>From parrikar@spot.Colorado.EDU Tue Aug 23 15:34 MDT 1994 Received: (from parrikar@localhost) by spot.Colorado.EDU (8.6.9/8.6.9/CNS-3.5) i d PAA13226 for parrikar; Tue, 23 Aug 1994 15:34:04 -0600 Date: Tue, 23 Aug 1994 15:34:04 -0600 From: Rajan Purshottam Parrikar Message-Id: <199408232134.PAA13226@spot.Colorado.EDU> Newsgroups: rec.music.indian.classical Subject: Idle talk (was Re: Interesting details for Lata solos) Organization: University of Colorado, Boulder Apparently-To: parrikar@spot.Colorado.EDU Content-Type: text Content-Length: 12143 Status: R Vandana Venkatesan (vandana@ece.scarolina.edu) wrote: > The following is an interesting writeup on some Lata solos for which I > had requested info a few days back. This is _NOT_ mine, it was mailed > to me by a person who wishes to remain anonymous. Dear Anonymous, may I thank you for a most wonderful exegesis. It is very rare to come across someone so well-informed in these matters. Dhanyavaad to Kumari Vandana V too for serving as a conduit. I apologize in advance to rmim-denizens for dumping a music-related post without any prior warning. Also, am restricting myself to Hindi film music - that should disarm the Illaiyaraja troop. > Madan Mohan did most of his work with two prime lyricists - Rajinder Krishan > and Raja Mehdi Ali Khan. Majrooh has a handful of songs with him (BAAGHI, > AKELI MAT JAIYO, DASTAK, AAKHIRI DAO and some others), Kaifi Aazmi wrote > songs Kaifi worked with him in "Naunihal" (Rafi's Tumhari zulf ke saaye me shyam etc etc). Wasn't Haqeeqat (or was it Hanste Zakham?) a Madan Mohan-Kaifi combine too? Also, who wrote for Ek Mutthi Aasmaan? (The KK-Vani Jairam duet Pyaar kabhi kam na karnaa sanam etc). > Madan Mohan was not easy to write for. He was intolerant of sloppy work. I > urge you to do the following research. You know what I mean when I talk > about > filler phrases in Hindi songs. It is when the words don't fit the music just > right, the singer does a bit of "Aa..." or "Oo..." and returns to home base. > Try to find a Madan Mohan song that has this feature. You will have real > trouble. He never had the need for fillers. The words fitted just too > perfectly. The last sentence is quite inaccurate, to say the least. If I take your words literally, you are off the mark. I can cite several Madan Mohan examples where there are "fillers." To wit, (a) Rafi's 'Yehi hai tamanna, tere dar ke saamne, meri jaan jaaye....haaai...(filler a la carte!)...meri jaan jaaye from "Aap ki Parchaeeyan." (b) Kishore's 'Simti si sharmaayee si, kis duniya se tum aayi ho..OOOOOO (whopper of a filler!), kaise jahaan me` from "Parwaanaa." (c) Rafi's 'Tum jo mil gaye ho, to lagtaa hai, ke jahaaaaaaaa(filler de la creme!)aaaa mil gayaa..` from "Hanste Zakham." (d) Lata's 'Nainaa barse rhim jhim rhim jhim piya tore aavan ki yaad aaaaaaaaaaaa(for here or to go filler!)...` from "Woh Kaun Thi." Btw, is there a soul who is not affected by this masterpiece? I use it routinely as a meter to pronounce someone musically dead but I digress, as is my habit. And I could think of dozens more over an elegant cup of coffee and a low-fat creamcheese croissant with almonds. Note that these are very mainstream Madan Mohan comps, not some obscure pull-outs from cobwebbed interstices of my memory. But my disagreement is more fundamental than merely providing counter-examples. I have no problem whatsoever with fillers if (and I stress "if") they are used to plug the right holes within the structure of the prosody. Intelligent positioning of fillers is not only desirable but often a sine quo non to wrap a delicate tune around the words inorder to precipitate the overall effect. It is simply because intonation of a "swara" - the basic 'unit` of melody, if you will - in most cases, cannot be neatly constrained within the lattice of the verse. Musical expression tends towards an unfettered existence and has a life of its own. Sure, within the context of film music, the swara and verse aren't completely independent and the former has to be shorn of some ornamentation. But there is latitude available and good music composers will find just the right relaxation within the lyrical