Musical Ramblings - Maalai En Vethanai(Sethu)
A sunny morning and a relaxing mood at home. And as i went on raaga.com to do a intensifying search for rare songs i come across this beauty of a melody by Maestro Ilayaraja. I would like to discuss about this song as it showcases some things that are often unnoticed by even hardcore IR fans.
Almost everyone who has heard IR songs know his taste of orchestration and the way he makes the instruments in his songs whether manual or computerized sound symphonic yet laymen harmoniously. But people always tend to go wow about his touch of violins and the flute but rarely the piano. IR's most astonishing point about his orchestration is that is its 3-in-1...its complex with various notations and chords all meeting here and there, it is enjoyable and the most important part, it really enlivens the mood of the song..if it is supposed to show a hero just proclaiming his love in front of nature it will sound like that..if it is like a hero proposing to a heroine it will sound like that.
And as we come to this song, the mood is supposedly of a hero describing his love within himself and how he might go on with it if it becomes a success. So think lonely,romantic and happiness all coming together. When it comes to choosing the right instruments to bring out the mood of a song, IR is one of the very few who have mastered it. Just because he loves the sound of violins in tandem when they are played symphonically it does not mean he uses the same style for every mood...if the mood needs a soft effect he lets go of his orchestration and lets a single instrument do the talking like a thavil background beat and the singers just make the song live.
And this song just does that, instead of violins or even flute he lets soft instruments which really bring out the mood for such songs, ideally the piano and guitar.
Just listen to the prelude of the song by the piano, you can just feel like your reciting your happiness in front of a garden of flowers or in morning dew. And this is what i mean by choosing the right instruments for the right song....what better instrument than the piano with its melodious and mild touch to explain the hero's feelings when he is romantically musing with himself. And mind you IR never uses piano from loops or of that in piano ballads, they bear his style, if appadi paarkirathu venna from the movie Ivann had a racey pattern of the piano depicting the hero chasing the heroine with his expressions (amazing how IR can make the instruments talk), this one repeats the pattern with a medium tempo to explain the hero thinking of his love by himself.
In the first interlude, You can actually feel the sounds adapting themselves to explain the situation. When the interlude first adopts a eerie sound and then moves on slowly to the string and synth sounds mixing together to form a happy solution to the eerie sound, you can actually feel that hero is wondering about how his love formed and how it is going currently. You dunt even need to see the scene but you can easily picturise what is happening with the way the music is orchestrated. The second interlude is another example in which it showcases the piano depicting how the hero's love has developed after the heroine has accepted it, again IR's mastery of keeping the right notations to explain the mood. Let us not forget the guitar usage after the interlude ends, its just like the icing on the cake. Amazing.
In fact When you hear this song, you will notice that IR's music does not only speak of orchestra and symphony magic, they have varied functions like speaking for the situation where the song is held for and at the same time binding the song and the film structure together;to do this the instruments,orchestration pattern and setting of tune has to be all in tandem and IR does this all within half an hour. Certainly mind boggling if you ask me. The hallmark of a composer of how he can make his music talk to the audience without them having to see the scene and even more great if it is a scene that is not imaginary but bound to film scopes, and that as well speaks of why IR is one of the best composers the world has ever seen.
Listen to this song and you guys will understand what i mean by enlivening the mood and musical picturisation.
Almost everyone who has heard IR songs know his taste of orchestration and the way he makes the instruments in his songs whether manual or computerized sound symphonic yet laymen harmoniously. But people always tend to go wow about his touch of violins and the flute but rarely the piano. IR's most astonishing point about his orchestration is that is its 3-in-1...its complex with various notations and chords all meeting here and there, it is enjoyable and the most important part, it really enlivens the mood of the song..if it is supposed to show a hero just proclaiming his love in front of nature it will sound like that..if it is like a hero proposing to a heroine it will sound like that.
And as we come to this song, the mood is supposedly of a hero describing his love within himself and how he might go on with it if it becomes a success. So think lonely,romantic and happiness all coming together. When it comes to choosing the right instruments to bring out the mood of a song, IR is one of the very few who have mastered it. Just because he loves the sound of violins in tandem when they are played symphonically it does not mean he uses the same style for every mood...if the mood needs a soft effect he lets go of his orchestration and lets a single instrument do the talking like a thavil background beat and the singers just make the song live.
And this song just does that, instead of violins or even flute he lets soft instruments which really bring out the mood for such songs, ideally the piano and guitar.
Just listen to the prelude of the song by the piano, you can just feel like your reciting your happiness in front of a garden of flowers or in morning dew. And this is what i mean by choosing the right instruments for the right song....what better instrument than the piano with its melodious and mild touch to explain the hero's feelings when he is romantically musing with himself. And mind you IR never uses piano from loops or of that in piano ballads, they bear his style, if appadi paarkirathu venna from the movie Ivann had a racey pattern of the piano depicting the hero chasing the heroine with his expressions (amazing how IR can make the instruments talk), this one repeats the pattern with a medium tempo to explain the hero thinking of his love by himself.
In the first interlude, You can actually feel the sounds adapting themselves to explain the situation. When the interlude first adopts a eerie sound and then moves on slowly to the string and synth sounds mixing together to form a happy solution to the eerie sound, you can actually feel that hero is wondering about how his love formed and how it is going currently. You dunt even need to see the scene but you can easily picturise what is happening with the way the music is orchestrated. The second interlude is another example in which it showcases the piano depicting how the hero's love has developed after the heroine has accepted it, again IR's mastery of keeping the right notations to explain the mood. Let us not forget the guitar usage after the interlude ends, its just like the icing on the cake. Amazing.
In fact When you hear this song, you will notice that IR's music does not only speak of orchestra and symphony magic, they have varied functions like speaking for the situation where the song is held for and at the same time binding the song and the film structure together;to do this the instruments,orchestration pattern and setting of tune has to be all in tandem and IR does this all within half an hour. Certainly mind boggling if you ask me. The hallmark of a composer of how he can make his music talk to the audience without them having to see the scene and even more great if it is a scene that is not imaginary but bound to film scopes, and that as well speaks of why IR is one of the best composers the world has ever seen.
Listen to this song and you guys will understand what i mean by enlivening the mood and musical picturisation.
posted by Chandrasehar at 11:13 AM
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