Raja's Gems - the latest one you heard...Part 3

[Vinodkumar]

Alright... Listen to this BGM.. Its very ordinary. There is Flute, some percussion and some synth...
http://soundcloud.com/raja4ever/srr-singlechannel

Now... listen to this one.. http://soundcloud.com/raja4ever/srr-stereochannel

It sounds off beat (like an echo). This one literally shocked me when I discovered this... There are totally 5.1 channels. The FRONT LEFT and RIGHT would start normally. The SURROUND LEFT and RIGHT would start after couple of milli seconds (I'm not sure if it start after certain beat or not). I thought I mistakenly moved the SURROUND LEFT and RIGHT and there by causing this behavior. I then ended up listening to my backup version and was in a state of shock to hear the same thing. This is done during the mastering process. I'm sure that this has something to do with Raaja. Just imagine the amount of energy he puts in for a BGM score which will be ignored by most of the folks while watching the movie...

[Sureshs65]

kiru,

You said it right. Right from the bass in his 70s and 80s, which many probably didn't hear at that time, to all the layers he does today, he knows what will impact the listener deeply. I was recently speaking for a long time with my friend about Raja and was putting forth the theory that I hold dear. That Raja believes in us (not tfmers but listeners ) more than we believe in ourselves. What I mean is that Raja is very sure that as a listener we will eventually 'get' the emotion and 'feel' the impact of the music. We may be unaware of the music making process and related technologies but our ears can hear music and our mind/heart can comprehend what Raja produces. That is one reason why Raja never any dumbing down when Raja is concerned. The hidden oboe, the hidden bass or the hidden trombone will impact you without your knowing. Whether you discover it, like Vinod her does very well (and shares with us) or you don't discover these instruments, you will still feel their impact. That way, no one that I know in Indian Film Music has had so much trust as Raja had on his listeners. And whatever people like V_S, app_end, Vinod have been doing here is repaying the trust in a very small way.

[Vinodkumar]

kiru,

You said it right. Right from the bass in his 70s and 80s, which many probably didn't hear at that time, to all the layers he does today, he knows what will impact the listener deeply. I was recently speaking for a long time with my friend about Raja and was putting forth the theory that I hold dear. That Raja believes in us (not tfmers but listeners ) more than we believe in ourselves. What I mean is that Raja is very sure that as a listener we will eventually 'get' the emotion and 'feel' the impact of the music. We may be unaware of the music making process and related technologies but our ears can hear music and our mind/heart can comprehend what Raja produces. That is one reason why Raja never any dumbing down when Raja is concerned. The hidden oboe, the hidden bass or the hidden trombone will impact you without your knowing. Whether you discover it, like Vinod her does very well (and shares with us) or you don't discover these instruments, you will still feel their impact. That way, no one that I know in Indian Film Music has had so much trust as Raja had on his listeners. And whatever people like V_S, app_end, Vinod have been doing here is repaying the trust in a very small way.

Very aptly said Suresh ! One of the fortunate things we have is the technology to decode these hidden treasures. I have been in an ecstatic state ever since I started listening to the decoded audio from SRR dvd. I thought I will share a portion of that joy with you all (Yaan Pettra Inbam.. pergua Ivvayyagam) .... There is one more piece of music which takes you to another level (IMHO). Will post that when I get a chance.

[kiru]

...

Now... listen to this one.. http://soundcloud.com/raja4ever/srr-stereochannel

...

Vinod, this one is awesome sound quality. Can you give us the Sri Rama Rama theme in same quality ? God bless you
BTW, I think the best of IR's bgm is yet to come. I am not sure how many of our directors are formally educated in film making. Rahman mentioned for SlumDog millionaire he was given 27 (or so ) "cues". So he had to compose 27 "themes" alone. Wish IR got an opportunity to work with Hollywood movies or indian movies structured well like this. Then we will have a fully developed themes from him.

[kiru]

..That Raja believes in us (not tfmers but listeners ) more than we believe in ourselves. What I mean is that Raja is very sure that as a listener we will eventually 'get' the emotion and 'feel' the impact of the music....

You can say that.. He believes the human mind will respond to the music eventually. This is more like belief in the theory of music. If he sticks to the fundamentals of music making it will eventually appeal. This is the reason for his focus on learning indian and western classical music (all my guess/impression).
In a song, you could have sounds that have "musical" and "sonic" value. If the sounds are more of "sonic" value it will be pleasing and engaging when you listen to but if the "musical" value is not there it will not be something memorable. By 'musical' value - every note should be a function of the main melody. One of the reasons, IR's songs sometimes are very minimal - if he cannot come up with something, he just goes with the main tune alone. This is also the reason why I like IR's songs to be "acoustical" recordings. When there are only a single thread of music, it is the harmonics of the main note on that instrument (naadham) that provides the "ambience". If the main instrument is synth, it will not be harmonically rich (because of sampling/compression).

[app_engine]

HTNI disk this morning while driving to work...

When I reached the parking lot, kept skipping other tracks to play the 'Do anything' and have a special listen (Inside vaNdi in parking lot means pure, loud music in a superb sound system / acoustics and no external noises...BTW, with all the messing up of track names in the cassette, I hope I'm right with the reference. For ease of identification, this is the only track with flute predominant ; all others were violin-dominated )

For some reason, this piece often evokes an imaginary "wedding day" in the mind

Since rAsA music is mostly associated with cine / fantasy situations, though HTNI is a non-filmi album, one cannot help but bring up some movie-fantasy situations in imagination.

