What makes the Sea look so beautiful?
Is it that azure
blue colour?
Or is it that grey and green shade?
Or is it that reflection of the sun rays during the day and reflection
of the moon in the night?
Is it that sunrise
or is it that sunset?
Is it that boat/catamaran/ship
floating at a distance?
Yes, all these are beautiful and no doubt
embellish the sea but in my opinion, there are two more things which combine to make the sea an eternal beauty.
One is the Horizon
and the other is the Wave.
The former is considered to be an imaginary line but whenever I see the
sea, I am flummoxed and astounded by the straightness
of this line. Whoever has drawn it is the best artistic engineer ever. How can somebody be so perfect?
Talking about the waves, these are formed as a result of the wind blowing over the
surface. This is what science says
and I would like to be less of a scientist
(anyway I know very little of science) and more of an artist(this too, I know I am not but who can stop me from imagining?).
When I look at the waves, I look at the zig
zag pattern and the way these approach the land, fade away and then come
again. What an amount of energy
these have! Don’t these tire at all?
When I look at the sea, I don’t look at the
horizon first and the waves next(or the other way around) but look at both together. And whenever I do
this-looking at the sea from a distance and then looking at the horizon and the
waves at the same time- I can’t help marveling at the beauty of this sight.
This is a perfect example of contrast.
At a far distance, there is that perfect straight
line and closer to us is this zig
zag curve. Isn’t this poetic and
musical?
People familiar with my posts know how much I love the contrasts
in poetry and in life. If poetry and life combine
together, don’t we get that ‘M’ word
without which I cannot breathe?
Contrast
in music is a very wide topic and it
would serve little purpose if I were to take up that topic- which is full of
technical details- here. However, this C
word is also so simple that all it need are the ears, a little observation
and focus.
What adds beauty to Raaja sir’s music is this C
(oh, doesn’t it rhyme with ‘sea’?). People who attended Geetanjali-2014 , I am sure remember my presentation on ‘Contrasts
in his music’.
Today, I am taking up a song which typifies the word ‘Contrast’. In my opinion, ‘Kaalaipaniyil
aadum malargaL’ from Gayathri(1977)
should rank as one of the best compositions
in the world.
Let me first mention what all I find to be
unique in this composition and then move on to describe some of these. I say
‘some of these’ because certain things don’t need descriptions and this applies
as much to music as to life.
First is the tune. Generally, an Indian
film song follows a particular raga(not
talking about exceptions-which are in fact too many now- which have only ‘rogaa’) or a scale. This topic too is
huge and beyond the scope of this post. However, let me say that a composer composes the song in a
particular scale which has a repetition
of some particular notes while ascending and descending. This particular
pattern can be said to follow a raga,
but most of the composers take liberty with this and add alien notes.
Raaja
sir is known for using some beautiful known, rare
and unknown ragas in his compositions
with or without alien notes. At the same time, he has also composed tunes which cannot be termed as falling
under the classification of any raga.
‘Sendhoorappoove’
and ‘ILamai
enum poongaatRu’ are just some examples of this. ‘Kaalaipaniyil’ too falls
in this category.
The Pallavi
has notes of Kharaharapriya while
the CharaNams have the other ‘ga’(ga3)
and also the other dha(dha1). What is amazing is the fact that
in some phrases, both the ‘ga’ s and
both the ‘dha’ s appear one after the
other giving that chromatic effect.
For example, in ‘kalaigaL aayiram’(first charaNam), the ‘dha’ s appear one after the other and in the third and in the sixth
phrases of the humming at the end of
the CharaNam, we see both the ‘ga’ s.
There is also change in the shruti in the first
segment of the second interlude.
But what is wondrous is the ‘usi’ in the humming at the end of each CharaNam. The concept of ‘usi’ in a taaLa has been explained by me in some of the posts here and also
during Geetanjali-2015. Wait for
more detailed explanation in this year’s Geetanjali.
‘Usi’
is a speciality of Carnatic Music
and we see the pattern is in usi when
the stress is on the even count(2,4,6..).
‘Kaalaipaniyil’
is set in the 3-beat cycle tisram or one can even say in the 6-beat rupakam depending on the way we look at it. I know I am getting too
technical but certain things surely need explanation so that the brilliance of
the composition (and therefore of the composer) can be appreciated more. The
pattern changes to the 4-beat cycle chatushram during the humming part towards the end of each CharaNam. Not only does 3 change to 4, but also the stress (percussion)
is on the even beats.
Usi
at its uchcham (best).
Now, count the contrasting elements-
1. two variants of two swaras occurring one after the other
2.tisram
to chatushram
3.usi
4.change of shruti
in the beginning of the second
interlude.
There is one more (the fifth one) about which I
shall explain soon.
So, does it mean that the composition has only the contrasts?
No..
It has a beautiful straight line called as ‘melody’.
One feels the evanescence of the morning mist while
listening to the song.
The initial bell
sound reminds one of the dew drops falling off the petals of the flowers
while the humming of Sujatha(her
second Tamizh song after ‘Kaadal oviyam’ from ‘Kavikkuyil’) is like the morning
breeze. The santoor depicts the
swaying of the branches.
The Pallavi
is a blend of intuition and expression with the sangati after ‘maayam’ shining with a special
radiance.
I mentioned about a ‘fifth contrast’ while
listing out the C, didn’t I?
This occurs at the beginning of the first interlude. The sitar follows tisram while the rhythm
guitar which backs it follows the chatushram.
Cross-rhythm!
Crossing others’ path is not good manners
generally but if the rhythm crosses like this, isn’t it lovable?
The violins
and santoor-to the backing of the tabla in tisram - guide us to the first
CharaNam.
This Laya
Raaja can never rest. Or at least he will not let us rest. He loves to play
with the TaaLa and he does it in the CharaNams too. The tisram which goes as ‘1 2 3’ on the tabla in the first part
of the first line(paarvaiyodu
paarvai seRum ) changes as ‘1 2 3
4/1 2 3 4/ 1 2 3 4’ in the next
half(bhavam
mudhalil and siRu naaNam manadhil).
And ah yes..that wonderful humming where the notes go in pairs with the percussion in usi.
The second
interlude is more powerful than the first with the santoor sounding like a bird in the beginning and the violins moving ardently. But the piece I love is the one by the violins after the sitar- which sounds with sobriety. There is a very brief classical touch in that piece of violins which always touches a chord in my heart.
The brief
rendezvous between the sitar and the
keys in the end, is musically
romantic.
In fact, everything in this world is romantic-
sky, sea, horizon, waves, music.. and.. ..contrasts.
