This site attempts to showcase the Indian musical genius - Ilayaraja and his work with both Western and Indian Classical music over the last 5 decades.
This involves a number of call and response arrangements that have a symmetrical pattern and also includes a musical bridge. With two instrument based C&R arrangements, I have not observed any symmetry around a bridge. In other words, I have not come across a Raja composition that has a musical bridge in the center with perfectly symmetrical C&R arrangements on either sides of it. In the previous post, there were two songs that had perfectly symmetrical but had a bridge at the end of the interlude. For the purposes of demonstration of a perfect symmetry with two instruments, we ignored the bridge at the end of the interlude.
Melle Melle Vannu Chernu from Apaaratha (Malayalam 1991)
This involves a number of call and response arrangements that have a pattern and also includes a musical bridge. With some exceptions, the arrangement is symmetrical. This again is not an easy one as there are fewer compositions that use two instruments in a C&R arrangement throughout an interlude Vasantha Nilavin from Sooryan (2007 Malayalam) is a song that qualifies. The second interlude of this song is primarily a two instrument arrangement – Veena and a synthesizer. The arrangement patterns is as below:
Sy-Ve x2
Sy br
Sy-Ve x2
Sy Br
Sy-Sy x2
From a symmetry point of view, this is imperfect as the Sy x Sy arrangement breaks the symmetry. There are several combinations of ideal symmetrical arrangement with a bridge for this combination. However, this is more of a theory and no guarantee of a great melody as the current Raja arrangement is quite melodious. As this interlude is short, it could be still symmetrical with some extension.
Sy-Ve x2
Sy br
Sy-Ve x2
Sy Br
Sy-Sy x2
Sy Br
Ve-Ve x2
Or
Sy-Ve x2
Sy br
Sy-Sy x2
Sy Br
Ve-Sy x2
Sy Br
Ve-Ve x2
Let’s hear the imperfect, but melodious two instrument
arrangement of Vasantha Nilavin…
This
involves a number of call and response arrangements that have a
symmetrical pattern. It is hard to define a perfect symmetry with two
instruments.
With
two instruments in a call and response arrangement, the best you can
do is to have a pattern that involves the same instrument doing both
the call and the response apart from a call by one instrument and a
response by another. You have to get creative beyond that to repeat
these three variations to find symmetry. It is indeed a great
achievement, given the film music pressures of creating interludes in
perhaps less than 5 minutes (I do not think Raja would have taken
anything more than that to notate an interlude).
Ila
Nenje Vaa from Vanna Vanna Pookal (1991 Tamil) is one such
marvel. In interlude 2, here is how the instrument pattern is used by
Raja.
Dr-Ta x4
Ta-Ta x4
Dr-Dr x4
The
two instruments in play are Drums and tabla. The Drums – Tabla
call and response happens four times. This is followed by tabla
–tabla call and response another 4 times. Finally, the drums –drums
call and response follows. The ideal configuration from a pure
symmetry perspective can be one of these two:
Dr-Dr x4
Dr-Ta x4
Ta-Ta x4
or
Ta-Ta x4
Ta-Dr x4
Dr-Dr x4
However,
this is the closest to symmetry you can get with two instruments from
the best of composers in Indian film music!
Let’s
hear the two instrument symmetry of Ila Nenje Vaa…
Halli
Lavaniyalli from Namoora Mandara Hoove (Kannada 1997) is another
such marvel if you observe the second interlude’s arrangement very
closely. The length of some segments in the C&R makes it hard for
one to observe the pattern. However, this is a brilliant arrangement
with two instruments (flute and voices). Here is the instrument
pattern that is used in this interlude:
Ch-Fl x4
Ch-Ch x4
Ideally,
the configuration must include a third element and it would look as
follows:
Ch-Fl x4
Ch-Ch x4
Fl-Ch x4
The
symmetry is not easy to figure out as the chorus parts are longer in
the first C&R and much shorter in the second C&R.
Let’s
hear the near perfect Halli Lavaniyalli…
Another
not so perfectly symmetrical two instrument C&R arrangement is
the song Minmini Paarvaigal from Julie Ganapathy (2003 Tamil).
