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!.