The beginning of the piece is like a calm "waking up in the morning" kind, quite removed from all busy activities that are expected to happen to the bride / groom / parents / relatives on that day.

pularum pozhudhu like any day. Such a calming, refreshing flute! The world slowly waking up to the morning sun - no rush and buzz yet.

As the music moves on, one gets a feeling of progressively increasing activities - dressing up, arrival of crowd, maNdapam kaLai kattal, cheerful crowd and beginning of the festivities...

When the shenAi sound arrives, one gets the feel of main "muhoortham" With all eyes in the maNdapam focussed on the couple, symbolization of wedding / crowd cheering etc. (ketti mELam, ketti mELam)!

Immediately after this, like in movies - editing mundane things as sAppAdu, one gets transported to the mudhaliravu room - padukkai with pookkaL, thanimai etc. The portion with the piano heralds the intimate moments between the newly wedded. The phenomenal strings moment that come after symbolizes "uchcham".

Towards the end one gets reminded of the lines of chANdilyan when he wrote a "samooka nAval / thodarkadhai" for the first time in vikatan, i.e. away from his regular sariththira kathaikaL, with ma.se's pictures (the artist signing as 'nAthan'). In one episode -of FN- he wrote 'sambanthaththAl kaLaiththuppOy vitta sathi-pathikaL iruvarum....'

Yes, it sounds like the couple slowly retiring into a delightful slumber...

Movie makers can tell a big story on screen in few minutes with just any one single piece of HTNI running in the background, and with absolutely no words spoken!

[KV]

Like some of the folks here, I too happened to catch parts of Guna on TV last night. Needless to comment about Raaja's contribution to the film, for many of us have already experienced/read/heard about the effect of his score.


One particular instance that I wanted to point out was the Unnai naan ariven song. A soothing lullaby in Jaanuma's voice aside, the situation and song traverses the night life of the area where Guna lives. The video (god, what brilliant cinematography! ) moves from Rekha singing to Kamal, to a hindustani recital in one of the neighbouring buildings and then to a dance performance in another building, where a group of ladies is seen dancing to a Telugu song set to AP folk style music. From what starts off as a typical Raaja lullaby (set to a carnatic raga?), there's a switch to pure hindustani style aalap and then to folk, and when he does this move, he doesn't try to keep it subtle or do a fusion or anything of that sort. The sound of the folk passage is quite raw and unadulterated. Some people, especially those with a ear for classical music, might chide at the idea of diluting/disrupting a nice lullaby with in-your-face agressive/raw folk music, but Raaja probably sees this as the best fit for the situation. And in my opinion, these different passages in the song operating in different styles is what makes it special.


here's this portion of the song:



Now, the reason why I brought this up was not to discuss Guna alone, but to touch upon a criticism that surfaced during the time of SRR's release about some of the folk songs in it. I remember one of the hubbers (mumbairamki, was it? and thumburu at the non-strikers end?) dismissing these songs as worthless and even something to the effect of them being embarassingly bad. It was obvious that Raaja had played the same trick again. Yes, the album is predominantly classical based, but that doesn't mean that there cant be room for a folk song or two in it, does it? Take the 'Rama Rama Rama' song for example. It's simple and catchy and definitely sounds folk. And it's meant to be all this because the situation in the movie is such - a little village boy singing to cheer up Sita abandoned in a forest. And the simplicity of the song - one can almost see some similarity in pattern to the Guna song - is probably one of the characteristic of the style/genre and Raaja nails it beautifully. We saw Aakarsh, Suresh and Plum advocate this back then and even before the release of the flim. Here's the video and it stands testimony to this school of thought.


rama rama rama from SRR:


Understanding the culture and backdrop of a film's setting and tailoring the score accordingly is one of Raaja's forte and there are very few composers with such deep levels of comprehension. Even after all this, if one were to complain that this folk lacks classicism (!), one just has to pity their lack of the ability to see the point.

[Vinodkumar]

Vinod, this one is awesome sound quality. Can you give us the Sri Rama Rama theme in same quality ? God bless you
BTW, I think the best of IR's bgm is yet to come. I am not sure how many of our directors are formally educated in film making. Rahman mentioned for SlumDog millionaire he was given 27 (or so ) "cues". So he had to compose 27 "themes" alone. Wish IR got an opportunity to work with Hollywood movies or indian movies structured well like this. Then we will have a fully developed themes from him.

Thank you ! You mean you want the full (all instr + vox) end credits or the "Sri Raama Raama" slokha? BTW, as promised, here is the piece of BGM that I was talking about. Almost to the 3/4 of the section, please note the Guitar enhancing the Veena. This was greatly suppressed in the original score. I discovered the guitar portions while working on this section and I enhanced it so that the listener would not miss it... Also, note the way this section ends.. oh my...

http://soundcloud.com/raja4ever/srr-purebliss

Enjoy...

[KV]

wow! utter beauty! and the audio quality sounds great! thanks a bunch, Vinod!

[Bala (Karthik)]

From what starts off as a typical Raaja lullaby (set to a carnatic raga?), there's a switch to pure hindustani style aalap

Keeravani, right?