Nearest Neighbor – Female solo and guitar

As I mentioned in the previous post, Raja tends to use Janaki’s voice as an orchestral element in his compositions. While flute is an unlikely neighbor, as its tone is pretty close to a female voice, for some reason, female voices also have never been used alongside electric guitar in Indian film music. As always, he is the first to try this combination and it turns out to be a great one. It is hard to play Indian melodies with electric guitar, but today with the accessories, it has got easier.  Both these clips are with Janaki’s voice and the electric guitar in this post.

The first 18 seconds in the clip is from the song, ‘Vaa Vennila’ from the film, ‘Mella thirandhadhu kadhavu (Tamil 1986)’. The Janaki humming is played by the guitar in response initially, and later by the synthesizer playing guitar tones. From 20 seconds onwards, is from the song ‘Poomaalai Oru Paavai’ from ‘Thanga Magan (Tamil 1983)’. Throughout this clip,  the guitar plays the melody first and Janaki hums it back. A very nice marriage of unlikely neighbor that only Raja colonizes!

Let’s hear these Nearest Neighbors – Female solo and guitar … 

Nearest Neighbor – Female solo and flute

 Raja has used Janaki as his main female voice for several reasons. One of the reasons is her voice can be used as an instrument along with another musical instrument. In this post, all the songs but one are by Janaki and the musical instrument is the flute. While using female voices for humming is a very old technique, very rarely, composers have used great female voices as instruments and have demonstrated it as an orchestral element.  The female voice and the flute are close neighbors and very rarely they are placed next to each other. Of course, Raja is all about standing out from conventional thinking.

The first 100 seconds of the clip is from the song Edalolaya from the film Anveshana (Telugu 1985). The whole song is an orchestral experiment with Janaki’s voice and the flute. Some parts are arranged as musical notes sang by Janaki and others as humming by her. The flute responds to every note she sings or hums and it is a very clever use of her voice along with an unlikely neighbor, flute. Between 23 and 46 seconds, within this clip, Raja uses the keyboard as the steady background melody with Janaki and the flute as the foreground melody. The foreground melody uses a call and response technique. This is PolyCare at the next level where Raja simply replaces one of his foreground instruments with Janaki’s voice. Brilliant masterstroke!

Between 1:42 qand 2:24 seconds is from the song, Kogile Kooguvaa, from Prem Kahani (Kannada 2009). Here Raja uses Bela Shinde’s voice along with the flute and synthesized keys to place them initially farther and towards the end of this segment, brings them pretty close. 

Between 2:26 and 2:49 seconds is from the song, ‘Oru Kili Urugudhu’ from Ananda Kummi (Tamil 1982), where Raja uses two voices to simulate a flute and towards the end of the clip brings in the actual flute itself to show the tonal difference.

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

Nearest Neighbor – Mirudhangam-Tabla and drums

 Before Raja’s arrival, mirudhangam was delegated to film music that is heavily Carnatic centric in South Indian films. It was never considered as a mainstream instrument. Raja changed that and gave both mirudhangam and the bass guitar its right place in film music. Raja goes the additional step of using the ‘never’ neighbors mirudhangam and drums as near neighbors. That’s a lot of ‘out of the box’ thinking in arranging music.

The first 25 seconds of the clip is the postlude of the song , ‘Megham Kottattum’ from ‘EnakkuL Oruvan (Tamil 1984). It starts off as a simple call and response and Raja transforms this into a complete polyrhythym between both these unlikely neighbors. That is a master’s touch in bringing two cultures together in 25 seconds and let them coalesce giving a pleasant musical experience. Between 28 and 40 seconds the second clip is the prelude of the song, ‘Ooru Vittu Ooru Vandhu’ from Karakaatakaaran (Tamil 1991). Raja arranges the thavil and the drums in a call and response arrangement. Another very strange marriage of South Indian folk and western paradigms. Such experiments are like playing with fire in a commercial situation and Raja creates a commercially hit tune, along with his unique experiment. The last part of the clip is a beautiful colony that Raja creates for several homes for, mirudhangam, tabla, drums, guitar, flute all collaborating to create bharathanatyam music. This is from the background score of ‘Japanil Kalyanaraman’ (Tamil 1984).

Let’s hear these Nearest Neighbors – Mirudhangam-Tabla and drums …

Nearest Neighbor – Mirudhangam and tabla

Most popular Indian music of today avoid both these instruments. Mirudhangam occasionally features in songs that are based on Carnatic classical ragam. Electronic rhythm pads have almost eliminated the tabla and even if tabla is used, it gets drowned in the loud folk songs of today in films.  Raja, not only used these two instruments a lot, he has also used them in very unusual situations.  The focus here is not in the usage of these instruments separately, but how these close cousins are used in a single composition.  In this nearest neighbor, Raja, surprisingly uses just one technique, call and response.

