shifts to 3/4 by removing the last two counts. So the pattern becomes 123 | 123 ||. Then again at 2:35 it changes back to 4/4 during the pallavi.


Start of melody with respect to the taal cycle
In a composition, a melody can start at any count in the taal cycle (bar). It can start exactly at the first count of the beat or somewhere before or after the first count. Read about Graha Niyama here. This is not a big deal as such. But the striking similarity in both these songs is that the melody starts at a particular count of the taal cycle in the first pallavi, but at a different count of the taal cycle in the ending pallavi.

If you take Enga Pona Raasa first pallavi at 0:33, you will notice that the song starts at the 4th count of the 7-beat tala cycle. Example:

1    2    3    |    1    2    3    4    ||
                    enga pona raa  saa

But the same lines during the ending pallavi at 2:37, it starts at the first count of the tala cycle as follows. And this fits the tune with the tala cycle better.

1    2    3    |    1    2    3    4    ||
enga pona raa       saa

Now lets look at the other song Vinnai Thaandi Varuvaaya from 0:22.The taal cycle starts at 0:22 and during the 8th count of the cycle, the line 'Vinnai Thaandi' starts.

1 2 3  1 2 3  1 2      | 1     2 3  1 2 3  1 2 ||
                vinnai | thaan di

If you compare that to the ending pallavi at 2:34, you will notice that the 'Vinnai Thaandi' starts at the 7th count instead of the 8th count used earlier. And this fits the tune with the tala cycle better. It goes like the following.

1 2 3  1 2 3  1      2     | 1     2 3  1 2 3  1 2 ||
              vinnai thaan | di

As you can see above, there are a lot of similarities in the techniques used in these 2 songs. I am glad to see Rahman experimenting with different talas and I am glad with the increasing usage of acoustic guitar in his recent songs as well.

UPDATE (July 14, 2013):
It looks like the song started as a 4/4 song and then later morphed into a 7/8 song. Don't miss the making video of this song:

Maryan - My thoughts and observations

For the past few days, I have been listening to Maryan on and off. Some random thoughts and observations (in random order) on the album. I am not reviewing this album as such, but just registering my observations from a technical point of view.

• Rahman has been using acoustic guitar and accordion more and more now-a-days. May be he wants to feature more acoustic instruments in his songs. I think Guitarist Keba is working with him now-a-days.
   
• Innum Konja Neram is quite good. The way AR has made the singers to sing softly is interesting. One cannot judge that the singer is Vijay Prakash from the soft singing. There is some Kadal hangover though, may be it has a slight resemblance to the template of Nenjukkulle (the guitars, the accordion, the flutes, the scale chosen, etc).
   
• Rahman has been experimenting with songs in different time signature of late. Previously, most of the songs will be in 4/4. But if you look at the Kadal album, the number of songs in 4/4 is lesser than the rest. There were songs in 6/8 and 3/4.
  
  With respect to Maryan:
  
  Innum Konja Neram is in 6/8,
  
  Netru Aval is in 3/4. I can sense a little resemblance to Sahana from Sivaji in the higher ranges - may be the chord change.
  
  Yenga Pona Raasa is interesting. It is in 7/8 with the pattern as 123 123 1 | 123 123 1 ||. The serene guitar backing is really nice. From the interlude, it switches to 4/4 with the pattern as 123 123 12 | 123 123 12 || and continues the same in the Saranam. During the last 2 lines of the saranam, the melody switches to 7/8 while the guitar rhythm continues in 4/4. And then back to pallavi in 7/8. The music totally stops and Yenga Pona Raasa line in this pallavi has absolutely no backing which creates a good impact. The chord (maj 7th?) at the next line 'Sayngalam aachu' actually conveys the feeling of saayngalam (dusk). Wonder how that came about. This song also reminds me of Vinnaithandi Varuvaaya from Vinnaithandi Varuvaaya sung by Karthik. That one is also predominantly with guitar backings. And there is also a play in the time signature in that song as well. It is 4/4 with pattern as 123 123 12 | 123 123 12 and then it between changes to 3/4 with the pattern as 123 123 | 123 123.
   
