Another attempt.. A personal milestone..
It was in the early 80s, When our family migrated from Chennai to the the foothills of the western ghats in the southern corner of the state. I was already in my first standard. I did not learn Tamil by then..
(City life means studying in an English medium school and Tamil did not even stand a chance as the second language, for French or probably Hindi is already vying for that honor.. And I am really sorry to assert that little has changed in the past 3 decades.. )
Not knowing the local language was the reason why I hated going to my new school back then. (well.. One of the reason.. er.. Ok.. probably the only one with some merit behind it)
Darkness under the Cot was my favorite retreat during the morning school departure time.. My Parents, after realizing that the first 3 ancient negotiating techniques of Sama (Peaceful), Beda (Political) and Dana (Coaxing and promising me the moon) have failed, would then finally resort to the last technique of Dhandam (by Force); Resembling an act of kidnapping, the whole house would be rearranged before they drag me with every available human assistance, pack me, carry me and toss me into the cycle rickshaw..
The cycle rickshaw driver (I still recall his name fondly as Michael Mama.. ) had to put additional latches that locked from outside to make sure I didn't break free and jump from the moving Vehicle.. !!
Once I reach the school, my teachers had a tough time in keeping me in the class. In order to be in the company of people who understand my language and feel secure, I used to march out of the class thats in full progress, looking out for my brothers.. I had two of them.. In Higher classes.. They too, like me didn’t know Tamil by then..
Its under these circumstances that my Father arranged for private Tamil classes at home for all the 3 of us after school hours. The master was a retired Tamil teacher called ‘Sethu Vaathiyaar'. A dynamic man in his late sixties who defied his age.. He comes to our home by cycle from the town few Kms away against the gusty easterly winds from the mountains.. His open mouthed laugh exposing that he had no teeth what so ever, was always accompanied by a gratifying conviction that had no hint of artificiality.
Thanks to the freehand that my father lend him, The laugh would still remain even as his stern hands sometime reaches to our ears when we refuse to toe the line. Slowly Tamil became our favorite subject.. With in a year, I was comfortable enough in the subject to top the class.
After that, the Tamil literature passages from the school text books, usual kids supplementary of the daily news paper, literary functions in temples, the Library of my village where I used to devour countless Tamil classics, Elocution competitions around my district.. All these are positive influences in my early days..
Sethu vaathiyaar’s contribution to all of this is foremost in my interest towards Tamil.. An interest that continues to date.
But last time I wrote in Tamil was 14 years ago...
The occasion was the higher secondary school board exam !!
After that I have not written Tamil.. Since I have stayed outside Tamilnadu for most of my professional life, unfortunately I also lost all opportunities to be in touch with the language. No reading... not even a chance to Watch Tamil. Speaking in Tamil with fellow friends often found me searching for words I wanted to convey and invariably became an English conversation with few Tamil words as prepositions.. Similar to Tamil TV anchors now a days, நீங்க வந்து இப்போ வந்து பாத்தீங்கன்னா எனக்கு தமிழே மறந்து போச்சுன்னு கூட சொல்லலாம். இல்லன்னா வந்து கொஞ்சம் ஞயாபகம் இருக்கு அப்பிடின்னி கூட சொல்லலாம். This is the type of Tamil that I seem to be talking now a days..
Finally I found my lost ground in the internet.. I was glad to see some quality writers and Tamil bloggers.. I slowly started nurturing the secret ambition of writing in Tamil as well.. For a few years now, it remained an ambition thanks to the laziness which appeared more blissful than the predicament to think so much to write in Tamil.
I would be romanticizing it if I said, I was sleeping.. Sethu vaathiyaar came in my dream.. He laughed in a deadly fashion.. First it was his same face with no teeth when he laughed.. Later two teeth emerged from his face.. My ear appeared like a guitar to him.. He started tuning it and asked "எங்க அந்த குறளைச் சொல்லு பாக்கலாம்".. I was shouting "சார்.. சார்..விட்டுருங்க சார்.. " Then I woke up in the middle of the night sweating....
