T.N.Seshagopalan about Illayaraja

Long Pallavis

Some songs that I recollect with long pallavi...

Gundumalli Gundumalli (Solla Marantha Kathai)
Kanmaniye Kaadhal Enbadhu (6 to 60 varai)
Oru Raagam Paadalodu (Aanandha Raagam)
ABC Nee Vaasi So Easy Un Raasi Vaa Rosi (Oru Kaithiyin Dairy)
Poovil Vandu Koodum Kangal .. (Kaadhal Oviyam)

The coincidence in all of the songs is that they are all set in Mohanam raagam.
Can you think of other ones?

Math and Music - Part IV

"Axis of Symmetry" is a line that divides the figure into two halves, with either side is a mirror image of the other. In the world of music, with all the figures formed with 7 Swaras, Shadjamam and Panchamam have a special significance. If the frequency associated with Shadjamam is X decibels Hz, and the Shadjamam at the next octave is 2X decibels Hz, then, the Panchamam stands in the middle of it as an axis of symmetry - at 1.5X decibels Hz.

In short, Shadjamam and Panchamam notes are special because they act as epicenters, around which other swaras dwell. In this post, I would like to bring some interesting aspect, what I call "Sa Pa Symmetry". Play a sequence/pattern of notes with your Sa as the home key and try to play the same sequence/pattern of notes with lower/upper Panchamam as the home key. There you go!

Keeravani and Mayamalavagowli raaga offered this symmetry naturally. Raaja has used this pattern in many many songs. To highlight with a classic example, "Poovama Oorvolam" song from Chinna Thambi. Listen to the verses -
"Aranmana Annakili Tharayile Nadapadhu Nadakkuma Adukkuma
Paniyilum Vetta Veli Veyilum Ulla Sogam Aranmana Kudukkuma"

If the first line of the above stanza is centered around upper Shadjamam, the second one follows with lower Panchamam. Another example in "Poova Eduthu Oru Maala" from "Amman Kovil Kizhakkale". Listen to the verses -
"Kannadi Vala
Munnadi Vizha"

Other evident usages that comes to my mind immediately are - "Om Namaha" from Idhayathai Thirudadhe; "Poo Poo Poo Pootha Solai" and many more..

This might be one of the reason why Keeravani and Mayamalavagowli are very popular in light music and especially Raaja has used to its full potential in film songs.

Polymorphism

All the 3 clips below are based on the same raga - Revathi. The scale of Revathi raga goes like this: S R1 M1 P N2 S. Illayaraja has mostly used this raga for a gripping situation typically packed with action. Some examples include "Adada Ahangaara Adakka Peigal" (Pithamagan), "Sangeetha Jaathi Mullai" (Kaadhal Oviyam), Amma Azhage (Kaadhal Oviyam).

Same raga Revathi has been brilliantly used by Vijay Anthony in the movie "Naan Avan Illai" for a completely different situation.

And ofcourse, finally a devotional song based on "Revathi" raga by evergreen M.S.Subhalakshmi.

Bottomline: Raga is like a liquid that takes the shape of the container. Polymorphism in the world of music? Yes.

Good for heart

I must never get any heart ailments in my life time, if pundits are true! Yes, Keeravani raga is supposed to be good for heart and Raaja has given us innumerable Keeravani based songs. The more and more you pay attention to the nuances how Keeravani raga has been handled by Raaja, I really wonder, if anything in Keeravani is left unexplored!!

But, the Keeravani based numbers aren't stopping. Even recently in Uliyin Osai, Raaja gave some good piece in Keeravani. Here is the scale for Keeravani: S R2 G2 M1 P D1 N3

Clearly, there aren't any dissonant notes (vivadhi swaras). A perfect scale for melody. If an various permutation combinations of these notes were tried using an algorithm, you might cover pretty much a big spectrum of Raaja's Keeravani based songs.