• I like Nenje Ezhu. The song has that motivational feel to it.
  Sonapareeya was interesting during the first listen itself.
  Kadal Raasa Naan - still not hooked to it. But good to know that he has used IR's son Yuvan in this song. 

On the whole, I like the album. It has a mix of fast and slow songs, with the slow ones being the ones that stand out. It also has a lot of dynamics with soft passages and loud passages. And one needs to listen in a calm environment to appreciate the slow songs better. Related post: http://www.backgroundscore.com/2013/05/naetru-aval-irundhal-maryan-arrahman.html

Neethane En Ponvasantham - Discovery

While listening to the awesome songs of Neethane En Ponvasantham (CD | mp3) by Ilaiyaraaja, I made an interesting discovery. To me, it looks all the songs end in the Panchamam (Pa note).  Not sure if it is intentional or if it is coincidental. Songs ending with Shadjamam (Sa note) is very common. But all 8 songs (actually 9) from the album ending in Panchamam was interesting. I will list how each song ends below. Please correct me if I am wrong.

1. Saindhu Saindhu - This song is in D major. The strings seem to play the Pa note (the note A in western) at the end.
   P P P , P P P ,
   
2. Kaatrai Konjam - This song is set in E major. Both the melody and the strings+sax end in the Pa note (B in western) in lower octave.
   Melody: G,m G,R S,N D,P P,
   Sax+Strings: S N n D d P P,PP,PP
   
3. Mudhal Murai - This is in B minor. The string hit at the end seems to be the note Pa (F# in western).
   
4. Vaanam Mella - This song is set in F minor. The melody at the end, ends in Pa (C in western) in the lower octave.
   SRSnR SRSnR SRSnP
   
5. a) Pudikkila Maamu - This is again in E major. The "alarudhu teenage hey" line ends in the Pa note (B in western).
   GGGG G,m, ,,,, P,,,,,,,,
   
   b) Veedhi Patthade - This is in the scale of Madhyamavathi with A# as the tonic. The short guitar postlude at the end, ends in Pa (F in western).
   nSR S,n R,n,R, PP, P,P,,,
   
6. Yennodu Vaa Vaa - This is in E minor. The melody at the end, ends in Pa (B in western) in the lower octave.
   gg,S gggS ggRS R,-- | nSR, R,n, nSR, R,n, | g,S, n,d, P
   
7. Pengal Endraal - This is again in B minor. The melody at the end, ends in Pa (F# in western).
   PDNS RgmP P
   
8. Satru Munbu - This song is set in D minor. The melody at the end, ends in Pa (A in western) in lower octave.
   PSRg g,,g g,,g g,,S R,,P ,,,,

What do you think?

PS: Thanks to Rajiv Shankar for sharing the scales of the song which helped me to get started quickly.

Guitar Prasanna's experiment with time signature

Guitarist Prasanna commented on his Facebook wall about his experiment with time signature in his debut film as a composer:

Some of you asked me what this earlier post of mine was all about -(3/4, 3 and half/4, 3/4, 4/4), (3/4, 3 and half/4, 3/4, 4/4), (4 and half/4, 4/4), (4 and half/4, 3 and half/4), (4/4, 4/4, 4/4), 2/4 - These are the time signatures for each bar of the 'Charanam' of the song 'Oru Kural' that I composed for the film 'Vazhakku Enn 18/9' - And I GOT AWAY WITH IT in my very first song in a mainstrea...m Tamil film and I am so glad the song has got so much attention too. Thanks to the Tamil film audiences for the overwhelming support for the film and the music and for telling me its ok to not dumb things down! For those of you who want to listen/count, here it is!

Interesting experiment! It is tough for me to follow the time signature with no accompaniments. I haven't seen the film yet, so I am not sure why he chose not to have any accompaniments.

