Appreciate this! Nice, tempered analysis!
--- In arrahmanfans@yahoogroups.com, Vinayakam Murugan <mvinaya...@...> wrote:
>
> http://www.desipundit.com/baradwajrangan/2010/01/23/between-reviews-music-from-beyond-the-skies/
>
>
> *MUSIC FROM BEYOND THE SKIES*
>
> *AR Rahman proves, once again, that love his songs or loathe them, there's
> no questioning the spirit of restless creation in them.*
>
> *JAN 24, 2010 WHATEVER THE OSCARS HAVE DONE FOR AR RAHMAN *on a
> professional level, they certainly haven't altered an iota of his person.
> Ascending the stage towards the close of the audio launch of Gautham Vasudev
> Menon's *Vinnai Thaandi Varuvaayaa*, the musician came off less like someone
> celebrated across a series of global platforms than a bashful school-kid
> still unable to comprehend all this fuss. Gracious as ever, he confessed to
> harbouring doubts about matching the standards set by the hit combination of
> Gautham and Harris Jayaraj and he probably wasn't alone in these doubts.
> Whatever the reasons the requirements of the market, the quality of the
> films, the guidance from the directors Rahman in Hindi is *quite *a
> different beast from Rahman in Tamil, and at least some part of the houseful
> audience, that Tuesday evening in Chennai, was wondering if their idol's
> penchant for multi-tangential experimentation would coalesce with their
> requirement for a soundtrack that was admirable yet accessible.
>
> But even that old bugaboo about Rahman's compositions needing time (not to
> mention a lot of petting and stroking and the lighting of heavily aromatic
> incense) to grow on you was dispelled the instant Alphons Joseph started to
> strum his guitar in preparation for *Aaromale*, the album's standout track.
> Before getting to the song, however, can I note how thoroughly refreshing it
> was to witness a music release function that was actually about the *music*?
> No windbag speeches from the architects of other aspects of the film, no
> gratuitous bowing and scraping before political (and other petty) powers
> it was just the musicians on stage, belting out unplugged versions of the
> songs they'd sung in the studio, accompanied simply by a piano, a couple of
> guitars and manmade effects like clicks and harmonies. Gautham would
> introduce a song with a sliver of context, and the singer would take off
> from there no muss, no fuss.
>
> This approach, in hindsight, was unexpectedly rewarding. Firstly, it ensured
> that the spotlight shone on the most deserving namely, AR Rahman and his
> singers. But more importantly, it etched into the audience's minds the
> barebones template of each song something that may not be of much use with
> another music director, but absolutely worthwhile in the case of Rahman. His
> methods of creation are so unique the skeleton of melody gradually layered
> with sinew and tissue and muscle and, finally, skin that the full-bodied
> song often bears little resemblance to the outline that birthed it. And we
> were privileged, that evening, to listen to these outlines, which instilled
> in our minds a rudimentary map of the musical terrain that was going to be
> stalked. Rahman, who came on stage only after all the songs were thus
> unveiled, may only have been partly joking when he mused that his numbers
> sounded so much better this way.
>
> I hadn't heard any of these songs earlier, and when, for instance, Naresh
> Iyer began to spit out the phrases of *Kannukkul kannai*, I was instantly
> drawn to the end of the opening stretch, where vocals and guitar came
> together in a set of staccato steps with the synchronised heat of a tangoing
> duo. Listening to the album later, I was surprised that this portion was
> submerged under backing vocals (including whoops), strings and a furiously
> tapping percussion, and what had previously been the highlight of the song,
> for me, was now merely an organic part of the whole. How would I have
> responded to the song had I not heard the earlier, acoustic rendering, which
> isn't unlike reading the screenplay before watching a movie? The tone and
> tempo and colour are the same, yet different the core the same, yet the
> conclusion different. Perhaps, henceforth, all albums should be required to
> perform this double duty giving the musically curious amongst us the
> opportunity to peel back the skin and slice right to the bone.