Some of the famous Keeravani based songs in Illayaraja's composition are:

Kaatril Endhan Geetham (Johnny)

Un Kuthamma En Kuthamma (Azhagi)
Unna Nenaichaen Paattu Padichaen (Apoorva Sagotharargal)

Nila Adhu Vaanathu Mele (Nayakan)

Keeravaani Keeravaani (Paadum Paravaigal)
Ennulle Ennulle (Valli)
Povoma Oorkogalam (Chinna Thambi)
Ennai Thaalaatta Varuvaalo (Friends Kaadhalukku Mariyaadhai)
Kaalathai Vendra Kalaignan (Uliyin Osai)

The key thing to note here is how Illayaraja has used Keeravani in a wide array of situations. Starting from a "Ekkam" to "Sogam" to "Romantic" to "Dappanguthu" - has used the same Raaga. In some cases, he has taken advantage of his orchestration skills to use the same tune both in a happy and sorrow situation in the same movie.

For instance, "Povoma Oorvolam" from Chinna Thambi re-appears in the climax as "Nee Enge Naan Inge" with the same tune based on same raaga, but with a complete different orchestration. Thanks to Keeravani that is flexible and doesn't pose a stiff challenge, unlike other Raagas.

Let us deal with Keeravani more in my subsequent posts.

Break the rules - II

It has been quite a big gap since my last blog. With the economic slowdown, my work load refuses to slow down!! But, being busy seems to be a good thing these days..So, I have no complaints.

In one of my previous posts, I have discussed how Raaja handled one of the most difficult raaga "Kanakangi" in the movie "Sindhu Bhairavi". "Sindhu Bhairavi" movie is a milestone with many experimentations that I will talk about in my future posts.

Today, I wanted to talk about other Melakartha Raaga and how Raaja handled it. Subhapanthuvarali raaga is 45th Mela Raaga and its scale goes like this: S R1 G2 M2 P D1 N3 S

This raaga has an inherent flavor of sorrow and grief. Have you heard "Vaigarayil Vaigai Karaiyil" from "Payanangal Mudivathillai"? Another classic example for the usage of this raaga is "Enna Enna Kanavu Kandaayo" from the movie Valli. As you can notice, this raaga brings the grief to the forefront. How does Nava Rasas get their due representation with these 7 swaras, I wonder sometimes?

S R1 G3 M1 P D1 N3 S denotes the peace to the forefront in the form of Mayamalavagowlai and S R1 G2 M2 P D1 N3 S in the form of Subhapanthuvarali brings sorrow and grief!! Huh!

In this Subhapanthuvarali scale, Raaja did an experiementation to score for a romantic and seducing number. Waraeh Wah!!

Here you go:


I will let you decide, if it was successful or not. But, sure.. he did break the rules.

Again, did you notice something interesting in the scale? Except for Ni3 (Sa and Pa, of course), all of the other keys are black keys!! Has it anything to do with the emotion that is hidden in the scale? I don't know..

Break the rules - I

'Nayakan' was a milestone for in Tamil film industry for several reasons. It changed the perception of people who believed in the commercial formula for a success of the movie. From the music standpoint, it was a feast for music lovers and 'Thenpandi Seemayile' will be remembered forever as an icon and symbol of grief and sorrow.

I read from multiple sources that originally Illayaraja had played the tune of "Nila Adhu Vaanathu Mele" for the situation of "Thenpaandi Seemayile". Though Mani Ratnam liked the tune, he asked Raaja to use the tune for a "item number" dance by Kuyili and extracted another gem of the tune "Thenpaandi Seemayile"! No doubt, Mani Ratnam has good ears for music.

Still, I have a different perspective here. No doubt, a Raaga and the underlying melody and tune brings the mood to forefront. But, Illayaraja has sometimes overpowered this characterstics of Raaga/tune with his weapon - orchestration.

