This is the third 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 romantic melody based on the symmetric
pentatonic scale, Sudha Dhanyasi (S G2 M1 P N1/C Eflat F G Bflat).
The calm and sober nature of the characters in the film are
perfectly reflected by the soft voice timbre that the singers
maintain throughout this song. This song is characterized by a
controlled use of chord progressions and mild contrapuntal texture,
unlike the composer's usual compositions which emphasis on these
elements of harmony. This could probably be attributed to the story
of the film which is based on a traditional south Indian backdrop.
However, the amazing string arrangements that have been written for
this song, represent the ability of the composer to use western
orchestration for an Indian scenario.
The song begins with a wonderful solo vocal in the higher
octave ( note that the ri that is sounded right in the first phrase
of the solo vocals , is not part of the underlying scale). The solo
voice and the chorus accompaniment followed by the strings
(violins), veena and flute backed up by the rhythm pattern on the
tabla, mark a typical Ilayaraja way of beginning a song.
The first interlude that opens up with the use of the
"thavil" (percussion instrument) and an arrangement of strings
(interleaved with a dulcimer kind of instrument) speaks of the
unusual orchestration skills of the composer. This is immediately
followed by a combination of tabla, veena and flute in a sort of
contrasting tempo.
The second interlude proceeds like a dialogue between the
strings, flute and vocals. It begins with a dialogue between the
strings and flute. The vocals are then introduced followed by an
harmony between the strings and vocals that produces a romantic mood
for the situation. The strings and the flute have a final dialogue
before the interlude leads to the charanam.
The pallavi and charanam of this song are interesting with
respect to the flow of melodies in them. The pallavi begins on the
lower pa and gradually moves towards the middle pa (anuvu
anuvu...) and finally touches the higher sa
(sumadhanuvu...), and falls back through a series of notes in
descent, to start off once again. The flow of notes start from the
lower pa and move till the middle pa.(though the higher sa is
touched just once). This flow is further continued in the charanam
that begins on the middle ni. The melodies gradually move touwards
the higher sa (kalala koumudilo....) and finally touch the
higher ga (kougilinthaluga...). Note the gradually movement
of the phrases from the lower pa (in the pallavi) to the higher ga
(at the end of the charanam).
(Note: Also an interesting point to note in the last part
of the charanam, is the word "kougilinthaluga", the "ga" in this
word matches with the note that is sung , ga (Eflat). A similar
feature can be found at the end of the first charanam also. I'm not
aware whether the lyrics were written before the song was
tuned)
Thanks to Maestro Ilayaraja for giving us yet another song to
celebrate.
