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[N Y MURALI]

1.2) ‘NAALAAM NAALAAM THIRU NAALAAM’

This is the another song in this scale
The aarohanam is
Sa, ri2, ga2, ma1, pa, da2, ni1, ni2, sa

The avarohanam is
Sa, ni2, ni1, da2, pa, ma1, ga2, ri2, sa

But this is the very best melody created by this great composer. You would be surprised if I say that this is composed as chords based melody. But that is the truth. But the importance of this song is that it changes from one tone to the other in split of a second. It floats thro the chords route sa-ga2-pa (c major on natural scale) pa-ni2-ri2 (g major) and sa-ma1-da2 (f major) effortlessly. The variation swaram is ni1. You can feel the swaram “ni1” when the line comes ‘ilaaya oonjalil’.

As usual whenever ‘ni2’ comes it flows through ri2 and goes to 'pa' after touching ‘ni2’. Same was when 'da2' comes it goes through ma1-da2-sa.

Even the interlude is constructed as chords based melody in combination with normal raga based melody like ‘addukku swaram’ or incremenatal/decremental swara prayogam.

I can explain the incremental swara proyogam like this
Sa-ri-ga-ma-pa-da-ni-sa
The decremented is
Sa-ni-da-pa-ma-ga-ri-sa

The “addukku swara prayogam’ is like this

Sa ri - ri ga - ga ma – ma pa – pa da- da ni – ni sa
It can also be in the reverse. Like this there can be many combinations.

Whereas on chords based melody how does the swara prayogam comes. It comes like this.

Sa ga pa – ri ma da - ga pa ni – ma da sa

Sa ga pa is ‘c’ major in natural scale
Ri ma da is ‘d’ minor
Ga pa ni is ‘ e minor’
Ma da sa is ‘f ‘ major
So by this method you can maintain the orchestration harmony by playing the chords in the supporting rhythm guitar and other supporting harmonic instrument like violin or organ by maintaining the respective chords harmony when the melody is sung. Whereas it is very difficult to maintain the harmony in the other method to maintain continuously and you would be forced to show only at the pause. The concept of incremental or ‘addukku swaram’ have come from carnatic music which does not require any orchestration and hence does not require harmony. There the individual swara sudham is important. Where as in mellisai there are enough no supporting instruments which supplement the vocal and they have to be in a perfect harmony.
That is exactly the reason why MSV adopted this style and that is why he is unique. Even if he has composed songs as a raga based he ensures that to the maximum extent possible he would ensure the harmony within that particular raga. If that is not possible he would immediately go to a foreign swaram to that particular raga selected for that composition. That is way most of his songs which are composed in the raga ‘mohanam’ will have only one or two lines in that raga and immediately shift to ‘ma1’ in order to have the harmonic chords ‘sa-ma1-da2’ (f major) and somes times goes also to ‘ni2’ in order to have the harmonic chords ‘pa-ni2-ri2’ (g major). The swarams ‘ma1’ and ‘ni2’ are foreign to the raga ‘mohanam’. So in nut shell he does not bother about the rule, tradition etc. he simply creates a melody for that particular line and see whether he is able to produce the ‘bhavam’ (emotion) by that melody. The next line could be entirely different depending on the line.

Remember the chords concept has emanated from the western music and it is not Indian. But when he sets the composing style as chords based melody how come he is able to make us feel that it is not at all like a western music but very much Indian? The trick is lies in his ability to generate the sangadhis and the gamagams. The sangadhis and gamagams are truly Indian and not western.

Here in this song if we decode the melody ‘naalaam’ it consist of swarams sa-ga2-pa. But the time given for these 3 swarams is not equal. The swaram sa-ga2 occupies 90% of the time (naalaa) and only 10% is occupied by the swaram pa (m). So by elongating the melody he is giving the punch for the word ‘naalam’ with the emotion that the lovers consider their marriage day that is going to come for them comparing their marriage day with that of a heavenly marriage between ‘nambi’ and ‘nangai’. The word ‘nambi’ refers to Vishnu and ‘nangai’ refers to ‘Lakshmi’.

