Bending the unbendable

I was under the impression that only song in Kanakangi raaga was by Raaja for the movie - Sindhu Bhairavi - Dhom Dhom Dhom song.

Thanks to Daffy to have pointed out another song in Malayalam set in Kanakangi raaga. And personally I think this song has more melody parts compared to the former.

Rahman and Raaga

http://prabhuthemusiclover.tripod.com/arrahman/id3.html

Raaga - A perspective

Good bye to year 2008 and wish you all a very happy new year 2009 :-)

Ever since I started to learn about Raaga, the curiousity has been growing in me to understand why certain Raaga are used for "Happy situation" and why certain Raaga are used for "Pathos". What aspect of the Raaga makes us associate the Raaga with the emotions?

I made an attempt to understand the Raaga a bit deeper. I would like to share my attempt and the results with you.

Each raaga comprises of notes and each note represents a frequency. For the purpose of this experiment, I took 9 Raagas (Melakartha) and tried to plot the frequency that each Raaga represents and this is what I observed:



Without associating with the Raaga, imagine you were shown this graph in an analytical quiz session and asked to mark the odd ones out. What would be your choices of odd ones out? I would vote on "Subhapantuvarali", "Bhavapriya" and "Simmendramadhyamam" purely based on the pattern of the graph. And indeed, they are kinda odd ones because, they are the Raagas usually used in "Pathos".

If you are not convinced with me, I did another work on it. The Swarasthanam string for the above mentioned Raagas are:

Mayamalavagowli: XX00XX0XX00X

Subhapantuvarali: XX0X00XXX00X

Keeravani: X0XX0X0XX00X

Sankarabharanam: X0X0X0XX0X0X0X

Bhavapriya: XX0X00XXX0X0

Simmendramadhyamam: X0XX00XXX00X

Kalyani: X0X0X0XX0X0X

Natabhairavi: X0XX0X0XX0X0

HariKamboji: X0X0XX0X0XX0

If you calculate the number of times "X"s come consecutively - 2 times, you can find that Bhavapriya, Subhapantuvarali and Simmendramadhyamam are the highest with the count as 3.

Also, if you calculate the number of times "X"s appear consecutively 3 times, again, only the above mentioned 3 Raagas have the count as 1 and rest all doesn't have any!!

I am sure, this observeration is not conclusive and needs more research, but, I am pretty much convinced that there is a scientific pattern associated with the Raagas and the emotions that they are associated with.

Rahmanism

In one of my earlier posts, I have written my views on rise of Rahman. One of the key factor that I mentioned about was "Rahmanism". For anyone to standout from the crowd, they need to exhibit a unique style and Rahman did it with a style. No doubt.

My opinion is that he very carefully avoided the spheres that were explored and dissected by others, especially Illayaraja when he began the journey. To unseat a person from the crown of Tamil industry who enjoyed only success throughout 2 decades would have been possible only with something special.

If SPB and Janaki were "overused" (I have no problems with that, personally), Rahman brought new voices to the forefront. If violin and Tabla dominated the era of Illayaraja, Rahman brought the techno music to the forefront. If "poor sound/recording quality" was the norm, Rahman changed it. He kept "Vairamuthu" by his side, when he was almost ignored for over 5-6 years. If 30-40 movies were scored by Illayaraja at that time, Rahman chose to limit to 5-6 movies a year. To an extent, even ther timings of work were opposite. He stood out.

One such instance, that I can think of is even usage of Raaga. If "Keeravani", "Mayamalavagowla", "Kalyani", "Sivaranjani" and "Natabhairavi" were predominantly used by Illayaraja, Rahman either chose the Raagas that Raaja scored a very little or moved to the Hindustani paradigm.

Even on the Raagas where both have scored, there is a paradigm shift in the usage. Take for instance - "Sivaranjani". As I had written in my earlier post, this Raaga has been used by many music directors to depict the emotional bonding and that comes out very clearly in the scale - S R2 G2 P D2 S. Various hits in the past set in Sivaranjani scale are: Adi Aaathadi, Kuyil Paattu, Oru Jeevan thaan Un Paadal thaan, Oh Priya Priya, Tere Mere Beech Mein and so on.

All of the above as you can see, depicts the emotional bonding and that is mainly derived by the traversal from P D2 to upper octave's S R2 G2. Try humming a song in the list above and you would easily be able to connect to any other song set in the same Raaga with the same feel. However, now look at "Kannum Kannum Kollai Adithaal" set in the same Raaga featured in the movie "Thiruda Thiruda". Can you believe this song is set in the same Raaga that generates a completely different mood. Though orchestration is one of the possible reasons for the same, this is mainly due to the handling of the Raaga.

I find it difficult to explain in words, however, the way he split the scale into pieces and traversed makes the song feel completely different from other "Sivaranjanis".

For your listening pleasure, here are the two contrasting Sivaranjanis:

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.

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