No.. But the truth is somewhat close.. One of my old friends from college with the same name, offered me an opportunity to again write in Tamil, and finally I decided now there is no reason not to..
The result can be found here..
If you thought I have some weird memory to recite those verses in the article after all these years, be glad to know that my ears were paining (thanks to the hallucination of Sethu vaathiyaar) as I was recollecting them...
With Love
Vicky
Showing posts with label Music. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Music. Show all posts
August 7, 2009
January 5, 2009
Embedding Music in Blogs
Updated: 28th March 2009
Like they say "A Picture is worth more than a thousand words", for people who write about music (or at least those who think they write... like me!) or if you are a music artist, its better to let your music do the talking rather than you :-P. That way, the point couldn't be driven home more. Further, you may not fool around the reader to sound as if you know more than you actually do (!!) when the evidence for your view is provided side by side..
But the problem is when it comes to hosting a music clip (mostly mp3) on blogs, the "how to do" part is not always very straight forward;
So here is a Dummy's guide on how to host your own music in your website/ blogs;
There are primarily 3 ways to do this:
Category 1:
You go to a one stop shop, where You let someone else control both your music file and the player it uses.
Mostly these are websites with file upload feature + a (usually flash based) player; Most of the time they allow streaming (i.e., playing the file already while its still downloading). The playback mechanism is native to the player. Since they take care of a to z, nothing specific is needed from you other than, 1.) uploading your file, 2.)Getting the code for 'sharing' and 3.) placing it in your blog post.. All these steps are rather self explanatory once you visit the web site who offers you this service.
There are too many websites who provide this service, both paid and free; You can google out and I am sure you will find zillions of them; I am mentioning two of my favorites;
1.) In the free category, the basic package offered by Soundcloud looks cool; They have lot of cool things such as non-technical easy presentation language in their site which makes the layman orient himself better. The player also allows you to insert comment on the sections of the song while its playing so you can communicate more effectively with your reader about a particular span of the clip while they are listening;
2.) In the paid category, hipcast looks complete; Its very popular among the Indian Audio bloggers in internet. As a regular listener to some of those audio blogs, I find it pretty Ok; But remember it burns a hole in your purse;
esnips seems to be very popular as well; But I've had playback issues with it, although it could be only me.. Plus, their plugin themes are always "hip" and playful; Thats fine for "da ma n newayz" crowd, while their plain themes are rather bulky; Would be nice if they could rework more on their plugin layouts..
I've also seen Muziboo and Picklecast that people use; Haven't tried them myself to comment;
I used boomp3 for sometime and ditched it due to its inconsistent playback;
Category 2:
You control both the file that is played and the audio player used inside the browser. This is a 2 step manual process and
Here is how you can do it
1.) First find yourself where to host your file. Choose one of the many free storage providers in the internet. Pay attention to two factors while you do this. One, They should offer direct access of the file through URLs (Not all do, like MSN's Sky drive is great but as I write this, it doesn't yet offer a direct anonymous access); Two, it should provide a decent bandwidth limit so that your readers are guaranteed most of the time that the file is available (Google pages or its new avatar Google site falls flat here; from my personal experience it blacks out the file after a few many times its been accessed); And then upload your file there. Note down the direct URL of this file;
Note: I use Fileden's free account; It provides 5GB of bandwidth per account per month; Put in perspective, if you are hosting about 5 MB of music in your blog, it plays up to 5000 times per month; I have only about 600 hits or so a month on my music blog; So it works fine for me so far..
2.) Copy the following piece of HTML code and paste it in your blog post:
<embed src="change me" type="application/octet-stream" autostart="false" loop="true"></embed>
Replace the change me with your actual file location noted on step 1;
That's it; You are ready to go;
For the more curious ones, what this code snippet does is, it lets the browser to play the music via the plug-in that you have asked it to to use (this is already configured in IE by default. It uses Windows media player plugin by default; For Mozilla, you may have to install additional plugins). the <embed> tag used here is a native part of HTML specifications and will work for all browsers; Also As you can see, there are two other self explaining parameters in that HTML code snippet; Autostart and loop; if the former is set to true, the file plays automatically when the page is loaded and if the later is set to true, the file will be played repeatedly until you quit the page.