I am writing this posting in a series of songs composed in a particular scale which I have mentioned in the beginning. The first song which I mentioned was ‘unnai ondru ketpen’ in that song I mentioned that he adopted a method where he has never used ‘ni1’ and ‘ni2’ together.
In this song also he uses the same method. But in one instance he used the swaram ‘ni1’ and ‘ni2’ one after the other. When? That was when they sing their humming.

This I had not predicted when I first tried this song in my harmonium. You cannot label his composition to any particular type. Even when I say that this song is based on chords based melody that does not mean that all the notation of the chords are inter linked with one another to produce the melody. Then it would be a mechanical magic show. He has used all the concepts of incremental swara prayogam, addukku swaram etc in this song. So I reversed my opinion about him. He is very unpredictable. But I can guarantee you that the fundamental structure of this song is in the chords based melody. Otherwise my 25 years experience of playing his song in my harmonium would be a waste.

Now coming to the point of talking of the sangadhis in MSV’s songs take for example the song ‘oru naalile’ in the movie ‘sivandha mann’. Just see how short is the line ‘oru naalile’ and compare it with the melody produced. Even when the line ‘naa’ comes there is an extension and when the line ends the melody continues for almost equal time with a sanghadi. That song is not chords based. It starts with the raga ‘mohanam’ in the line ‘oru naalile’ then goes to various swarams. It is a highly sangadhi based song. I have noticed that 11 swarams are coming in that song if you calculate including the sangadhis out of total 12 swarams available in the music.

Where as take the song ‘adisaya raagam’ where only 4 swarams are coming. This song is raga ‘magadhi’ based as you all would know.

The point here I want to highlight is that the usage of 11 swarams or 4 swarams are not predetermined. In the case of ‘oru naalile’ he wanted to compose the song with heavy sangadhi and the 11 swarams are the by product. The same way in the song ‘adisaya raagam’ he wanted to compose in a apoorva raga so the 4 swarams are the by product. Both are very melodies in their respective styles and are evergreen.

If he has deliberately kept all these factors in mind he could not have produced such melodies. He just concentrates line by line melody with the emotion.

Now here I want to share one of my experience I had when I watched a TV programme one year before. In that programme there was a very famous MD after MSV. He is a raga based composer. He in fact considers himself that he has composed songs in very very rare ragas. In that programme he told the audience that he has composed a song with only 3 swarams. The swarams are ‘sa-ri2-ga2’ clearly an incremenatal swara arrangement. That is because of the MD’s natural thinking of raga based melody creation. The MD is so fond of the raga ‘mohanam’ and ‘kalyani’ (these ragas start with sa-ri2-ga2) that he has created so many songs in those ragas in his TFM career. So old habits never die.
So it is quite natural for him to select the scale as ‘sa-ri2-ga2’. The notation went in many combinations like sa-ri2-ga2 or sometimes sa-ga2-ri2 or ri2-ga2-sa and so on. Sometimes it went in the higher pitch and sometimes in the lower pitch. I am not here to dispute his genius to create the melody with this short scale of 3 swarams only. It has to be appreciated. But what about the harmony? How would you support the main vocal with the other instruments with the orchestration? In fact I was watching closely how he is using his rhythm guitar to support the main melody. There was no rhythm guitar used at all for sometime and only a percussion instrument was supporting the vocal. What chord you would have used when the swaram ‘sa’ comes. Probably ‘sa-ga2’ together as a 2 note chords. But what about the chord for the swaram ‘r12’? The 2 note chord ‘sa-ri2’ or ‘ri2-ga2’ played together? Why not somebody try that and let me know how harmonious it is to the vocal melody? The appropriate chord should be pa-ni2-ri2 or pa-ni1-ri2. But both ‘pa’ and ‘ni’ are foreign to the scale rule you have set yourself.

