What does a musician/composer wants? It is to make his music available to listen for as many people as possible. And this post is a step towards that. Some remember me for the music reviews that I have been writing in Mouthshut for past 5 years. You have read write-ups about music by me and this is for those who want to hear the Music in Me.

I have given the links to my few compositions below

Hello World
When tears Cry...
Marudhanayagam Trailer Music
Karaoke
(Don’t) Leave me alone
Inspiration
Chineswara

In past six 6 months, there hasn't been single instance when the product I requested for got added to Mouthshut. Later, when I found this new diary option, I started posting my reviews on music albums here and within few minutes, my diary is getting deleted and the product is added and my review appears in the product review section. When they can add a product so fast, why can't they do the same when it is requested through mouthpad. Is mouthpad really shut, is there any other way to add products in MS which I am not aware?

Listening this song which Chinmayi has posted in her blog, watching SPB’s interview in NDTV’s Super south, watching Jaya TV’s Ragamalika, and watching the video of Srinivas’s performance in last year’s finals of Raj TV’s Raajageetham made me to revisit University, Nalathamayanthi, Ye Nee Romba Azhagha Irukkae, Jerry and Azhaghiya Theeyae soundtracks. Yes, I am talking about the unsung Ramesh Vinayagam, who inspite of being more talented than most of the successful composers in Tamil Film music now, is yet to get his due. Ramesh Vinayagam apart from composing music for movies sang few songs for other composers and also did orchestration for other composer’s songs.

Srinivas never forgets to sing the ‘Kasthuri Maan inamae’ song he sung for Ramesh Vinayagam in the movie ‘Azhaghiya Theeyae’ in his concerts, S.P.Balasubramaniam when talking about young composers, put Ramesh Vinayagam along with Illayaraja, A.R.Rahman and Vidhyasagar. The strong knowledge in classical music, his technical acumen in finding faults in a singer’s performance, his interest in varied genres of music are there for everyone to see in the show Jaya TV’s ‘Raagamalika’ in which he judges the aspiring singers. In one of the episodes, P.Susheela herself was amazed by the level of depth in the details that Ramesh Vinayagam gives to singers on how better a song can be sung. And further, his latest composition for Jaya TV’s serial ‘Simran Thirai’ is a sample of Ramesh Vinayagam’s talent and superior taste in music.

Ramesh Vinayagam is one of the rare composers who established a clear identity of his own in his music right from his first soundtrack. I still remember watching the trailer of ‘University’ which had mostly visuals from the songs. What a smashing debut it was. Ramesh’s music doesn’t sound like any other composer’s. In this era of Rahmanism, it is really hard to find one such composer.

An easy way to judge a composer’s ability and talent is by listening to his soft melodies and by checking if it has got that eternal feel in it. Ramesh’s melodies for sure have that eternal quality. I still cherish listening to ‘Vizhigalin Aruginil Vaanam’, ‘Kasthuri Maan inamae’ from Ayutha Ezhuthu, ‘Yen intha nenju’ from University, ‘En Swaasathil’ from Jerry and above all the romantic waltz ‘Enna Ithu’ from Nalathamayanthi which would definitely find a place in my list of 100 best melodies of Tamil Film music.

Ramesh Vinayagam brought in some rare genres of music into Tamil film music and while doing so, he didn’t make it sound totally filmy; he sticks to the basics of the genre of music and yet makes it an interesting filmy song piece. ‘Stranded on the streets’ from Nalathamayanthi, ‘Ullalae Ullalae’ and ‘Boom Theme’ from Azhaghiya Theeyae, ‘Nenje’ and ‘Vimmavey’ from University are such rare pieces of music which fortunately made its way into a Tamil movie through Ramesh. Even the kuthu numbers or the so called rhythm based numbers are done with so much taste and an aesthetic sense by Ramesh.

Ramesh Vinayagam is a man of orchestration. Be it any song, there is a clarity and elegance in his orchestration. Ramesh has a unique way in writing Vocal harmonies. Some of vocal harmonies he introduces in the interludes of the songs and the chorus parts he puts as a parallel layer of the lead vocal melody are so deep in melody, complex and brilliantly written.

I am surprised that none of the directors who worked with Ramesh Vinayagam went back to him again. Take any successful composer in Tamil film music, they all have had a very strong bonding with some of the best directors of their era, and I sincerely hope that Ramesh Vinayagam finds one as soon as possible. I want to listen to more and more of his music. 

