Here's another medley - Raga Rasikapriya

My next attempt in Raga based medley - now based on the rare raga Rasika Priya..

Rasikapriya is a rāgam in Carnatic music (musical scale of South Indian classical music). It is the last (72nd) melakarta rāgam in the 72 melakarta rāgam system of Carnatic music.

It is called Rasamanjari in Muthuswami Dikshitar school of Carnatic music.

As it is a melakarta rāgam, by definition it is a sampoorna rāgam (has all seven notes in ascending and descending scale). It is the prati madhyamam equivalent of last suddha madhyamam melakarta, Chalanata, which is the 36th melakarta scale.

More details can be had from Wikipedia

My favorite composer Ilayaraja (IR) has used this raga decades back in the movie Kovil Pura for a wonderful song delivered beautifully by S Janaki - "Sangeethamae En Deivamae".  In fact, legend has it that IR expected to win a national award for this very song itself (though Kovil Pura had many other beautiful songs, IR was so confident and proud of this particular song and delivery by S Janaki)

IR again brought this raga back to life in 2009 with the great song "Kannil Paarvai Pona" sung this time by another brilliant lady - Shreya Goshal. Amazing emotion of deep pathos blended in this song with the instrumental background that can actually crush your heart out.. just try to listen to that full song when you can, especially sometime alone and peacefully and you might end up having tears in your eyes.

While both these songs are capable of bringing out a deep emotion of pathos from the listener, the old song is set to fast tempo and the recent one is of much more slower beat.

In the meanwhile, another great composer - Vidyasagar (VS) - used this ragam for a love duet (how versatile should this raga be if it can be used for either extreme emotion) - this was a great hit from the movie "Ji" ("Ding Dong") delivered by Madhusree and Madhu Balakrishnan.

Though the songs themselves are of different tempos and cannot be blended that easily, I have tried to stitch it together in some closest order so you can listen to them and cherish the ragam and its deployment - it wont gel as smoothly as it did with the Vasantha Medley, but still would be worth lending an ear.

With this, I would again repeat that VS is very much under rated, and his skills are not really understood by Tamil Film Industry yet. Hear the way he has handled this raga to bring out a love duet, you will just love it.

I shall be happy to hear your views and comments, as ever..

Cheers

RasikapriyaMedley by P.K. Hari on Mixcloud

 

Continuing my Medley journey

Now am back to one of the most popular ragas - the vivacious Vasantha.

And I bring to you the compositions of three great musicians - the maestro Ilayaraja, A R Rahman and the talented Vidyasagar.

Ideally, I should have mixed the songs in the same order considering the age of songs, but I wanted you to enjoy the brilliant interlude (BGM) of IR - so started with ARR (Minsaara Kanna from Padaiyappa), followed by IR (Andhi Mazhai from Raja Paarvai) and ended with the melodious Vidyasagar (Kandean Kandean from Pirivom Santhippom).

Once you hear this mix, you will agree with me on how underrated Vidyasagar is in our tamil music industry.. Such a wonderful soothing composition brought out, at par with the veterans..

Trust you would enjoy this medley .. Comments welcome as always :)

VasanthaMedley by P.K. Hari on Mixcloud

Back to discuss Music now!

Hello Friends,

After a gap of almost year and a half, am now back to the Blog as I decided to share some of my thoughts on music..

I started posting some medley mixes based on Ragas, which a few of you would have seen on mixcloud already. Am going to continue writing about these on my blog, so it can be used for future references.

To start with, I will get on to a medley that I posted first on mixcloud. Quite a lot of information is available on the net about ragas and film songs etc.. my intent is not to just write again about that, but to make a blend of such beautiful songs using my little knowledge in music editing and mixing, so that you can listen to the joy of some great songs strung together.

I would now explain a bit about the songs used in this medley first..

The song starts with an eclectic mix of Hindi folkish blended with mild western, with Carnatic lead ins.. and then it effortlessly jumps on to deliver pure Carnatic delight.. Yesudas delivering Maha Ganapatim set to mild drum beats in the background.. what more can you ask for in a fusion setup..

All credits for the blend so far are purely to Vidyasagar, who has made this wonderful stuff in the Malayalam movie "Millenium Stars"..

From here, the song jumps back to Tamil where I have blended the charanam of "Chennai Sentamizh" song from the movie M Kumaran - music by Srikanth Deva.

Largely, this is based on Naattai Raga, and brings forth one of the best blends of various forms of music from India's length and breadth... as such, this is one of my favorites.

Will see you soon with the next mix shortly..

Here is the great composition - largely a beautiful work of Vidyasagar, with a fine work of Srikanth Deva added at the end for a mix effect.

Would appreciate your views & comments..

Mixed Medley by P.K. Hari on Mixcloud