To give you an example - take the Melakartha Raaga - 'Bhavapriya'. It is considered as a Raaga that brings the sorrowness to forefront. (The scale goes like this - S R1 G2 M2 P D1 N2 S (i.e.) C C# D# F# A# B#) Did you notice what is interesting about this raaga? You have ALL black keys (sharp variations) - of course except Sa and Pa as they don't have variations. Is this the reason why the Raaga brings out the color of sorrowness? I don't know !! Perhaps, an expert can explain.

Anyways, Raaja used 'Bhavapriya' raaga to come up with a song for a comical situation in the movie 'Guru Shishyan'. The song is "Kandupudichaen Kandupudichaen". He did succeed in overpowering the challenge that the raaga posed!

So, my argument here is even if Raaja had chosen "Nila Adhu Vaanathu Mele" tune for "Thenpaandi Seemayile" he would have succeeded with his sheer brilliance in orchestration, because he is always Raaja :-) There is one more person who comes to my mind who can change the texture and color of the song and that is SPB with his brilliance in his voice and modulation. Only he could make, even a "Dabba" song a hit!!

Kanakaangi - II

I got inspired to write on Kanakaangi after reading posts written by "Lakshminarayan Srirangam Ramakrishnan". (I would have read all these articles at least 25 times in the last 8 years)



Look at how Raaja came up with such a great song using a stiff scale like "Kanakaangi" !!

I will share my 2 cents: Raaja has very cleverly handled this Raga. Many of the songs that Raaja has set to the pure scale of Carnatic - he simply traverses the notes of the scale in the Pallavi and sets the tempo. Let's take the example of "Chinna Kannan Azhaikkiraan" - The pallavi is simply traversal of notes of aarohanam of Reethagowli. Similarly, I can quote several several songs in Mayamalavagowli, Keeravani, Amruthavarshini, Kalyani and so on.

In this song, he has employed a completely different strategy, though looks simple now. "Any big surprise/shocking news should not be passed on directly to the mild hearts". Enough "Pakkuvam" has to be made before you convey the news to mild hearts, isn't it? Similarly, traversing Sa Ri1 and Ga1 as adjacent notes would have left a jarring effect on the ears of us. So, he cleverly split the Sa R1 into one segment and Ri Ga1 into other segment and repeated the notes several times before he did the traversal from one segment to the other. Though repeating of notes is not recommended by the definition of melody, Kanakangi doesn't offer enough room for melody, anyways.

Look at how the notes unfold:

moagam ennum theeyil en manam vendhu vendhu urugum
s s s s r s s s s n.sr n.sr n.rs
vaanam engum andhap pimbam vandhu vandhu vilagum
s s s s r s s s n.sr n.sr n.r rs
moagam ennum maayap paeyai naanum konru poada vaendum
r s r s r s r s r s n.sr s n. s r
illai enra poadhu endhan moochchu ninru poaga vaendum
r s r s r s r s r s n.sr s n. s r
dhaegam engum moagam vandhu yaagam seyyum naeram naeram
g g g g g g g g r r r r rs s s s
thaayae neeyum ingae vandhu thanneer ootra vaendum vaendum
g g g g g g g g gr r r r rs s s s


That's why Lakshminarayan says "Bending an unbendable"

Raaja, Unnai Isai Arasan Enbaena?
Illai Isaikku Adimai Enbaena?

Kanakaangi - I

In our last post, we had finsihed with a Raga, whose swarasthaanam looks like "111001011100". The interesting thing to note in this is the 3 subsequent 1's appearing twice in the raga. If you try to play this scale by just traversing across the notes in your keyboard, you will feel like closing both of your ears. Simple, it will not be melodious as against playing "101101011001".

