Indian (Tamil film) Music
I worte the follwing article for my Japanese colleague when I presented him with a CD of Indian music. He is a musician and plays Mandolin.
Two main forms of Indian classical music are Carnatic (South Indian) and Hindustani (North Indian). Indian classical music has one of the most complicated and complete musical systems ever developed. It has the same aspects of Western classical music, as the eight basic notes (SA Re Ga Ma Pa Dha Ni SA, in order, replacing Do Re Mi Fa So La Ti Do). The notes are called Swar and the Scale is called Shruti.
There are set patterns called Raga, which specifies the rules for movements up and down the scale, which notes should figure more and which notes should be used more sparingly and so on. There are many Ragas both in Hindustani and in Carnatic, and each has some specialty. There are Ragas that sung in the morning, in the evening, during various seasons, during rain and on various occasions. Raga can be understood as various set patterns of music for various situations and emotions.
Classical music is very much associated with divinity and spiritualism. Mostly the songs are in praise of God. There is less orchestration like the western; generally based on one lead that may be a singer or an instrument with minimum accompaniment. Percussion for the Rhythm is by Tabla for Hindustani and Mrudangam for Carnatic. Tabla is two-piece instrument and Mrudangam is cylindrical hit on both the sides with fingers. Playing with fingers gives more filler apart from the rhythm.
Just as there are set patterns called Raga for the lead, there are set patterns for percussion too called the Tal (Talam in Tamil). There are many varieties of Tal too. The main string instruments are Sitar in Hindustani and Veenai in Carnatic. Carnatic gradually adopted violin. Indian bamboo flute has history of more than 2000 years.
However, as anywhere in the world, the Classical music was and still enjoyed mainly by certain community. There are many forms of folk music, which varies from region to region, and India being wide there are a lots of folk music. However, this was dying gradually as mordenisation was taking place.
As the film industry grew in the 20th century, Film music became more popular among common people. Film music gave the classical and folk music in a more acceptable and enjoyable form, which made it more popular among all.
Indian Movies have songs in them and in present days, they are the main source of music. Although there is Indian classical music and many music albums released, movies contribute more than 90% of the music people generally listen.
Tamil being my native language, I largely listen to Tamil film songs. Thanks to the rich music (and film) industry. The fusion of classical, folk and western (classical, pop) produces great music. Apart from the western instruments, there are so many Indian classical and folk musical instruments, which produce a great orchestration.
In general, the same person, the Music director composes the background score and the songs. Tamil film industry has seen great composers. My favorite composer is Illaiyaraja. He is a master of Tamil Folk, Indian classical and Western classical. His tunes and orchestration has enthralled the Tamils for more than two decades. He was the first Asian to write the Symphony for the London Royal Philharmonic Orchestra. I see him as the Beethoven of India, as generally during composing he does not listen to music, he just writes the notes of various instruments and hand it over to the artists. In 1990s came AR.Rahman, who changed the music atmosphere with his more contemporary western music and usage of latest technologies. He claimed international reputation, that Michael Jackson once wore T-shirt with AR.Rahman’s picture on it.
I feel fortunate to be a Tamil, to listen the rich music.
I present you a CD of some Indian music.
(I could give you the songs only in .mp3 format and sorry about quality of recording.)
1) For Indian classical, I present you Veenai by Ms.Gayathri, popularly known as ‘Veenai Gayathri’ an internationally eminent veenai artist. In the CD, there are four tracks, each of a particular Raga (Ragam). As said earlier Veenai is south Indian and for carnatic music. The rhythm is by mrudangam. Another rhythm instrument with sharp sound is the Gatam, which is nothing but an earthen pot. It is also a popular instrument in carnatic music.
2) Also in the CD is Mandolin by Srinivasan. He popularized Mandolin in India by playing Carnatic music. Here too Mrudangam and Gatam are the accompaniments. Along with mandolin, Veenai too is played.
3) I would like to present you some of Illaiyaraja’s music. His album ‘How to name it’ released in 1986 shows is mastery over fusion of Carnatic, Western classical and (south) Indian folk. The album has musical movements that are dedicated to Tyagaraja, a religious musician and composer of South India (1767-1847) and the Western Classical music composer, J. S. Bach (1685-1750) of Germany.
4) ‘Nothing but wind’ is another album released in 1988. Eminent flautist of India, Pandit Hari Prasad Chaurasia, plays the flute in this album. Illaiyaraja merges different kinds of music so well and makes us feel that there is only a thin margin between them there by proving his belief, music is universal and it is one language. This album has compositions for different emotions of life. As per him everything in the wind is music, as per him, creativity is nothing but inspiration, no body creates something new, everything is just an inspiration of something else.
