Usage of Folk and Western choir in a single track - Pink and Orange tulips

Can be male, female or both. This is a Raja specialty that few composers have comfort handling. This is a very hard thing to do – marrying completely opposite musical systems – one that is very structured and another that is unstructured. It comes easy for a genius however.




Eriyile Elantha Maram from Karayellam Shenbagapoo (Tamil 1981). This track will definitely rank among Raja’s top 10 choir arrangements. In short, a masterpiece. Based on writer Sujatha’s story, the requirement was only for folk tunes. Raja embellishes it with Carnatic and Western choir and creates a masterpiece. There is no such track I have heard in Indian film music. The prelude starts off with the traditional Carnatic swarams (Sa re ga ma pa da ne sa) one set of female voices overlapped with another set of voices singing western choir for a few bars. It changes over to conventional folk choir (than Na Na) by one set of voices. This is joined by exactly the same folk choir by another set of female voices at a different pitch. The first one in Soprano and the second one in Alto. Both the voices are singing folk but in perfect western harmony. You can even call this as true fusion that has never occurred to anyone before Raja.  When Janaki sings ‘Yeriyile’ at least 5 times, observe what the choir does in the background.  For the first two occasions, Janaki is doing the Soprano and the choir is touching almost the bass. The third occasion, the choir shifts to Alto and Janaki remains in Soprano and the choir does not repeat the last two ‘Yeriyile’. Why does Raja do that? As I mentioned before, he is THE EXPERT in vocal harmony and there are reasons for this. The chorus do the traditional sing-along in the pallavi. Let’s take the first interlude next. One set of voices sing ‘laa laa laa’ in soprano and another set of voices sing ‘la la  la’ in sharper notes in alto creating further harmony. The last transition to the charanam uses some innovative choir arrangement – ‘than thana’ is sang in bass by one female choir and the other female choir uses the very high pitch ‘oooyee’ in soprano. This song requires a separate post where every bar is explained. The charanam has lines repeated by the choir in vocal harmony. The last but one bar has some neat western choir by the group backing Janaki.  The second interlude uses phrases such as ‘Dum Dum Dum’, ‘Pee Pee Pee’, ‘thana tham’ all arranged very cleverly in harmony to imitate a nadaswaram and a thavil – the idea is Western, the implementation is pure folk. Take a bow before the genius.

Let’s now go into the detail of this track even further. Let’s first start with the first 40 second clip:

1. The first 7 seconds or so, there is a bass joined a little later by an acoustic guitar to create the basic rhythm. No voices
2. Between 7 and 12 seconds, the female choir starts off with Carnatic swaras - Sa re ga ma pa da ne sa – Observe the bass guitar climbing the notes along with the chorus
3. Between 13 and 17 seconds, the female choir repeats the Carnatic swaras again in Soprano. This time, it is joined by another female choir joins with discrete notes ‘ha’ ‘ha’, placed exactly after a Carnatic note is sung and in Alto
4. Between 18 and 20 seconds, one set of female choir sings a folk choir (than Na Nadhinam Than Na Na Na) in Soprano. Following it between 20 and 22 seconds, another female choir repeats the folk choir in Alto. This is a simple C&R before Raja takes you to the next step. The bass guitar does its usual magic
5. Between 23 and 42 seconds, Raja takes these two sets of voices and shows how they can be harmonized together with the bass guitar. Observe the effort and care he has taken in conducting this to ensure that the voices do not screw up the range they are singing this. Though the tune goes up and down, the Soprano and Alto stays true to the definition. Harmonized folk – thanks Raja for the lesson!