You can analyze why "111001011100" doesn't appeal as much as "101101011001" in several perspectives. If you ask a Carnatic pundit, he/she might simply say: "இரண்டு முறை விவாதி ஸ்வரம் வந்தா இப்படி தான் இருக்கும்". (Because of Vivadhi Swaras")

If you ask a layman like me, I will say "it is all because of the three 1's coming subsequently". If you look at the problem psychologically, our ears are trained with a sequence of melody notes and subconciously it starts expecting a pattern of notes. The notes that doesn't go well with each other becomes dissonnant note. Sa Ri1 Ga3, Sa Ri2 Ga3 and Sa Ri2 Ga2 notes sequence are well expected by our ears, whereas Sa Ri1 Ga1 makes a jarring sound!! That's why a tune that is considered melodious in one culture might not appeal mass in other culture.

Anyways, coming back to "111001011100". The Raga that has this swarasthaanam is the 1st Melakartha Raga - Kanakaangi. There cannot be a better challenge to a film music composer than to come up with a song set to this scale. According to various sources that I verified, Illayaraja is the only composer in Tamil who has given us a song set to the scale of Kanakaangi. The song is none other than "Mogam Enum Theeyil" from Sindhu Bhairavi.

Stay tuned for the next post on how Raaja has handled this delicate Raga.

Raaga Encoded

Hi All,

It has been quite since, I wrote a post on "Theory of music". It's just that I am not having enough quality time these days to sit and write posts that are lengthy! Today, I managed to squeeze some time around 4:30 AM and here you go !

I prepared a matrix of booleans for each raaga emphasizing on "Swarasthaanams". Simple. Let us take "Keeravani" (21st Mela) - It's aarohanam and avarohanam goes like - S R2 G2 M1 P D1 N3. The 12 swara sthanam (Places) go like: S R1 R2 G2 G3 M1 M2 P D1 D2 N2 N3. So, let us start giving a "1" where the swara appears and a "0" where it doesn't. So, we get - "101101011001" for Keeravani. Similarly, Mayamalavagowla would have "110011011001", Sankarabharanam would have "101011010101" and so on.

Since we all know that Mela raaga will have all the 7 swaras, if you all all the digits of this binary string, you will get always "7" for any Melakartha Raaga. Let's take "Mohanam" - a Janya raaga (derived from mela, a subset of notes in Mela) - it would have "101010010100" - totalling only 5 !

Anyways, there are some relevances of this "Swarasthaanam" string.

Remember, all beginners in carnatic music are first introduced to "Sarali Varisai" set in "Maayamalavagowli". The main reason for it is because of the symmetricity of the string - or in other words, equal spacing of the frequencies - even though in the keyboard it is hard to find the symmetricity, you can appreciate the frequency spacing by looking at the "swarasthaanam" string.

Secondly, look at this string "111001011100". The thing that comes to one's mind is three 1's appearing twice inside this little string. Sounds good!! However, it doesn't sound that good if you play :)

Stay tuned and I will cover this in my next post.

Kamal Bhagavathar

It was a pleasant surprise to me when I heard in an interview (way back) that Kamal Hassan learnt Carnatic music from none other than Dr.Balamurali Krishna. Here is the clip from an interview with Kamal Hassan and he even demonstrates his skill as a singer in our classical system.

Age Old Hashing Algorithm

In our last post of this series, we learnt how 72 scales formed the Melakartha Scheme. Few other points to note related to Melakartha Raga are:

1. They are also called "Sampoorna Raga" as all the 7 swaras are present in the scale.

2. The aarohanam and avarohanam will contain exactly the same swaras though in reverse order. (Aarohanam is the pattern of ascending notes – frequencies and Avarohanam is the pattern of descending notes)

Well the 72 raaga in Melakartha scheme needed a unique name. It wasn’t as easy as how the roads and districts are named today. VenkaTamakhi of 18th century applied a hashing algorithm called KaTaPaYaaDi to name the raga.

