Showing posts with label Rudra veena. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Rudra veena. Show all posts
Rudra Veena- Lalitha Priya Kamalam Virisinadhi-Lalitha
Song: Lalitha Priya Kamalam Virisinadhi.. (Telugu)
Film: Rudra Veena
Scale : Lalitha
Monday, March 17, 2003
This is the sixth in the series of articles celebrating the music of Maestro Ilayaraja, from a technical standpoint. The article treats the Maestro's music as a textbook on music composition and presents certain technical and non-technical nuances in his music that may be of interest to students of music composition and orchestration as well as to listeners with a technical background in carnatic and western classical music.
The content presented in this article is just an observation made by the author. Please feel free to indicate any analytical errors that you may find.
This song is a masterpiece in Lalitha raga, a raga that has been used rarely in film music. Though it is a duet song it has been painted with semi-classical colors probably because the story of the film has a backdrop of classical music and dance.
One can easily grasp the structure of the raga after listening to this song. Throughout the song, the composer has made the sa as his home (most of the cases higher sa) and has visited the other locations in the raga, returning back to this home. This is a common practice in carnatic music where in the performer rotates round a single note. Ilayaraja has attempted to use a similar technique in film music, through this song.
The song is loaded with a number of soothing phrases in Lalitha raga. The composer touches the higher dha during the end of the charanam. This is a unique feature in this song since it is a rare event in south Indian classical music to reach as high as the dha in the higher octave. The song does not go lower than the ni in the lower octave. One of the reasons for this could be to maintain the pleasant and romantic mood of the song situation and to avoid the feeling of pathos that the lower notes are known to evoke.
The song starts off with the chiming of temple bells symbolizing the sanctity and divinity of the relationship between the characters in the song (who happen to be a brahmin boy and a harijan girl). This is followed by string arrangement and short dialogues between guitar, flute and piano. A typical "Ilayaraja" kind of orchestration for a short thirty two second prelude!!
A unique rhythm pattern in the first interlude, the piano and strings harmony in the beginning of the second interlude, the haunting melodies on the flute in both the interludes are some of the aspects that come up to Ilayaraja very casually, and that make a strong impact on the listeners with their creative and unique sound palette.
Thanks to Maestro Ilayaraja for giving us yet another song to celebrate.
- RS Balaji
Rudra Veena-Tarali Radha Thanae Vasantham-Hamsadwani
A Technical Celebration of Music - Part 1
Song: Tarali Radha Thanae Vasantham…
Film: Rudra Veena
Scale : Hamsadwani
Song: Tarali Radha Thanae Vasantham…
Film: Rudra Veena
Scale : Hamsadwani
Friday, November 29, 2002
This is the first in the series of articles celebrating the music of Maestro Ilayaraja, from a technical standpoint. The article treats the Maestro's music as a textbook on music composition and presents certain technical and non-technical nuances in his music that may be of interest to students of music composition and orchestration as well as to listeners with a technical background in carnatic and western classical music.
The content presented in this article is just an observation made by the author. Please feel free to indicate any analytical errors that you may find.
This song is based on the symmetric pentatonic scale Hamsadwani (sa ri ga pa ni / C D E G B). In the film, the song plays the role of an entertainer for laborers who are cutting down the woods. Hence the song maintains a lively mood, in general. Note the composer's choice of the scale to evoke this mood. This scale does not have any note pairs with semitonal intervals between them.
The song presents a perfect usage of the Hamsadhwani raga in film music. The pallavi features certain important slides (gamakas) in this raga. The oscillation of the lower ni at the end of the first melody and the slides between ri and ga (in the words gaganaala dhaka….) reflect the image of the raga.
In the charanam of this song, the composer shows the scope of a simple scale like Hamsadhwani. He explores a variety of interesting phrase combinations in this scale. The phrases in general, alternate between ascent and descent i.e. a phrase in the descent is followed by an ascent and vice versa. The first portion of the charanam features a straightforward flow of notes in sequence. This followed by the line "prati madhini…." which connects two different phrases in a interesting manner. The first one (Ri Ri Sa ni Sa Ri Ri) lands on the higher Ri and the second one (ri ri ga pa ga ri) takes off on the middle ri. The sudden shift in the octave is unexpected.
The next line that follows (aedhi sontham kosam ….) sounds a surprisingly long interval between notes: lower ni to the higher Ri. The last portion of the charanam (idhi theliyani…). features the dhatu prayogam (phrase with alternate notes in a sequence) thus bringing out the true image of Hamsadhwani. (Once again note the unusual interval between the previous melody and this one!)
A possibility for using these interesting phrases which sway over three different octaves, could be linked to the underlying situation of the song in the film which demands a active mood.
The interludes in this song follow a certain pattern (vaguely analogous to the concept of forms in western classical music). They comprise of a long flute piece followed by a short counterpoint. The percussions do not sound in the first and last few bars of both the interludes. The guitar and bass lines back up the rhythm pattern throughout the interlude (a typical Ilayaraja!). The three-voice counterpoint at the end of the second interlude is lead by a melody on the flute (from a keyboard). The first part of this melody contains a phrase and its variation (towards the end). It goes as follows: B C B- G B- C B B C B- G E -B C D B. Notice that the first four notes are similar in both the phrases. This pattern is typically found in many of Ilayaraja's melodies. The first two tunes in the charanam also follow a more or less similar pattern.
Thanks to Maestro Ilayaraja, for this wonderful musical lesson!.
- RS Balaji
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