UPDATE (July 12 2012): In his recent interview, Prasanna says that having no accompaniments was the Director's idea.

... it turned out in the end that the only song in the film ‘Oru kural ketkuthu penne’ not only didn’t have any ‘electronic programmed machine stuff’, it didn’t have any instruments at all! Maybe Balaji took my ‘acousticism’ even further than me!  Just kidding! But I am glad that the song has been highly acclaimed – a song with just voice and no instruments and it was entirely Balaji’s idea. 

Don't forget to the listen to the Theme Music from the film which is an instrumental version of this song.
http://gaana.com/#/songs/vazhakku-enn-theme

This one has some nice guitar and drums accompaniment and the main melody is hummed by a female vocalist (any idea who the singer is?).

Ilaiyaraaja's Cyclic Interludes

About 5 years back, I posted 6 of Ilaiyaraaja's cyclic interludes in this blog. By cyclic interlude, I am referring to an interlude (or prelude) which starts with a specific phrase, then meanders around and then returns to that same phrase before starting the charanam (or  pallavi).

I then noticed 7 other songs with similar pattern. So I compiled all 13 of them into a single track starting from the oldest (as per the release date). This technique/pattern has been used by Ilaiyaraaja even recently in a song from Dhoni. Go ahead and listen to the cyclic interludes below:

Here are the songs featured in the above track:

1. Idhazhil Kadhai from Unnal Mudiyum Thambi
2. Sivarathiri from Michael Madhana Kama Rajan
3. Kuyil Paatu (Happy) from En Raasavin Manasile
4. Kuyil Paatu (Sad) from En Raasavin Manasile
5. Povoma from Chinna Thambi
6. Oh Butterfly from Meera
7. Ellorum Sollum Paatu from Marubadiyum
8. Ennavendru Solvadhama from Raajakumaaran
9. Piraye from Pithamagan
10. Ilaimaikku Oru from Oru Naal Oru Kanavu
11. Malle Puvvu from Malle Puvvu
12. Yaarum Thodatha from Ajantha
13. Vaangum Panathukkum from Dhoni

And as an experiment, here is another version after excluding the music in between the repeating phrases. Even though the interlude is shortened, you won't find the flow missing. Listen to the first clip posted above and then listen to the one below.

There could be more such songs. If you come across any other song, leave a comment.

Rahman's technique of increasing the pace of a song

I noticed in a few Rahman songs, a technique of increasing the pace of a song in each interlude. By pace, I don't mean the tempo as such. You will notice that the song picks up momentum as each interlude passes by. This is observed mostly in songs with 3 interludes. Probably ARR uses this technique to keep the listener interested in the song, esp since it is a lengthy song.

Here are some of the songs that employ the above technique.

1. Yeh Tara Woh Tara from Swades:

2. Sarfarosh Ki Tamanna from The Legend of Bhagat Singh:

3. Yeh Jo Des Hai Tera from Swades:

In all the above songs, the song keeps gaining momentum in each interlude. For eg. the song would start with a slow pace and will continue like that for the 1st interlude and charanam. Then in each subsequent interlude a new rhythm (tabla, etc) or guitar backing will be added and that would seem to increase the pace. And from the 3rd interlude it really picks up pace and goes on like that till the end. Keeping the listener interested is one theory. Another valid reason could be to heighten the emotion.

On similar lines, a recent song that I like a lot is Kun Faya Kun from Rockstar. I love the way it picks up momentum in the interlude from 2:45 to 3:22. The guitar, the clap, the tabla, the chorus, all of them adds to the impact. It is interesting how a simple clap has such an effect on the pace of the song. Then at 4:58 the pace of the song comes down during the lines "Ho mujh pe karam sarkar tera" and then from 5:55, it returns to the original form. Though the pace doesn't keep increasing as in the above songs, there are contrasting portions which is why I included this song here. 