The arrangement of this song is as shown in the table below:
Gu-Gu x2
Fl-Fl x2
Fl-Gu x2
In
the arrangement instrument list shown, it must be mentioned that the
when the Flute and Guitar (the third combination) are in a call and
response mode, there are background violins. I do not include that as
one of the instruments that take part in the C&R. There is lack
of symmetry in this as the second and third combinations are out of
place. In other words, the ideal symmetrical arrangement would be:
Gu-Gu x2
Fl-Gu x2
Fl-Fl x2
However,
the arrangement does sound very melodious in its current form.
Let’s
hear the near perfect Minmini Paarvaigal…
Now,
is there not a perfect symmetrical C&R arrangement with two
instruments by Raja? I know of one and I am sure there are others
which I would encourage readers to comment on.
Melle
Melle Vannu Chernu from Apaaratha (Malayalam 1991) is one such
brilliant perfectly symmetrical arrangement with two instruments in a
call and response mode. The second interlude of this song has a
fantastic arrangement between the flute and the violins in the
pattern shown below:
Fl-Vi x2
Vi-Fl x2
Fl-Vi x2
You
can see the perfect reflection symmetry
from the above table. There is a small orchestral bridge at
the end of this with flute that must be ignored to see the symmetry.
The perfect symmetry with two instruments that Raja achieves in this
piece by translation symmetry.
Let’s
hear the perfect symmetry ofMelle Melle Vannu Chernu…
Another
perfectly symmetrical C&R based instrument part is the prelude of
the song Oli Tharum Sooriyanum from Vaalmiki (Tamil 2009).
The two instruments doing the call and response in this prelude are
the synthesizer and the guitar. One can argue that the synthesizer
part as a piano part too. The prelude is a symmetrical beauty that
has the following pattern:
Sy-Gu
Sy-Sy
Sy-Gu
Sy-Sy
The
last part of the Sy-Sy C&R is a repetition of the second call and
response arrangement. You can see perfect symmetry when you look at
pieces 1,2 and 3 or 2,3 and 4. That’s the beauty of translation
symmetry and you can see dual perfect symmetry in the above
table.
Let’s
hear the perfect symmetrical arrangement ofOli Tharum Sooriyanum…
Our
journey of two instrument based C&R symmetry is still not over as
we have not seen any with bridges. In the next posts, we will cover
some songs that do have bridge induced perfect or imperfect
symmetries.
Here are the categories that we will use for analysis purposes for analyzing Raja's C&R arrangements from a symmetry point of view:
Dual instrument based symmetry: This involves a number of call and response arrangements that have a symmetrical pattern. It is hard to define a perfect symmetry with two instruments
Dual instrument based perfect symmetry with bridge: This involves a number of call and response arrangements that have a symmetrical pattern and also includes a musical bridge. At times, the patterns are symmetrical around the bridge
Dual instrument based imperfect symmetry with bridge: This involves a number of call and response arrangements that have a pattern and also includes a musical bridge. With some exceptions, the arrangement is symmetrical
Triple instrument based perfect symmetry: This involves a number of call and response arrangements that have a symmetrical pattern involving three instruments. Being three instruments, there is a possibility of perfect reflection symmetry with these instruments
Triple instrument based perfect symmetry with bridge: This involves a number of call and response arrangements involving three instruments that have a symmetrical pattern around a musical bridge. Being three instruments, there is a possibility of perfect reflection symmetry with these instruments around the bridge
Triple instrument based imperfect symmetry with bridge: This involves a number of call and response arrangements involving three instruments that have a pattern and also includes a musical bridge. With some exceptions, the arrangement is symmetrical. Mostly, it is a single exception that stands out. This is common as the film music composer has time constraints and does not focus on perfect symmetry. Also, there are cases with one, two and even three bridges that makes this a hard one to analyze.
