Composer Ilaya Raja's AEDHO MOHAM - A Song Appreciation |
Welcome dear visitor. This page presents one of Raja's excellent compositions, along with a running commentary of what is happening in the music. The purpose is to create an awareness of the musical events and techniques and increase the enjoyment of the listening, not to establish any musical theory, but to listen closely and appreciate better. I am a casual listener, but have been doing it for many years! ;) This grew out of the discussions in the Tamil Film Music Page. Click here to view the thread where this originated.... I am planning to take up more compositions by Raja and Rahman. Suggestions welcome. Click on the mp3 links to listen to the sections. I am planning to add midi files to each block to look at the music closely.
Comments are welcome, Anbudan RJAY, October 2000.
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| INTRO | The intro begins with a rather slow (quarter note based) string quartet. Flutes (picollo) play a counter theme. Then flutes repeat what the strings say with a nice delay. This is a canon form is WC, because the repetition has to be harmonious to the new theme being played by inst 1. | Keyboard like instrument ends the pre-intro with a simple falling 4 note pattern played many times (it is called as an ostinato). A guitar repeats a rising ostinato which has same rhythm as the falling ostinato. There is some water bubbling noise that creates an ambience of being outdoors. Maybe taking bath. | Picollo (high pitched flute) plays the theme in short two note themes. Held notes. If you notice it is the pallavi itself: Ae dho ..... Mo ham.... Ae dho.... Dhagam. then it rounds it off. This solo is very soul stirring. The style of playing is very western, the flute does not use any sliding notes or gamakam. In spite of that there is so much emotion there. See how the context of silence is set by the guitar ostinati and enough space is created for the solo to impact the listener. | The girl sings the aedho mogam pallavi. She sings it in a longing voice as if a whisper. Chorus girls say a-a-a-a, in a two or three part harmony! |
| PALLAVI | Let us look at the basic groove of the song during pallavi. It is quite simple but is a pacy groove. It is built from a simple congo drum rhythm. (is also used in "chengamalam chirikkudu") | There is a strong bass line and a acoustic guitar which pretty much reinforces the congo rhythm. (This is my listening, could be wrong). Check with my arrangement of it in the midi file. | ||
| FIRST INTERLUDE | Once the pallavi finishes, the guitar or a bell plays an arpeggio movement that ends in a repetitive loop echoing itself. The flute plays a solo again, this time little more gamakams are used. And the congo/guitar loop/flute provide a flowing feel, which is abruptly broken by the flute's single note calls. | It is as if, someone running smooth got caught into this feeling and is stunned! The flute calls are now responded by the string quartet. In style this is very similar to the girl/choral call response in pallavi. Here it is flute/string call response. | But look at the way the chords change. There is a key change, the chords seem to move more and more out of context until the long note is played in a key very different from the main mood of the song! It is an amazing disruption of balance. A very similar device is used by Mozart in his Night music. | Silence. Solo acoustic
guitar picks up the key and elobarates. Again series of
chord change. This kind of harmonic progression is
another key style marker of Raja. Due to the key and also
due to the guitar solo nature, this solo is really an
expression of a painful mindstate often brought about by
adolescent love! Strings try to lighten the mood, by playing a relaxing and more baroque (crisp) ending to the BGM. |
| CHARANAM | The charanam is a free flowing rendition with the same mood and pace set by the congo groove. But it has two distinct features. 1. The emotional singing of Janaki and Krishna chander. | 2. The choral girls singing harmony throughout. This is not a note for note harmony, but more like a counter melody sung along with and in response to the singer. You see a call response here too. | At vidiyacholli kozhi koovudhu, there is an abrupt stop of the rythm and that line is dramatically presented along with singalong harmony. This is stylistically very similar to the way the flute call stops the rhythm section during the first BGM. | |
| PALLAVI | ||||
| SECOND INTERLUDE | The second BGM also reinforces the same structure. The long note low voiced strings carry the pace of the congos | until abruptly, a string quartet plays a harmonic eighth note based theme (staccatto, stablike). | Then there is a chord progression on strings that takes you to another key, (this section is also embellished by rising arpeggio played on an orchestral harp. Then there is a obsessive flute call repeating itself. | Then again the silence from the intro re-established by the guitar ostinata. Here the guitar plays same note over and over again, creating an almost silence. Flute plays a solo that is very folk style (distinct from the western style play during intro and first BGM). |
| CHARANAM | ||||
| ENDING |
Some further thoughts: 1. The purpose of an intro is to get the listener into the mood and also strongly state the main theme of the music. 2. The texture of the sound, either its pace or layers or volume increases gradually in the intro. 3. Balance: Balance is acheived in many many ways. Aedho is a rising note pattern. First A-a-a-a is a falling melody. Dhagam - is a single note melody. The second a-a-a-a is a holding pattern. (neither rising nor falling) Final dhagam is a falling pattern and the corresponding a-a-a-a is a rising pattern! So melody wise, rising and falling patterns are interwoven. A composer does not calculate them as an algorithm, but when is mind is filled with the musical sensibilities whatever he hums or plays is balanced by natural instinct. See the difference between neththuvarai section which is very low and soft and the sudden 'Devi' rise which dramatically increases the musical tension and the recapture of 'vanakkiliyae'. A good composition balances short notes with long notes, soft sections with bright sections, slow sections with fast sections, low pitch with high pitch, bass with treble and so on. In this composition, try to listen for the silent sections vs louder sections, slow sections with fast sections and so on. You will begin to see the compositional genius. This dramatic use of dynamics and the use of silence as a concentrating device is a key style of Raja. 4: Repetition with a variation : When the girl sings the pallavi, we already have heard it in the flute solo, so we recognize it. It increases its impact. But see how different this pallavi used as prelude is from some-other MDs style who play the entire pallavi without a variation. I am sure Ilayaraja wrote the prelude much after composing the pallavi, but he gives only the core of the pallavi in the flute solo, not the entire pallavi and anupallavi and he even adds a variation to it. 5: Going beyond rules: Finally, the pallavi has been sung by the girls, but I think it is still part of the intro, the texture has thickened from flute solo, to voices, but only at vanakiliyae the rythm, bass everything jumps in and we see the pallavi sungs with full force.
Thank you for visiting the page! Please also visit my mp3.com page to listen to my original compositions. If you like them, please recommend the link to your friends. And your comments on how I can improve are welcome. Anbudan, RJAY rjaymidi@yahoo.com |