 Let’s now go a bit under the covers on the pallavi of this track. (Clip 2)

• Most of the harmony magic is done in the first 9 seconds of this clip. Raja gets the female choir to stick to Tenor and keeps Janaki’s voice in Alto. In these 9 seconds, the word ‘Eriyile’ is repeated 5 times by both parties sticking to their range. 
• Between 10 and 25 seconds, the pallavi is arranged in a conventional Indian folk format where the female choir repeats the last few words sung by Janaki

Let’s now analyze the first interlude (Clip 3)

• Between 5 and 11 seconds, Raja uses two sets of voices singing exactly the same lines – ‘la la la’. One in Soprano and another is Alto. He ensures that there is perfect coordination between the voices as they still stick to the range. This is perfect western harmony using Indian style wording!
• Between 16 and 21 seconds on the clip, Raja now repeats the same technique, but with a different melody, but the same words! 
• Between 36 and 41 seconds, Raja embellishes this further. He uses two sets of female choir, one singing perfect western discrete notes (using than thananam) in Tenor and now he throws a typical folk piece in Alto on top of it. Genius!

Let’s take the part towards the end of charanam 1 and see how Raja uses the female choir in harmony for the transition back to the pallavi (clip 4):

• In the first 4 seconds, as Janaki descends to the pallavi, observe the embellishment that  Raja throws in with the female choir in the background in Tenor. Creativity at its peak

Let’s now analyze parts of the 2nd interlude in this song where Raja uses the typical childhood play and turns it into harmony! (clip 5):

• For the first 3 seconds, one set of female voices sing (Dum Dum Dum). Observe the range – tenor
• Between 3 and 7 seconds, Raja throws another quick lesson on harmony with three sets of voices. He introduces the second set of voices to sing (‘Pi Pi Pi’) in Soprano. Before you can complain, he brings the third set of voices that sing ‘thana nana’ in Alto. Brilliant!
• Between 8 and 12 second, he uses Pi Pi and and ‘Dham’ in Soprano and Alto with a different timing.
• Lastly, between 13 and 15 seconds, Raja brings all the three together again with different timing and melody.

Please use Windows media player and hear this track in slow speed to comprehend the brilliance of the composer. While Indian composers today brag about harmony, such creativity using folk, Carnatic and local genres to fit a perfect western harmony – I do not expect to see it in my lifetime again!

Megam Karukkaiyile from Vaidegi Kaathitunthaal (Tamil 1984). This is a masterpiece of sorts where Raja shows his mastery over choir arrangement. He uses both male and  female voices to create the impression of esapaatu, a traditional folk technique, where the singing between the groups alternates. However, he does something more clever. He makes the male voices sing Western, when the female voices sing folk and vice versa. The song starts off with the female voices singing ‘thana than thana’ which is traditional and the male voices go ‘aahaa oho aahaa oho’. Initially they alternate a few phrases and you can soon notice that they merge, both the groups singing the same and different phrases. When Raja sings the pallavi the male voices go single syllable ‘aaa’ and when Uma sings, the female voices so ‘aaa’. Notice the male voices in tenor and the female in alto. That’s a typical Raja curveball. Do you call this esapaatu or pure western choir? It depends on how you view it.

Thendral Vandhu from Avatharam (Tamil 1995). The track starts off with set of female choirs singing ‘thaana thanthana’ in phase shift mode and finally gets into vocal harmony with Raja taking the bass and the choir stays on alto. The first interlude has again two set of female choirs – one that hums the conventional Indian tune and the other doing the sharp ‘than than than tham’ in perfect harmony. The second interlude is arranged with a lot of synth, flutes and guitar. The female choir is used to hum an Indian melody.

Introduction to harmony singing

As mentioned before, Indian music has a rich chorus tradition. Most bhajans are sung in groups. Even several Indian folk songs are sang in groups. For example, the South Indian folk music form, Kummi is a chorus tradition. Even in South Indian Carnatic tradition, the guru vandhana done for the creators of this music form is sang in chorus. The thivaiyaru homage to Thyagaraja is a good example. 

In western musical tradition, the art of group singing has existed for several hundred years. Most of the dance musicals have had a chorus component always. Stage presentations of stories such as opera have a rich chorus culture. Like bhajans in an Indian setting, choirs have a rich religious setting originating from the church. An example would be Whitney Houston, the American pop singer who passed away recently, had her early training with vocals as a choir singer in the church. 

