The G Clef

Thursday, November 24, 2005

First Indian Oratorio Thiruvasagam by Maestro Ilayaraja

திருவாசகத்துக்கு உருகாதார் ஒரு வாசகத்துக்கும் உருகார்
one who does not get moved by ThiruvAchakam will not be moved by anything else.
-- Rev. G.U. Pope

George Uglow Pope popularly known as Rev. G.U. Pope or G.U. Pope is a Christian missionary who spent many years in Tamil Nadu and translated many Tamil texts into English. His popular translations include Tirukkural and Tiruvachagam.

Thiruvasagam. Written by Mannikkavasagar, one whose words are like gems wrote the eighth ThirumuRai consisting of ThiruvAchakam, ThiruvempAvai and ThirukkOvaiyAr. He was born in ThiruvAthavUr in the late 8th or early 9th century A.D. He was a minister in the PAndya Kingdom but when he was sent to purchase horses for the army, he spent all the money in religious pursuits. Lord Sivan is supposed to have blessed him with his grace and saved him from the wrath of the King.

Maestro Illayaraja The famous Music composer of south india, attempted to compose this Tamil script into a magnificant western musical form called Oratorio . Its really superb master piece by this great leagend. In this music he composed 2 song in form of western March and in Ballet form.
In second song Illaraja tryes to combine the Manikkavasagars tamil script with G.U. Popes English Translation into one and make it wonderful Song.

The Album contains six tracks.

1. Poovaar Senni Mannan ( Singer : Illayaraja & Chorus) :
The album starts with the song " Poovaar Senni Mannan", which has booming chorus and soulful singing by Illayaraja.
A great start to the Album. In western this is called as March. Manikkavasagar calls those people who want to follow hime to reach lotus feet of the lord.

2. Pollaa Vinayen ( Singers : Illayaraja,Ray Harcourt) :
This is the crown jewel of the Album. Its a lengthy piece with lyrics in both English & Tamil. Tamil lyric by Mannika vasagar and English: a translation of original lyrics. Translatted by Rev. G.U. Pope.
Stunned composition and excellent orchestration. Raja oozes with emotion in this song.

3. Pooerukonum Purantharanum ( Singers : Illayaraja,Bavatharini) :
A melodious song with a strong carnatic base. A typical Raja's unique duet.

4. Umbarkatkarasaey ( Singer : Illayaraja) :
Another Soulful number. Wonderful singing and excellent orchestration. Here poet expresses his feeling after hugging the Lord. In this song, Manikkavasagar asks the lord who is already in his captive, how he will be seen in other places.

5. Muthu Natramam ( Singers :Unnikrishnan, Madhu Balakrishnan,VijayJesudas,Manjari,Asha,Gayathri & Chorus) :
A very "crispy" song with wonderful chorus. This song is almost like a Western Ballet.

6. Puttril Vazh Aravum Anjen :
Raja's tribute to Manickavasagar. The song has nice "wordy" interludes in the beginning . Poet express his feeling of his fear. The starting stanza depects the emotion of the poet to the sumeet.

The "Thiruvachagam" is a must buy for music lovers and hope Raja continues such musical endeavors in the future.To paraphrase one of raja's film songs " Raja Kayya vecha adhu raanga ponadhillai".This is definitely a stunning fusion of Western Classical & Carnatic music. I bow to his genius.
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Posted by Rajmahendra :: Thursday, November 24, 2005 :: 218 Comments:

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Thursday, November 17, 2005

Maestro Illayaraja

Illayaraja is one of the world's most prolific film music composers, having composed for over 750 films over an illustrious career spanning more than 28 years.

Birth and family;
He was born in a poor rural family in pannaiapuram near Madurai in Tamil Nadu, south India. His birth name is Gnanadesikan and his school records indicate his name as Rasaiya. His father Ramasamy's premature death threw the family into severe poverty. His brother Ganghei Amaran (Amarsingh) is also a composer and a song writer.