Like how all the encoding is done in today’s world, KaTaPaYaaDi is a simple mechanism to encode a string literal to a number:

Each alphabet in Devanagari script is assigned a number:

1   2   3   4   5   6   7   8   9   0
ka kha ga gha nga ca cha ja jha nya
ṭa ṭha ḍa ḍha ṇa ta tha da dha na
pa pha ba bha ma
ya ra la va śha sha sa ha

So, let us take any Melakartha Raaga in random – (say) ShaNmukhapriya. Take the first 2 consonant – Sha and Mu. Their equivalent values according to the KaTaPaYaadi sankya is: Sha = 6 and Mu = 5. Hence, applying the hashing gives 65. However, we have to reverse the number as we were following little endianness as opposed to big endianness scheme.

So, the equivalent value becomes 56. Hence, ShanmukhaPriya is 56th raga in Melakartha Scheme. Big Deal? How does it help to know just the position of the raga?

Once you know the Mela # of a raga, you can derive its scale by a simple algorithm.

a) Sa and Pa are fixed.

b) If Mela # > 36, Use Ma2, Else Use Ma1

c) If Mela # is > 36, subtract 36 from it

d) Then, Divide the Mela # by 6

Ri1 and Ga1 if the quotient is 0

Ri1 and Ga2 if the quotient is 1

Ri1 and Ga3 if the quotient is 2

Ri2 and Ga2 if the quotient is 3

Ri2 and Ga3 if the quotient is 4

Ri3 and Ga3 if the quotient is 5

Da1 and Ni1 if remainder is 0

Da1 and Ni2 if remainder is 1

Da1 and Ni3 if remainder is 2

Da2 and Ni2 if remainder is 3

Da2 and Ni3 if remainder is 4

Da3 and Ni3 if remainder is 5

For eg: MechaKalyani (Originally known as Kalyani and was renamed to suit KaTaPaYaadi Sankya) has the Mela # as 65.

Since 65 > 36, we will use Ma2.
Also, as Mela # is > 36, we will subtract 36 from it to get 28.
When we divide by 6, Quotient is 4 and Remainder is 4.

So, Scale for Kalyani is Sa Ri2 Ga3 Ma2 Pa Da2 Ni3.
(Remember Sa and Pa are fixed for all Mela Ragas)

Alternatively, you can also find the Scale using Mukund Chart.

Bottomline: All the encoding, hashing and mathematical algorithms we use now were used centuries earlier for organizing music for our pleasure! It is even believed that value of Pi could be traced back up to 17 digit precision when you apply KaTaPaYaaDi algorithm to a treatise in “Sadratnamala”. More details found at: http://members.tripod.com/~RKSanka/music/katapaya.html

Melakartha Schemes

In the last post of this series, we had discussed about the basic 7 swaras, their associated frequencies and the variation notes like C#, D# etc. constituting 12 notes in total for an octave. I have tried to present the western notes and the associated swaras (Indian Classical) in the picture below:





I generated this with the help of just Excel !! Cool, isn't it?

Though not accurate, I have portrayed as if C=Sa and C#=Ri1 etc. For now, let us leave at that. So, each note/swara has a place in the keyboard. That is called "Swarasthaanam". Please note that there are few swaras that I have marked in blue color. They are called Vivadi Swaras. (It is said that Vivadi swaras were called "Dhosham" - tainted swaras and were avoided for along time and later accepted in the practice. Please refer to: http://www.carnaticmusic.esmartmusic.com/primer/swara.htm for more details).

One question that popped up in my mind immediately when I did the mapping was: Ri, Ga, Ma, Da, Ni have variations like R1, R2; Ga2, Ga3 etc. However, Sa and Pa do not have, rather they were fixed. Most of the sources I referred to didn't go further deep into why they were fixed. However, only answer I got was even if you were to have B# or E#, they would sound as C and F respectively. (I can accept it as a theorem, still, would love to get a deep dive answer if someone could!)

So, now that we have 16 swaras (including vivadi swaras), it is pure permutation and combination to come up with tunes! Our ancestors laid some basic rules to form what they called as "Mela" later known as "Melakartha" raagams.