>
> On the other hand, Benny Dayal's *Omana penne* sounded better recorded than
> live, primarily due to its studio-crafted special effects like the
> electronically tweaked contribution from Kalyani Menon, or the lush
> *raga *passages
> in Bilahari that bequeathed an air of piquancy to a tune that otherwise
> might have been dismissed as generically chirpy. In general, *Vinnai Thaandi
> Varuvaayaa* is one of Rahman's stronger Tamil albums, bearing just enough
> outré envelope-pushing to sound different but still managing to appeal on
> first (or second) listens. The sole outright disappointment is *Anbil
> avan* (from
> Devan and Chinmayi), which holds little surprise (or interest) after a first
> listen. And with a couple of other tunes, such as Karthik's soulful crooning
> of the title track and Rahman-Shreya Ghoshal's *Mannipaaya*, everything
> looks perfect on the surface from the patient and flavourful parsing of
> (lyricist) Thamarai's phrases to the relatively unadorned musical flourishes
> but *something *(I can't put my finger on it yet) seems vaguely off. And
> yet, there's always some sort of hook a bluesy intonation here, iterative
> phrasings that spread out like ripples over there that keeps drawing you
> back. Speaking of Thamarai, however, her staunch contribution to Gautham's
> films certainly found a better showcase in Harris Jayaraj's less-layered
> music, though even here, certain signature constructions announce themselves
> beautifully like *maru idhayam*, a second heart to be offered the callous
> lover after she crushes the first one.
>
> But *Aaromale *is everything you wish for a dazzling boundary-pusher
> contained within the perimeter of a standard stanza-chorus construction,
> except that the stanzas aren't quite *stanzas *in the way we usually know
> them, a block of music (comprising, say two individual lines of melody
> repeated twice, once by the male singer and once by the female counterpart).
> The non-chorus portions, here, are structured along the lines of blues-rock
> and country music (think Creedence Clearwater Revival's recording of *I put
> a spell on you* layered onto an Ennio Morricone score for a spaghetti
> Western, and brushed lightly with the psychedelia of Pink Floyd) and
> looping through the song's lazy meanderings, you realise, once again, that
> Rahman's legacy (in continuance with MS Viswanathan's legacy of the "light
> music" melody line and Ilayaraja's legacy of interstitial orchestration and
> arrangement) is not just the *sound *of his music, the clean, clear sound
> that's the musical equivalent of a bracing breath of pure oxygen on a
> mountaintop, but also his systematic demolition of the constituents of a
> film song.
>
> It isn't that others, earlier, have always buckled down and conformed
> quietly to the prototype of the Opening (namely, *pallavi*/*mukhda*)
> followed by an Interlude that bridges to the Stanza (namely, *charanam*/*
> antara*) which, subsequently, loops back to the Opening I can quickly
> think of RD Burman's *Logon na maaro ise* from *Anamika *and
> Ilayaraja's *Thendralile
> thoranangal*from *Eera Vizhi Kaaviyangal* (both with no Stanzas whatsoever),
> Harris Jayaraj's *Manjal veyyil maalayile* from *Vettaiyaadu Vilaiyaadu* (not
> invoking Stanza until after four iterations of Chorus and Opening), MS
> Viswanathan's title track for *Ninaithaale Inikkum* and (its spiritual
> successor) Maragadhamani's *Nivedha *in *Nee Paadhi Naan Paadhi *(both
> comprising merely*swara*/solfa passages and a single word/phrase) but
> Rahman has displayed a remarkable consistency in chipping away at the
> taken-for-granted foundations of film music grammar. What, with those older
> composers constrained by their times, was a one-off (or two-off) experiment
> is for Rahman the undiluted norm.
>
> Does this mean, then, that the Opening-Interlude-Stanza format is heaving
> its last gasps? I don't think so, for I have yet to come out from under the
> spell of *Anal mele panithuli *from *Vaaranam Aayiram*, Gautham's last (in
> the sense of both previous and final) soundtrack with Harris Jayaraj. The
> value of a strong tune yoked to a sensitive singer and sympathetic
> orchestration is still priceless, and it's still the primary reason many of
> us listen to music. But Rahman's peerless talent for painting soundscapes
> (as opposed to crafting soundtracks) ensures that the opportunity for
> boredom is minimised. With tunes and arrangements conforming to no
> particular pattern, and with there being no scheduled returns to a
> preordained base camp before successive ascents or descents, even the
> underwhelming stretches skip by without tedium. And as Rahman himself proves
> with *Hosanna *(sung by Vijay Prakash, Suzanne D'Mello and Blaaze), the best
> of composers, can, at times, induce fatigue by the third iteration of the
> Stanza, we've had enough. (A third Stanza, in general, is never really a
> good idea unless your name is MS Viswanathan, who'd stave off predictability
> by adorning one of the Stanzas with an entirely different tune, as with the
> exquisite *Mana medai* from *Gnana Oli*.) And yet, the reggae-spiked
> sprightliness of *Hosanna *sneaks under your skin. That's where Rahman wins
> love his songs or loathe them, there's no questioning the spirit of
> restless creation contained in them.
>
>
> Warm Regards
> ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
> Vinayak
>
> http://www.flickr.com/photos/rightplacerighttime/
>
