In the past
year or so, we enjoyed analyzing the PolyCaRe arrangements of Raja over 24
posts, not counting the introductory posts. This research took about a year
looking for such arrangements over an extensive set of songs and background
scores. Polyphony is hard and it is not easy to master.
Many composers have
used simple harmony to get through their careers as simple western harmony is
rich enough. While Call and Response is
a staple Indian musical technique , very few Indian popular music composers are
using this today. Polyphony is something
that very few Indian popular music composers have a solid understanding on.
To not just
compose polyphonic music but to go beyond that is not something you get to
experience every day. You need to have such a solid grounding on musical
techniques, for you to venture into such unsafe territory. Fortunately, the
level of complexity of a PolyCaRe composition does not challenge Raja at all.
We saw close to 80 such compositions by Raja considering his songs and
background scores. This requires a level
of sophistication with orchestration that few composers around the world can
match.
The posts
on symmetry showcased Raja’s ability to effortlessly compose CaRe based music.
The detailed posts on counterpoints, fugue showcased his mastery over
polyphony. PolyCaRe is where the former meets the later and they coexist. These
24 posts and about 80 compositions show that he is not just a master of the
components but also a very savvy integrator of two sophisticated techniques.
While a
number of listeners do celebrate his music due to its emotional connect to
their lives, there is also a technical dimension to celebrate his work. While
there can be more popular musicians than him in the near future, I have no
doubt that there will be none of his level of musical technical sophistication,
which goes unnoticed due to the simplicity that overlays the sophistication.