5) Also in the CD are some Tamil film songs, which I greatly listen. As you cannot understand the language it may not be much interesting to you, still I want to show you the kind of music we listen. Though created by inspiration from other kinds of music, the film music is a separate genre by itself – the Indian Film Music. Different languages in India has different style, I present you here only Tamil Film music. I feel the Tamil film music is very rich with lot of varieties, also coping with the contemporary western music and with latest technologies. The language adapts any form of music from classical to Rap, that we hear lot of Rap in the latest movies. Generally, the song is set for a situation in the film to express the emotion. This takes the song more close to us, as music is nothing but expression of feelings.
In general, the songs follow a set pattern as below,
Prelude
Stanza 1-1 (Pallavi)
Stanza 1-2 (Anu Pallavi)
Stanza 1-1 (Pallavi)
Interlude 1
Stanza 2-1 (Charanam 1)
Stanza 1-1 (Pallavi)
Interlude 2
Stanza 2-2 (Charanam 2)
Stanza 1-1
Stanza 1-2
The first five songs in the CD are typical example of fusion of western, Indian classical and folk. These are songs of the period around 1982 or so. Many listen to songs for the tune of them. Song 6 is one such song with melodious tune. Song 7 is a folk song but composed with a latest trend (year 2005). Songs 8,9,10 shows the latest trend (2005/2006) in Tamil film music that is influenced more by the contemporary western music.
The following was not sent to the Japanese, but for information. It was hard to select 10 songs to show my taste of songs to him, as some one who cannot understand the language and being introduced to Indian music can easily get bored.
Songs were
1. Yedho Moham - Kozhi Kuvudu
2. Needhane enthan – Ninaivellam Nithya
3. Panivizhum malarvanam –Ninaivellam Nithya
4. Aanantha raagam – Paneer Puzhpangal
5. Kadhal kavithaigal – Kopura-vasalile
6. Inchi idupazhagi – Devar magan
7. Mundasu suriyane – Sandai kozhi
8. Kannai vittu (Remix) – Pattiyal
9. Ennai koncham – Kaka Kaka
10. Girl Friend - Boys
Two main forms of Indian classical music are Carnatic (South Indian) and Hindustani (North Indian). Indian classical music has one of the most complicated and complete musical systems ever developed. It has the same aspects of Western classical music, as the eight basic notes (SA Re Ga Ma Pa Dha Ni SA, in order, replacing Do Re Mi Fa So La Ti Do). The notes are called Swar and the Scale is called Shruti.
There are set patterns called Raga, which specifies the rules for movements up and down the scale, which notes should figure more and which notes should be used more sparingly and so on. There are many Ragas both in Hindustani and in Carnatic, and each has some specialty. There are Ragas that sung in the morning, in the evening, during various seasons, during rain and on various occasions. Raga can be understood as various set patterns of music for various situations and emotions.
Classical music is very much associated with divinity and spiritualism. Mostly the songs are in praise of God. There is less orchestration like the western; generally based on one lead that may be a singer or an instrument with minimum accompaniment. Percussion for the Rhythm is by Tabla for Hindustani and Mrudangam for Carnatic. Tabla is two-piece instrument and Mrudangam is cylindrical hit on both the sides with fingers. Playing with fingers gives more filler apart from the rhythm.
Just as there are set patterns called Raga for the lead, there are set patterns for percussion too called the Tal (Talam in Tamil). There are many varieties of Tal too. The main string instruments are Sitar in Hindustani and Veenai in Carnatic. Carnatic gradually adopted violin. Indian bamboo flute has history of more than 2000 years.
However, as anywhere in the world, the Classical music was and still enjoyed mainly by certain community. There are many forms of folk music, which varies from region to region, and India being wide there are a lots of folk music. However, this was dying gradually as mordenisation was taking place.
As the film industry grew in the 20th century, Film music became more popular among common people. Film music gave the classical and folk music in a more acceptable and enjoyable form, which made it more popular among all.
Indian Movies have songs in them and in present days, they are the main source of music. Although there is Indian classical music and many music albums released, movies contribute more than 90% of the music people generally listen.
Tamil being my native language, I largely listen to Tamil film songs. Thanks to the rich music (and film) industry. The fusion of classical, folk and western (classical, pop) produces great music. Apart from the western instruments, there are so many Indian classical and folk musical instruments, which produce a great orchestration.
