Thanks to all for the responses. Purevibz, you pretty much wrote the prelude to
part II of my essay. I agree, innovativeness may have been a better word than
originality, because as you would understand from reading the second part, his
music still flows from the origin of all life, and therefore it must be
original! :) I should've taken my GRESs, and I warned you that I'm still
learning too!! lol. I'm glad you understood my point though. Let's keep the
discussion going.
Hail ARR!
Dasun
To: arrahmanfans@yahoogroups.com
From: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Date: Mon, 28 Jan 2008 13:15:12 +0000
Subject: [arr] Re: ARR's Standard Deviation - Part I - Originality
Actually, let me modify my post a bit. Yes, ARR has lost his
youth,
freshness, and reblliousness. I agree with you there. There was an
energy, innovativeness, and fire to those compositions, which perhaps
many are missing today. I feel that he has made up for this loss
through more mature compositional style and craftmanship as well as a
more refined skill in pure melody and providing more room to the
lyrics and singer. I don't think he has lost his "originality" in
the purest of sense, although he is not as innovative as he once
was. I think there is a difference here. Yes, I have questioned
some of his choices of sound and arrangements in recent years, but to
me it's not a loss, it's a choice. With JA, my concerns about sound
quality were quickly put to ease as this is one of his best sonically
sounding records.
You have to remember too that music, emotion, and memory are to tied
in together. Many of us look back on Rahman's music in the early
days with nostalgia, which is in and of itself a confounding
variable.
--- In arrahmanfans@yahoogroups.com, "Chord" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote:
>
> Wonderful essay. Too bad it doesn't change my opinion that ARR has
> not lost A THING since the beginning. He is just as brilliant and
> original as before. Let's agree to disagree and move on.
>
>
> --- In arrahmanfans@yahoogroups.com, Dasun Abeysekera <dtdja@>
> wrote:
> >
> >
> > Originality
> >
> > The most original songs of the 92-96 era, in my opinion, are Thee
> Thee from Thiruda Thiruda (93) and Mettupodu from Duet (94); and
> their respective albums too can be called the most original from
> ARR's highest creative standpoint. Roja would certainly have to be
> considered original if we compare ARR's originality to the relative
> originality of the musical backdrop of that era, but that is not
what
> we are attempting here; I feel that compared with the
aforementioned
> albums, Roja, along with the likes of Puthiya Mugham, Uzhavan, and
> Bombay would qualify as some of the most soulful and brilliantly
> crafted albums, but, not the most original; again, please keep in
> mind that my comparisons are confined to ARR's body of work and not
> extended to any comparison's with the work by any of his composer
> peers.
> >
> > Thiruda Thiruda (93) was a breakthrough album for ARR as he was
> able to match, if not exceed, the expectations surrounding his
second
> post-Illayaraja Mani Ratnam production after Roja, which could not
> have been an easy task for a 25 year old who thought his first
movie
> album would be his last! Thee Thee's stunning energy and freshness
is
> only the icing on the cake after the beautiful vocal tapestry of
> Raasathi, the operatic grandeur of Veerapandi Kottayile, and
barring
> its close references to Michael Jackson-like dance beats,
> Chandralekha as well. Duet (94), on the other hand, with an
> unprecedented use of Kadiri Gopalnath and his saxophone to showcase
> Carnatic music, was quite a daringly original attempt for a movie;
to
> say both maestros pulled it off with shocking success, would be an
> understatement.
> >
> > So, has there been a song/album of that calibre in recent times?
I
> think it will be an accurate statement to say that there has not
been
> a song like Thee Thee or Mettupodu in recent times, certainly not a
> conceptually original album of Duet's kind, and most surely not an
> album for an Indian movie. Now why could that be? First of all, as
> you lose your youthful freshness and become enmeshed in a system,
you
> lose a significant share of that rebellious spirit. Albert Einstein
> said during his latter years when he went on his quest to discover
a
> Unified Field Theory, how much he wished he had that same
rebellious
> spirit which fuelled his strength of mind and imaginative powers to
> overthrow the revered Laws of Sir Isaac Newton and his universe of
> absolute time and space with the new Relativity Theory. Similarly,
in
> United States presidential politics, Sen. Barack Obama is touting
his
> freshness in Washington as one of his biggest strengths for
bringing
> about real change to the country. So, yes, time spent in any
> environment can significantly reduce your capacity for daring and
> originality, which is what we are seeing with ARR in India.
However,
> let us not forget that we owe much of the advancement of the
quality
> of Indian music to him and let's not be surprised if his most
> original work comes from his work abroad because that environment
is
> still new to him and he has many colors to show to the rest of the
> world where he is not yet legend!
> >
> >
> > __________________________________________________________
> > Shed those extra pounds with MSN and The Biggest Loser!
> > http://biggestloser.msn.com/
> >
>
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