Some remnants…

Godavari – That’s a Telugu movie and am currently hooked on to its songs. For a change, a non-Rahman Indian album has caught my ears. Intuitional – that’s how I would term my instinct to buy this when I made a whirlwind tour to the Banjara Hills Music World a couple of weeks ago. K.M. Radhakrishnan derives inspiration from AR Rahman all the way for his orchestration and arrangements – and Ilayaraja & Rahman for his melodies. (Did I hear you ask “who doesn’t??”. But he does a very decent job of it. 3 songs stood apart – SPB’s “Godavari”, Unni/Chitra’s “Manasa Vacha” and Sunitha’s “Andanglena”..Even with my limited Telugu vocabulary, I can certify that the lyrics are way above the standards the Telugu music scene has witnessed in the last few years..(and thanks to my many telugu speaking friends, I do know how bad the “scene” is).

MCH and HUDA – They are doing one heck of a job in the twin cities of Hyderabad and Secunderabad. The roads have been widened (even at places where I could have hardly imagined) and there is greenery & to top it all, most of the roads are litter free. Kudos to whoever is involved. I think they should soon become a model civic body to emulate to – Listening Bangalore?

Café Carnatic

Steve Jobs has been a great source of inspiration for anyone who wants to invent cool products and to introduce them in style. But I think he stands out from the rest of the crowd because he heads Apple and they are the best when it comes to home computers and the related. I own a G4 and have had it for five years now. Because of the prohibitive cost, my every night’s dream of getting a new G5 has not materialized till today even though my G4 has gone through quite a bit of an upgrade, the most recent one being an uplift in its internal hard disk storage capacity. Well. I got to admit I still love working on it even though the old G4 processor is not fast enough to handle all the loaded applications on Jaguar. I can’t complain yet as I still use it without much pain for my music production as well as the occasional DVD making. So, when all the newspapers were ripe on their speculations as to why Jobs had called for a press conference last week – it was no longer a well-kept secret. The video iPod was released and how cooler can they get!

The weekend was just god-awful busy – landscaping work, fall bulb planting and more cleaning work kept the clock ticking and my Saturday relaxation came in the form of Half-Blood prince. I wish I have the time to analyze this woman’s creative brain and her narrative style. If you think the Harry Potter books are for kids and young adults, then I don’t mind being called one because I am a very big fan. I think there is much more than the fantasy her books are woven around. I can get back to Harry in another blog.

Sunday was sort of a creatively productive day when the idea I was toying with the last couple of weeks materialized just in less than an hour when I brought Nakul to my studio and started recording his babbling. That was inspiring enough to give some shape to a lounge music piece that I wanted to compose. I spent a couple of hours late in the evening, mixing and mastering it. So Nakul has a recorded song under his belt now. Don’t know if I am completely satisfied with it or not..but like most of my other pieces, the longer I sit on an idea, more the chances are of me dropping the idea all together. At least I have a completed song now and I named it “Café Carnatic”.

If you believe in Conspiracy theories, then what do you think can the conspiracy theorists come up with for the Oct 6/7 panic in New York subway system? Give your political brains some twitch and I will tell you why I am on their side.

More Musical Notes

There has been quite an impulsion, sometimes to the extent of being biased, with many
A R Rahman critics to pound his albums the day they are released, which to me is similar to guzzling a bottle of fine wine hoggishly, in 2 minutes and claiming you didn’t know what the claim to finesse was all about. If I can pick an analogy from Director Shankar’s books for those of you that are teetotalers or non-alcoholics, it is like shoving a piece of a fine multi-layered cake into your mouth at one go and letting it travel straight down your gut resulting in your taste buds getting just a whiff of some queer flavour but mostly that of sugar & cream. To a wine or a food connoisseur the above are acts of sacrilege in their respective worlds.

It was not long after the album, “The Rising – Mangal Pandey” was released last week, that the media was filled with reviews of the same. Remember the movie is touted to be the most awaited release in the last 4 years! As with all such releases, the media claimed that the expectations ran pretty high with the music of this album. To people like me, the genuine music lovers (want to differentiate us from them, the box-office music lovers), we will never understand what kind of expectations you can have on a musical album, that too for a movie when you have not really watched the movie or do not know anything about. If you have expectations then this means that you want something out of this album and if you do not get what you are looking for, you will be disappointed. What you want in this case is normally based on what you have heard before. So the expectations among the general music lovers for this album could have been largely based on the music of Lagaan because of the kind of similarities that exist between The Rising and Lagaan. So when the songs from this new release didn’t have any similarity to Lagaan’s songs (be in its sound or in its mass appealing tunes), the general music lovers (!!) who listened to the album with some expectations probably were disappointed.