Illayaraja is married to Jeeva and they have three children. Two sons Karthik Raja and Yuvan Shankar Raja, both are composers and daughter Bhavatharini is a singer and composer.

Past time;
He loves writing poetry and has written lyrics for some songs not only in Tamil but also in Hindi! He is highly spiritual and composed many devotional songs on Ramana Maharshi. He loves photography.

Music career;
Without much formal education, he completed a course in classical guitar (higher local) with a gold medal at the Trinity College of Music in London.

His film career started from the movie Annakilli. Illayaraja was instrumental in bringing about a fusion of Tamil folk and film music. He won the national Best Film Music Composer award three times for the Telugu movies Saagara Sangamam (1984), Sindhu Bhairavi (1986) and Rudra Veena (1988).

He is the first Asian to compose a full symphony for the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra (RPO). His music is mainly associated with the '80s, the decade during which he was most prolific. After his symphony, he was called by the name 'Maestro' Ilayaraja.

Illayaraaja is credited with a truly unique orchestration technique, which involves blending of western and Indian instruments. Normally, lyrics are written to suit his pre-determined tunes. This composing technique was used by him for the first time in India. Today it has become a norm.

His two fusion albums;
Beside his career in film music for Tamil, Telugu and other Indian films, he had written lyrics to fusion albums blending western classical music with Indian carnatic raagas.

How to Name it?
One of the tracks is based on Preludium in E by Johann Sebastian Bach
The whole idea behind the album was, 'What if Bach and Thyagaraja had met in their age and combined to create a new genre of music'. Clearly, the album testifies to that proposal. The tracks are simply the best bits of fusion music ever composed. The album was dedicated to Carnatic composer Tyagaraja and Johann Sebastian Bach

Nothing But Wind;
It suggests that music is a natural phenomenon akin to wind.

He has developed good association with Carnatic musicians like Dr.Mangalampalli BalaMuraliKrishna and T.V. Gopalakrishnan. He has also got some flak from conservative Carnatic music fans for rewriting some of Tyagaraja's compositions. He invented a raga by name Panchamukhi, which is looked at by some of the Carnatic Purists as faux and by the general crowd as an Achievement.

In 2002, his compostion "Rakkama Kaiya Thattu" from the movie Dhalapathi stayed at the top of BBC list of the best songs for quite a while, before finishing at 4th place.

He was the music composer for the Miss World 1996 Pageant, held at Bangalore. His latest hit is Mumbai Xpress (2005), with several strong elements that gave it a Jazz appeal.

His most recent work is that of the Thiruvasakam in Symphony.
This is an Oratorio of Thiruvasakam with Symphony orchestration. [Coming soon in my another article.]

Awards and Nominations;

* Presented with the Best Film Music Composer Award, an annual award, by the Government of India in the years 1984, 1986 and 1988.

* Presented with 'Kalaimamani Award', an annual award for excellence in the field of arts, by the Government of the State of Tamil Nadu, India.

* Presented with the Award of Governement of the State of Andhra Pradesh, India, for excellence in music.

* Conferred the title 'Isaignani' (wisest in the field of music) in the year 1988, at Karaikudi, Tamil Nadu, India.

* Conferred the Degree of Doctor of Letter (Honoris causa) in March, 1994, by the Annamalai University, Tamil Nadu, India.

* Conferred the Cultural Doctorate in Philosophy of Music, in April, 1994, by the World University Round Table, Arizona, U.S.A.

* Award of Appreciation presented in the year 1994, by the Foundation and Federation of Tamil Sangams of North America.

* Bestowed with the honorary citizenship and presented with the key to the Teaneck Township, by Mr. John Abraham, Mayor of Township of Teaneck, New Jersey, U.S.A., in June 1994.

* Presented with the Award of Governement of the State of Kerala, India, in the year 1995, for excellence in music.

* Conferred the Degree of Doctor of Letter, in the year 1996, by the Madurai Kamarajar University, Tamil Nadu, India.

