a day in thiruvaiyaru by neelanjana

http://neelanjana.wordpress.com/2008/01/

gr8 kamal kb combo

enjoy some videos of this great combination of kamal hassan and k.balachander

An interaction between father and son of a musical family. kb's touch- 'inraiya seidhi- porum amaidhiyum'. a beautiful karaharapriya by maestro and sung by kjy



a beautiful love theme, first of its kind in indian film music.

mera saya - raag nand

Classic song by Lata from Mera Saya movie. idhu oru rare ragam. we have heard of raga mand. this is in raga nand.

simply put, it is shankarabharanam with prathi madhyama prayogam as well. but the raga swarupa is beautifully captured in this song.

http://www.sawf.org/Newedit/edit04032000/musicart.ASP

TAG DIGITAL ARCHIVES OF CARNATIC CONCERTS

TAG DIGITAL ARCHIVES OF CARNATIC CONCERTS' - the board attracted me. went inside and
inquired about the initiative. TAG corporation has archives of carnatic concerts for about 6000
hours and they have digitalised all of them and the archives are available for public listening.


heard seshu's poorna chandrika and aruna sairam's charangi concert in full. very gud effort. aruna
was as usual energetic. she has sung a bengali song in bhimplas. and the pahadi and behag
urupadis were also gud.


its absolutely free. anyone can visit the library. it is inside music academy compound.

december season 2008

worldspace vandha piragu kutcheri poradhuku somberithanama iruku. but still live is something different. innaiku music academy poyirundhen. lic and gic innaiku strike (bill introduced in rs to increase fdi in insurance sector) . so used the reprieve to visit the academy.

12 noon concert by swarna rethas. u can watch out for this guy. was in his elements. gud voice and gud selection of kritis. dikshitar's 'angarakam' in suruti was very well rendered. karaharapriya was the main item with 'pakkala neela pati'.

and jayashree aravind's veena recital from 2pm was also gud. particularly arabhi and anandabhairavi were enchanting. cud not attend the full concert. paper padikka velila vandhuten.

again this bad habit of reading 3-4 news papers has caught up with me it seems. express, hindu, times ellathilayum ore news daan. bore adicha paper padikardhu oru pazhakkama pochu.

of course i had stopped buying hindu last year after its worst coverage of 'bandh-unnaviradham' in october 2007. the paper lost one of its ardent reader of 20 years due to its silly bias.

unakku jayalalitha-va pudikalena adhukkaga karunanidhi enna pannalum kanduka maatia. jayalalithavoda aatkal bangalore pora vazhiyila ram-oda car-a gherao pannadhu attoozhiyam daan. adhuku nee jayalalitha-va edhirtha artham iruku. karunanidhiya edhuku support pannanum.

and congress enna pannalum 2 masam munnadi varaikum vaaya moodindu irundhadhu hindu. ippo left support withdraw panna vudane cartoon enna, editorial enna ore koothu daan. manmohan oru puppet-nu innaiku daan therinjudaama. 4.5 varushama appadi daan irukaru avaru.

'the hindu' is behaving like a typical cadre of communist party. kootani maarina vudane jayatv daan paarpan. adhu varaikum kalaignar news daan kaepenu adam pudipaan, such is the cpm cadre's loyalty to the party. sondhama sindhikkave maatan. katchi thalaimai enna sonnalaum seivaan. idha kattupadunu solradha illa kaiyalagadha thanam-nu solradha.

of course am not talking abt parties like dmk, admk and others. adhu ellam veena ponadhu-nu yaerkanave theriyum. cpm and hindu pathi edhuku solrena konjam urupadiyana alu kitta daan we can expect more. these 2 failed miserably in the recent exams. inimel, u can see hindu giving coverage to jayalalitha and oppose karunanidhi. enna pathirikai dharmamo?

ok. engeyo arambichu engeyo poyiten. paper padikardhaiye niruthi irundhen. innaiku thirupi 2-3 paper padichen. adha solla vandhen.

academy vittu velila vandha 'TAG DIGITAL LISTENING ARCHIVES' -nu oru board parthen.

...to be contd.