(In this situation a discussion comes to mind I had with Mr. Chakravarthy at Chidambaram. He told me that once he met Mr. Philip the guitarist for MSV and during that time he shared one information about the recording of the song ‘pon ondru kanden pen angu illai’. He told that he was having a problem of applying the appropriate chord for the song when the swaram ‘sa’ or ‘pa’ comes. Because the song mainly composed in the raga ‘brindavana saranga’ which does not have the swaram ‘ga’ in the scale. So what chord can be appled when the swaram ‘sa’ or ‘pa’ comes? He asked MSV for clarification and MSV told him that though the swaram ‘ga’ is not in the scale he can better use the chord sa-ga-pa (c major or minor I am not sure. But the either of the chords has the swaram ‘ga’ which is foreign to the raga ‘brindavana saranga’). This he said because that looks better hormonius and so they need not worry about the raga rule.)

So coming back to the 3 swarams song even though the song is melodious which I do not dispute, it is not harmonious. It can never be harmonious. Any song that is not harmonious can not come in the category of evergreen melody.

So I watched the song more closely. Then came a group of violins. And when I noticed the notes of the violins it went far beyond the swarams ‘sa-ri2-ga2’. What happened to your rule? Why did you take foreign swarams from that scale? Because simply you cannot support the vocal melody which has just 3 swarams only. What would happen if the orchestration itself happened in the same 3 swarams. There would not be any variation and it would be neither a carnatic music(because there is no raga with 3 swarams) nor a mellisai (as there is no harmony). So I had to only pity the composer for caging himself to rule or tradition.

Now about 2 months back I was surfing the internet when I noticed this song in a site. There was a comment about this song and the person who has commented has mentioned that he has composed a tune based on 2 swarams only!!!!. The maximum limit of looking for gimmicks in composition. The swarams he has used are ‘sa-pa’ only. I heard that tune. While I do not want to discourage his novelty he has to understand that composition is not about filling sounds for words. Probably our town side buses blow horn with 2 swarams only.

Now I started thinking what would MSV has reacted when he is challenged with this rule? First of all he would never agree to compose with such restriction and rules. Even if he had to take the challenge he would have used the swarams as ‘sa-ga2-pa’ as the scale for the melody which itself is a chords based melody that is ‘c’ major in a natural scale.

Infact the song ‘adisaya raagam’ just happened with 4 swarams in that raga. But if we notice the raga arrangement it naturally happened to be in a chords progression.

The aarohanam is
Sa-ga2-pa-ni1-sa

The avarohanam is
Sa-ni1-pa-ga2-sa

You can have chords combination as sa-ga2-pa (c major), ga2-pa-ni1 ( e dimished) and pa-ni2-sa ( c 7th chord).

There is one more instance where the same MD(3 SWARAMS COMPOSER) has committed a blunder in a movie. The movie is about a carnatic singer who happened to have fallen in love to a woman inspite of he being a married man. Because of that there were confusion in his music carrier and he would be disgraced. After somehow on his revival he would perform a kutcheri and the announcer informs that on that day in the raga he is would sing, there would be only the ‘aarohana proyagam’ and not ‘avarohana prayogam’ indicating that hence forth there would be only upward movement in his career and not otherwise. Well it is a good imagination. But the example they set was fundamentally wrong. Why? Because first of all if you sing any raga only in the ‘aarohana’ it can never be called as a raga. It can at the best called as a piece of melody. But this character is a renowned carnatic singer and how can he perform a kutcheri without any raga? The fundamental soul of carnatic music itself is raga and that rule itself you are breaking. In fact the character is so fond of the delivery of the raga style that in an another occasion he lambastes an old carnatic musician and preaches him how to sing the raga ‘durbar’!!! Nobody asked to the composer to create rules while making a composition. All they have asked was to create a melody which touches the soul and the heart. But in the process if you say you have adopted a rule while doing the composition you should better follow that rule you yourself set in true letter and sprit.

I can also create a melody based on the scale

‘sa-ri2-ga2-pa-da2-sa’

as the ‘aaaorahana proyogam’ only and call it as a raga. Well if I call this as raga ‘mohanam’ I am wrong. Because it would be called as raga ‘mohanam’ , only when the ‘avarohanam’ comes.

which is

‘sa-da2-pa-ga2-ri2-sa’.

But what is the guarantee that the ‘avarohanam’ should come as

‘sa-da2-pa-ga2-ri2-sa’.

It can also come as

‘sa-ni2-da2-pa-ma1-ga2-ri2-sa’.