Continuation of Listening Movies

Importance of Background Score

The main theme of ‘Star Wars’ is as important a character of the movie as a Darth Vader. When Spielberg was unable to show the Shark, John Williams made the audience to feel the presence of Shark by his score written on just two notes. In the ‘Lord of the Rings’ trilogy, could the evil nature of the ring, be brought out effectively without Howard Shore’s cunning Ring theme? Can an E.T fly without John Williams’s Flying theme? What would be the running scene in ‘Chariots of Fire’ without Vangelis’s spirited synth piece? How Amelie’s adventures would have felt without Yann Tiersen’s vibrant and colorful Piano theme? Who is James bond without John Barry’s signature tune? Or can we think of ‘Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon’ without Tan Dun’s westernized Chinese melodies and turbulent Taiko drums?  Can you think of Sergio Leone’s Spaghetti westerns without Ennio Morricone’s score? Or can you think of funny actions of Charlie Chaplin without that comical music played in the background? Why Henry Mancini’s Baby elephant walk theme comes to our mind whenever we see a beautiful elephant dancing in its way? Why does your mind gets filled with a Titanic love theme when your heart if full of your first love? Who or which is Masculine, The rocky or his electrifying theme? Why do the sitar and flute pieces of ‘Pather Panchali’ play in your mind when you watch a kid playing on the streets of a deep interior village? And I can go on and on and on.

Background Score in Indian Films

So we come to an important question that matters most to us. What is the state of background scores in Indian films? Who should give or should have given importance to background scores in Indian films? These are some of the easiest questions to answer. The directors, the composers and the producers of Indian films collectively failed to give background score its due importance.

In India, movies were seen just as extra large sized stage musicals that predominantly had songs. The composers in a stage drama used standard sound bytes in the background to enhance and exaggerate the emotions. As the stage actors use to shout their dialogues loud to reach out to the audience, music was also performed loud to match with the performer’s volume level. Film makers or composers who came from or grew up watching such drama background were not so aware of the importance of background scores. Also most of the composers were so much rooted to Indian classical form of music and they concentrated only on making tune for songs.

For a producer, movie making has always been a commercial business than art. There are few producers, who invest in movies out of passion for art. In this business, it is unrealistic to expect a producer to understand the importance of background score and spend time and money for it. Shooting schedules were not well planned; movies got delayed due to various reasons. To release the movie on the announced date, all the post production work was done with urgency. For writing and recording the background score, the composer could get the movie, only few days before its release. The quality suffered because of the lack of time. So even if the composer and the director know the importance of background score, they were helpless. To complete the work, our composers had ready made music for all emotions to use as background score. And what really helped them was that most of the movies were in same genre dealing with same subjects, emotions and issues. One can easily count the number of old movies that could be guessed just by listening to its background score.

This lack of importance to background score in Indian films can also be because of two other external factors. They are lack of official recognition for background scores and lack of good film critics in India. Till date there is no category commenced in National Film Awards for best background score. Such an important aspect of film making is still waiting to get an official recognition from the Indian government. Indian film industry never had great critics. Even now, when there is so much of media exposure, and with reviews on movies appearing immediately after its first show, rarely critics mention about background score. Even if they mention, one can expect ‘it was loud,’, ‘it was good’ kind of generic opinions. Last year’s best background score in Indian cinema is for ‘Cheeni Kum’ by Maestro Illayaraja. You can check any available review in the media and count for yourselves to know how many of the so called critics have actually mentioned a word about it.

Cinema is an art of sound and light. Sound in a movie, naturally means what we hear in a movie, i.e., the sound of voices and sound of ambience in which the scene is shot, but these are not ‘Art’ of sound. Music is the ‘Art’ of sound. ‘Art’ of sound in a movie is the background score. Have you ever listened to this ‘Art’ of sound while watching movies? Have you ever felt the emotions in a movie by just listening to its background score? Background score, if used for exaggeration, it ends up unrealistic but if used in a subtle way, to just underscore and underline the emotions in the scene, it would be an artistic value add.

Evolution of Background Score

In the silent movie era, when the movies were screened in cinema halls, the movie projector produced a distracting noise while running. The cinema halls started to employ local musicians to play piano or organs, to level down the noise created by the projector. When the movies were screened, the musicians played music in synch with the mood of the scenes. Though the backing music was employed to rectify just a practical problem, it did more than what was intended out of it then and so when gradually talkies came into being, people just couldn’t ignore the impact of the background music. Thus a time-being solution for avoiding noise became one of the most important aspects of movie making.