Quadruple instruments with imperfect symmetry: This involves a number of call and response arrangements involving four instruments that have a pattern. It is hard to get perfect reflection symmetry with four instrument choices. Lots of Raja’s interludes do fall under this category where it is hard to identify symmetry and the composer uses a number of C&R arrangements with 4 instrument choices
Quadruple instruments with imperfect symmetry and bridges: This involves a number of call and response arrangements involving four instruments that have a pattern and also involves one or more musical bridges. It is hard to get perfect reflection symmetry with four instrument choices. Multiple bridges complicates matters even more. Several Raja interludes do fall under this category where it is hard to identify symmetry and the composer uses a number of C&R arrangements with 4 instrument choices
Quintuple instruments with imperfect symmetry, with and without bridges: This involves a number of call and response arrangements involving five instruments that have a pattern and also involves one or more musical bridges. While technically, it is possible to get to perfect symmetry with 5 instrument choices with our methodology, I did not find any in my exploration.. Multiple bridges complicates matters even more. Some Raja interludes do fall under this category where it is hard to identify symmetry and the composer uses a number of C&R arrangements with 5 instrument choices
Other symmetrical arrangements: As usual, we will have a catch all category for arrangements that have some degree of symmetry and does not fall into any of our other categorizations
I did not explore musical pieces that have C&R arrangements involving 5 or more instruments as the complexity level gets staggering with this manual methodology I chose for this analysis. I must mention that Aakarsh started me on this journey as he highlighted a Raja composition that appeared very symmetrical in its components.
Here is a bird’s eye view of the musical symmetry analysis method that was used to present these posts:
Though Raja’s compositions run to over 4,500, a database of 1.600 were considered for this analysis (a 30% sample of the population). The sample set has all the languages set to music by Raja other than Marathi
A scan of the 1,600 interludes are done to isolate interludes that are heavily loaded with C&R arrangements (usual and unusual)
Only interludes that have only C&R arrangements with or without musical bridges qualify. There are a number of interludes where C&R arrangements are a small part of it – they do not qualify
The qualified list of these musical pieces, about 150 of them, are isolated for further analysis
The qualified list is scanned in a detailed fashion to identify the instruments that are being used in these compositions
Any non C&R arrangements that appear in these compositions are documented as well as the ‘musical bridges’ to see if they can potentially demonstrate any symmetry around them
The musical pieces that finally qualify are classified into the number of instruments used in the composition, along with the type of symmetry
In order to facilitate easy demonstration of symmetry, there are a set of naming conventions that will make the understanding of musical symmetry easy.
Instrument short form
Instrument detailed form
Be
Bells
Br
Bridge (musical)
Co
Conga
Ch
Chorus
Dr
Drums
Fl
Flute
Gu
Guitar
Pi
Piano
San
Santoor
Sax
Saxaphone
Sh
Shehnai
Si
Sitar
So
Solo Violin
Sy
Synthesizer
Ta
Tabla
Tr
Trumpet
Ve
Veena
Vi
Violins
Vo
Voice
For example, here is an example of how a potential interlude
will be documented when we look for symmetry:
(Vi-Fl) x2
(Fl-Gu) x2
Sy bridge
(Gu-Fl) x2
(Fl-Vi) x2
The way to read this is as follows:
Firstly, the musical piece starts with two call and response arrangements between Violin and Flute arranged back to back
Secondly, it is followed by two call and response arrangements between Flute and Guitar arranged back to back
Thirdly, there is a musical bridge for a few bars played with synthesizer
Fourthly, it is followed by two call and response arrangements between Guitar and Flute arranged back to back
Finally, it is followed by two call and response arrangements between Flute and Violin arranged back to back
If you now look at both sides of the bridge, the C&R components have perfect reflection symmetry. This is a case of bridge based perfect symmetry with three instruments. You do not count the instrument that plays the bridge piece. In order for the reader to understand the symmetry easily, I also plan to use a more cryptic notation: 2+2+b+2+2. Each number represents a count of the C&R arrangement occurences. You can easily see the reflection symmetry on both sides of the bridge with this notation.
