From: hariharn@phoenix.Princeton.EDU (Ramesh Hariharan)

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Article on difficult songs to sing ..

                                        Ramesh Hariharan

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Hello folks :

        This is especially for those in the newsgroup who love to sing
.. yeah, that includes everyone from the bathroom singer to the on-stage
professional :-) ... I was trying to list songs that are difficult to
sing. Now, a song can be challenging to sing because of the following reasons :

A) The songs spans too wide a range of frequencies [Rafi, Lata]
B) It's a semiclassical song ... complicated aalaps. [Manna Dey, Amir
Khan, Rafi, Yesudas]
C) Breath control is difficult ... [can't think of anyone spec. here...
                I think any good singer will have this straight.
D) The songs has Kishore yoodling in it .. :-) [KK]

Here's the list I came up with .. please feel free to add on ...

Pretty challenging :

1) Kuhu kuhu bole koyaliyan : Lata and Rafi [A,B]
2) Aaj gawat man mero : Ustad Amir Khan and Pt. D. C. Pasulkar (Baiju Bawra)
                                                [A, B]
3) Jhanak jhanak : Manna Dey from Mere Huzoor [B]
4) Lapak Jhapak tu aare badarawa : Manna Dey in Boot Polish [B,A,C]
5) Jhanak Jhanak payal bhaje : Ustad Amir Khan [B]
6) Saaz ho tum : Rafi in Saaz aur awaaz [C, A]
7) Oh Duniya ke rakhavale : Rafi in Baiju Bawra [A]
8) Tori jai jai karatar : Ustad Amir Khan in Baiju Bhawra/Goonj uti
                                        shahanayee[B]
9) Cham Cham bhaje re payaliyan : Manna Dey in Jane Anjane [B,A]
10) Tere naina talash : Manna Dey in Talash [B]
11) Hato kahe ko jhotti banao batiyan : Manna Dey in Manzil [B]
12) Man Mohana Bade Jhoote-Seema-Lata Mangeshkar

Difficult :

1) Aaj ki raat : Rafi in Ram aur Shyam [C]
2) Phulgendawa na maro : Manna Dey in Door ka Chand [B]
3) Tore naina rasile katile hai raam : Manna Dey in Hamdard [B]
4) Toote hue khwabon ne : Rafi in Madhumati [B]
5) Sur na saje : Manna Dey in Basant Bahar (?) [B]
6) Radhike toone bansuri chura lee : Rafi + Lata [A,B]
7) Madhuban mein radhika nache : Mhd. Rafi in Kohinoor [B]
8) Tu hai mera prem devata : Manna Dey with Rafi [B,C]
9) Nis sa ga ma pa ni : Yesudas [B]

Slight difficulty :

1) Insaaf ka mandir hai ye : Rafi in Amar [C]
2) Dil jalta hai : Mukesh in Pehli Nazar [C, A]
3) Kaun aya mere man ke dware : Manna Dey [B]
4) Laga Chunari mein daag : Manna Dey in Dil hi to hai [B]
5) Jeevan se bhari teri aankhen : Kishore in Safar [A]
6) Bol re papi : Vani Jayaram in Guddi [A, B]
7) Koyi gaata mein so jata : Yesudas [C]
8) Kahan se aye badira : Yesudas with Hemanti Shukla. [B]
9) Maan mera ehsaan (have to hold breath for a long time) : Rafi [C]
10) Duiya na bhaye : Rafi in Basant Bahar [A]


Some observations :


1) Mukesh has sung hardly any difficult tunes.

2) Naushad (highs with Lata, Rafi) and Shankar Jaikishan (semiclassical
with Manna Dey) made lots of challenging tunes, whereas SDB (melodious
music with KK usually) and OP Nayyar (rhythmic) made simple but sweet tunes.
It's however worth mentioning that the music SJ made for the Mukesh-RK team
used to be simple in general.

3) Manna Dey clearly scores over the rest based on his potent
classical prowess.

4) Rafi scores high primarily due to his ability to reach high freq with
ease.

5) The classification above is very personal ! It depends on what you
find to be easy; someone maybe very trained in classical music and for
him/her the above Manna songs maybe easy but they may struggle with O
duiya ke rakhavale. The reverse scenario is also easily conceivable.