'pancha nadeesha pahimam' and maanida sevai drohama

this song of patnam subramanya iyer is a rarity and u can not find any references on the net. raja kept as it is just like 'nee daya raadha'.

kb only can make a social subject with carnatic music as background be it apoorva ragangal, varumaiyi niram sivappu or sindhubhairavi or umt. last of kb-kamal combo. gr8 movie, though it did not do well in box office.

it is in the raga poorna chandrika. other famous works in this raga are thyagaraja's 'telisi rama chintanatho' and shri ranganatham upasmahe by dikshitar.

hear the full version here:

http://www.thiraipaadal.com/albums/ALBIRR00686.html

it is actually pancha nadeesha paahimam. pancha nadhi eshwarar in thiruvaiyaaru. thiru ai aaru, that is the confluence of 5 tributaries of cauvery. there is a panchanadeeshwarar temple in thiruvaiyaru where thyagarajar used to visit.

For A Few Dollars More (Theme by Ennio Morricone)

engeyo kaeta madhiri iruka? thamizh-la prema pasam-nu oru padam. 'vannam indha vanjiyin vannam' nu adhula oru paatu varum. idhu daan adhu. the whistling is by alessandro alessandroni. morricone has beautifully used nammooru morsing. it is called jewish harp in western.

engeyo kaeta madhiri iruka? thamizh-la prema pasam-nu oru padam. 'vannam indha vanjiyin vannam' nu adhula oru paatu varum. idhu daan adhu. the whistling is by alessandro alessandroni

innum ennai from 'singaravelan'

innum ennai enna seiya pogirai

i once wrote that ears are just an extension of your mind. if u r biased enough you can even hear shankarabharanam in sindhu bhairavi.

when i heard the song first time i came to the conclusion that it is tilang. it continued till today. i never heard it critically again. i was so convinced that it is tilang, afterall a semitone difference, isnt it? but i had to hear it again today. it is indeed gambeera nattai.

and i have never actually referred to the a/a of tilang. so, i learnt today that it has n2 in avarohanam.

and the famous mallari in gambeera nattai i mentioned had biased me that gambeera nattai shud have the phrase mgrgs.

so all these made me think that it is tilang.


paadi varum vaanmathiye parvaigalin poompaniye

s..snp.....s..snp.....s..snp....s...gns...


yes. both np and ns are using n3. i have never heard a love song in gambeera nattai. as i already said there r very few compositions in g.n even in carnatic.

but still i feel, the bhava is more of tilang, because we play gambeera nattai only in plain notes without gamakam.

and the lines in charanam 'poovodu daan sera ilangatru poraadum podhu........theeermanam podu'

and 'nee daane naan padum sugamana akasha vani, padamal koodamal urangaadhu reengara theni' has some beautiful karvais reminding u of tilang eventhough it involves ni3.

there r no such thing hitherto in gambeera nattai in carnatic. raja is raja.

thanks krishnan and vel for making me hear the song once again, critically.

and another reason for my contention is all gambeera nattai compositions' eduppu is in shadjam like the famous 'sampoorna ramayanam' t.k.bhagavathy 's
lengthy exposition of ragas as ravana, or the mallari i mentioned, etc. like

'spmp gmpmg gmpmgmgs sgns sss ppp mmm ggg ss pp mm gambeera nattai' or

'sgp pmgmr nrg mgrgs'


and tilang compositions have eduppu in madhyamam or panchamam like

'mp mpmg' in prabho ganapathe or 'p..pm gs gmg' in 'shanthi nila vaendum' and 'mp mp mp mp mpmpmgs sgmp' in innum ennai enna seiya pogirai. and the only bhava for gambeera nattai is that of victory march or war declaration. and tilang being an hindustani raga can accomodate any anya swara safely tagged as misra tilang and is suitable for any possible bhava including love. u may also notice that the same sampurna ramayanam contains a song 'man magal mugam kandaen' in tilang which is a soga geetham.

generally when identifying the raga the most important thing that shud be taken into account is the bhava and then the scale or a/a. so this song is in the scale of gambeera nattai giving a feel of tilang.