In Indian group singing, we consider singing with the right shruthi and bhavam as very important traits. While these are equally important in Western group singing, there are several technical elements that went along with Western group singing. While ability to sing is important, in Western group singing ability to site read music is equally important. In Indian music, as long as the person has good ability to sing, understand the swaras, most of the other aspects are taught by the conductor on the job. In Western music, while all these abilities are very important, pitching is given a lot more importance and within a single piece of music, pitching is arranged differently for different singers and this is best understood only when someone understands musical site reading.

Choirs in the western world have always been associated with the church. This is part of the western culture. Before we jump into the technical aspects of Western harmony, let’s take a look at this flashmob youtube video, where the crowd sings a Christmas choir, uninitiated in a food court during a routine December afternoon…

 Unfortunately, harmony singing is very misunderstood. There are several TV interviews where new Indian film singers use the term ‘harmony’ very loosely. Most of them state that they did ‘harmony singing’ at the beginning of their careers. What they mean is that they were part of ‘group singing’. So, what is harmony singing? In short, it is a way to decorate the main melody. The decoration obviously has rules. Let’s go back to the old article on harmony where we learned about Soprano, Alto, Tenor and Bass. (Harmony basics). For the purposes of understanding harmony as applied to choirs, we can skip Bass. For example, if the melody is the Soprano voice, the harmonies will be stacked below in the Alto and Tenor intervals. If the melody is the Alto voice, the harmonies are stacked differently. The Soprano will be above the melody and the Tenor will be below. If Tenor is the melody, then both the harmonies will be stacked above it, one at Soprano and another at Alto intervals.  This idea is very well demonstrated in this youtube video:

You can notice that this presents composers with several options once they have decided on the key of their main melody. Any slip in this arrangement of melodies to harmony will create a very unpleasant cacophony. It is important for any composer to understand important keys related rules for harmony (harmony should be either on the fifths or 3 keys apart from the melody), the harmony singers should also easily understand and latch on to the melody, but stay away from its pitch honoring the rules. It must be noted that the main melody can either be sung or be played with an instrument. If you hear the song Kottum Kuzalvizhi (Kaala Pani 1996 Malayalam), Raja uses voices  in harmony around the main melody played by violins. 

Time for some examples from the Western Classical Music world. Here is a clip from 1742, a composition by German composer Handel, called 'Hallelujah' (from 'Messiah'). Please note the brilliant use of choir in harmony using both male and female voices with the violins.



Here is another brilliant background score from the film Omen, by Jerry Goldsmith, using some spectacular choral harmony 


 
Though our focus is to understand how Raja has used vocal harmony in his various chorus arrangements, let us also take a brief look at some of his work with vocal harmony in general. One of his earliest experiments with vocal harmony was the song ‘En Kanmani’ from the film Chittukuruvi (Tamil 1979) where he used the voices of Susheela and SPB alternating in Alto and Tenor. Following this, he also tried some parts of the song Kanmaniye Kadhal Enbadhu from the film Aarilirundhu Arubathu Varai (Tamil 1980) where he used a similar technique with SJ and SPB voices. In the early 80s, Raja has tried vocal harmony in several songs, but the one where he hit the ball out of the park was the song ‘Pon Oviyam’ from the film Kazhuku (Tamil 1981), where Raja did a mini festival with voices. Some parts of this song are a vocal counter melody and some others qualify as vocal harmony. The choir switches to all three parts, when IR or SJ sing in Soprano, the choir sings in Alto in counter melody. They also switch roles and the choir sings in Soprano when IR or SJ switch to Alto. Here is the youtube video of this song (ignore the bad picturisation):

Another track that uses vocal harmony very well in the early 80s is the song ‘Adi Athadi’ from Kadalora Kavidhaigal (1985 Tamil) where several parts have two female (SJ) or two male voices (IR) in Soprano and Tenor. Observe the lines “Ilam Manasonnu Rekkai Katti” or “Oru Alai Vandhu”, the way it is sang.

