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

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.

ARR Discography Application

Recently, I noticed that the whole discography information was updated on ARR website: http://www.arrahman.com/v2/journey-discography.html

However, it was not searchable. So I wrote a program to scrap the pages and collect the basic information required for the discography and converted it into CSV files. I then uploaded those CSV spreadsheet files to Zoho Creator, an online database application and quickly created couple of forms and views. (Disclaimer: I work for Zoho). I also created a simple dynamic HTML page with the count of movies and songs fetched from this online database and those search fields that allow you to search. Here is the searchable ARR discography application:

https://creator.zoho.com/rameshs/arr-discography/

And here is a short video demonstrating its usage:



Though the discography pages on ARR site were similar, there were some inconsistencies in the structure of the HTML page. So the current database has some missing entries, which can be filled online. I collected only the movies related information.

PS: I was thinking of doing the same thing for Ilaiyaraaja discography. But then I found a better modeled application at http://www.rakkamma.com/.

Musical Conversations - ARR

A R Rahman has done some nice background pieces in songs which are basically a conversation between either 2 instruments or an instrument and a vocal. These are not question and answer types but more like a real conversation. Listen to 4 such conversations below. Interestingly all of them are towards the ending of the respective songs. It is more like a postlude.

Rahman Conversations by sripathyramesh

The 1st one is "En swasa kaatre" from "En swasa kaatre". Nice conversation of veena and chitra's voice. I love the veena in this piece. The chord and bass backing is also very good. I think this is in Nilambari raga. Please correct me if I am wrong.

The 2nd one is "Azhage sugama" from "Paarthale Paravasam". A nice conversation between piano and violin. Violin is played by Ganesh I believe. I read that it is a mixture of dwijawanti and sahana ragam.

The 3rd one is "Uyirum Neeye" from "Pavithra". Veena and violin converse here in Khamas raga I think.

The 4th one is "Netru Illatha Maatram" from "Pudhiya Mugam". Nice sitar and flute combination. You can also listen to a veena in the third line. This is the same piece played in the first interlude. But in the first interlude it is a sitar and veena conversation. And at the end, the sitar piece is the same, but a different flute response. Flute must be by Naveen.

Let me know if there are other similar songs by ARR. I will also put a separate post on such conversations in Ilaiyaraaja's music. So let me know the relevant song interludes that come to your mind in IR's music.

Some ARR pieces repeated

Here are a couple of instances where A R Rahman has reused some of his earlier pieces in songs. These are just 1 or 2 line pieces and there is no harm in doing so since the originals are also his. You can hover your mouse over my photo on the comments bar at the bottom of the track to find out details about the songs mixed.

Rahman Repeat by sripathyramesh

I also read that one of the re-recording pieces in Roja was later the charanam of Telephone Manipol song. Also the rerecording piece of Kannathil Muthamittal became the pallavi of a song from the hindi film Ada.

Other music directors have also done that. Harris Jayaraj has incorporated one rerecording piece from Vettaiyadu Vilayadu (plane sequence with Jo) in the song Mudhal Naal Indru from Unnale Unnale. Similarly HJ had used a rerecording piece from Minnale into a song, Pinju Thendrale, from Majnu.

What do you think of this? Also let me know if you know of any other similar reused pieces.

Ada Remix Entries

Around 10 months back, I posted a blog article on the remix contest by ARR and Nokia for the promotion of the film, Ada. I participated in it and was planning to publish the files only after the results. The deadline was over on June 15 2008, but they just ignored the contest after the submissions. No news what so ever. So I am publishing my entries for the contest below for your feedback. Let me know your views.



PS: From their Terms and Conditions, the rights for all the remix entries are owned by Nokia.

By submitting your remixed entry for the online/offline contest you hereby agree and consent to Nokia having all the Intellectual Property Rights of such remix and Nokia may use your remix in its future promotions in any manner whatsoever. You confirm all the IPR rights to Nokia and you also agree not to claim any IPR rights on the same in future.

Jai Ho Rahman

Congratulations to Mr. Rahman on getting the Oscar awards ! You truly deserve it.

On celebration of this, I am currently having the Jai Ho song (from Slumdog Millionaire) as my mobile ringtone. I have edited it slightly. Here is the ringtone version:

Jai Ho Ringtone by sripathyramesh

I have also edited the O Saya song (again from Slumdog Millionaire) for using it as a ringtone. Here is the edited version below:

O Saya Ringtone by sripathyramesh

You can download the above ring tones and use it, if you like them.

Remix Contest by A R Rahman

Nokia along with A R Rahman has announced a remix contest at remixrahmansada.com. Participants are invited to remix a couple of songs from Rahman's forthcoming movie Ada. The voice track samples are available at the site and you can do your own remix and submit them. The winner will get to do the full remix in A R Rahman's studio. The deadline is May 31. More information available at the above site.

Thanks to Suresh for informing me about this contest. I am planning to participate in it.

Also refer http://rahmaniac.wordpress.com/2008/04/29/remix-in-your-own-style-rahmans-ada/

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.

Remix of New York Nagaram

Of late, I don't get much time to blog. So I am just posting some of my earlier works to keep this blog active. I did a small remix of the New York Nagaram song for the background of a particular video. I just added some beats and adjusted the levels. You can listen to the remix below. Let me know your views.

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Thottal poo malarum Remix

Here is my remix of the old thottal poo malarum and the "new" thottal poo malarum song. Since both the songs were in the same scale and shruthi, it was easy. The tempo of the old song alone was changed to match the new one.

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