thendral vandhu theendum podhu from 'avathaaram'

the song 'thenral vandhu' from avatharam is a classic example of seamless integration of genres. it is in the raga 'jonpuri'. nobody before ir has used this raga like this.

all the songs in jonpuri were composed in high pitches only. like
'naan petra selvam nalamana selvam' from 'naan petra selvam' and
kallile kalai vannam kandaan from 'kumudham'
andavan darisaname from agathiar etc.

but this song is in a lower pitch and the rhythm pattern is a very difficult one. the sandham is also very long as sung by raja.

thanda dana thaana naana thaana naana naaa thanananaaa.....

people used to complain in 80-90's, that these days the sandham is very short like

'tha na thana na' in 'vaa vaa pakkam vaa'

compared to golden oldies like, malarndhum malaradha, nenaikka therindha maname
etc.

but this song is a great answer to those questions. and the picturisation also was very gud. similar to 'kumudham' sequence when ssr takes sowcar to a mahabalipuram trip and explains the sculptures.

but nasser had the advantage of colour. i saw the movie in the first week of release at albert theatre in 95. noon show. motham 50 paer daan irundhom. it was nasser's debut directorial venture.

when the line 'ennangalukku etha padi vannam ellam maarum amma' he overlaps a unripe green plantain heap 'vaazhai thaar' with a ripe yellow one. i thought 'well, here is a gud director'.

enname vaazhkai. isnt it. beautiful visual. he passed as a director as far as i was concerned.

the bgm score was also awesome. towards the end nasser takes narasimha avataram and kills balasingh. and u shud notice the victory smile of nasser changing into a remorseful face repenting the murder. raja's music takes this sequence to an ethereal plane. and all the 50 present, including 'kudimagangal' gave a standing ovation when the end credits started with raja's music.

i thought 'ok. office leave pottadhu veen pogala'.

man anand from vijeta 1982

rekha is one of the best actresses in indian cinema. what a beautiful face and what a deluge of emotions on that face. it is a loss to tfm that she opted for hindi movies. she is my definition of beauty with brains.

vijeta is best suited for this season movie, with war over pakistan being discussed. gr8 aerial shots with mig fighter planes. just now saw the movie in 9x channel. rekha is just great and so is supriya. beautiful emoting. govind nihalini's best. amrish puri's best ever and heartening to see him not as a villain but as an legendary officer. shashi is also gud with controlled emotions. overall a great movie.

this is in raag ahir bhairavi sung by parveen sultana. music by siddhartha dave.

Danza n°1 By Antonio Ruiz-Pipo

raja has used this composition in murattu kaalai. no need to say he liked it very much and wanted us also to listen the same.

it's quite common to get inspired. after all there is no music without inspiration.

anything can be an inspiration. a story, a situation, an actor, a composer, a musician, an instrument, any sound in nature, anything .

but what a great one does is he embraces the inspiration and comes out with his natural and original response to the inspiration.

sometimes a composer deliberately uses part of the inspiration to denote that he got inspired from that piece.

sometimes, a composer wants to share with the world what he felt hearing to a piece.

if raja had not used that piece, i cant talk for every one, but most of us, including me wud not have heard this beautiful piece.

but there is a great difference between raja using some good tunes for reasons like the above, and others copying some tunes due to lack of creativity.

just as there is a great difference between a wealthy man observing ekadasi viradham, and a beggar remaining without food on a ekadasi due to non availability of food.

Bob Marley - Buffalo Soldier

Buffalo Soldier, dreadlock rasta:
There was a Buffalo Soldier in the heart of America,
Stolen from Africa, brought to America,
Fighting on arrival, fighting for survival.

If you know your history,
Then you would know where you coming from,
Then you wouldn't have to ask me,
Who the 'eck do I think I am.

I'm just a Buffalo Soldier in the heart of America,
Stolen from Africa, brought to America,
Said he was fighting on arrival, fighting for survival;
Said he was a Buffalo Soldier in the war for America.

Dreadie, woy yoy yoy, woy yoy-yoy yoy,
Woy yoy yoy yoy, yoy yoy-yoy yoy!
Woy yoy yoy, woy yoy-yoy yoy,
Woy yoy yoy yoy, yoy yoy-yoy yoy!
Buffalo Soldier troddin' through the land, wo-ho-ooh!
Said he wanna ran, then you wanna hand,
Troddin' through the land, yea-hea, yea-ea.