Kun Faya Kun from Rockstar:

A few more songs that were considered but did not make it to the list as I felt it didn't fit in 100% in the technique discussed here:

Zindagi Zindagi from Yuvraaj

Sakiye Nee Than Thunaye from Andhimandhaarai

Shauk Hai from Guru

There could be more songs. I don't exactly recollect. Leave a comment if you notice similar songs.

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?

Thenpandi Seemayile - Strings Section

About a month back, I wanted to decipher the Strings section of Thenpandi Seemayile song from Nayagan. The lead melody was easy. And with some equalization of the original track I was able to find out the notes for the rest of the orchestra. It was fun deciphering this and understanding the harmonies involved.

I sequenced the same piece on my computer. Here is the violin section, followed by the viola section, the cello and double bass section and finally all of them playing together. I am not really good at listening to a piece and reproducing it perfectly on keyboard. So if there are any wrong notes, please let me know so that I can correct them.

Thenpandi Seemayile - Strings Section Details by sripathyramesh


My next target is the opening strings section of the 'Singing Self' piece from Nothing but Wind. The good part is that I chanced upon the practice session of the orchestra at the venue for the 'Nothing But Wind' concert held at Chennai. And I recorded a small section on my mobile. Sorry for the poor audio quality. Here, you can listen to the individual sections doing the mic check and then all of them playing together. Refer the link below for the recording.

http://soundcloud.com/sripathyramesh-1/nothing-but-wind-concert-rehearsals

Do share your thoughts in the comments below.

Rajapaarvai background piece - shruthibedam again

Talking about Rajapaarvai, listen to the following background music (re-recording) from the same film. It is a very nice piece.



Hope you enjoyed it. Here is a comment by an user on that video:

i'm an atheist...but this music makes me think twice. Divine!

Now for the technically inclined:

While listening to it I realized that this piece starts in raag Jog in 1.5 kattai (C#) and at 00:26 secs it shifts to raag Subhapantuvaraali in 4 kattai (F) - basically the Ga of Jog becomes the Sa of Subhapantuvaraali with the same notes. It again comes back to Jog later. Kindly correct me if I am wrong.

Raaja has done this kind of shruthibedam / tonal shifts lot of times. This same Jog-Subhapantuvaraali shruthibedam was done in the album "How to name it" too.

I had earlier written about some songs were shruthibedam was used in tamil film songs. Here are the links to those posts:

BGM piece - Alaigal Oyvadhillai

Kavithai Kelungal - Punnagai Mannan

Raa Raa - Chandramukhi

BGM piece from Alaigal Oyvathillai

Here is a BGM piece from Alaigal Oyvathillai with music by Ilaiyaraaja. This piece comes when Karthik runs behind Radha on the beach and holds her hand. The piece was so good when watched along with the visuals. This is in Raag Hindolam, conveying the same mood as in "Dharisanam kidaikaadha" song which appears earlier in the film. Towards the end of the piece you will notice a mood change with an emotional male humming. Now listen to the piece and then read further.


As I said earlier, this piece is in Hindolam. But when the male humming starts, it changes to Srothaswani raga (Ni3 counterpart of Sudhdha dhanyasi) in a different shruthi. The madhyamam of hindolam becomes the shadjamam of srothaswani. And that is why the female humming ends at Sa ma ga ma, Sa ma ga ma, Sa ma ga ma, Sa ma ga ma, and the shruthi changes and the male humming starts at the upper Sa which is equivalent to the ma of hindolam. This technique of changing the shruthi is being called as shruthibedam. Lets look at the notes of the scales and see how the transformation was done and why it didn't sound odd when both the ragam and shruthi changes.

Hindolam (in 1/2 kattai)

Sa

Ga

Ma

Dha

Ni

Sa

Srothaswani (in 4 1/2 kattai)

Pa

Ni

Sa

Ga

Ma

Pa

Western Notes

C

C#

D

D#

E

F

F#

G

G#

A

A#

B

C

C#

So as you can see above, even though the scale changes, almost all the notes which will be played / sung are the same. It is only with the relative base shruthi that you identify with the swaras and the ragas.