Adv:
----
a.) Total freedom on your hands; You can always choose where to host the file and you are using an audio player plugin installed in your computer; If at all you chose any provider from category 1 and if tomorrow he shuts down the free service, you might be left in lurch.
b.)It supports not just mp3 but any file type (such as midi or ogg files) as long as your browser has a plugin for the given file type.
c.) Though manual, Category 2 is very simple (uses native provisions of HTML) but very effective (like it allows streaming as well)
DisAdv:
-------
a.) In the context of the above point, the 'embed' tag is not a hyperlink and hence it also downloads the file when the page is loaded. Therefore this leads both you and your reader at disadvantage. While your precisous bandwidth is wasted irrespective of the reader listens the track or not, for the reader it takes forever the page to load depending on the amount of content you hosted in the page and his network speed. Besides bandwidth to host the file is a premium now a days; Unless you have your own web server or a private host who can hold your content (Like your ISP), you are at the mercy of free storage providers in the internet for hosting your file. All said, normally they all have a bandwidth limit; The free accounts certainly do.
b.) Although this works in the most common scenario (i.e., if you use Windows and an IE browser, this approach is almost guaranteed to work by default), sadly most popular media files (such as mp3) are not often understood by default in (all) browsers. So sometimes you have to install additional plugins which automatically solves the problems; But if your stars are bad, you may also have to tweak the browser settings on top of that. Check the trouble shooting section below for more info;
But as I said, If you use Internet Explorer, don't bother too much. It will work without any extra efforts.
Trouble Shooting:
================
A General trouble shooting guide to all plugins related problems in browsers can be found here.
Although its guaranteed to work in IE, often an additional plugin is required for other browsers such as Mozilla Firefox; You have to install Apple Quicktime (or VLC Media player plugin) in your computer. Quicktime should also work for other popular browsers. Personally I have had problems with Google Chrome and further looking up revealed that since the browser is still nascent, it might have to travel some distance before it supports lot of features taken for granted now a days. Anyways, Often installing one of this should solve the problem automatically; If it doesn't, try this page for some tips. If you use other browsers, then you may have to look for appropriate audio plugins specific to your browser. (Che.. By giving that useless info, I am sounding too much like the documentation we write for the software we make!!)
Category 3
This is a kind of hybrid option between category 1 and 2; You control the file to play but depend on someone else for the player; The advantages of this category is immense.
1.) Normally these players are browser independent and you shouldn't face any plugin problem and such whichever browser you use.
2.) Unlike the embed tag, the audio track is hosted as a hyperlink. This means the file is streamed/ downloaded only when someone clicks on it. So you save bandwidth and the page loads faster to your reader.
I have seen odeo being one of the most popular player in this space; But I am sure there are many more in this category too. More info on Odeo can be found here and here. However in my personal opinion, the the streaming rate of Odeo is not smooth and leaves one much to be wanting.
For reasons unknown to me, Yahoo Media Player is not so widely used as far as I have seen. However I find this as the magic bullet that solves all the problems discussed above across the categories. The player is sleek, it is guaranteed to work on all browsers. Streaming is really seamless. It aggregates all tracks in your page into a nice integrated playlist (although on some occasions this can be a nuisance). The code to integrate the player to your page is lean and mean; It is supported by a very vibrant community in the internet (so you get nice support from fellow Yahoo Media Player users). The player can be placed inline with the texts in your post. It has some cool features such as tracing the location of song within the page from the player (like a song locator); The code to evoke the player refers to a common link which means, when there is a latest and greatest version of the player released, you are automatically upgraded without any code change; The hidden capabilities and user specific customization possibilities that one can achieve in this player by tweaking its code are immense; At the same time, its also a bit esoteric. For instance, you need a special code to turn off the auto start of next song that you wouldn't know normally unless you google it out or if you are part of the YMP community.
Verdict:
My verdict is the combination of Fileden (to host the files) + Yahoo Media Player (to play it in your page). You can find all about how I have used it in my music blog.
