Raja's handling of COUNTERPOINT
It is common knowledge that 'Maestro' Ilaiyaraaja has extensively used several western music techniques composing Tamil Film Songs. For the uninitiated, the nuances of his music vocabulary are not easy to understand. This is an attempt at explaining some of Ilaiyaraaja's western music techniques. Let's start with his handling of what is called as Counterpoint.
For many in the tamil speaking part of the world, film music has been the doorway to international music, western music in particular. Right from the days of legendary composer G. Ramanathan who showed us a glimpse of his western music prowess with 'Yaaradi nee Mohini' in Uththamaputhiran, film songs have given us a taste of rock n roll, twist, jazz, blues, reggae, pop, rap and hip-hop.
However, finer aspects of western music has eluded the understanding of the general music audience until the advent of Ilaiyaraaja. Ilaiyaraaja's generous application of western music techniques in the Indian context has been an exciting and educational journey for many of us music lovers. Watch me explain this in this video:
What is Counterpoint?
The overlay of two different melodic structures in music combine to create a new perspective while maintaining their individual characters is called counterpoint. Indian classical music relies a lot on on stage creativity and rarely has written music that is reproduced exactly. This makes it impossible to produce concepts like counterpoint in classical Indian music. Western music relies largely on written music which is pre-planned and has distinct notations for each section of the orchestra. Here, it becomes possible to overlay two melodies either by the same section of the orchestra or by different sections of the orchestra.
It is this concept that Ilaiyaraaja has used in his songs like 'En Kanmani En Kadhali' or 'Poomaalaiye Thol Seravaa'. Ilaiyaraaja himself mentioned that he has ensured that the lyrics used in these songs also maintain their independent nature even if we separate the overlapping melodies.
M S Viswanathan had also used Counterpoint in some of his songs and the most memorable one among them is 'Madhana Maaligaiyil' from Rajapart Rangadurai.
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