structure to blend tune and verse into an organic whole. Madan Mohan (Naushad-sahab and Roshan come to mind as well) was a consummate master in this department, and if this is what you meant (via unsaid extrapolation) we are in complete harmony. Now that we have gotten started we might as well ruminate over some more cud. Madan Mohan and Roshan were sort of musical twins and one finds a good deal of assonance in their music. Both had a firm grasp of the classical formalism to which they stayed faithful throughout their respective careers. They paid great attention to the lyrics and almost always composed with the lyrics in hand as opposed to fitting words to a pre-composed tune. (Elsewhere, Anonymous has commented on Madan Mohan's exacting standards for lyrical quality. Well, with people like Sahir around one might forgive Madan Mohan for being such a spoilt brat. When Sahir wrote something, it came out cast in stone and he wouldn't let you tweak even a single word.) Both were incurable Lata-philes. And above all, highly original dudes. Through the lens of musical scrutiny, however, differences in style come into view. MM had been heavily influenced by his association with Begum Akhtar and her music and hence had a strong foothold in the demesne of the ghazal. He was singularly responsible for tapping into the 'ras` that Lata's voice had to offer. A better example of synergy in Hindi film music is hard to find. Time and again we see the magnificent undulation of Lata's voice unfold in Madan Mohan's babies, precision in intonation and inflection, and all punctuated by delicate 'murkis.` Just two examples are: 'Hum pyaar me jalne waaloN ko` from Adalat and 'Jeeya le gayo ji mora saaNwariya` from Anpadh. Notice how Lata's voice locks on and tracks the words, giving a very tangible meaning to the phrase, 'poetry in fluid motion` - the signature of a Madan Mohan composition. Roshan, by contrast, was smoother in the flow but melodious all the same. He seemed to have an unusual fondness for Raga Yaman Kalyan (Man re tu kaahe na dheer dhare, Rafi's masterpiece from Chitralekha, and Asha's Nigaahe milaane ko ji chaahataa hai from Dil hi to hai, to cite a couple). And he spread himself around composing outstanding mujras, qawwalis, ghazals and bandishes. My sentimental favourite is his adaptation of the standard bandish in Raga Kamod (Aie ri jaane na doongi - Lata - Chitralekha). To the best of my knowledge, he never used Kishore Kumar, reason enough for me to use a slightly smaller-sized font to write Roshan. Nevertheless, these were exceptionally gifted men. > > > >jhan jhan jhan jhan paayal baaje kaise jaaoon pi se milan ko > >Movie: Buzdil > >Starring: Dev Anand, Kamini Kaushal (??) > >Singer(s): Lata > >Music: S.D.Burman > >Lyrics: Sahir (??) > > One of Lata's first few songs with S.D., this was accompanied by another This is an adaptation by Burmanda of the well-known bandish in Raga Nat-Bihag. Faiyyaz Khansaheb has an old recording of the cheez and Mallikarjun Mansur was fond singing it as well. Why didn't anybody think of recording standard bandishes in different Ragas in Lata's voice (when it was in its prime, that is)? Or if they did, why didn't they do it? Beats the hell out of me. I don't mean a full-fledged kilassikal rendition but just asthaie-antaraa, a couple of alaaps topped by a short taan or two. On the relatively few occasions that this has happened the results have been exceptional. Give Lata a Raga and within the first few notes you have the distillate. That's how remarkable she is (was). Her renditions would have served as wonderful markers for beginners and old fogeys alike. What a missed op! ***** It is amusing to see some dope periodically 'discover` that "Itna na mujhse tu pyaar badhaa" has been 'copied` from Mozart and flash it on the net. Almost always I detect more than just the need to point the Mozart connection. More often than not, this 'discoveror` wants to imply one or more of the following (a) most of Indian popular music is copied from western sources, (b) the best work in our tradition _must_ have had a western origin, (c) Indian composers are somehow lacking in originality. My