Said he was a Buffalo Soldier win the war for America;
Buffalo Soldier, dreadlock rasta,
Fighting on arrival, fighting for survival;
Driven from the mainland to the heart of the Caribbean.

Dreadie, woy yoy yoy, woy yoy-yoy yoy,
Woy yoy yoy yoy, yoy yoy-yoy yoy!
Woy yoy yoy, woy yoy-yoy yoy,
Woy yoy yoy yoy, yoy yoy-yoy yoy!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fEQXvsQJVnY

three colours- white theme by Zbigniew Preisner

Krzysztof Kieślowski is a polish director. he has directed more than 10 features and 25 documentaries. the above piece of music comes in the trilogy 'trois coleurs:blanc'.the double life of veronica is also one of his famous movie.

this polish movie with 3 parts red white and blue has some beautiful music from Zbigniew Preisner. released in 93-94.


Preisner studied history and philosophy in Kraków. Never having received formal music lessons, he taught himself about music by listening and transcribing parts from records.

Preisner is best known for his work on Kieślowski’s movies. Some of these movies make reference to and contain music by a fictitious eighteenth-century Dutch composer, Van den Budenmayer. In actuality, all music credited to Budenmayer within the context of the films is composed by Preisner. Similarly, in Kieślowski’s Three Colors: Blue the “Song For The Unification of Europe”, written by Preisner, is supposed to be composed by one of the characters in the film.





listen to all preisner's music here.

http://www.last.fm/music/Zbigniew+Preisner

o fortuna with 300 in background

i heard this piece of carl orff first in a tv ad of old spice when i was around 10. i didnt know anything about music at that time. but it was my first tryst with wcm. it was my favourite.

in recent times a movie i enjoyed watching was '300'. zack snyder has romanced the spartan way of facing death. it may look gory but ratham therikardha kooda rombave rasichu eduthirukaan manushan. surely it is not for all. so weak hearted, dont even try.

i imagined being a spartan and thrusting a spear on all politicians's chests. it was highly satiating. indha madhiri namma arasiyalvadhigalai kuthi theerkanum asai theera. at least karpanailayavadhu.

present u 'carmina burana' with '300' in the background.
this was performed by the Atlanta Philharmonic, taken from the movie EXCALIBUR soundtrack. 1980s!

dil doondtha hai from mausam

there is a song 'nee enge en ninaivugal ange' from the movie 'mannippu'. it was tuned with 2 different melodies but same lyrics. similarly 'dil doondtha hai' from mausam also has 2 versions with same lyrics. madan mohan is the md with beautiful lyrics from gulzar.

sandhana punnagai from nadodi raja

this film starred Rajiv, Aruna, Satyaraj, VA Nirmala, Silk Smitha, Sangili Murugan, YGM, Y.Vijaya and others. It was produced by Geetha Srinivasan and directed by S.M.Umar.

it is an useless movie in which rajiv's manasatchi takes mgr form and thiruthify him. in those days all heroes will have a link with mgr in their movies. summa mgr poster illa mgr padam edhavadhu vachu oru scene eduthuduvaanga.

even that was enough to cajole the distributors to buy the movie. ippo kooda all magazines do that. business konjam dull-a irundha rajini rishikesh ponaar, bathroom ponaar-nu edhaiyavadhu pottu circulation-a ethuvaanga. cheap publicity stunts by content-less magazines. even some mediocre politicians do this. krishnaswamy, thiruma, ramadoss, anbumani all these people when they want publicity will take rajini or kamal to task and will appear in next day dailies. silly thugs.

coming to the song, sung by spb and sj this song had music by shankar ganesh. the duo managed a gud melody somehow reminding u of pani vizhum malarvanam. based on chalanatai, it is a gud attempt.

another mgr pugazh paadum song ' enga veetu pillai nee thanaiyya' is also sung by spb.

http://www.dhool.com/cgi-bin/stream.pl?url=http://www.dhool.com/sotd/sandhanasg.rm