Friday, 2 August 2019

VIBGYOR



Do swaras and ragas have colours?

This may sound abstract or even absurd but I feel it is a valid question. Long back, two very popular carnatic musicians (sisters in fact) raised this question to another musician. This was part of an item in a Tamizh magazine (yes, those days Tamizh magazines had more aesthetic sense and sensibilities) in which musicians interacted. One musician would ask a question to a fellow musician, who after answering the question would ask a question to another fellow musician. This chain was as interesting as the questions and answers and revealed a lot to a layman like me who wanted to learn more and more about music.

The duo who asked the question even named some ragas and the colours associated with those. What they meant was this- Whenever they played a particular raga, they visualised a particular colour. They wanted to know if other- musicians that is- too had similar experience. Though I don’t remember who answered this question, I found this to be very interesting. Nearly 15 years after this, I happened to interact with a musician- a child prodigy who plays a very beautiful instrument- in a Dance camp and asked him this question. He paused for a moment, looked at me and said ‘It is a very interesting question. Why don’t you ask me in the forum after I finish my lecture?

Unfortunately, I couldn’t due to reasons I don’t want to get into now. But I have always related colours with music and vice versa.  Coming to think of it, the basic swaras are seven and the rainbow has seven colours. I don’t mean to say that each colour corresponds to one swara but this coincidence (or is it?) is striking.  Colours are dynamic, full of energy, and at the same time give a sense of calmness. Music does the same.

Let us now celebrate Colours and Music with a song. Surprisingly enough, the word ‘colour’ appears only in the first line and yet I feel the song is very colourful.
I really don’t know as to ‘Rangulalo kalavai’ from ‘Abhinandana’(1987) giving me visions of various colours and I am sure the reason has to do more with the whole composition and just a little with the first word. It is a composition with many specialities.

1.Janaki- In some of my earlier posts, I had mentioned as to how he has used Janaki’s voice as an instrument. In ‘Rangulalo..’, Janaki renders only the Pallavi and that too only twice-after the first charaNam and in the end. Otherwise, she just hums. Indeed, this ‘just humming’ has the capacity to take us to the heaven. The composition starts with her humming. To start with it seems like a plaintive cry of a bird. But this is just an illusion. The moment the next part of the humming starts, we spot the romance in that voice. The final ‘akaaram’ makes it classic and classical.
The ‘akaaram’ appears in the second part of charanams too and the rolling of the voice…isn’t it amazing and mind blowing?

2.SPB- That this gentleman can change the voice to suit the occasion is a known fact. Here, his voice is shrill and gets shriller in the higher octave making it a thrilling experience.

3.Acharya Athreya- Not many in Tamizh Nadu know about this genius. Known for his aesthetic sense and his word plays, this legend shows yet again that he is a romantic at heart. Look at these words- ‘Colourful dream’, ‘Art inside the heart’, ‘Sculpture’, ‘Embodiment of art’ ‘Swinging imagination’, ‘Beauty like the blooming spring’, ‘Honeyed arrow’ ..

This is how he describes the Lady Love. He even calls her as his ‘viraha taapam’.
Height of beautiful imagination (or is it swinging imagination?).

What he does in the end is a masterstroke. Throughout the song, he asks questions- ‘Are you this/that’. But at the end-when the Pallavi is rendered, he affirms that ‘yes, you are that’. Not many songs end like this.

I am also told that generally Athreya gaaru wrote the lyrics and these were later set to tune by the music composer. I believe this song also was written first. That brings us to the gentleman who set this to tune.

4.ILaiyaraaja- What can one say about this tune in Hindolam? Sorry, can’t find a suitable adjective. Even the accidental note in the CharaNams enhances the appeal. The structure of the CharaNams is a lesson for all aspiring music composers. Look at the last line where he splits the chatushram into 16 maatras as ta ki ta/ ta ki  ta/ ta ki  ta/ ta ki  ta/ta ka dhi mi almost like a pure classical composition.

Ah yes, the rhythmic pattern almost throughout the song is a kind of leitmotif. One set of percussion sounds the first 4(ta ka dhi mi) and then sounds only the first syllable(ta) thrice while the second set(vamping of guitar) sounds all the 16 albeit subtly. Both these happen simultaneously!

If I say that the orchestration is beautiful, it is like saying ‘The moon is beautiful’ or ‘the flowers give beautiful fragrance’. Stating the obvious may sound clichéd but in the case of Raaja sir, this cannot be helped.

The Prelude has the rhythm guitar backing Janaki’s humming. The ankle bells follow during the second part of the humming with the tabla tarang and jalatarangam showing subtle shades of Hindolam. The bass guitar winds up the Prelude in its own style.

The sitar responds to the first two lines of SPB with elan.

The first interlude starts with the call and response between the strings and the tabla tarang. The strings then go up the stream to the backing of the percussion(playing in the pattern explained before 3 paragraphs). The percussion decides to take a break with the strings taking a straight path and the flute that follows blows with joy. The keys sounding like a stringed instrument guide us to the first CharaNam.

The flute now follows SPB in the first section of the CharaNam(the following sections of course have that original instrument called Janaki’s voice as explained earlier!).

The second interlude is a class by itself and has some variegated patterns which can be conceived only by one gentleman in film music. It starts with the flute-sans percussion- which plays an amazing piece in Hindolam to the backing of the bass guitar with brief repartee by the tabla tarang. We then see the western contours of Hindolam with the strings showing some glistening strands. The harmony between the violins and the cello has to be heard to be believed. After drenching us with honey, the sitar and tabla tarang take us on a blissful journey to the backing of the percussion.

It is indeed a spiritual journey. Don’t I see the white colour now?

And after all, what is white?
Probably, this answers my question..






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