Nearest Neighbor – Female choir and flute

Flute and female choir is not uncommon. However, when the female choir is in a pitch that is very close to the flute, you are walking in dangerous territory as one of the two components tends to become redundant. This favors the flute more than the female choir, as it is hard to conduct a choir than getting a flute player to play the notes. Why bother conducting a choir when you have the easy way of completing the phrases with flute? Raja has several compositions where he has used this combination next to each other with ease and mostly, his painstaking choir and the flute complement each other as the melodies they play are complementary. This is tough business in orchestration that most composers stay away from.

The first 28 seconds of the clip are from the interlude of the song ‘Halli Lavaniyalli’ from Namoora Mandara Hoove (Kannada 1997). Initially, you will hear the flute and the choir separately playing their complementary melodies. However, towards the end (after 22 seconds), the experiment of merging these two melodies to play simultaneously clearly demonstrates, that they do sound great, when in the hands of the master.

 From 30 seconds onwards in the clip, the interlude of the song, ‘Enna Varam Vendum’ from ‘Nandavana Theru’ (Tamil 1995) plays. The flute plays for at least 10 seconds in the background with the female choir adds phrases in the foreground. From 41 second to til end of the clip is a beautiful arrangement of female choir, flute and violins all playing their parts simultaneously, for about 40 seconds. It is a treat to hear such beautiful work in an area that composers never go. They should, as the master has shown the way.

Let’s hear these Nearest Neighbors – Female choir and flute …