NY Muralis posting in website re produced POOMUDHITTHAL INDHA POONKHUZHALI https://youtube/watch?v=35rQjjzAlmA Can musical notes or swarams express emotions? MSV says ‘yes’ and I agree fully... Why? See this song. I always approach MSV’s songs with emotion whenever I play his songs in my keyboard. The reason is that they have some secret codes which will be revealed. We all would have read the book Da Vinci Code which is about the secret coded messages in his painting. Am I going too emotional that it defies logic? That is the why I always write reasons whenever I try to read his mind in interpreting his songs in terms of notes and further understand what he wants to convey through musical notes. I also strongly believe that MSV himself approaches a song emotionally by placing himself to that of the character and hence he is able to bring the best of notes for expressing his emotion through the tune. Now let us analyze the song. The song is basically in the raga ‘maaya maalava gowla’. This is the very fundamental mela kartha raga which our children start when they start learning carnatic music. The aarohanam of the raga is Sa-ri1-ga2-ma1-pa-da1-ni2-sa The avarohanam is Sa-ni2-da1-pa-ma1-ga2-ri1-sa Now I want to add one information about the swaras and their character which I found out during my research for the past 25 years. That is all swarams from sa to upper sa has 13 swarams. If you watch a harmonium there are white and black keys. If you start from the left most key it will be white in color. Then go one by one up to the next 13 keys. The white keys then would be sa-r12-ga2-ma1-pa-da2-ni2-sa. The black key would be ri1-ga1-ma2-da1-ni1. So they are 7 white keys and 5 black keys. Leave the last or the 13th key as it is the same sa only in the higher pitch. Now if you create a melody in the white keys only then suddenly you go to a black key it gives an opposite effect or a sharp effect. In fact western music calls the black keys by the name as sharp. For example if the first white key “sa’ is called as ‘c’ in western the next black key ‘ri1’ is called as ‘c sharp’ and in the same order for all the black keys. So it gives us the evidence that they have the effect of producing sharpness. What would be an opposite emotion for happiness? It is sorrow. So if you set the melody in a white key for happiness, then if you take the tune to the black key then you can express the emotion of sorrow ness. This is my theory. How it I come to know? I shall explain. I composed 3 albums in devotional. My 2nd album was about Lord Iyyappa during 1986. My mother sung a song in that album. After hearing all the songs my mother commented that I have composed most of the songs in the ‘gana raga’ meaning ‘heavy raga’. I did not ask for any clarification at that time. But long after once I was playing those songs I found out that most of the songs in that album had ragas which had at least one or more black keys. I was pondering why she said those ragas as ‘gana raga’ or ‘heavy’. It was when I found out from MSV’s composition I came to know that. I have explained that MSV used this theory to a greater effect in order to convey opposite emotions. See my posting about ‘unnakkaga ellam unakkaga’ and ‘velli mani oosaiyile’. I shall give one more example. There is raga ‘mohanam’. Most of the songs are composed in that raga to effect happy situations. In fact the ragas expression of happiness so well known that even some lyrics have been written mentioning the raga name as an example. For instance if you want to convey a happy love line in a lyric you can say like ‘EN MANAM MOHAANA RAAGAM PADIYATHU’. You would have noticed some lyrics had been written in this style. (If anybody can find out any samples please provide.) Now if we decode the raga ‘mohanam’ it consists of all white keys!!! Sa-ri2-ga2-pa-da2-sa Now let us also see the opposite raga ‘sivaranchani’ which normally used for sorrow situation. Again if you decode that raga it consists of one black key.Sa-ri2-ga1-pa-da2-sa. So by just replacing one key ‘ga1’ instead of ‘ga2’ from the raga ‘mohanam’ it produces the opposite effect and we get the raga ‘sivaranchani’. And the important replacement was the black key with a white key which can create opposite effect. So MSV brilliantly used this concept all through his musical carrier whenever he wants to express any opposite emotion from the original emotions. Nobody would write the lyrics as ‘EN MANAM SIVARANJANI RAAGAM PADIYATHU’ to express a happy situation. That is why I say MSV always approaches any composition emotionally. We all know life itself is full of emotions. There are good and bad things happen to us all thorough our life and we express. If we have done good deeds in the previous birth we may get more happiness than sorrow ness. That is why goddesses Saraswathi has kept 7 white keys and only 5 black keys indicating that there are more good than bad in the world. If we put our soul or ‘athma’ in to that we can find that out. As I am writing this MSV himself feeds me with one more information. If you read the section quotes from MSV he has mentioned as Melodyil Oru Thuli Sogam Irukkum; Melody will have a tinge of lingering sorrow in it. Coming back to song it is composed in the raga ‘mayaa maalava gowla’ which has 2 black keys which are ‘ri1’ and ‘da1’. So this raga is a ‘gana raga’ or heavy raga as per my theory. Why he set the tune of this song in that heavy raga. Because of the situation of the character which I think I need not explain. He also has set the same raga for the song ‘kallellam maanicka kallaguma’ in the movie ‘aalayamani’. Again the reason is it is a very emotional and heavy love. It is not a casual love like the ‘deiva magan’ sivaji loving ‘jayalalthi’. So the song goes in the raga and when the line ‘adai paarthirukkum kannil neer aruvi’ comes there is a slight change of tune at ‘paarthirukkum’. That is because there is a change of swaram used. The swaram is ‘da2’ (white key) instead of ‘da1’ (black key). I have mentioned in my earlier posting about ‘unnakkaga ellam unakkaga’ and ‘velli mani oosaiyilee’ where I have explained how he went from the white key to black key ‘da1’ to express the emotion of sorrow or soberness from the happy situation. But here he is doing the opposite of that. BUT WHY? Because of the line ‘paarthirukkum kannil neer aruvi’. What we do when our heart becomes heavy with emotions? We cry. What is the product of crying? Tears. Of course only ‘aanandda kanneer’. And by shedding tears our heart becomes light. So he is conveying that emotion by the swara change when he changes from the heavy ‘da1’ to the light ‘da2’ and this is triggered by the line ‘paarthirukkum kannil neer aruvi’. Just for the composition of this one line alone he should have been conferred with the ‘Bharat Ratna’ award. But unfortunately the hearts of the committee of yesteryears and now are all hard and heavy (like black keys). I do not know when their heart will become light (like white keys). Coming back to the song again the song it goes on in the same raga for the 1st charanam. Then comes a totally unexpected composition of ‘reading of the kalayan pathrika’ by way of song itself which is a very unique technique never tried before. But since this is not in meter there will not be any rhythm. But if you notice the tune there is a change. The raga will be in ‘sudha danyasi’ with the mix of again ‘da1’. Why? Because he reads the ‘kalyaana pathrika’ to the general public and there should not be any scope for his personal emotion. So he pickup a mangala raga (auspicious) normally rendered in all marriages. But still there is a mix of ‘da1’ which is not in that raga. I do not know why? It could be that still he is not come out from the heavy emotion. I will give proof for this in which is available in the ‘naadhaswara interlude’ Now when this is over there would be ‘naadaswaram’ follow up. Here the raga of that ‘naadaswaram’ is pure ‘sudha danyasi’. Why? Because for the ‘naadaswara’ player there is no such emotions. He is a common public for the marriage situation. Now again when the vocal comes back to the raga ‘maaya malava gowla’. And the line by line narration of the marriage sequence each line followed by nadhaswaram (of course this time in the same raga as they cannot follow in a different raga) and taking the sequence to peak when the line comes as ‘kottiyadhu melam’ there is the ‘ketti melam’ and after that line ‘kulam vazhgha’ then the tradition nadhaswara follow up which is normally practiced in any marriage. Then comes the final charanam ‘kaithalam thandhen’ and ends with MSV’s best emotional imagination of ‘paarthirukkum kannil neer aruvi’ and repeated by only ‘neer aruvi’ 2 times to express the final emotion. I also expressed in various postings that he used a method called chords based composition which is very unique method. Even though this song is composed in the raga ‘maaya malava gowla’ as raga based composition even within this raga wherever possible he has followed the chord notation route within that raga wherever possible. In fact the very line in which he changes the tune to “paarthirukkum’ is actually changing from ‘f minor’ (sa-ma1-da1) and c major (sa-ga2-pa) route and changes to f major (sa-ma1-[b]da2). [/b]So it gives the total feel of the emotion. The lyric is wonderfully written and I request somebody to explain as I am very weak in the lyrics. Whenever I hear MSV song I closely look in to the sound only and forget to take note of the lyrics. In my first posting itself (after the introduction that is MSV’s composing style part 1) I stated that the songs composed during 1960-80 s are the golden era and out of that MSV takes a major part. He is also very ably supported by the lyrics writers kannadasan and vaali. In fact kannadasan and MSV are like body and soul. Without a body the soul cannot express. Same way without the soul the body is of no use. So when kannadasan passed away that made the end of the golden era in my opinion. I am not speaking against vaali. In fact it is vaali himself quoted this during the meeting on 21-12-08 at YMCA. He said that today’s songs are composed and recorded in a way that the lyrics are not audible. He further said it is one way good that if in case it is audible (including his own lyrics) we will all through stones at them. See you friends, N Y MURALI PL NOTE: I some time feel guilty whether I am writing posting not in a short way but in an elaborate way. But since much technical information is required to understand it better I am unable to shorten it. Pl provide your feed back on this.
Posted on: Thu, 18 Dec 2014 16:51:03 +0000
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