 Around the same time, another very popular Raja track where vocal counter melodies are in full play is the Pagal Nilavu track Poo Malaiye (Tamil 1986), a duet from IR and SJ.

In this track, there are at least 16 counter melodies embedded. Not sure, if there is any Indian film song that can boast of this.


The list is endless with Raja and his work on vocal harmony. We will now get back to the world of Raja’s choir arrangements that are harmony centric.

Chorus by children - Blue tulips

Raja has done this extensively, all the way up to ‘Paa’, though ‘Anjali’ comes to mind immediately. He has used children to sing, western, folk, traditional chorus in different situations.




Anjali Anjali from Anjali – observe the choir in the background (Tamil 1990). This song is more known for its children singing and the chorus. The first and third pallavi has some neat children choir backing the lines. The song itself is a great work on vocal harmony. The charanams are executed as a traditional chorus. The second pallavi is also executed as a normal chorus. 


Let's hear Anjali Anjali..




Gum Sum Gum from Paa (Hindi 2009) is perhaps the most reused tune by a single composer in Indian films (the 6th time). This song is fully done with children and Bhava’s voices. 


Kotaiya Vittu from China thayee (children) (Tamil 1992) The song’s initial pallavi is sang by children. In the charanam, the children repeat Uma’s lines. This is very traditional. The second pallavi is sang by the children fully. 


Marangal Tharum from Dhruva Natchathiram (Tamil 1993). This song is sang by children. The orchestration of this song is truly mind boggling. Several initial bars have no orchestra at all. Following this, there is some percussion and some brief violin strokes. What follows this is some 2 minutes of one of the grandest and finest violin and woodwind arrangements by Raja. 


Let's hear Marangal Tharum...




Mottamaadi Mottamaadi from Anjali (Tamil 1990). This song is fully sang by a group of children. 


Minnaminumgam from My Dear Kuttichathan (children) (Malayalam 1984). This song is executed with children backing Yesudas. The song starts off with some neat children Western choir. In the charanam, the children sing conventional Indian choir in between phrases. Some of the charanam’s mid bars are backed ( 5,6) by children singing in a scat mode. The final transition between the charanam and the pallavi is executed with Das in scat. The second charanam is executed very similar to the first one. 


Let's hear Minnaminumgam ...




Vanam Namakku Veedhi from Anjali (Tamil 1990) This song is fully sang by a group of children. 


Oru Kiliyin thanimaiyile from Poovizhi Vaasalile (Tamil 1987) - Has children choir and some good traditional and western female choir. There are two versions to this song. From a choir perspective, both the versions are arranged the same way. The children sing some lines in the pallavi and the female choir backs him – all in the pallavi. The charanam has some neat female choir that is perfect western choir with Tamil words – nicely written by Vaali. It’s not easy to get such simple repetitive words that fit the notes so perfectly. Hats off to the combo. You will easy figure this out if you approach these phrases from a musical note perspective. The second interlude has some great innovative choir arrangement. Again discrete notes backed by the bass and lead guitar to give you the impression of a western choir, with perfect Indian ‘la la la’ phrases. It’s hard to match this composer’s one faculty – choir and arrangement!  The children’s choir is used as the transition between the charanam and the pallavi.  

I am sure there are others that Raja has done and I may have missed. Readers can add comments to surface those tracks...

Usage of Folk and Carnatic choir in a single track - Red, white and yellow tulips

Can be male, female or both. This is a Raja specialty that few composers have comfort handling. Though this is not very common, there are a few songs that I know of where Raja has used this technique. The track is typically set to a Carnatic ragam and there is either a prelude or an interlude with choir in Carnatic format. Raja chooses to introduce a folk choir in the same track and it never sounds out of place. Time to reset the bar higher!


