A
Technical Celebration of Music - Part VII
Song:
Keeravani… (Telugu)
Film: Anvaeshana
Scale : Keeravani
Monday,
July 28, 2003
This
is the seventh 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 yet another perfect example that shows Ilayaraja's
technique of blending the east and the west. The composer
uses his unusual western orchestration skills to harmonize
melodies in Keeravani (21st melakartha) raga.
An
interesting point to note about the orchestration of the
interludes is that they contain disconnected sets of phrases.
Though the dramatic changes in the orchestration may seem
to lack musical continuity on one hand, the same changes
maintain the attention of the listeners with their rich
melodic and harmonic content on the other.
The
prelude presents a vocal harmony on a raga based melody.
The pallavi has an interesting structure. It momentarily
stabilizes on the tonic and then follows a few progressions
that lead to the repetition. The intelligence of the composer
is hidden in the fact that he uses this tonic junction to
conclude the song at the end.
In
the two-part vocal counterpoint at the end of the first
interlude ,one voice sings the notes and the other hums
a melody (both in Keeravani raga) and both the voices harmonize
to form a beautiful two-part counterpoint.
Using
unstable landing notes (ni), complicated phrases like gm
pp Snn n nnS np (in e gaganaalalo...), progressions like
RRR G SSS R NNN S DDD N... are found very natural in Ilayaraja's
compositions.
Bach's
influence on Ilayaraja is clearly heard in the instrumental
counterpoint (keyboard and guitar with bass) which begins
the second interlude. Ilayaraja stamps his trademark once
again in this song, through his outstanding bass patterns
throughout the song.
Thanks
to Maestro Ilayaraja for giving us yet another song to celebrate.
-
RS Balaji
Click
here to go to Maestro Ilayaraja's mainpage
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