We will stay musical and not get into deep statistics. Nearest neighbor in the world of statistics is about the point in a given data set that is closest (or most similar) to a given point. Unlike statisticians, most musicians and specially composers avoid nearest neighbors when they compose popular music. In other words, it is considered risky business to bring two instruments of very close tonality next to each other. Easy neighbors are very tonally different. Example, violins and flute or guitar and saxophone.
Readers of this blog, should have by now got accustomed to Raja, who defies conventional wisdom in anything he touches. The nearest neighbor phenomenon is something you find in several of Raja’s compositions and he has no problem with these instruments of close tonality being next to each other. One of the major exception to this analysis will be Raja’s percussion. Tonal nearest neighbors in percussion is such a long list that almost every other Raja song has them. A dholak and a tabla, or a ghatam and khanjira next to each other is something every Indian classical music lover has heard in many concerts. I will only cover some freaky nearest neighbor combos in percussion such as a western drum and a tabla, Mirudhangam and tabla, or mirudhangam and drums
When others shy away from such experimentation, how is it so easy for Raja to do such bold adventures? In my view, his training in WCM helps him to seek out such adventures as he has such a mastery over melodic structures. If your melodic line is identical and you use two very close sounding instruments, your experiment is bound to fail. However, when you have the ability to arrange different melodies is such a way that even the tonally close neighbors can sound very pleasant when placed next to each other, or even played simultaneously, you have a winner. It is about how you craft the melodies adjacent or overlapping each other. That requires an enormous grasp over the theory and practice of musical systems (he does it in all types of music). In all these nearest neighbor constructs, there is no one technique that Raja follows. It is a mixed bag of techniques that are dependent on the composition itself. These nearest neighbors could be part of a polyphonic, CaRe, PolyCaRe, and even be part of a polyrhythm experiment.
It must be pointed out that some tonal neighbors are widely accepted in film music that I will not touch upon. Examples, are, Flute and flute, Synthesizer and synthesizer, guitar and guitar.
Here is how these Nearest Neighbor (NN) posts will be structured:
- NN – Guitar and sitar: Tonally very close, this post will showcase the guitar and sitar being next to each other and perfectly delivering quality music
- NN – Guitar and veena: Again, tonally close, these are seldom used next to each other till Raja started experimenting with these instruments being placed next to each other
- NN – Guitar and Synthesizer – While the synthesizer’s tone can be close to several instruments depending on the pitch and the various built-in tones you chose, today, several compositions (including some of Raja) are played on the keyboard. While it gets a bit harder to tell the difference, there are compositions, where you can. Placing them by design next to each other has been deliberate by the composer
- NN – Mirudhangam and tabla – while these have been used in Jugalbandhis, they are rarely used in film music, until Raja
- NN – Tabla and bass guitar – tonally very close, they are rarely placed next to each other
- NN - Tabla and drums – While the sound of these two percussion instruments is different, many composers have used these percussion instruments (includes Raja) for one part of the song and moved to the other instrument for the second part. However, rarely these two instruments are placed next to each other.
- NN – Female solo and flute – female tonal range of some singers is very close to a flute and Raja has used them in his music
- NN – Female voice and electric guitar – Some electric guitar tomes mimic the female voice range and placing them next to each other is risky as the listener may mistake one for the other. However, by constructing creative melody lines, Raja has some songs where he keeps them together and still makes them distinct
- NN – Female voice and santoor – Santoor is an instrument with a distinct sound. Placing a female voice that has a tone close to it is something only Raja has experimented
- NN – Female choir and flute – tonally matching a female choir and flute is very hard and risky and Raja does this too
- NN – Male choir and distortion guitar – tonally very close, few can think of placing them next to each other
- NN – Shehnai and Trumpet – tonally very close, from two parts of the world, Raja has used them as neighbors successfully in some of his interludes
- NN – Sax and Trumpet- this is almost counterintuitive. Even these unlikely neighbors are placed next to each other.
- NN - Bass guitar and Cello –Both these instruments have a very low tone and generally is delegated to a support role. There are some songs where Raja has placed these two very similar sounding instruments next to each other with interesting melodies for each of them
- NN – Flute and Synthesizer – While the synthesizer’s tone can be close to several instruments depending on the pitch and the various built-in tones you chose, today, several compositions (including some of Raja) are played on the keyboard. While it gets a bit harder to tell the difference, there are compositions, where you can. Placing them by design next to each other has been deliberate by the composer
- NN – Sitar and bass guitar – This is a very strange bedfellow as bass guitar, a staple Raja instrument stays behind most instruments elevating it then come to the forefront and be next to another foreground instrument. Even such experiments have been possible for Raja
- NN -Pizzicato strings and Bass guitar – Another strange set of bedfellows as plucked strings at lower tones can sound very similar to bass guitar. Placing these two instruments next to each other requires very distinct melodies that not only makes it pleasant but also easy to hear
- NN – Veena and synthesizer – Raja does some compositions where he chooses tones on a synthesizer that are very close to a veena and places them next to each other
- NN - Veena and sitar – Veea and sitar have tones that are different to the most discerning ear. However, Raja has created fantastic melodies and placed them next to each other that makes such close cousins distinct
- NN - Trumpet and electric guitar – There are several 80s and 70s track where Raja used the tones of an electric guitar that is close to a wind instrument such as trumpet and also dared to place them next to each other
All the categories are strange bedfellows that can never be seen together, with the exception of Raja’s music. In the posts that follow, I will provide detailed examples of such nearest neighbors. If you dig through other composer’s work, you may land on a few near neighbors, but definitely not 20 such nearest neighbors. Many such neighbors have multiple compositions as well. Feel free to add your additional observations as Raja’s body of work is very huge.