Here is my take on the album – This is not a review by any means. More of how I feel about the songs and general observations..

The title track, “Mangal Mangal” which has 3 variations in the album is probably the catchiest tune in the album. Will fly well with everyone for sure. The tune is very very earthy and highly folksy. And to top it all what a choice of the singer! Kailash Kher’s voice is absolutely the perfect salutation to the composition and the freshness & the coarseness are truly brilliant. Rahman said that when he recorded Kailash’s voice for the intro part of the first track, he wanted it to be “real”. In other words, the crack of a flaw you may associate with his lines were meant to be there just so that the rustic feel is not lost. Genius. This makes a difference and what follows in terms of rhythm accompaniments in all the 3 versions are truly Rahmanesque in all aspects. The more I listen to it, the more I appreciate it.

The “Mujra” * song “Mai Vari” has admittedly been the most difficult one to compose according to Rahman. During my first listening itself, I knew why. What a grand variation throughout the song. The melody, the rhythm and as a result the mood changes throughout the song and needless to say, brings you the earlier part of the last century in front of your eyes. It will be interesting to see how the song is cinematographed. Kavitha’s voice is apt.

The “Holi”song has been dismissed as a noisy number by many. I just couldn’t bear that kind of a brush-off in less than day after the song’s release. This probably will be the song that is cinematographed in the grandest manner in the movie and will attract the international audience (on screen) because of the colour, the texture, the joy and the festivity associated with it. Rahman couldn’t have gone wrong anywhere given the task he was given. The song is full of amazing rhythm patterns and grand orchestrations. Yes..There is lot of music in the background and many singers too. But that’s what the beauty of the song is all about.

“Rasiya” is an amazing seductive number. Richa Sharma has been given an opportunity to experiment with her voice. She has done that wildly, boldly and in short she has passed the test (smile). Rahman has done similar songs before but to get a period feel to the song is probably the challenge he faced. There is no authentic source who can claim that this was how seductive music sounded in the 1800s, so Rahman’s creativity is our benefit.

“Al Madath” is Rahman all the way and he is a pro now in composing such fervent prayer songs specially that reflect Allah. Coming too soon after “Zikr” may make it sound similar but the structure is entirely different. Rahman’s cry of “Maula”..is haunting and I can’t get enough of that.

“Takey” is an awesome foot tapping number. If the movie was made in the west it would have made out to be a good bar-camaraderie number for the period. Absolute winner this one is and I hope the audience get enough exposure to this song because this one is an easily likeable number. As usual, Rahman shows he is the best when it comes to using children’s voices (even if his own) and that is a stroke of genius in this song.

It is less than 6 days since I started listening to this album so it may be too soon to appreciate all the songs in their entirety. And like all Rahman albums, the music will grow on me (and on you too..if you give it a chance). Even after 5 years from now, if I listen to this album , I will find something new in every song which I did not observe before.

I just feel gifted to be listening to Rahman’s music.

*** Please buy original tapes/CDs. Do not support piracy***

You can listen to the songs online through streaming audio at :

http://www.raaga.com/channels/hindi/movie/H000897.html

*Mujra – An Indian Classical Dance; has Moghal roots..

The Thiruvasagam Symphony

-The Literature, The philosophy and My musings-

It’s my turn to contribute to the symphony reviewers’ world. The sudden burst of interest in trying to understand what a symphony is, what an orchestra means (with an obvious extension “What is Budapest Symphony Orchestra?”) and most importantly what Thiruvasagam is – can all be attributed to one person. Ilaiyaraja.

Ilaiyaraja – The man known by many south Indians but only by a handful of North Indians. Of course, it is pointless to try to figure out how many non-Indians would have heard of this genius, because if people on the other side of the Vindhyas* cannot associate with him or understand & appreciate his music, then to the International audience to whom Indian movies and music mean “Bollywood” and Bollywood only, the concept of movies and music in any language other than Hindi will totally be strange. This is a topic by itself and may be I will save it for another time. Without digressing, let us try to understand why there is a surge of symphony reviews in the cyber world – especially in the kingdom to which I belong – “Blogdom”.

Ilaiyaraja had been the king of Tamil film music for more than a decade – starting in early 80s, his commercial reign lasted until early 90s. He still produces music but to his defence, he is caught in his own creative web and is trying to prove he can still match the new generation musicians, hence to the old Raja fans, the new Raja music is not his best. Composing a symphony, writing the complete score for it and getting it arranged & played by a reputed Orchestra and most importantly having the compositions mastered, recorded and distributed to the music loving population around the would be any true musician’s dream. He being no exception to that, Ilaiyaraja had been dreaming about it for more than 20 years.