Maalaigal Idam Maruthu from December Pookal (Tamil 1986) – This is a track set to brindavana saranga ragam. Prelude is set to Carnatic humming sang by a female chorus. The second interlude is pure folk set on kummi style again rendered by the female chorus.


Let's first hear the Carnatic chorus that is the prelude of the song...





Now, let's hear the folk choir in the second interlude of the same song...





Malligaye Malligaye from Periya Veetu Panakkaran (Tamil 1990) – This song is set to Sarasaangi ragam. The prelude is set to humming in Carnatic by the female chorus. The second interlude in folk chorus with folk instruments.


Let's first hear the Carnatic chorus that is the prelude of the song...





Now, let's hear the folk choir in the second interlude of the same song...





I am sure that are some more examples that readers can uncover...

Scat singing backgrounder

Many composers have used a whole bunch of Western techniques before Raja.  Kishore Kumar was very famous for his yodeling in the HFM world, much before Raja. The song, ‘Zindagi Ek Safar’ from Andaz showcased Kishoreda’s yodeling by RD Burman in the 70s. Another RD Burman favorite is the song sang by Usha Uthup in the 70s hit ‘Hare Rama Hare Krishna’ – I love you – simply brilliant rendition by Usha.  Asha starts off ‘Daa Re Tu Ru’ and Usha further scats ‘Doo Re Tu Re’, and takes off…

Here is the famous Usha Uthup scat song – One Two Cha Cha Cha…

If you dig through some old MSV tracks in the 60s, you may end up with a few such picks by AL Raghavan and others.

Before we dive deep into Raja’s scat journey, let’s try and understand what scat singing is all about.  Scat singing has its origin from the improvisational world of Jazz music though some experts do not entirely agree.  Some do argue that it existed long before Louis Armstrong came into the scene. In any case, most agree that it is a stock technique of several Jazz artists. Even yodeling is a form of scat. For the most part, scat singing involves short syllables sang in an improvisational way, varying pitch, volume and other vocal characteristics. Several Jazz artists have used different scat syllables such as "louie-ooie-la-la-la" or "shoo-doo-shoo-bee-ooo-bee"

Here is a great example of Ella Fitzgerald singing ‘How high the moon’ and she uses scat singing all over the place.

Jazz artists have used scat singing to bring in humor into their performances also. Here is a brilliant Western Jazz work by two great Jazz artists, Louis Armstrong and Danny Kaye..

SPB used to do a lot of yodeling as he was a budding singer in the 70s. Raja tried to use his friend’s unique abilities and wherever possible, threw in a Jazz improvisation, though the rest of the song was purely an Indian melody. Raja has done so many of these songs where he brings in scat elements. Raja’s favorite scat syllable seems to be ‘Ra Pa Pa..’. Let’s look at some examples.

Ninaivo Oru Paravai from Sivappu Rojakkal (1978) – Both Kamal and Janaki do scat singing as part of their humming.  Look at the pitch variations. This is not improvisation – rather, scat by design.

Netru Indha Neram from Tik Tik Tik (1982) – pay attention to the second interlude, where there is scat singing by a male voice, nicely executed. The tempo of this singing is arranged to be faster than the entire song.

Moodu Pani was Raja’s earliest scat adventure film. Three of the songs in this film use extensive scat…

En Iniya Pon Nilave from Moodu Pani (1980) has some brilliant scat parts for Yesudas. That ha tha tha tha tha.

Paruva Kaalangalin from Moodu Pani (1980) – Both Janaki and MV have several scat parts throughout the track. Again, Janaki excels with her modulation. (tha ka tha ka…)

Vaan Engum from Moondram Pirai (1982) – Observe the SPB scat singing in interlude 2. (tha tha thu thu…). Nice work to an otherwise pop song.

Kavidhai Paadu Kuyile  from Thendrale ennai thodu (1984) – observe the SPB scat singing (Ra Pa Pa) in this otherwise Indian melody.

