Re: Eeeravizhi Kaaviyangal - The ethereal masterpiece

Drunkenmunk Wed Sep 25, 2013 4:15 am

Taking a guess. Is he trying to syncopate the violins here? In Oh Butterfuly's second interlude, he has guitar strums on which he lays the flute which flutters like the butterfly Smile

and suddenly there is a solo violin that sounds like it is not in sync with the flute and guitar. Essentially a counterpoint where the second melody starts after the first and adds as a layer on top of the first melody?

fring151 Thu Sep 26, 2013 4:00 am

ravinat wrote:Kanavil Midhakkum is very special from an interlude perspective. Any non-IR fan is bound to be totally ticked off by the interludes as they will call out the way the violins are played so badly I remember introducing this song to a group of friends, who thought I was nuts. Raja took the ideas from this song to the ultimate level with his 'Oh Butterfly'. I even heard from a 'pundit' in one of the TV programs about how Raja is so great even with abhaswaram songs - perhaps, that's why it is called an idiot box

Why do the violins sound so much like abhaswaram in this song? I know that a number of folks in this forum understand WCM. I threw the 'Oh Butterfly' as a hint.

I know this is easy stuff for those who understand WCM. Just wanted to throw something from my personal experience.

Is this a trick question or am I missing something obvious? Off the top of my head, I can't think of anything apart from poor audio quality and perhaps less than perfect attention to dynamics in the fast violin bits of the 1st interlude. Definitely never thought non-IR fans would call out the song for anything but this Sad

. In fact, I was (am) of the opinion that the song is sure to be love-at-first-hearing for most listeners (it was for me), but for the sound.

P.S: I haven't tried to figure out the key signature or chords yet, but unusual key modulation and the occasional passing dissonance is by no means rare in Raja's interludes right? So that cannot be the issue either...

app_engine Mon Oct 07, 2013 10:10 pm

Copy/pasting what our V_Sji posted in the IR duets thread of the hub sometime back

V_Sji wrote:
En Gaanam - Eera Vizhi Kaaviyangal – In search of a great soul

One of the finest guitar playing! Total surrender and shaastaanga namaskaaram.

Eventhough this soundtrack is very popular among many Raja fans, even there, still many have not heard these timeless gems yet. What a big miss it will be, if this soundtrack is not heard. My top 10 soundtracks of all time.

Just the prelude and pallavi tells big stories of guitar playing. I could not believe what I am hearing. On a casual listening (for the past 15 years) I was only able to appreciate some great guitar playing, that's about it. But when I started my journey in search of soul (God) in this composition, I found some great treasures which I term it as 'Kaaladi Mann', still not the great soul, but this itself is worth and encouraging to find the soul which is still far far away and may not be able to find it at all.

Here it is:
Lead Guitar plays fast for first 9 seconds and bass guitar joins for a counter melody after that. While we admire and get lost on one of the rarest guitar-guitar counterpoints as Raja teases us by making us to believe this is the soul, we hear that the prominent guitar portion (not the guitar) which we just heard for the first 9 seconds switches now to bass guitar and the lead guitar continues on a different path. This is the path which gives lead to the pallavi. Raja pulls off the lead guitar little bit to adjust to the pace of the song. Also hear the bass guitar sound @0.16 like skating suddenly on ice. When Raja starts singing 'En Gaanam', normal and conventional approach is to add percussion along with a bass guitar. But with Raja, we can never ever expect anything conventional eventhough he uses the same guitar for another 100 years. So here, two guitars play when Raja sings pallavi. As I mentioned above the first 9 seconds lead guitar piece went to background later. The same guitar piece can be heard which acts as percussion along with bass guitar. No percussion at all in pallavi (and whenever pallavi is sung again). Very unusual!

Beauty is all these happen seamlessly and very fast (eventhough this is not a fast song). Summarizing the above paragraph to appreciates the transitions. First 9 seconds lead guitar->another guitar joins but plays what lead has been playing->lead guitar plays differently against the second guitar giving counter melody->pallavi starts->one guitar plays the same first 9 second piece with bass guitar providing support for pallavi.

Another highlight is, all these (from prelude till the end of pallavi) happen in just one minute. Can you believe it? Added to this, this is not a fast pallavi, allowing that too, Raja again proving every second is worth and no wastage of time unlike some songs today which starts seasoning for first 2 minutes then slowly starts with some vague pallavi prolonging for next 2 minutes, charanam has just two lines of new composition. By the time they complete the song it would be more than 6-7 minutes, may be with just one charanam. Ideally original composition would be for just two lines of pallavi and two lines of charanam rest some uninspiring arrangements completing the song which reaches upto 6-7 minutes. Sorry could not resist writing this and I know I am getting old, but this is just to showcase Raja's work for just a minute of the song which is equivalent to 6-7 minutes. So much went into it and it's all squeezed and made compact.

Raja's voice is just so apt and sweet and this is the first time for such a kind of song I can't even think of SPB or KJY. It is tailor made for him. What a rendition and cool as cucumber. He has taken a right song and delivered with fullest satisfaction to all. Jency gets a late entry only during the second charanam for just couple of lines, but it adds to the soul!. Is this the soul?

For the first time in the song, percussion is introduced in first interlude. Ist interlude starts with a peculiar night effect sound which builds up to give the lead to crescendo of Violins and piano accents. Violins, piano, flute continues to flow followed by violin and bass guitar conversation. This flow is just like the waterfall flowing fast just after it reaches the stream, after the great fall. After all this, guitar is back with flute. An exception piece of composition here!

Guitar crescendo (can we call it?) at the end of 'naan thanimai paravai, siragondru nee thaa'. How he builds it! That's again one of the best innovation! This should be the soul!

In second interlude violins in conversation with synth, followed by piano, flute and guitar leading the second interlude. Violin crescendo at the end is absolutely magical!

Pallavi back again with no percussion (like coda piece) and Raja ends with 'En Gaanam' and guitar sings the rest. What a beautiful ending with guitar and vibraphone for this masterpiece of a song!

The whole world suddenly seems so new and beautiful with this timeless classic as if I got another genmam today to try to undo all the bad things in the past. But only goal is to search for the great soul from this ever growing song (like Lord Shiva taking viswaroopam by growing at both ends, no one can either see his head or the feet) which is still evading from me. I think this is the same reason this song and the whole EVK songs are not visible to others!

Aren't we lucky to have born again?

http://www.thiraipaadal.com/album.php?ALBID=ALBIRR00125&lang=en

fring151 Sat Oct 19, 2013 2:37 am

BGM of Eera Vizhi Kaaviyangal: https://soundcloud.com/navin-ramdoss/illayaraja-eeravizhikaaviangal

crimson king Sun Apr 21, 2024 9:41 am

Bumping this thread as I have been listening over and over to this album again.

Does anybody have a PDF or other saved version of the blog article that DM mentioned? Unfortunately the link is gone.

When I first heard this album, I went straight for Kanavil. But En Gaanam is probably the pick of the lot (a very hard call as both are exquisite, but the guitar writing for En Gaanam is from another planet even by his standards). And the second interlude of Kadhal Panpaadu is a mindf*** in the nicest possible way. Pazhaya Sogangal and Thendral Idai are short yet so haunting. An album as good as NK, Jhonny, Nizhalagal, NN, basically any of his top albums from the first half of the 80s and yet remains an obscure album. I haven't so far come across any song from this album in the Ilayaraja Carvaan nor ever seen them on TV. I wish he would perform all the songs once on stage before it's too late.

Sponsored content