* Presented with the Lata Mangeshkar Award for Excellence in Music, constituted by the Government of Madhya Pradesh, India, for the year 1998.

His Other Albums;
* Thiruvasakam
* How to name it?
* Nothing But Wind (Flute played by Hariprasad Chaurasia)
* Rajavin Ramanamaalai
* Illayaraja's Geethanjali
* India 24 Hours

His Literary Works;
* Sangeetha Kanavugal (Musical Dreams - about European tour)
* Vettaveli thanil kotti kidakkuthu (Poems)
* Vazhithunai
* Gnagna Ganga
* Paal Nila Paathai
* Unmaikku Thirai Yethu?
* Yaarukku Yaar Ezhuthuvathu?
* En Narambu Veenai

Posted by Rajmahendra :: Thursday, November 17, 2005 :: 53 Comments:

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Tuesday, November 15, 2005

My Classical Guitar Tabs

Classical guitar, also called Spanish guitar, is a wonderful Musical instrument. Classical guitar has three steel strings and three nylon strings for bass, unlike six steel strings in regular guitars. This instrument is played with bare fingers without using Plucktrum. When I started learning guitar in my favorite Musical school, 3B School of Music, Chennai, I never knew about Classical guitar. I was very much impressed by the sound it creates, when I saw other students playing it in my school. In a single instrument, you can listen 2 to 3 tracks.

Classical guitar provides same music like piano, a melody line and a bass. There are many similarities between Piano and Classical guitar. One main and interesting similarity is the Score or the musical writing, Piano has, as I said two tracks of melody and bass. Score of Classical guitar, merges the both into one link but the player knows the difference and he plays similar music.

About my Music School:

3B School of Music; 3B is the short form of calling three great composers of western music they are Johann Sebastian Bach, Ludwig van Beethoven and Johannes Brahms. The school is situated in Southern Chennai, Tamil Nadu, India. 3B School of Music, teaches western instruments like Guitar, Classical Guitar, Keyboard, and Violin with Indian instruments like Mridangam, tabla and also dance and vocal.

Basic Notes:

Music, Human's greatest discovery, without having link with various parts of the world, all types of musical scale has seven notes! It is not a discovery that one or a group of people sat and framed the seven scales. Individually in many parts of the world, separately invented this art. However, all follow the same seven notes. Only difference is, how the seven notes are read.

In India the origin of Solfege is found in Vedic texts like Upanishads, It sounds like Sa, Re, Ga, Ma, Pa, Dha, Ne. Some other places it is directly used as English alphabets C, D, E, F, G, A, B. Other places as Do, Re, Mi, Fa, Sol, La, Ti. and so on,

Web Resources;

I found a web site on the net, a wonderful resource for learning. The Classical Guitar Tab site. It is an archive of many composers of all time. I too had the opportunity to contribute in that site, which I would like to share with you. It is like an ocean of archives comprising composers from many countries. Some of my contributions in the site are:

Edward Hagerup Grieg (1843-1907)
Op 46 - Peer Gynt, Suite No 1 - Morning Mood - MIDI - [easy]

Jean Paul Martini (1741 - 1816)
Plaisir d' Amour - MIDI - [easy]

anonymous / traditional
Incomparable - MIDI - [easy]

Above Transcriptions are also available in Ultimate Guitar site also

more to come in future :)

Posted by Rajmahendra :: Tuesday, November 15, 2005 :: 18 Comments:

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Monday, November 14, 2005

The G Clef

Base clef for all lead music.

Welcome to my blog. This blog mainly focus on the Western Classical Music and Classical/Spanish Guitar.

Here you can fine my articles on Musical Instruments, musical Maestros like Bach, Beethoven, Mozart, Sor, Carcassi etc and all about Classical/Spanish Guitar.

Visit the blog and post your comments regularly.

Thank you,
Rajmahendra

Posted by Rajmahendra :: Monday, November 14, 2005 :: 5 Comments:

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About Me

Zubin Mehta