Background Score – What, When and Why?

Background score doesn’t always mean good music, it is apt music. Satyajit Ray in his article on ‘Background Music in Films’ says, ‘An easy way to ruin a perfectly good film is by applying unsuitable (background) music’. John Williams (one of the best and most popular composers in Hollywood) in an interview said, “Our prime goal is to achieve an apt score for the visual but if the theme music or a cue from the movie finds a life as a stand-alone piece, even out of the movie, then that is a bonus for the composer”. That is why many directors also use already existing musical pieces that best suits the mood of their film, as the background score. This makes it evident that film makers care for apt score than original score. But if originality and the appropriateness come together, there is nothing better than that. Even a bad music or any sound that fits the scene could become a great background score; remember Bernard Hermann’s violins screeching on a single note in the thrilling  bathroom scene from ‘Psycho’. That way of playing violin is unacceptable and doesn’t fit in the grammar of any known form of music in the world and yet that piece is still considered as one of the best background scores provided for a movie.

Just imagine that you are watching a scene showing the golden sun rise on a sea shore. How would you feel if you can see the waves but can’t hear the sound of it? A wave without the sound of waves sounds odd. Isn’t it? A wave sound is just an ambient sound. A background score for a movie has to sound exactly like that. It has to create an aural ambience around the visuals. It is the music that doesn’t distract the audience’s attention and that is so close to the mood of the scene/shot, so that our eyes and ears sense the same. With just enough ambient sounds (like the sound of waves in this case) in the scene, the impact of the visual is not lost, here silence is the key. At times, silence is the most effective score any composer can write for a particular scene. But a composer has to know when, where and how to use it, to create the right impact. A pleasant element can be brought into this scene just by adding music of a flute playing raag Boopalam in the background. The key for a good background score is choosing between when to add music and when to remain silent. Say, if this sun rising shot is just added to tell the audience that it is the next day, it is absolute information, no emotions involved, so composer can go for silence here.  But if this sun rising is shown as viewed by any important character of the movie to imply that the character feels pleasant by watching the sunrise, then a flute piece is a must, to aurally inform the audience that this character is indeed enjoying this beautiful sight.

Continued...

We often call a song good, a classic, great, pleasant, soothing, catchy, disturbing, soul stirring and all that. But what makes a song a sing-along song? Good melody, great melody, catchy rhythm, or is its lyrical beauty? Humming is something that we do even we are not actually listening to a song, but we sing along when we actually are hearing and listening the song. By singing along, I mean naturally singing along with the song, without even being aware of it.

What makes us to sing-along with a song? Is it the great melody? Yes, may be, but it can’t be just that. Or is it the catchy rhythm? No, I don’t remember singing-along with any of the kuthu songs that has been dished out in every other Tamil movie soundtrack. But definitely rhythm has a part to play, when it is a fitting rhythm that gently carries the melody without any overbearing sound. Or is it the lyrical beauty? No, because I sing (rather hum) along even when I hear an instrumental piece or a song in the language that I don’t understand. And in what I call sing-along songs, I don’t usually sing-along from the very first line till the last word of the song. Suddenly somewhere in the middle, something pushes me to start singing along with the music, it could be just a word, or just a line.

May be there could be some technical reasons for a song and its melody to have this quality, but from a layman’s perspective, I feel it is the flow in the melody (the rhymes we learned in our childhood are the simple and best example for the flow in the melody), is what that makes it a sing-along song. Though there are songs with very complex melodic structures, catchy rhythms and great lyrical value, there is always this natural link that gets formed between phrases of the melody. A melody which starts with a stream of notes, when it takes a very natural passage, which sounds as if can’t take any better path, as if there is not alternate path in which the this melody can flow. The feel, this link or connection between phrases is not seamless in all the songs. Even the songs that we call great from a technical point of view may not have this seamless link between the phrases.

I don’t know if an entire song can maintain this streamline flow in its melody. But this kind of a sing-along song is becoming a rarity these days. It certainly requires some skill and genius to e experiment make a melody technically complex and great for elites and yet have this sing-along quality that helps a layman to connect with the song easily. Somehow, when we try to put our mind into the technical details in the song, we forget that there is such a beautiful quality that exists for a song, and we miss the pleasure of singing along.