A
Technical Celebration of Music - Part VI
Song:
Lalitha Priya Kamalam Virisinadhi.. (Telugu)
Film: Rudra Veena
Scale : Lalitha
Monday,
March 17, 2003
This
is the sixth 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 a masterpiece in Lalitha raga, a raga that has been used
rarely in film music. Though it is a duet song it has been painted
with semi-classical colors probably because the story of the film
has a backdrop of classical music and dance.
One
can easily grasp the structure of the raga after listening to
this song. Throughout the song, the composer has made the sa as
his home (most of the cases higher sa) and has visited the other
locations in the raga, returning back to this home. This is a
common practice in carnatic music where in the performer rotates
round a single note. Ilayaraja has attempted to use a similar
technique in film music, through this song.
The
song is loaded with a number of soothing phrases in Lalitha raga.
The composer touches the higher dha during the end of the charanam.
This is a unique feature in this song since it is a rare event
in south Indian classical music to reach as high as the dha in
the higher octave. The song does not go lower than the ni in the
lower octave. One of the reasons for this could be to maintain
the pleasant and romantic mood of the song situation and to avoid
the feeling of pathos that the lower notes are known to evoke.
The
song starts off with the chiming of temple bells symbolizing the
sanctity and divinity of the relationship between the characters
in the song (who happen to be a brahmin boy and a harijan girl).
This is followed by string arrangement and short dialogues between
guitar, flute and piano. A typical "Ilayaraja" kind
of orchestration for a short thirty two second prelude!!
A
unique rhythm pattern in the first interlude, the piano and strings
harmony in the beginning of the second interlude, the haunting
melodies on the flute in both the interludes are some of the aspects
that come up to Ilayaraja very casually, and that make a strong
impact on the listeners with their creative and unique sound palette.
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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