The biggest unintended impact this player has is, since the clips are Hyperlinked, it allows one to link a clip over the portion of text that talks about the clip. The embedding is seamless even if its amidst the paragraphs. The icons indicating the clips are unmissable and non-intrusive. This gives the reader an unique experience of listening to the clip while simultaneously reading about it.
Audio Editing:
For audio editing, Such as clipping only part of a music file, stitching many clips into one file etc., I use Audacity. I find it more than sufficient for my blogging needs.
Disclaimer:
-----------
Please note, options to host music in Blogs is an ever changing space; I am not surprised if a free service for audio hosting is launched tomorrow in this web 2.0 world, which makes this blog post obsolete. Like for instance, I have seen Wordpress blogs having a much more integrated approach to host clips (provided by wordpress) that I didn't even mention. So please keep yourself up to date with latest developments;
And yes, I don't encourage or discourage readers to use any of the vendors listed here; Its just an unbiased amateurish review based on some personal experience; So please be your own judge !
With Love
Vicky
Like they say "A Picture is worth more than a thousand words", for people who write about music (or at least those who think they write... like me!) or if you are a music artist, its better to let your music do the talking rather than you :-P. That way, the point couldn't be driven home more. Further, you may not fool around the reader to sound as if you know more than you actually do (!!) when the evidence for your view is provided side by side..
But the problem is when it comes to hosting a music clip (mostly mp3) on blogs, the "how to do" part is not always very straight forward;
So here is a Dummy's guide on how to host your own music in your website/ blogs;
There are primarily 3 ways to do this:
Category 1:
You go to a one stop shop, where You let someone else control both your music file and the player it uses.
Mostly these are websites with file upload feature + a (usually flash based) player; Most of the time they allow streaming (i.e., playing the file already while its still downloading). The playback mechanism is native to the player. Since they take care of a to z, nothing specific is needed from you other than, 1.) uploading your file, 2.)Getting the code for 'sharing' and 3.) placing it in your blog post.. All these steps are rather self explanatory once you visit the web site who offers you this service.
There are too many websites who provide this service, both paid and free; You can google out and I am sure you will find zillions of them; I am mentioning two of my favorites;
1.) In the free category, the basic package offered by Soundcloud looks cool; They have lot of cool things such as non-technical easy presentation language in their site which makes the layman orient himself better. The player also allows you to insert comment on the sections of the song while its playing so you can communicate more effectively with your reader about a particular span of the clip while they are listening;
2.) In the paid category, hipcast looks complete; Its very popular among the Indian Audio bloggers in internet. As a regular listener to some of those audio blogs, I find it pretty Ok; But remember it burns a hole in your purse;
esnips seems to be very popular as well; But I've had playback issues with it, although it could be only me.. Plus, their plugin themes are always "hip" and playful; Thats fine for "da ma n newayz" crowd, while their plain themes are rather bulky; Would be nice if they could rework more on their plugin layouts..
I've also seen Muziboo and Picklecast that people use; Haven't tried them myself to comment;
I used boomp3 for sometime and ditched it due to its inconsistent playback;
Category 2:
You control both the file that is played and the audio player used inside the browser. This is a 2 step manual process and
Here is how you can do it
1.) First find yourself where to host your file. Choose one of the many free storage providers in the internet. Pay attention to two factors while you do this. One, They should offer direct access of the file through URLs (Not all do, like MSN's Sky drive is great but as I write this, it doesn't yet offer a direct anonymous access); Two, it should provide a decent bandwidth limit so that your readers are guaranteed most of the time that the file is available (Google pages or its new avatar Google site falls flat here; from my personal experience it blacks out the file after a few many times its been accessed); And then upload your file there. Note down the direct URL of this file;
Note: I use Fileden's free account; It provides 5GB of bandwidth per account per month; Put in perspective, if you are hosting about 5 MB of music in your blog, it plays up to 5000 times per month; I have only about 600 hits or so a month on my music blog; So it works fine for me so far..