A couple of years ago, Rev. Jegath Gasper Raj approached Ilaiyaraja with this idea and what I have in CD form is a result of many people’s hard work in the last two years. Agreed, it is a commercial venture – but there is a noble cause behind this, that is to popularize & preserve some old Tamil literary works, which may help the next generation to carry forward some of the language in its pure form not just to keep the language alive but also to show the rest of the world, how rich Tamil language is. This project, thanks to the internet, spread its purpose and message throughout the world mainly among the Tamil community. This prompted many donors to volunteer their time and money to this project. Finally by word of mouth and perseverance on many people’s part the project has seen the light at the end of the tunnel. True achievement. Because of the amount of stir this project created among many music lovers’ minds and many language lovers’ minds, seeing the completion meant a lot of relief and jubilation. This may explain why a project that mainly found a channel of survival through internet would evoke such a high amount of eagerness among the bloggers.

Thiruvasagam – I guess I will be too embarrassed to even talk about the greatness of this epic. But to know a thing or two about of this Tamil literary work, one must understand the background. Here is a quote that may help one understand where Thiruvasagam falls.

“The following works of art and literature are among the most remarkable contributions of the Tamil creative of the Tamil creative genius to the world’s cultural treasure and should be familiar to the whole world and admired and beloved by all in the same way as the poems of Homer, the dramas of Shakespeare, the pictures of Rembrandt, the cathedrals of France and the sculptures of Greece:….The school of Bhakti … Saiva, which is one of those most sincere and passionate efforts of man to grasp the Absolute; and its supreme literary expression in the works of Manikkavasagar, Tirugnana Sambandar…. The philosophical system of Saiva Sidhdhantha, a system, which may be ranked among the most perfect and cleverest systems of human thought”

- Czech Professor Dr. Kamil Zvelebil in 1956 -

The work that is being quoted there is called the “Twelve Thirumurai(s)”. A collection of Twelve books essentially consisting of poems & literature praising Lord Shiva, a Hindu “God Almighty”, the light & hope for Saivites. All these poems were written by 63 leading Saivite saints** spanning approximately over 600 years.

Thiruvasagam along with Thiruvempavai and Thirukkovaiyaar belong to the Eighth Thirumurai written by Saint Manickavasagar. He was a minister in the Pandya kingdom in the early 9^th century AD, who led his life by his faith and devoted its entirety to Lord Shiva. It is said that one who does not get moved by Thiruvasagam will not be moved by anything else. This collection has 51 poems, each one a gem and needing you to spend a long time to understand the nuances.

If we can keep religion aside for a while and read this literary masterpiece, (of course you have to master Tamil before you can appreciate the work), you would understand the depth and the lingual aura that makes this work a rare treasure. Many had come and many had tried to learn this work. Noted among them was Rev. G.U. Pope a scholar from England. His translation of Thiruvasagam is by far the most popular English Translation work available for Thiruvasagam.

I have been listening to the CD the last couple of days. I should admit that I need much more time to really make any sense out of it. The entire album is absolutely a crossover attempt and hence it is taking a very long time for me to even understand the structure of each composition. Well, to begin with, I do not understand symphony. I just pretend to. The melody in the album is so characteristic of Ilaiyaraja and I would be lying if I didn’t mention that most of the melodies have a “heard before” feeling. Nevertheless, all the melodies are haunting – again so very characteristic of Ilaiyaraja. The arrangements are spellbinding. Right now my favorite piece of the album is “Putril Vazha”. This may be an unusual choice because from what I have read, most reviewers like “Polla Vinayaen”. I think that piece is a little too long for me to connect all the broken parts together and appreciate it as one single work. But the vocal fusion of Ilaiyaraja’s classical Tamil, Ray Harcourt’s Operatic English and the symphonic chorus make that number (Polla Vinayaen) a brave & an innovative attempt. A twenty minute composition with so many variations – C’mon I need more time to assimilate it!

I may just get better at “pretending” after a few more hearings of this album.

Some useful links:

Thiruvasagam – http://www.tamilnation.org/sathyam/east/thiruvasagam/tvasagam0.htm

G.U. Pope – http://www.tamilnation.org/literature/pope.htm

Pope’s translation work – http://siddhanta.shaivam.org/thivapop.htm

http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/812060315X/tamilntamilrelat/104-9845025-0121531

The Thiruvasagam Symphony Project – http://www.tis-usa.com/

*The Vindhya mountains cut right across the country, from West to East, and form the boundary between North and South India.

**63 Nayanmars – “Saiva Siddhanta” is southern saivism. These 63 saints who lived by this philosophy are considered as gurus of this philosophy.