Profundity

Inspiration is part of creativity.

I have made the aforementioned statement many times in many forums . But the fact of the matter is, many find it difficult to distinguish between ‘inspiration’ and ‘copying’. The reasons for the difficulty vary depending on the people and their mental make-up.

 Long ago, I wrote about 3 poets belonging to three totally different eras and also about how the 2nd one  got inspired by the 1st one and how the 3rd one was inspired by the 1st and the 2nd one. I shall just give the names of the three poets and without any further elaboration move on to ILaiyaraaja.

The 3 poets were – Thirumangaiyaazhwar(8th Century), Kamban(12th Century) and KaNNadasan(20th Century). 

When it comes to ILaiyaraaja, there is a group which would criticize him even if he sneezes. Needless to say this group would have heard not more than 5% of his compositions. People in this group do not know that when he scored music for a full fledged play (MaasatRa Manam) way back in 1969, he used original tunes. Nor do they know that he did some movies for free even when his market price was the highest among Indian composers (one of the movies was the Malayalam movie ‘Sammohanam’ which even won an award at an International Film Festival). 

And it is mainly this group which with its half-baked knowledge, brands his as ‘copy cat’. One of the songs cited by this group is ‘Endha Poovilum Vaasam UNdu’(MurattukkaaLai-1981). 

Let us first look at the facts. 

Antonio Ruiz-Pipó was a composer from Spain who wrote and composed some beautiful pieces. One of the pieces is called ‘Cancion Y Danza No.1’. This piece is in fact part of Trinity College syllabus for classical guitar grade 8.

The accusation is- ILaiyaraaja copied from Antonio Ruiz-Pipó.

Is this true?

Listening to the piece, the first humming of Janaki and most part of the Pallavi resembles the piece. But then what happens after that?

The guitar strums for 6 seconds. Suddenly the flute appears from nowhere and sings like a bird. Record this piece separately and play it to anybody. I bet they would say, ‘Oh, South Indian folk with guitar as the background’. Even experts in WCM would not associate this with Antonio Ruiz-Pipó.

Play the following piece where the violins and violas alternate between the cello, with each set playing different melodies and WCM aficionados would ask, ‘Is this piece from a classical symphony?’

The bulbul thara piece with bass guitar in the background would of course make even people not exposed to any major form of music, sit up, simply because of the way it pulls the strings of one’s heart.

How is the CharaNam? A mix of folk and semi-classical? But there is more to it. 

The higher-octave notes-going up to ‘Ma’in the third and the fourth lines- would make an Indian classical musician wonder as to how brilliant the composer could be.

The second interlude would probably make a poet with musical knowledge come up with a caption like- When Thames met Cauvery. This is because of the sound of the strings in WCM style backed by the folk instrument. And what would people say if they listened to the romance between the flute, the strings and the keys in the next segment?

The bulbul thara at the end puts things in a nutshell:

If a musical piece of a great composer can be taken as the base from yet another genius and expanded so beautifully like this, does it not speak volumes of his greatness?

After all, what is life without inspiration and creativity?