Then it would be called as raga ‘bhilahari’. So how can I call this as ‘mohana raga’. First of all how can I call this as a raga when the ‘avarohanam’ never comes? At best I can call it only as a piece of melody and can never call it as any raga? If I perform a kutcheri in a real life like this I would be thrown out of the kutcheri saba. IF YOU ARE A ROMAN FOLLOW ROMAN RULES. BUT DO NOT BLAME THE RULE.

Now consider this with the song ‘yezhu swarangalukkul ethanai padal’ which is a real kutcheri style song. I was amazed to see that MSV never used a rhythm guitar or any other orchestration other than the traditional violin. Mirdhangam and tambura. Since this song is composed on a raga maliga style (different ragas for different charanams) the interludes will be of violin only and nothing else. This is how you have to compose a carnatic kutcheri style song.

There is also one more instance in the movie ‘salangai oli’ where Mr. Kamalahasan dances with moushtache. Normally when dance performances are performed the mustaches are shaved out. Please watch the professional dancer Mr. Gopikrishana’s dance. These are fundamental mistakes.

I shall give 2 more instances to show that I am not biased in my reporting. 25 years back I read in one the weekly magazine where a reader has questioned the logic of Kaviarasu KD in the song ‘oruthi oruvanai ninaithuvittal andha uravukku peyar enna? Kadal’. The reader mentioned that unless the male accepts the offer how can this be called as ‘kadal’ and at best this can be called as only ‘oru thalai kadal’. But there was a counter argument by somebody that when a female has offered her love to a male then there could be no problem with the male and hence can be considered as ‘kadal’. But I cannot accept the counter argument. See the movie in ‘ulagam sutrum vaaliban’ where MGR rejects the offer of that Thailand’s girl love and accepts her as sister. This is by the same MGR in that movie when he marries another girl apart from his wife. So it is not a guarantee that once a girl offers her love to a male then it is deemed as kadal.

There is also one more instance where one reporter of a magazine questioned MSV about the sameness of the composition of the song ‘pavai nee malligai’ in the movie ‘deiveega raagangal’ compared to the song 'thedinen vandhathu". You know what MSV replied? He told the reporter that since he has composed more than 2000 songs there could be some song which would appear as same without his consciousness and he would take care in future. Remember he sings the line in the opening title song in the weekly programme ‘endrum MSV’ in MEGA TV where he mentions that every song he composes is the first song for him.

Nowadays we are hearing songs which are looking like pop music. In fact some albums are made in north India stating that they are Hindi pop tunes!!! Comedy. When you hear the songs of current TFM or Hindi Films or any private albums they are just the same as probably a Michel Jackson would have produced. I am not degrading the Pop music. My question is why do we require these Indian geniuses for producing a western pop music when you have 1000 of western composer who are well versed in their subject.
What is the specialty of Pop music? I do not know. But one thing I noticed is that even in the original pop music the lyrics are not clearly audible. There are very heavy supporting instruments which suppresses the voice.

In this regard I want to share one information with you. When I went to chidambaram last month Mr. Chankravathy presented me one CD consisiting of 85 songs all old and new western music. I heard them. What a surprise? In the old style western songs the voice and the lyric is clearly audible even for me who normally find it difficult to recoganiose the lyric or dialoge in the English movies.

So clearly this is a trend. But this is not a good trend. The same trend is copied in TFM today. No words are audible and understandable. If you ask the MDs of the current period they say that there are no good lyric writers nowadays. But my question is if you suppress a voice with heavy instruments sounds and make the lyric inaudible what motivation you are giving for the lyric writer to write? Even if they manage to write some good lyric it is going to be suppressed. There would be very few songs like ‘ovevoru pookalume’ in the movie ‘

If you ask the lyric writers about the sad state of affairs they are showing their hands towards the director. And the director is showing the producer. And the producer finally showing his hand towards the audience. It is a sin to blame the audience for the current state of affairs.

Remember no other song has so far beaten the record for maximum no of instruments than that of ‘enge nimmadhi’. How could MSV able to make TMS voice clearly audible and making KD’s lyrics more appreciable even without spoiling his own idea of creating a melody for a character which got confused, feared that his dead wife is alive again and because of that he has lost the peace and pleading with for peace?

