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.