Rules:

1) Sa and Pa are MUST.
2) Ma is also MUST and can either take Ma1 or Ma2, but not both.
3) Only the following {Ri,Ga} variations are allowed:

{Ri1,Ga1}
{Ri1,Ga2}
{Ri1,Ga3}
{Ri2,Ga2}
{Ri2,Ga3}
{Ri3,Ga3}

It's simple. They have allowed only ascending notes in terms of its frequency. For eg: Ga2,Ri1 is a BIG NO! 4) Same rule applies to {Da,Ni} combination. So, with this four rules above, you can have: 1 Sa, 6 {Ri, Ga}, 2 {Ma}, 1 Pa, 6 {Da, Ni}

Mathematically, it gives rise to 1 X 6 X 2 X 1 X 6 = 72 !!

That's how there are only 72 Melakartha ragas. They are like the backbone of the Indian classical system. There is much more to Melakartha raga system (including a age old hashing algorithm that our ancestors had designed) that I will cover in my next post of this series.

Science of Sound

Thanks for all your responses for the posts on Carnatic music. As much as it might be interesting and new to you, it is the same here. And hence, I would like to reiterate that I am not an expert in this domain. I am merely trying to learn with you all and this series of posts will help us to get there, I hope.


Some of you mentioned that there are 12 notes instead of 7 and some said even 16 and so on. True. I was about to discuss this in my next post and your responses prompted me to do little deep dive into this topic.


In order to understand how many notes are there in the system, we need to understand the science behind the sound.



Human ears have the capacity to sense variations in air pressure as long as the frequency is in between 15/20 Hz to 20,000 Hz. Any sound below this 15/20 Hz is called infrasonic and any sound above this 20,000 Hz is called ultrasonic. While species like bats, dogs etc. can sense ultrasonic range; snakes, whales etc. can sense infrasonic waves. This could possibly explain why many species sensed TSunami and the loss of such species were minimal compared to human!


Anyways, coming back to 7 swaras, this range of 20 - 20,000 Hz is broken into 10 segments. (See below)


S1 S2 S3 S4 S5 S6 S7 S8 S9 S10


So, S1 is closer to 20 Hz whereas S10 is closer to 20,000 Hz. Now, each segment is divided into 7 sub-segment leading to 7 swaras in each octave. Guys, trust me. I sweated to give you this picture in Excel.








Due to the limitation of time & resource, please note that the frequencies against each note is not ACCURATE, however, it is very close.

The point to note here is that the middle A (in C4 segment - highlighted in yellow) has a frequency of 440 Hz. This is like our J2EE specification. Any manufacturer globally has to comply with this requirement. So, Middle A is like a reference point. If you know Middle A's frequency, you can multiply by 2 to get the equivalent frequency of A in the upper octave. And continue divide by 2 to get lower octave's frequency.


Each instrument has its own frequency range. Please see
http://www.dplay.com/tutorial/freqpaint.html to know more details about the instruments and the frequency range.

Anyways, back to our topic. How many notes are there - Theoretically INFINITE. Yes, if and only if our ears are capable of distinguishing such minute levels of frequency changes. Unfortunately, dwelling in this noisy world, we cannot distinguish minor variations. Hence, the notes are divided into 7 in each octaves. However, notes like Ri, Ga, Ma, Da, Ni have a variation. Like how we have even Tylenol coming in Vannila and Strawberry flavor, Ri has two variations - Ri1 and Ri2. Let me give a crude example (though not accurate). You can consider frequency of R1 = (Sa + R2)/2. In other words, R1 is a semi-tone. Similarly, we have variations for Ga, Ma, Da and Ni.


If you are ever wondering what are those BLACK keys in keyboard, they are these variation keys of the above said swaras.



Rest in next.

Building Blocks

Alright. In our last post about the roots of music, we paid our tributes to the "Sangeetha Mummoorthigal".