Endhan Kannil Ezhulangal from Guru (1980) – Janaki freaks out with Scat singing. She starts off with scat singing (Pa Pa Pa ) in this track. The modulations in this track are just amazing. This is a Janaki-only track.  While others brought her classical dimension out, Raja dug through every faculty of here and showcased it.

Pudhu Maapillaiku from Apoorva Sagodarargal (1989) – this is the ultimate scat song by Raja. The male chorus and SPB freak out in Raja’s traditional ‘Ra Pa Pa’. In fact, I have not heard a Indian song that uses scat as much.

Raja, Rajathi Rajan from Agni Natchathiram (1988) – the song has several scat elements (Pa Pa Pa…) sang by the male chorus throughout the track.

Choir Scat singing - White with red stripes tulips

Raja has used scat singing in his music throughout his career using both male and female voices. We will explore scat singing later in detail. For the moment, let’s stick to scat by chorus. The first thing about scat singing in Indian film music reminds us of Usha Uthup in Hare Rama Hare Krishna in the 70s for RD Burman.


Paruva Kalangalil from Moodu Pani (Tamil 1980) – some parts by female only choir. The song starts off with some neat scat singing. The pallavi has some female western choir backing the main singers.  The 1st interlude has some neat passages with mixed choir – very nicely executed. The charanams have the female choir in conventional format taking on inter lyric space. 


Let's hear Paruva Kalangalil...




Pudhu Maapillaiku from Aboorva Sagodarargal (Tamil 1989). The ’Ra Pa Paa’ in this song is famous work of Raja where SPB and chorus keep the scat singing going throughout the song. In fact, there are some nice vocal counterpoints that we discussed in our section on Counterpoint with voices. The other track in the same movie, ‘Raja Kaiya Vacha’ also has the interludes with innovative scat. Some parts of the charanam are also backed by the chorus singing scat in between the main singer’s lines. Both these tracks are all male scat singing.


En Uyire from Poonthota Kaavalkaran (conventional choir too) (Tamil 1988). The prelude of the song starts of the song starts off as an Indian melody humming. It slowly morphs into scat singing between Chithra and the female chorus. This track also uses female chorus instead of strings to back the charanams.

Let's hear En Uyire...





Kadhal Needhana from Time (Tamil 1999)– Some parts have traditional female choir too. The prelude starts off with male chorus scat singing and this continues as Unni sings the pallavi in the background. The first interlude has some female conventional chorus parts. 


Minnaminumgam from My Dear Kuttichathan (children) (Malayalam 1984). This song is executed with children backing Yesudas. The song starts off with some neat children Western choir. In the charanam, the children sing conventional Indian choir in between phrases. Some of the charanam’s mid bars are backed ( 5,6) by children singing in a scat mode. The final transition between the charanam and the pallavi is executed with Das in scat. The second charanam is executed very similar to the first one. 


Oru Thottavadi from Pachakuthira (Malayalam 2006) has scat singing by both male/female choir. There is also traditional choir in the track. This is a very busy track with several musical ideas thrown in freely. The first interlude has some interesting scat parts for the female chorus after the sax play (Daa a did da) followed by the scat by the male chorus. The second interlude has some great trumpet play to start off and it switches to some shehnai!  Again, Raja uses the female chorus scat followed by the male chorus scat.


Let's hear Oru Thottavadi...




Pon Veyilile from Oru Yaatra Mozhi (Malayalam 1997)– pallavi has some brilliant female scat singing. This is innovative use of scat in melody mode. When Chitra sings the pallavi, the female chorus sing ‘Tha thoo tha tha tho’ in the background in a very non scat way – fitting the melody structure perfectly. The interludes have extensive conventional female chorus. 


Raja Rajathi Rajan from Agni Natchathiram (Tamil 1988) – uses extensive vocal harmony. The second interlude of this track uses scat singing by the male chorus extensively.