2.) Copy the following piece of HTML code and paste it in your blog post:
<embed src="change me" type="application/octet-stream" autostart="false" loop="true"></embed>
Replace the change me with your actual file location noted on step 1;
That's it; You are ready to go;
For the more curious ones, what this code snippet does is, it lets the browser to play the music via the plug-in that you have asked it to to use (this is already configured in IE by default. It uses Windows media player plugin by default; For Mozilla, you may have to install additional plugins). the <embed> tag used here is a native part of HTML specifications and will work for all browsers; Also As you can see, there are two other self explaining parameters in that HTML code snippet; Autostart and loop; if the former is set to true, the file plays automatically when the page is loaded and if the later is set to true, the file will be played repeatedly until you quit the page.
Adv:
----
a.) Total freedom on your hands; You can always choose where to host the file and you are using an audio player plugin installed in your computer; If at all you chose any provider from category 1 and if tomorrow he shuts down the free service, you might be left in lurch.
b.)It supports not just mp3 but any file type (such as midi or ogg files) as long as your browser has a plugin for the given file type.
c.) Though manual, Category 2 is very simple (uses native provisions of HTML) but very effective (like it allows streaming as well)
DisAdv:
-------
a.) In the context of the above point, the 'embed' tag is not a hyperlink and hence it also downloads the file when the page is loaded. Therefore this leads both you and your reader at disadvantage. While your precisous bandwidth is wasted irrespective of the reader listens the track or not, for the reader it takes forever the page to load depending on the amount of content you hosted in the page and his network speed. Besides bandwidth to host the file is a premium now a days; Unless you have your own web server or a private host who can hold your content (Like your ISP), you are at the mercy of free storage providers in the internet for hosting your file. All said, normally they all have a bandwidth limit; The free accounts certainly do.
b.) Although this works in the most common scenario (i.e., if you use Windows and an IE browser, this approach is almost guaranteed to work by default), sadly most popular media files (such as mp3) are not often understood by default in (all) browsers. So sometimes you have to install additional plugins which automatically solves the problems; But if your stars are bad, you may also have to tweak the browser settings on top of that. Check the trouble shooting section below for more info;
But as I said, If you use Internet Explorer, don't bother too much. It will work without any extra efforts.
Trouble Shooting:
================
A General trouble shooting guide to all plugins related problems in browsers can be found here.
Although its guaranteed to work in IE, often an additional plugin is required for other browsers such as Mozilla Firefox; You have to install Apple Quicktime (or VLC Media player plugin) in your computer. Quicktime should also work for other popular browsers. Personally I have had problems with Google Chrome and further looking up revealed that since the browser is still nascent, it might have to travel some distance before it supports lot of features taken for granted now a days. Anyways, Often installing one of this should solve the problem automatically; If it doesn't, try this page for some tips. If you use other browsers, then you may have to look for appropriate audio plugins specific to your browser. (Che.. By giving that useless info, I am sounding too much like the documentation we write for the software we make!!)
Category 3
This is a kind of hybrid option between category 1 and 2; You control the file to play but depend on someone else for the player; The advantages of this category is immense.
1.) Normally these players are browser independent and you shouldn't face any plugin problem and such whichever browser you use.
2.) Unlike the embed tag, the audio track is hosted as a hyperlink. This means the file is streamed/ downloaded only when someone clicks on it. So you save bandwidth and the page loads faster to your reader.
I have seen odeo being one of the most popular player in this space; But I am sure there are many more in this category too. More info on Odeo can be found here and here. However in my personal opinion, the the streaming rate of Odeo is not smooth and leaves one much to be wanting.
For reasons unknown to me, Yahoo Media Player is not so widely used as far as I have seen. However I find this as the magic bullet that solves all the problems discussed above across the categories. The player is sleek, it is guaranteed to work on all browsers. Streaming is really seamless. It aggregates all tracks in your page into a nice integrated playlist (although on some occasions this can be a nuisance). The code to integrate the player to your page is lean and mean; It is supported by a very vibrant community in the internet (so you get nice support from fellow Yahoo Media Player users). The player can be placed inline with the texts in your post. It has some cool features such as tracing the location of song within the page from the player (like a song locator); The code to evoke the player refers to a common link which means, when there is a latest and greatest version of the player released, you are automatically upgraded without any code change; The hidden capabilities and user specific customization possibilities that one can achieve in this player by tweaking its code are immense; At the same time, its also a bit esoteric. For instance, you need a special code to turn off the auto start of next song that you wouldn't know normally unless you google it out or if you are part of the YMP community.