The first 8 seconds of the clip is a call and response between the tabla and the mirudhangam in the song, 'Sanga Thamizh Kaviye' from Manadhil Urudhi Vendum (Tamil 1988). The second part of the clip is from the song, ‘Manjolai Kili thaano’ from Kizhakke Pogum Rayil (1978 Tamil). In this song too, the call is from the tabla and the response is from the mirudhangam.

Let’s hear these Nearest Neighbors – Mirudhangam and tabla ...

 

Nearest Neighbor – Guitar and Synthesizer

Today, most guitar sounds in popular music are actually played on the synthesizer. However, there are some songs, where Raja has chosen tones that are close to a guitar and placed them next to an actual guitar. This requires an out-of-the-box thinking that can potentially backfire. While some may have, this post will include a few examples, where the experiment worked very well. As with all other nearest neighbor examples, there is no one technique that he follows. I will describe them along with the clips. 

The first 18 seconds of this clip is the song ‘Thene Thenpandi Meene’ from Udhaya Geetham (Tamil 1984). The guitar and the synthesizer play the same notes and still you can clearly hear them separately too. Thought he composer places them this way, it is not out of place at all. The second part is from the song, ‘Ponnil Vaanam Poothathu Kolangale’ from Villu Paatu Kaaraen (Tamil 1992). The composer chooses to have the guitar and the synthesizer as a parallel counterpoint, enhancing the beautiful composition. The last part of the clip is from the song ‘Vasantha Nilave’ from Sooryan (Malayalam 2007). In this clip, the composer arranges a call from the synthesizer for which the guitar responds.

 Let’s hear these Nearest Neighbors – Guitar and Synthesizer

Nearest Neighbor – Guitar and Veena

Like the previous example, veena is the south Indian cousin of the sitar and is considered not so wise to place it next to the guitar in most compositions. In some Carnatic instrumental concerts that now have guitar as one of the instruments, they make it a point to avoid bringing veena into such adventures! Raja has done so much work with these two instruments as neighbors, I had a hard time, trying to narrow the clip as it can get very long if all examples are included. I will mention the tracks which made it to this shortlist, but could not be included in the clip you will hear in this post. Like the sitar counsin, the veena has been deployed by Raja with his slew of western classical techniques. 

The first 12 seconds of the audio clip is the interlude of the song ‘Kamalam Paada Kamalam’ from Moga Mull (1995) and these neighbors are on a call and response relationship as designed by the composer and it is such a pleasant combo. Between 15 and 30 seconds, the call is made by the Veena for which the guitar responds beautifully in the interlude of the song, ‘Velli Nilave’ from Nandavana Theru (1995). Between 32 and 48 seconds, is the first interlude of the famous Carnatic song, ‘Alai Payudhe Kanna’ from the film Ethanai Konam Ethanai Paarvai (1983), where the guitar and the veena participate in a traditional Carnatic format, where some of the swaras are played by one instrument and continued by the next. Between 51 and 1:12 seconds, it is the beautiful counterpoint being played by these strange neighbors in the interlude of the song, ‘Oru Chiri Kandaal’, from Ponmudi Puzhayorathu (Malayalam 2005). Only Raja can think of a counterpoint between these two instruments! Between 1:15 and 1:43 (end of the clip), is the title score of the film Aavarampoo (1989). This is a full-fledged counter melody that goes on for 28 seconds and Raja chose to use it as a title score for a film! He perhaps wanted us to take notice that such neighbors can take on the title of a film! 

Let’s hear these Nearest Neighbors – Guitar and Veena …. 

Nearest Neighbor – Guitar and Sitar

 

Guitar and sitar are both string instruments and they are rarely placed next to each other in Indian music. Doing a counterpoint with these nearly close sounding cousins is generally ruled out. However, none of these things seem to deter a composer such as Raja. Both the examples in this post are examples of how well he handles the sounds of these two instruments, not just placing them one after the other, but also composing counter melodies that play simultaneously. 

The first 14 seconds of this audio clip is the famous prelude of the song ‘Nilaave Vaa’ from Mouna Ragam (1987), where the guitar and the sitar play their melody simultaneously and most of us can hum along! The second example is the second interlude of the song, ‘Poove Semboove’ from 'Solla Thudikkudhu Manasu (1988). Between 17 and 26 seconds, it is a guitar that repeatedly plays the melody. From 27 seconds onwards, the sitar joins the arrangement and starts its own melody, with the guitar playing its repetitive melody. For the 5 seconds between 27 and 32, there are three things in play apart from the percussion. The background guitar melody continues, with the foreground now shared between a calling sitar and a responding second guitar. This is PolyCare, which is typical of Raja’s work. It’s almost like placing two unwilling neighbors next to the third.  Such things cannot be imagined by composers before and after him, let alone execute it.

Let’s hear these Nearest Neighbors – Guitar and Sitar  …

Thanks to Usha Sankar, for showcasing a few more tracks where these neighbors feature:

1. Sutha Samba Pacha Nellu from Annakili (Tamil 1976)
2. Sugamo Aayiram from ThunairuppaaL Meenakshi (Tamil 1977)