Rojapoo Aadi Vandhadhu from Agni Natchathiram (Tamil 1988) – the prelude uses female scat singing in this track. The first interlude uses traditional and scat parts from the female chorus. The second interlude has female chorus scat parts in several places.


Vaan Meedhile from Ragangal Mudivathillai (Tamil 1983)– the prelude of this song uses scat parts from the female chorus and Janaki. The rest of the song does not have any scat parts


Vanam Enna Kezhirukku from Vetri Vizha (Tamil 1987). This is one of those rare songs sang by SPB and Malaysia Vasudevan. When SPB sings, Vasu scats and vice versa. There is female chorus in scat mode as part of the 1st interlude. The first charanam has a lot of scat singing by SPB and the second one Vasu takes his scat turn.


Let's hear Vaanam Enna...




Anando Brahma from Shiva (Telugu 1989). The first interlude has female choir in scat mode with some great violins. 


Sorgam Madhuvile from Sattam En Kaiyil (Tamil 1978). The prelude has some female scat singing. The pallavi has also has female choir scatting in between SPB’s lines. The charanam has a few bars with some nice Western female choir backing SPB. The second pallavi has both the choir and SPB in scat mode. 


Let's hear Sorgam Madhuvile...





Unnai Thedi Vennila from En Mana Vaanil (Tamil 2002) – the prelude has male choir in scat mode and the song has a lot of female choir support. The first interlude has some nice scat parts too. The charanams and the pallavi have some nice female choir singing in between the main singer’s lines. The second interlude has some more scat parts too. The last pallavi has some nice vocal harmony as the icing on the cake. 


The second interlude of Devathai Pol Oru from Gopura Vasalile (Tamil 1990) has the three main singers singing in scat chorus mode.

Male/Female western choir singing - Black and White tulips

Raja has used them selectively in his compositions. He has used mixed choirs in several of his compositions over the past 4 decades. Here are some top of mind examples.










Kelade Nemageega from Geetha (Male western choir for parts) (Kannada 1980). This is one of Raja’s earliest choir masterpieces. He throws so many varieties into a single track. This song can qualify to be present in at least 3 categories. The first interlude has some good folk singing alternatively by the male and female chorus singers. Notice when in the final few seconds of the first interlude, when the female chorus sings folk, the male choir is singing western choir in a different register – perfect vocal harmony. The second interlude has the male and female chorus alternating. There is some outstanding vocal harmony between the male (la la la – lower), female  (la la la – higher) chorus singers and SPB (la la la – even lower register than the male chorus). The third charanam is another great piece of choral work only a genius can think of. It starts off with some male/female interchange of single syllables and continues with SPB speaking. Observe the background of SPB’s speech and how Raja embellishes it. The chorus of the male and female voices continue with increasing pitch.  When SPB speaks about the lovers, the female chorus shifts into total melodic backing for the main voice! The last charanam has the male chorus backing SPB and no strings. Observe the last parts of charanam 4 :SPB’s voice is cut out and it is perfect vocal harmony all the way. Breathtaking. I have not heard such a film song by any music composer in Indian films. Take a bow before the master!


Let’s first hear the track Kelade Nemageega…

• Let’s do a deep dive into the arrangement of this track:
• I have Interlude 1, interlude 2, charanam 3 and pallavi 4 in this clip as all of them have some fantastic choir arrangement
• Between 0:01 to 0:33 seconds, it is a mixed folk choir of male and female voices, occasionally in C&C mode
• Between 0:33 to 0:40 seconds, the arrangement is pure western mixed choir, without anybody realizing the shift
• Between 0:41 and 0:52 seconds, it is Raja choir that cannot be classified in any way. Notice that the male voices replace a guitar strum. Raja used this later on in his Maya Bazaar song in 1995
• Between 0:53 and 1:08, the setting switches back to perfect Western choir, with some outstanding male voices interspersed with SPB’s voice
• Between 1:09 and 1:15, discrete male and female voices are crafted to convey the impression of revolt or disagreement
• Notice that till 01:30, the discrete voices accompany in the background while SPB continues the narration
• After 1:30, till 1:45, when SPB narrates the love story, Raja switches the choir to Indian conventional female choir to convey the emotion
• Between 1:46 and 2:14, SPB sings charanam 3 with only male choir in the background along with the guitar strum managing timing
• Between 2:15 and 2:37, Raja does what a genius would do. The arrangement of male voices as an ascending guitar strum with the female voices singing discrete notes, is only something he can think of. Extraordinary arrangement

