Re: What goes into making of a song? (Part II)

Ratnakar Sonthi (ratnakar@cae.wisc.edu)
Mon, 30 Jun 1997 13:26:44 CDT 

Another wonderful article describing the creation of a song. 
Particularly liked rAmanna gAri notes on G making his entry towards
the end in the songs, "bRndAvana candamAma" and "pADavEla rAdhikA". 

Before I proceed any further with my comments on rAmanna gAri "What
goes into making of a song?" post(s) I would like to reply to his
"Misc" post asking whether anyone was caused an inconvenience because
of his (provocative(?) - was this in regard to the comments on current
day song making techniques) posts.  I, for one, thoroughly enjoyed his
posts.  And I presume so did the rest of you.  But then, how come the
posts are not evoking the response rAmanna gAru thought they would (Am
I reading you right here, rAmanna gAru :-))?  Personally, I feel that
it is not easy to respond to such posts.  For me it takes considerable
amount of time and thougt to reply to posts replete with information. 
Firstly, it takes time to assimilate the information.  Well, that
should not deter me from sending a reply.  But then, I sometimes feel
I have insufficient knowledge to participate in a discussion. 
Furthermore, I am more comfortable assimilating knowledge than
disseminating.  Dissemination does take concerted effort and time
maybe thats the reason I am comfortable being a silent reader.  These could
(possibly) be the reasons why I am disinclined towards participating
in a discussion.  Let me be the so called "intelligent" being and
generalize this concept to others (Do pardon me if you feel such
generalizations are unwarranted).  Maybe we are all of the same mental
constitution here.  If we are, then we should probably shed our
feelings of inadequacy and indulge ourselves in the act of unbridled
dissemination :-).  What say you?

Enough of my didactic writings :-).  Let me get back to the "What goes into
making of a song?" posts. 

The list of "Songs based on Classical rAgAs says that "aakASavIdhilO"
(mallISwari) is in the rAgAs:  bhImpalAs, kaLangada, kIravANi,
hamsAnandi.  I thought the third stanza (kaLLu mUsina gAni) was in
mAyAmALavagowLa.  Well, kaLangada is a janyam of MMG.  But, what is it
that differentiates kaLangada from MMG.  Is there anybody who can help
me out with this?  Maybe the person who classified this song can help me.

rAmanna gAru wrote about song associations in one of his posts.  I was
humming the the first stanza of "aakAsavIdhilO" and somewhere in the
middle I jumped to the song "kaLLumUsukuni vaLLu choosukoni kAlam
gaDapaku telugODa" and it turns out that, that song is in abhEri.  Did
I not associate the songs right?  Well, it turns out that abhEri is
the karnATic counterpart of bhImpalAs, which is a hindustAni rAga.  After
all, my faculties of Association have no rust in them :-)

> Using an instrument also has some influence on the MD to compose a song in a 
> particular rAga. Examples are:
> 
> 1. tushAra sItala sarOvarAna in sAntinivAsam is composed in hindOLam. The 
> singing character uses sitAra and hence G might have decided to compose in 
> hindOLam.
> 
> 2. manasE andAla bRndAvanam in manchi kuTumbam is composed in 
> hindOLam. Again the singing character uses vINa and hence kOdanDapANi might 
> have decided to compose in hindOLam.

I found the above observation particularly interesting.  Does it mean that
hindOLam is more of an instrument-based rAgam than a voice-based one?
 

> Using a singer just for a small line gives a diffent dimension to the 
> song. The first song I noticed was composed by G in "peLLinATi pramANAlu" 
> and the song is "bRndAvana candamAma" by leela. G comes at the end of the 
> song with a small line "andamella nIvE Anandamekada nAdE..". In the movie, 
> it is the best way the hero lets the heroine know that he is 
> interested (you can call it love :-))) in her. What a subtle way of 
> expressing the love? Similarly, in "iddaru mitrulu" S.R did compose the 
> song exactly the same way in "pADavEla rAdhikA". G comes at the 
> end and sings "praNaya sudhAgItikA". I do not see these kinds of 
> exchanges in the new movies. :-((((
 
This reminds me of something that happened a few years ago.  Let me
recount a small anecdote to you.  Several years ago, one day we
(rAmanna gAru and I) were listening to "pADavEla rAdhikA" (that was
the first time I was listening to and *registering* the song).  Just
as the song started, rAmanna gAru told me that G would enter the song
towards the end of the song.  I waited for the end to come, just to
listen and see how his part of the song would be.  At the end, G sings
just one line, "pADavEla rAdhikA, praNaya sudhA geetikA".  Its
probably G's unique intonation and microtones that G's voice produces
(in comparison to the female voice in the song) that adds icing to the
cake.  I probably might not have appreciated the song as much if it
were not pointed out to me that G would enter the song towards the
end.

Another song in which G is used for a short time is, "vinipincani
rAgAle" (MD: S. rAjESwara rAvu).  He comes only in the initial AlApana.
This song has very interesting interludes.  The entire song (based on
mOhana)  is in white keys except at one place in the interludes.  S.R uses
kOmal ga at one place and the effect of the usage hits you well (trust
me:-)).

Comments and suggestions are welcome.

ratnAkar.
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