Now compare the same pop music style song MSV composed in the song ‘ninathu parkiren en nenjam inikkindradhu’. See what modulation SPB is giving when he sings the line ‘oh oh remember (with the modulation) oh my darling remember). That is MSV with Indian ness of the pop music.

Can any of the new generation singers sing that kind of sangadhi? Why the so called singer (I do not even know his name) of the remix (like concrete mix? (So mechanical)) of the song “my name is billa’ not able to produce the modulation after the line ‘naanaaga thoda matten iyya’ (followed by that great modulation).

Why the singer in the remix of the song ‘pon magal vandhal’ is not able to sing the line ‘raaga me vaa’ like TMS and the original voice of TMS is mixed in the remix itself in at that place. That makes it easier for us to compare the new singer voice with TMS.
Of course I am not discouraging the current singers but the problem is that they are not challenged with sanghadhi and bhirugas in composition by the current composers.

MSV himself takes care of the composition style keeping in view of the singer who is to sing that particular song. If it is PBS or PS means there would be heavy sangdhis. Same way if it is by TMS then the composition would be different. PBS himself has shared this information in the TV programme ‘Endrum MSV’ in Mega TV.

To conclude I am very sorry that I have taken you to very different area than describing about the composition of the songs “naalaam naalam thiru naalam’. But what to write about that song except that the creativity came from heaven and the lines are also speaking about a divine marriage.

So in nutshell any song composed or sung if the performer is consciously watching for the rules or tradition then what he could produce would be a mechanical creation which probably our computers can produce nowadays if at all if we could write some logical programmes.

Any composition would be evergreen and divine when the composer just puts himself or herself to the views of the character and start thinking emotionally then the creation would be divine and it would never ever erase from our memory. Because the emotions are so powerful that it controls the normal man. This is true for present, past and the future.


Regards,

N Y MURALI

[parthavi]

Dear Mr.Murali,

Your exhaustive posing is too breath-taking for me to comment on.

But I have a doubt on the 'song with only Aarohanam'. In the second line of the song itself, the pitch comes down. This happens at several places. Is this not avarohanam? Perhaps, it is to do with the notes. But I think a layman like me will definitely see the avarohanam at several places during the song. I wonder why no carnatic musician including Subbudu, who blasted Unnikrishnan for singing 'Ennavale..' which he described as a distortion of a carnatic raagaa ( I don't remember the name of the raagaa) commented on this 'feat' of composing a song with no avarohanam!
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P Rengaswami (9381409380)
MSV, Un isai kettaal puvi asainthaadum, idhu iraivan arul aagum.
http://msv-music.blogspot.in/

[N Y MURALI]

Dear Mr. Parthavi,
Thanks for your reply. Infact the MD we are refering has indeed composed some very good song in some very rare ragas like 'chala nattai'. I have played quite a few of his songs and have great respect for him. But the probem here in this song is that he declared a rule for himself and I found that the statement itself does not qualify a raga which is unacceptable for carnatic kutcheri situation. If the situation is anything other than this then there would be no problem.

Coming to your doubt about the 'avarohanam' flow in his composition we can try out plying the song.

If the flow of notes go on the upward direction then it is fine. For eg

sa-ri-ga is fine
ni-sa-ri is also fine
we cannot find fault since in the second line 'ni' comes which is lower to 'sa' so it comes as 'avarohanam'. but if we see as individual line the notation should go upward direction whih happens in these two lines

but how about
ni-sa-sa-ga-ri

where ri comes after ga which means the downward flow.

I played it once I read about your reply. There are some doubts. Especially at the place 'vara vendum' where the swaram
reads as I mentioned above seems to happen which is breaking is of the rules. The same case happens for the next word 'thara vendum'. I think anybody who is better than me in decodig the song in to natation can find out.

Dear Mr. Shanker,

PL bear with me for time. I am in the process of postin a series of songs compoesed by our great MD in this particular scale. As i keep writing I am also numbering it and we shall see how many comes out in this list.

N Y MURALI