In general, the same person, the Music director composes the background score and the songs. Tamil film industry has seen great composers. My favorite composer is Illaiyaraja. He is a master of Tamil Folk, Indian classical and Western classical. His tunes and orchestration has enthralled the Tamils for more than two decades. He was the first Asian to write the Symphony for the London Royal Philharmonic Orchestra. I see him as the Beethoven of India, as generally during composing he does not listen to music, he just writes the notes of various instruments and hand it over to the artists. In 1990s came AR.Rahman, who changed the music atmosphere with his more contemporary western music and usage of latest technologies. He claimed international reputation, that Michael Jackson once wore T-shirt with AR.Rahman’s picture on it.
I feel fortunate to be a Tamil, to listen the rich music.
I present you a CD of some Indian music.
(I could give you the songs only in .mp3 format and sorry about quality of recording.)
1) For Indian classical, I present you Veenai by Ms.Gayathri, popularly known as ‘Veenai Gayathri’ an internationally eminent veenai artist. In the CD, there are four tracks, each of a particular Raga (Ragam). As said earlier Veenai is south Indian and for carnatic music. The rhythm is by mrudangam. Another rhythm instrument with sharp sound is the Gatam, which is nothing but an earthen pot. It is also a popular instrument in carnatic music.
2) Also in the CD is Mandolin by Srinivasan. He popularized Mandolin in India by playing Carnatic music. Here too Mrudangam and Gatam are the accompaniments. Along with mandolin, Veenai too is played.
3) I would like to present you some of Illaiyaraja’s music. His album ‘How to name it’ released in 1986 shows is mastery over fusion of Carnatic, Western classical and (south) Indian folk. The album has musical movements that are dedicated to Tyagaraja, a religious musician and composer of South India (1767-1847) and the Western Classical music composer, J. S. Bach (1685-1750) of Germany.
4) ‘Nothing but wind’ is another album released in 1988. Eminent flautist of India, Pandit Hari Prasad Chaurasia, plays the flute in this album. Illaiyaraja merges different kinds of music so well and makes us feel that there is only a thin margin between them there by proving his belief, music is universal and it is one language. This album has compositions for different emotions of life. As per him everything in the wind is music, as per him, creativity is nothing but inspiration, no body creates something new, everything is just an inspiration of something else.
5) Also in the CD are some Tamil film songs, which I greatly listen. As you cannot understand the language it may not be much interesting to you, still I want to show you the kind of music we listen. Though created by inspiration from other kinds of music, the film music is a separate genre by itself – the Indian Film Music. Different languages in India has different style, I present you here only Tamil Film music. I feel the Tamil film music is very rich with lot of varieties, also coping with the contemporary western music and with latest technologies. The language adapts any form of music from classical to Rap, that we hear lot of Rap in the latest movies. Generally, the song is set for a situation in the film to express the emotion. This takes the song more close to us, as music is nothing but expression of feelings.
In general, the songs follow a set pattern as below,
Prelude
Stanza 1-1 (Pallavi)
Stanza 1-2 (Anu Pallavi)
Stanza 1-1 (Pallavi)
Interlude 1
Stanza 2-1 (Charanam 1)
Stanza 1-1 (Pallavi)
Interlude 2
Stanza 2-2 (Charanam 2)
Stanza 1-1
Stanza 1-2
The first five songs in the CD are typical example of fusion of western, Indian classical and folk. These are songs of the period around 1982 or so. Many listen to songs for the tune of them. Song 6 is one such song with melodious tune. Song 7 is a folk song but composed with a latest trend (year 2005). Songs 8,9,10 shows the latest trend (2005/2006) in Tamil film music that is influenced more by the contemporary western music.
The following was not sent to the Japanese, but for information. It was hard to select 10 songs to show my taste of songs to him, as some one who cannot understand the language and being introduced to Indian music can easily get bored.
Songs were
1. Yedho Moham - Kozhi Kuvudu
2. Needhane enthan – Ninaivellam Nithya
3. Panivizhum malarvanam –Ninaivellam Nithya
4. Aanantha raagam – Paneer Puzhpangal
5. Kadhal kavithaigal – Kopura-vasalile
6. Inchi idupazhagi – Devar magan
7. Mundasu suriyane – Sandai kozhi
8. Kannai vittu (Remix) – Pattiyal
9. Ennai koncham – Kaka Kaka
10. Girl Friend - Boys
posted by Sivakumar | 2:06 PM
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