explanation for the phenomenon (besides the fact that they haven't bothered to inform themselves in the first place) is that these people have cut their teeth suckling the milk of originality oozing from Bappi Lahiri's creative nipples and they are doomed to exponential decay unless salvaged by extensive root-canaling. Why don't they ever subscribe to the converse viewpoint? Which is that people such as OP Nayyar, Shankar-Jaikishan, Salil Chowdhary and such like were so damn smart that they were eclectic enough to understand foreign genres and adapt them at home. Particularly remarkable were S-J - there isn't a form within the vast and diverse Indian matrix that they haven't explored. Not only that, Russian, Arabic, Hungarian, Brazilian, Japanese and African folk influence - all can be seen in their work. How many composers in the world can make this boast? Verily, there isn't a composer in the land who has covered as much ground, surveyed as many genres AND consistently maintained a respectable QL/QN (quality/quantity) ratio as these two. Our resident net-savant, young and handsome Preetham Gopalaswamy, may have more to say on this, I suspect. I wanted to talk about Naushad sahab too but will deny Sami that pleasure for now. Also, a comparative look at Salil Chowdhary and S.D. Burman would make for a good topic. **** The topic of 'level of difficulty` and associated abilities of singers has re-surfaced. Let me dwell on this briefly. The l.o.d. displayed is a perfectly valid canon by which to evaluate a singer. But it is not the only one nor is it the most important, IMO of course. Some of us place a higher premium on originality (paradoxically, it ain't easy, originality). That is why we reward Kishore - not because he was capable of great feats of swaracrobatics (to be sure, he wasn't), or had a sweeping range over all the octaves (he didn't), but because in the realm of musical expression he was supremely original. Let me ask you this. Is there any intrinsic merit in making things difficult just for the heck of it? In physics, for example, there are usually two approaches to solving a problem - one is the time-tested brute force technique, the domain of formidable tour de force'ers. The other is the intuitive way, simpler in design but extremely elegant and almost always, profoundly insightful. In music, Kishore Kumar could do the kind of magic beyond the pale of even the most formidable technicians. Who would you have sing "Chingaari koi bhadke" or "Zindagi ka Safar"? A Bhimsen, whose Sa is as static (and ecstatic) as can be or a Kishore, who didn't give a damn about Sa (I remember him telling Lata rather candidly, "Tum to jaanti ho mujhe yeh Sa Re Ga Ma kuch nahiN aataa"!). Like many of his gems, these are 'simple` tunes made immortal by sheer weight of expression, by a man who could be profound without trying hard. It was never the kind of delivery that beckoned, "I'm difficult and I beg of you to take notice." Manna Dey has an interesting story to tell. It was the practice session for the recording of the Padosan classic "Ek Chatur Naar" that had brought them all together - Kishore, R.D. Burman, Mehmood and Manna. Manna had gone in well-prepared intending "to teach Kishore a lesson." To paraphrase Manna: "As soon as we started it got utterly hopeless for me. Here I was reproducing the song note-for-note, adhering rigidly to the grammar while Kishore was out there having fun and had captured the SPIRIT of the song effortlessly. I was sunk." I give Manna a very solid A for that honest and accurate assessment. Recently we heard Asha make a comment that Kishore was approx 1.5 times better than Rafi. Nauuughty girl, but right on the dot. For all the alleged 'simplicity` of Kishore's songs, I haven't yet come across a soul around who can re-create them. I am not talking about merely duplicating the tune swara for swara - even Suresh Wadkar can do that! Any guesses why? Enough said. Finally: If we are going to call Bombay's phillum industry Bollywood, can we refer to Hollywood as Hombay? Old joke, I know. Adios, Rajan Parrikar ============== email: parrikar@spot.colorado.edu rajan@anteng.ssd.loral.com