Boundless

 Can music be produced? Can music be cut and pasted?

If the answer is yes, I can safely say that what comes out as the output is surely not music.

Though it has been there for quite a while, the strident voice of netizens- who hardly know anything about music- has turned cacophonic of late. These people claim that music is beautiful only when different ‘elements’ which are ‘picked’ and ‘chosen’, are joined together in the recording studio.

Is music a product then?

Probably yes, for people who do not know or understand the real value of music. But people who really know the value, who know to appreciate music, know that music can never be produced.

Music has to be spontaneous. Music has to flow effortlessly. Music has to happen.

Only then will it touch the physical body, pierce the heart and stir the soul.

Listen to this piece from ‘Viduthalai-1’.

It starts with a sustained melody from two different instruments- one, a violin and the other a cello. This lasts for about 15 seconds.

The flute follows with the guitar backing it. Does it feel like a cool breeze blowing in a forest with the branches of the trees swaying and with the birds chirping?

Two things are to be noted here.

Why that sustained melody? To show that love blossoms slowly, steadily and beautifully.

Why that flute melody?

People who have either watched the movie or have listened to the other background pieces from the movie, know that the piece is just a variation of the theme music albeit in a different scale and in a different gait. They also know that the tune is also a variation of the most popular song from the same movie.

Now, would the composer have broken his head for getting this? Would he have asked his flute player, the violinist, the celloist and the guitarist to play different melodies and then cut and pasted? Would he have even spent time in deciding the melody?

It just happened..

..and that is why music from great composers is immortal!