Let’s next focus on symmetry in Raja’s music and how we will approach this in this series of analysis posts. Firstly, most of the symmetry definitions that we saw in the previous posts are ‘perfect symmetry’. In the research I have been conducting with Raja’s musical arrangements, I notice that ‘perfect symmetry’ is a rare occurrence. In this electronic music age, most computers are easily capable of generating perfectly symmetric music as machines are designed to do such things. However, for a logarithmic device such as our ears, it is never obvious. I have observed more symmetry with instruments that are manually arranged than electronic music as it is easier to perceive the symmetry that the composer has manually created. There are two approaches one can take to analyzing musical symmetry:
Instrument based symmetry: Here, you look for the different musical instruments and the bars that have been allocated by the composer and look for symmetry
Arrangement based symmetry: Here, you do not focus on the bars, but look for instrument pairs (who are involved in a call and response) and see how these pairs lend beauty by being symmetrical
In this analysis series, I will follow the arrangement based symmetry. The trouble with arrangement based symmetry is that trying to get a perfect symmetry is very hard. Looking for musical symmetry created the need for understanding a new idea, called ‘musical bridge’. A musical bridge is a piece of music that is not C&R based that sits somewhat inside a set of C&R arrangements. It can be a simple harmony or a lone instrument being played. Bridge based perfect symmetry is a piece of music, where you can have perfect C&R arrangements to the left and right of the bridge and there is true reflection symmetry if you consider the musical bridge as the plane of symmetry. There are some Raja compositions that qualify. Bridge based imperfect symmetry is a piece of music, where you have near perfect C&R arrangements to the left and right of the bridge and there is imperfect reflection symmetry when you consider the musical bridge as the plane of symmetry. One of the C&R arrangements will not have a complimentary arrangement on the other side of the bridge. Multi-bridge based imperfect symmetry is a piece of music, where there are multiple musical bridges within the arrangement and the C&R arrangements hover around these bridges in a loose way and it is hard to figure the symmetry among these arrangements. This applies to cases where 4 or more instrument combinations are used in the arrangement. In other words, the basic requirement in our analysis is to have an arrangement that has one or more C&R parts. Once we have qualified a musical piece as worthy of symmetrical exploration, we will look for one or more bridges that may be rendering the piece as either perfect or imperfect symmetry, bridge based or otherwise. A word of caution: Most symmetries we will explore are pattern based symmetry and not exact reflection symmetry. It is best explained when examples are demonstrated.
There are basically three types of symmetries that occur in nature and in man made things.
Reflection symmetry
Rotation symmetry
Translation symmetry
Reflection symmetry is the one that is very obvious to the human eye. Assume that you have a mirror and if you look at the objects to the left of the mirror and the right, they will be identical (Obviously, there is lateral inversion, where left becomes right and vice versa). The mirror is the
plane of symmetry. Any suspension bridge that most of us have seen does have this reflection symmetry. Musically, you can observe reflection symmetry when you have at least two instruments in a multitude of ways. For example, two instruments can be used alternatively in an interlude and can be argued to have reflection symmetry. However, that will be a boring piece of music and give rise to little interest. Alternatively, when you have three instruments used in an instrument piece that is fully built with C&R arrangement, and the composer manages to create reflection symmetry, it gets very interesting. More on this later. Rotation symmetry is something that is not immediately obvious to the eye. You need to get your geometry right in terms of getting the center and the angle of rotation. Once you get that, you will notice that the pattern is repeated as you rotate with appropriate adjustments to the rotation. A snowflake, a windmill or a wheel have rotational symmetry. However, when it comes
to music, it is extremely hard to get to simple examples of rotational symmetry. The closest you can get to is a pattern that emerges with a duel between two instruments. The other not so perfect example of rotational symmetry is the way instruments are played between left, center and right channels of a stereo system. Raja has played around with symmetry with the same instrument playing initially on the left channel, then the center and finally on the right. The following bars will reverse this by playing right channel first, followed by the center and left channel. Translation symmetry involves sliding where you start with an object, slide its position and
create a new version of the exact object where all that has happened is a slight shift in position of the object. The double helix structure of the gene is a great example of infinite translation symmetry. While this is a great feature in the world of animation, citing examples in the musical world makes the discussion extremely complex. A number of aptitude tests take advantage of translation symmetry to test the candidate’s spatial abilities.
Our focus on symmetry discussions with Raja’s music will be very simple, looking at mostly reflection symmetries. You can expect some rare occurrences of translation symmetry too.