We all know that the building blocks of music lies in the 7 swaras. It is believed that originally the hymns in the praise of God were sung in 3 notes and it later evolved into 7 notes. They are:

Sa - Shadjam - Giving Birth
Ri - Rishabam - Morality
Ga - Gaandharam - Fragrant/Light
Ma - Madhyamam - Middle
Pa - Panchamam - Fifth
Da - Dhaivatam - Of Gods
Ni - Nishaadam - Sit/Lie down

On the other hand, references to 7 swaras is believed to be found in Silapathikaaram. And according to Tamil literature, the 7 swaras are:

kural = C (sa)
thutham = D (ri)
kaikilai = E (ga)
uzhai = F (ma)
iLi = G (pa)
viLari = A (da)
tharam = B (ni)

Even references to scale, grahabedham etc. are believed to be found in the works of Elango Adigal. Let us keep the debate of Sama Veda vs Silapathikaaram aside and move on to what a scale means. Once we learn alphabets (A-Z), don't we try and form words & sentences to convey our emotions? The same way, these alphabets of music (7 Swaras) can be combined to form melody.

Scale is a group of the notes in ascending and descending order that forms melody. Didn't we hear that Raaga is also group of certain notes in ascending and descending order? So, is Raaga same as scale? Look at the two pictures. Do you find any difference between them?

Obvious, isn't it? Though both the graph are plotting the same points, the former is more fixed, discrete and rigid. Whereas the latter is more smooth and free-flowing. This is the best I could explain the difference between scale and raaga. Scale is the former, Raaga the latter.

If both Raaga and Scale are based on the 7 notes, how does Raaga get the smoothness? It has a unique great weapon - Gamakams!! We will see more about this in the coming posts.

Free for all

Even though more than half of the things I read about "Classical Music" goes over my head, still the thirst to read and get to know more doesn't end. Having NOT been exposed to "classical music" in any form, where did this thirst originate from? Naan ariyaen..

I really believe that classical music is not only for "Pattu Veshti" Vidwaans and "Haarathi Edukkum" Maamis. The roots of the fruits that we (as layman) enjoy today lies in the framework that our great ancestors had set. We often appreciate a song as "Soft number", "Very Brisk", "Divine" and so on. All these "Bhaavams" are extracted from the 7 Swaras. What do we actually mean when someone says "Kaatril Endhan Geetham" is set in Keeravani or "Kalaivaaniye Unnai Thaane" is based only on aarohanam? Knowing the roots will only help us to appreciate the music better. I will try my best to explain that I have understood and let us make some of these posts interactive so that we all shall learn together.

Due to the British invasion and the political system in our country, we have often got a misinterpreted version of History. There is a debate on how the music evolved and a theory says it all originated from "Sama Veda" where it is believed that 3 fundamental notes were used to recite the hymns. Let us reserve this topic for a separate research study and let us first salute "Tri Moorthy" of Carnatic music. Who are these "TriMoorthys"?

Is it KJY, MS, Balamurali Krishna? It reminds me of a joke - There is a movie where Vivek asks "Who got us the independence?". A boy replies "Puratchi Thalaivar Vijaykant"!! Ada paavi makka !!

Between 1750 and 1850, thousands of compositions were done, new raagas were manifested and performance styles were established. Big three, who contributed towards this massive effort were - Sama Syama Sastry, Tyagaraja and Muthuswamy Dikshitar, called as "Sangeetha Mommoorthigal".

I heard in an interview recently where Illayaraja said: "I decided to get copyrights enforced strictly for Thiruvaasagam in Symphony unlike all my previous projects where many music directors lifted my tunes...". I only wonder, if the "Sangeetha Trimoorthigal" had met in a conference and decided to "copyright" their work, what would all these composers do? But then, that was 1750 and today is 2008, dynamics have changed and we need "Dabbu" for everything!!

(This is a new domain for me as well, so I love to be corrected when I am wrong)