ILaiyaraaja – The Ultra-fine Musician

 

What distinguishes a normal life from that of a beautiful life is something called subtlety. If one is able to appreciate the nuances in each and everything in nature, his/her life acquires new meanings. Meanings which cannot be expressed in words and which can only be felt and experienced. Such people see new things in old things and older things in new things. They not only look for details within details but also know how to express what they see and what they feel. Aesthetics is a way of life for these people. And this gets reflected in their works.

AaNdaL is a classic example. Yes, she was a Bhakti poet who was truly in love with Krishna. But she also loved nature and was an expert in human psychology. Her poems explored Bhakti, Nature and Human behaviour in the broadest sense minutely.

Here is one sample:

கீசு கீசு என்றெங்கும் ஆனைச் சாத்தன் கலந்து

பேசின பேச்சரவம் கேட்டிலையோ பேய்ப்பெண்ணே

வாச நறுங்குழல் ஆய்ச்சியர் மத்தினால்

ஓசைப்படுத்த தயிரரவம் கேட்டிலையோ?

நாயகப் பெண்பிள்ளாய்! நாராயணன் மூர்த்தி

கேசவனைப் பாடவும் நீ கேட்டே கிடத்தியோ

தேசமுடையாய் திறவேலோர் எம்பாவாய்.

 

In the poem under reference- Keesu KeesenRu- she describes things around her and uses these to wake he friend up. This ‘waking up’ and the ‘friend’ are esoteric and therefore are better left alone here as the focus now is on her aesthetic sense and her propensity to relate things around us to the Divine.

She first talks about the birds. ‘Aanaichaatthan' is a species of birds found in villages in South Tamizh Nadu. These birds are also called ‘Bharadhwaja pakshi’. She hears their sound at dawn and tells her friend, ‘Can’t you hear their sound?’ But what is to be noted here is that she refrains from calling it a ‘bird song’. She calls it a ‘conversation’. Wonder how many can even view the bird calls as ‘conversations’. Most significantly, she calls it a ‘screech’!

She addresses her friend as ‘Demon girl’ here but more on this in a bit.

She then moves on to the milkmaids who churn the butter milk to get curd(here too, I am skipping the esoteric meaning). ‘Milkmaids -whose fragrance of the hair permeates the air- churn the butter milk with their bangles and chains moving here and there. Are you not able to hear this sound too?’ asks she.

‘You are lying on the bed despite all these and despite us singing paeans on NarayaNa. Come, open the door and join us’, she concludes.

Forget even the description for a moment. Just observe as to how she brings all the five senses into play here.

Sound of the birds/milkmaids/paeans on VishNu- Hearing.

Fragrance of hair- Smell.

Butter milk to Curd- Taste.

Lying down with half-eyes open- See.

Lying down cosily on the bed – Touch.

And now let us see how she addresses her friend. To start with ‘ a demon girl’. Somewhere in the middle(5^th line)- ‘Heroine/Head of all girls’. Towards the end – the lustrous/ the one with tejas!

Details..Mini details, Micro details, Nano details..

And that is AaNdaaL for you.

Needless to say, ILaiyaraaja whose love for nature, eye for detail, his proclivity for music and above all his passion, is like AandaaL.

Now, take ‘KaatRodu Kuzhalin Naadame’ from ‘Kodai Mazhai’(1987). Based on a classical raga called Simhendra Madhyamam, the composition blows, saunters, drifts and floats like a breeze. This is as far as beauty is concerned. But being a musician who believes in getting into the skin of the character, he delves deep and the output is there for all of us to see.

All that the director would have told him was this – ‘’It is a classical dance sequence’’.

The Maestro would have instantly plunged into the world of dance.

The composition starts with the akaaram of Chitra in pure Simhendramadhyamam.

The mridangam sounds just the first syllable in the beginning of the 8-beat taaLa cycle and sounds 5 micro-beats at the 4^th beat. This continues for three full cycles (one full cycle is called ‘aavartanam’ in Carnatic Music parlance). The mridangam takes over in the 4^th cycle and plays a micro-korvai for one cycle.

Dance of the taaLa!

This continues in the Pallavi too with the mridangam taking over again after the first lines is rendered and playing yet another korvai with Chitra extending the ‘naadame..’.Resonance at its best!

Not to be left behind, the flute sounds too in the segment that follows coalescing with the vocals, symbolising the wind and of course justifying the meaning- resonance of the flute along with the wind.

‘Taam taam ta ri ki ta taam’ says the mridangam in the beginning of the first interlude.

The tabla echoes it.

‘ta ka dhi mi ta ri ki ta taam’ says the mridangam.

The tabla echoes again.

The romance between the two continues again with ta ri ki ta taam/ ta ri ki ta taam , taam ta ri ki ta taam/taam ta ri ki ta taam and then finally ta ri ki ta taam.

Magic of Laya!

The magic happens again in the CharaNam with the percussion instrument playing with gusto and robustness exactly at the 4^th beat of each cycle. It is not that there is no percussion during the other beats. It is just that it makes a special sound during that beat which gives sheen to the entire CharaNam.

The VeeNa gliding with an unmatched grace and the last line being split as ta a a a/ta a a a/ ta ka dhi mi/ta ka dhi mi/ta ka dhi mi/ta ka dhi mi with the last four ta ka dhi mi s in the second half of the cycle, show the master craftsman in full cry.

The swaras drizzle from the flute. These drizzle from the veena too. But it is two different drizzles.

This happens in the beginning of the second interlude.

The two classic instruments then go on a friendly rampage twisting, twirling and then dazzling. The flute decides to go on its own now for a while even as the veeNa takes a pause. It is the turn of the latter to go on its own then. The end result- That classical raga called Simhendramadhyamam shown to us in all its splendour.

The two join together again and lead us to the second CharaNam. Now the vocals render one line lasting one cycle with the cheNda(percussion used mainly in Kerala) playing in the next cycle with the mridangam and jaalra backing it.

A litany of swaras follows making us spell bound.

Details..Mini Details.. Micro Details.. Nano Details..

I can now hear the conversations of Aanaichaattan. Can you all too?

 

 

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