Enadhu Vizhi Vazhimele from Solla Thudikuthu Manasu (alternates male and female choir) (Tamil 1988).  There is male/female choir inter-singing with Janaki/PJ in the pallavi. The charanam has some conventional female chorus.  


Idhu Oru Nila Kaalam from Tik Tik Tik (Some male parts as jathi) (Tamil 1981). This song’s prelude is perfect mixed western choir. Observe the charanam’s first few bars and focus on the female choir backing Janaki – fantastic arrangement. The second interlude has some cool scat singing by a lone singer. 


Illalo Kalise from Anveshana (Telugu 1985) or Nizhalo Nijamo from Paadum Paravaigal (Tamil 1988). The first interlude has some great mixed western choir arrangement. Raja uses Balu to sing swarams on top of the western choir arrangement in the background and ends it with some fantastic violins. A real treat for the connoisseur of choir! The second interlude has the male choir in the foreground and the female choir in the background. Again, Raja uses different Balu swarams to overlap the choir arrangement.


Let's hear Illalo Kalise...




Mannava Mannava from Walter Vetrivel (Tamil 1993) – This is a typical Raja melody with no scope for any western choir.  Based on the film’s situation, Raja turns the lullaby into a serious 2nd interlude with male/female Western choir. He uses the female choir in the foreground with male voices in the background.


Oru Naal Antha Oru Naal from Devathai (Tamil 1997) – traditional, western, male female, both choir – all inclusive. The song starts off with the male western choir followed by the female choir singing a few lines. Observe the prelude when the female choir sings the conventional ‘la la la’, the male choir sings perfect western choir in the background. This track has everything to do with choir. In the pallavi, the female choir has conventional, western and also lyrical lines. By the time you get to the end of the pallavi, Raja demos everything that one can do with choirs. Don’t hang up so quickly. The 1st interlude is a fantastic choir arrangement of sorts. Along with the violins, there is some great mixed choir arrangement before the woodwind/violins take over. The charanams are backed by both the male/female choirs in an alternative fashion. The second interlude is arranged brilliantly with some conventional female choir and mixed western choir along with the violins.  This track is among the Raja top 10 in choir arrangement.


Let's hear Oru Naal Antha Oru Naal ...




Paruva Kalangalil from Moodu Pani (Tamil 1980) – some parts by female only choir. The song starts off with some neat scat singing. The pallavi has some female western choir backing the main singers.  The 1st interlude has some neat passages with mixed choir – very nicely executed. The charanams have the female choir in conventional format taking on inter lyric space. 


Let's hear Paruva Kalangalil...




Sundari Neeyum from Dhalapathy – 1st interlude (Tamil 1991). The first interlude has some nice horns and great male choir on one channel and female choir on the other with grand violins in the background. 


Vanam Thottu Pona from Devar Magan (Tamil 1993) – The song’s melody line is similar to the other song in the movie – Potri Paadadi Penne. Observe the interludes – it has nothing to do with the folk lines – Raja uses western choral singing with a group of professional male singers to deliver the message of social grief. There is no string section, no percussion, nothing. I have never heard anything like this before in Indian film music. A fitting use of a grand western technique for a situation in a village where the headman dies and everyone grieves. That’s genius! The prelude of this song itself is a brilliant mixed western choir.