ILAIYARAGAM

ILAIYARAGAM  Research Posts

Research Post 1 - Raja's 9th Chords

The 9^th chords in Raja’s music… Raja is among those extremely gifted souls who can play with weirdest combination of swaras and yet comes out phenomenally successful in his novel attempts! One wonders while composing is there anyone else out there who can visualize at a meta-level how does a Dm 9^th would sound instead of a D Minor.

Well, in any 9^th chords (Both major ninth and minor ninth) when one adds a periya Ri to the root chord, it gives that respective 9^th.  When we try to realize what an added feel can this big Ri introduces when its used Raja bowls us out for a duck, not letting us to conclude that a 9^th chord can be used only on Such and such situations. Because he has used it for almost all possible situations in Cine-Music. But when we try to give it a closer look, May be we get off the mark with the inference that, a 9^th Chord certainly gives a “Reengaaram idum” effect in your ears… (Can’t find a good English word for the Difficult Tamil word ‘Reengaaram’. May be Reverberating or Resounding or Resonating or Rich????) Because in a major or a minor chord the gap between Sa and Ga is actually large. Hence this big ‘Ri’ comes in between like a Norwegian peace delegation on Sri Lanka-LTTE peace process… So when one plays it Sa + Ri + Ga + Pa, It gives this resonating effect…

If Nobel consortium ever introduces a Prize for innovation in Music, Raja would have bagged it for the way he has handled the 9^th chords. He has exploited the reverberating nature of this 9^th chords by playing it in a Guitar thro’ phaser!!! This can be evidently noticed in Songs like Uravenum pudiya vanil. When Janaki sings the pallavi of this song, a guitar (with phaser) simply gives the root minor 9^th chord in an arpeggio style. Ada Ada.. The fear which one would have when he/she falls in love for the first time is beautiful expressed by the 9^th… 

The song “ Hey I love you!! I Love you!!” is another example. The way the song starts in Cm9th with the phased output of the guitar simply mesmerizes the listener. Raja dedicates the prelude of this song for 9^th chords like Cm9th, Fm9th, A#M9th, D#M9th from his fleet… Amazing!!! (For those who don’t understand what a phaser is, it’s a electronic gadget which distorts the output of music by sending sound signals again and again with a phase lag. Often its connected with a Guitar… Our traditional instruments like Thambura and Moresingh have an inbuilt Phaser in them. A matter of real pride for us over the sound engineering done by our ancestors, one should say!!!)

Raja mostly deletes the 5^th note (or the Pa) from the 9^th chord. Guess he always prefers a 9^th chord to sound like that… But if one lends ear to the end result it produces, its worth giving a second Nobel Prize!! All of us only remember the prelude of Illamai Idho Idho Idho, to Kamalhassan slowly walking to a bike, starting it. As the tempo of the prelude increases, He revs up his bike and when it reaches a peak he yells “Hi Every body. Wish you a Happy new year…” But did anyone realize that its nothing but Cm9th played without G (Or Pa).

Raja repeats this trick in lots of other occasions… During the second interlude starting of the song “ Ooru sanam Thoongiruchu….” In the song “Sem poovae. Poovae” during the words “Padai kondu nadakkum manmadha silaiyo” a beautiful backing of FM9th (Again without Pa). In the second interlude of the song in the Telugu chiranjeevi movie, which is the original tune of “Dhak Dhak karnae laga”, Raaja does it again… There are whole lots of songs that one can think off….  He seem to have mastered the art of beautifying Sivaranjani with minor 9^th …

The third innovation in 9^th chords is using them consecutively in a higher and a lower octave… For example Vaa vaa Anbae Anbae from Agni Nakshathram… When the second interlude starts, a Piano simply plays Cm9th (in half timings) in a higher octave. then lower octave… For two bars… Then the violin takes over…Next in the movie Guru.. Between the lines of the song “ Perai chollava” and “ Adhu Gnyamaguma” one hears a chord.,.. Its nothing but minor 9^th played consecutively on a higher octave and then on a lower octave…. In the song “ Valiyosai” in ‘ Satya’ in the second BGM before the humming of Lata and SPB begins, the BGM starts with an E minor 9^th chord followed by a half bass guitar piece. In the second bar the same E m9th is played in an octave higher… Aha!! The effect that it creates is heavenly!!!! Same thing he does it again in the interludes of the song Naan Thedum Sevvandhi poovidhu… Koodu vittu Koodu payura madhiri, Octave vittu octave thavuraru !!!…

BTW did you guys know that the all time favorite song of Eagles, ‘Hotel California’ starts with Bm9th? …Surely not a co-incidence!!!!!!!!! Great people think alike… eh??

Research Post 2 - Usage of Major & Minor 9th Chords - Examples

One of the very interesting things in songs by maestro ilaiyaraja is the usage of minor chords.

The minor and minor ninth have a drastic change in effect although they are cousins of each other. 9th chord is an addition of note to the root chord. If one takes Amaj, the addition of B in A C# and E creates a totally new effect.

Take the example of the song "vellai pura ondru" (Fmaj) in which the second interlude the chords go to Dm during the santoor piece ... and the chords, which come during the humming, are Dm9 and Am9. These 9th chords create that "effect" which is really haunting.

Try playing that piece with a proper chord eliminating the 9th the "effect" will be missing.

Ø   Coming to some more examples... the song "megam kottatum" the root chord of the song in Em9th with a phaser guitar creates that "mood" for the song. 

Ø   "Roja poonthottam" Em in root... and these min9th chords create a gloomy effect.

Ø   Considering Maj9th, it adds brightness to the root chord. The chords in the first interlude of konji konji (Emin) start with an Amaj9th, which really gives that "brightness" to the interlude.   

There are lots of 9th usage by raja which can be listed down…here are some of the examples   

Ø   "Poonthalir aada" prelude 9th without Pa

Ø   "Nee partha” The prelude chord after the first piano piece is a Fm9th7th which is Fm (F G# C) with G and D# without C which essentially is F G G# D#.

Ø   "Konji Konji" in stanza when the mood changes from minor to major. The stanza just plays around with Em and slightly adds a 6th in the line "allam vizhuthu aada" (E G B C#) then "vanagalil" its Emaj9th and Amaj ninth... wow what a transition!

Ø   "Kannan vanthu" in stanza ... the stanza starts with a Dm and in "malai nilaa..." 'Slow strings' add up a ninth note to the existing Dm.

Ø   "Butterfly” of course in "arugil nee"... an excellent Dm9th.

Ø   "En iniyapon nilave" -- prelude guitar piece... its a 'suthammana' Cm9th. 

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Article Courtesy - Vicky (Vignesh Subramanian - [email protected]), ilaiyaraaja yahoo groups.