Monday, September 18, 2006

How To Name HIM - As I felt Raaja's HTNI

During the period of my WCM learnings at Delhi only, IR's album "How to name it ?" also got released.

When I visited Salem for my holidays and asked for the new releases of IR I was given two cassettes one is "Punnagai Mannan" and another is "How To Name It".

But when I reached home and listened to it for the first time, I was totally stunned. You can't explain the feelings that was generated at that moment!

To be frank, initially, I could not fully recognise, the very purpose, objective and the content of this album. I am so happpy because, like in WCM, I also got an album full of orchestration and just orchestration.

I beleived that some revolutionary things has started in our part of music world also! But with years of listening and gathering of further knowledge during my WCM studies, I could realise the overall vision and purpose of IR.

And he has rightly asked us the question "How to Name it?"

I have shared some of feelings on two of the pieces in my other blog CSR-WCMLESSONS-2.BLOGSPOT.COM (Lesson-48 :IR the Wiser)

I am reproducing the same here in this blog also, to draw the attention of the IR fans.

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Please Listen from IR Album "How To Name It?" two numbers of pieces titled,“I Met Bach….” &“…. And We Had Talk…”.

Here IR has given a new look to the Bach’s Prelude in A-Major as well as Bourre in E-Minor.

(This prelude of Bach is available in the Ilaiyaragam file section also ! Please Click here and download the midi file part3emj.mid and the tab file Bourree In Em-00.tef In case you want tab software, download the exe file tabled32.exe ) .

In the prelude, what Bach has done 300 years ago is writing a composition for Violin piece in A-Major scale and is continuously modulating into various major and minor scales in a sequence….!
During such transition from one scale to another, if you look at Carnatic angle…., you can perceive a different rainbow of Carnatic Raagams !

So the brilliant IR has identified those transition zones and in order to highlight them he added one more Carnatic line to the existing Bach’s composition and Plays the both Western Bach (300 years ago) with Carnatic IR in synchronized fashion…!

IR's imagination is "Had Bach met Thiagaraja and both understood each others music and joined hand to create a New World of Music ...?!!"That's the theme of HTNI !

If you hear the Bach’s composition and then IR’s HTNI’s piece you will be so mesmerized….who is playing for whom…?

Is Bach is doing the background music for IR or IR is doing the background for Bach…?

Its with so much Perfect Balance between WCM and Carnatic…!And this is what to be called as fusion…!Which made this possible for IR…?

Imagine if he remained himself constrained to any one field, the net result is he would have remained a good disciplined fellow for that particualr field but we all would have been starved of certain GEMs !

His imagination and enthusiasm of bringing the best out of two by adding the advantages & flexibilities of both the field only made this possible!

He has been doing that right from Annakili…..!With "Potruvar Potralum...Thootruvar Thootralum...Pogattum Kannanukke...!" type of resolutary mind !

Imagine, one person is offering you the plate consist of gold ornaments….! Another person is offering the plate consists of full of diamonds…!Imagine both says you take only theirs and not others !

And I feel the wiser approach is to get both the gold and diamond and make a Diamond studded Gold ornament!The value and look and elegance….. everything is multiplied, rather than when they are seen as an individual !

But imagine if both the persons who offered the individual gold or diamond, now started criticizing that he spoilt the gold with diamond and vice versa….! Then its only loss of the person who losses both.

So to conclude the WCM Vs Carnatic perceptions, let me summarise like this….!·

-Carnatic gives the flexibility of Patterns but pose the constraints of their usage and shifting from one to another….!
- WCM has the constraint of Patterns but has flexibilities of usage or shifting from one to another…!

And the wiser sense tell that ……AVAIL ALL THE FLEXIBILITIES OF BOTH……rather than worrying about their constraints !

IR not only remained wiser……HE DISCOVERED…HE REGULARISED SUCH FUSION….HE INVENTED THE NEW SET OF UNWRITTEN RULES FOR SUCH FUSION IN DOING SO…..!

To recognize those things, one will need a century !

And to learn and follow that ……centuries and centuries are needed…!

Like the genius mathematician Ramanujam, he has written thousands of such Musical Theorems in short steps in each of his musical compositions…!

To solve and realize and prove and adopt them is for the next generation job….!

To perceive that we have to educate ourselves…. So that even if it is not possible for us to do, we can guide our next generation towards that !

And can see them attaining that with enjoyment and self-satisfaction !

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10 comments:

T.Padmhasini said...

I had always been very very analytical listener and therefore my appreciation shifted each time I heard a piece of brilliant music. The Ariyakudi group, the GNB group and so on which existed during my girlhood days used to perplex me. Slowly I grew up to see and understand fanatic fan following.
Though I could never bring myself to be one I am able to understand it well. In this blog I see how Raja Sir is dear to you. Each post has colour, font and fontsize choreography while describing Raja Sir. Your write up though a little difficult for me read with so many variations in fontsize and colour, definitely brings a smile on my face.

arvindh said...

Another fantastic piece by you!

Saraks said...

It would also be great to describe the reception of Raja's music by the public in a historian's point of view. Guess there would have been a blind reception by music(but not quite a hit in popularity) and the general pointless thrashing by critics?

CSR said...

@padmasani madam

Sorry for the delayed replying. Thank you for the valuable comments. Frequent variations of font colors..! I agree.. but what to do ..these are proportional to my heart pumping rates when I describe certain things fanatically about IR...! So bear with me! Hope to get your further feedback regularly..!

@arvindh

Thank you Arvindh for your patience follow up of my blog.

@2nd review

SK- you are right. This I explained in my previous posting that whether praising or critisizing, we are not justifying IR's expectations!

These things only might have matured IR to that Gnani stage.

V.P.Jaiganesh said...

great write up!!
modern fusion has degenerated into a cacaphony of playing koshti kacheri in different scales creating noise. IR knows the integration points where WCM can enter into a Carnatic soul and where carnatic can raise majestically with WCM hoist. He went many steps further and brought jazz, blues, rock and more importantly the melancholic folk music of our Thamizh naadu to complete a plasma where unity is in the feelings evoked rather than the sounds heard. Very hard not to feel the awe when this fusion, blending happens in our computer or in our music players.

Anonymous said...

Hello CSR,

This is Prabhu, firstly great to know, you are a fellow IR Thivaravathi (Equvalent to Theevara rasigan), secondly, i as well did my Engineering from GCE Salem. Also, travel through Tharamnagalam, many a times. If possible we shall meet. My Mail id is Prabhu.natesan@wipro.com

Unknown said...

https://youtu.be/Ixt3qcN1-jI see this

Anonymous said...

https://youtu.be/Y4jkFatC8SE



raja and bach played by me and my student anand

Unknown said...

https://youtu.be/ljk3_j9Murk

Unknown said...

check this raja number recreated https://youtu.be/ljk3_j9Murk