Some of my earlier posts on Shruthibedam in film songs - Kavithai Kelungal and Raa Raa. Infact Raa Raa is also based on Srothaswani.

Overlapping talas

The song "Kannalane" from the film "Bombay" is a well known one. I am not a big fan of this song, except for the sufi style singing by ARR in the first interlude. The bass and tabla combination also rocks here. During the interlude before the second stanza, there is a chorus section singing "gubu subu..." and after it is over, there is a small theermaanam in tabla after which the saranam starts. So I was thinking why was this extra bit added after the line / bar has been completed. So I started to look more into the talam of this song.

The talam of the song looks pretty much straightforward - adi talam or 4/4 in western. This is true for most of the song. When we come to the interlude under discussion, the tabla still plays the 4/4 rhythm. However the chorus melody is composed in 7/8 (misra chaapu). Misra chaapu is generally 3+4 counts. For example, tha ki ta ; tha ka thi mi. However this one seems to be 4+3 counts, which is: tha ka thi mi ; tha ki ta. I read somewhere that this talam is called "vilOma". Please correct me if I am wrong. That was very nicely done - mixing a 4/4 rhythm with a melody set in 7/8.

So I went ahead and tried to add 7/8 beats to the song, and here is the result. Somewhere in the middle, the melody changes to 4/4, but I couldn't find out where. This combination of talas necessiated the extra theermaanam at the end of the interlude. Use headphones to hear the below piece. You will hear the original song on the right speakers and the 7/8 rhythm that I added on the left.

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You can also follow this interlude, by putting the misra chappu talam in half the speed of the rhythm that I had played. That means, 1 "gubu subu" is 1 count.

There are a few instances of other such experiments too. I think the most talked about of them is "aagaya vennilave" from "arangetra velai". People say that the song is in roopakam while the tabla plays in 4/4 adi talam. Some time back my opinion was that the song as a whole was in 12/8, and hence the 4/4 rhythm will also suit this song. I am not sure on this though.

I also heard a mridangam player talking on radio. He was saying how tough it was playing for a song by ilaiyaraaja, where he had to play 4/4 adi talam, while the composition was in 7/8. I don't remember the song. You can imagine how tough it would be to play a completely different tala in a live orchestra. These days, with the help of technology, it is pretty much easy carrying on such experiments.

The song "Chinnan chiru vayadhil" from "Meendum Kokila" is in 3/4 (roopakam). After the 1st stanza, during the pallavi, an extra metal sound is heard in 4 counts overlapping with the 3/4 rhythm. This 4 counts may be perceived as a 4/4 or rather 6/8 meter.

One more often used thing is playing an occasional 6/8 theermanam / drum roll on top of 4/4. This is pretty much easy and hence I am not discussing that here. Do you know of any other similar complex experiments?

Finally, I don't know much about talas. So kindly correct me if there are any mistakes in this post. You can point them in the comments section.

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)

Ni

Sa

Ga

Ma

Pa

Ni

Sa

Ga

...

Pantuvaraali (in 3 kattai)

Sa

Ri

Ga

Ma

Pa

Dha

Ni

Sa

Ri

Ga

...

Hindolam (in 1 kattai)

Ma

Dha

Ni

Sa

Ga

Ma

Dha

...

Western Notes

E

F

F#

G

G#

A

A#

B

C

C#

D

D#

E

F

F#

G

G#

...

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.

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)

Sa

Ri

Ga

Ma

Pa

Dha

Ni

Sa

Ri

...

Malayamarutham (in 2 1/2 kattai)

Dha

Ni

Sa

Ri

Ga

Pa

Dha

Ni

Sa

...

Chakravaagam (in 2 1/2 kattai)

Dha

Ni

Sa

Ri

Ga

Ma

Pa

Dha

Ni

Sa

...

Western Notes

C

C#

D

D#

E

F

F#

G

G#

A

A#

B

C

C#

D

D#

...

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