Verdict:
My verdict is the combination of Fileden (to host the files) + Yahoo Media Player (to play it in your page). You can find all about how I have used it in my music blog.
The biggest unintended impact this player has is, since the clips are Hyperlinked, it allows one to link a clip over the portion of text that talks about the clip. The embedding is seamless even if its amidst the paragraphs. The icons indicating the clips are unmissable and non-intrusive. This gives the reader an unique experience of listening to the clip while simultaneously reading about it.
Audio Editing:
For audio editing, Such as clipping only part of a music file, stitching many clips into one file etc., I use Audacity. I find it more than sufficient for my blogging needs.
Disclaimer:
-----------
Please note, options to host music in Blogs is an ever changing space; I am not surprised if a free service for audio hosting is launched tomorrow in this web 2.0 world, which makes this blog post obsolete. Like for instance, I have seen Wordpress blogs having a much more integrated approach to host clips (provided by wordpress) that I didn't even mention. So please keep yourself up to date with latest developments;
And yes, I don't encourage or discourage readers to use any of the vendors listed here; Its just an unbiased amateurish review based on some personal experience; So please be your own judge !
With Love
Vicky
September 8, 2008
Jaladharangam
I leaped out of my seat listening to the Jaladharangam in the prelude of the song - "Kothamalli Poove" - a not so famous song from the movie 'Kallukkul Eeram'. Ever since I heard the Jaladharangam in the song "Dheena Karunakaranae", I have had a fascination towards this wonderful instrument. But blame it on the 'too-many-choices-available' world, I never really had a moment so far to reflect on this instrument... And this song was a trigger to revive my (listening) interest on Jaladharangam..
Contine reading on Jaladharanagam (only) below.
Contine reading on Jaladharangam, Ilaiyaraaja and "Kotha Malli Poove" here..
So a casual browsing on Jaladharangam or Jal Tarang (So its called in the Hindustani music where its been around for longer than in the south) became a temporary obsession and I used the too-many-choices that was available to my advantage..
Firstly it is humbling to know that its one of the very ancient instruments..
Secondly it is alarming to learn that code red is designated on this instrument as there is hardly any mainstream players left :-(
While the conundrum of music found in nature is easily exemplified by Flute - a case where it is believed that the ancient man noted the wind blowing through the holes in bamboo that are made by beetles created music, I wonder why the beauty of sound waves produced by striking a container that's filled with just plain water (another natural element if you missed it) is often drowned. Also in a literal sense that is !!
There are couple of things that immediately strikes me as far as the uniqueness of this instrument is concerned.
Just think about the beauty of sound engineering here.. The proportion of size of the container viz the level of water in them, producing the same musical notes capable of any other acoustic or electronic instrument.. Also the technology scalable to same frequency ratios between successive notes.
Secondly, as far as I can think right now, this is the only (or certainly one of the very few) instrument where a single working atomic piece of an instrument is used to produce only one note (one swara); In fact what you call as Jal Tarang is a collective term used to denote 22 unconnected different cups placed around the artist. So put in perspective, Keyboard or Violin or Flute or Guitar or any instrument that I can think of has one integral piece of instrument, from which all the swaras can be produced. But here, if you want to play all the 12 notes in an octave, you will need 12 disparate instruments placed next to each other.. So from an acoustical engineering stand point, its as digital as possible that music can get ... With no viability of Analog sound (i.e., no possibility of one note "becoming" another through 'Gamakas'), Imagine the challenge that it poses to the artist as an Indian classical art instrument, a genre where usually a note arrives sliding from/to another... Combine with it, the natural short span of the note produced by this instrument (or 'Sustain'-ability as one would like to call it in musical terms).. With almost no reverb, this makes it unsuitable for establishing notes in a Raaga where usually artists hold on to a swara (especially at high pitches) for couple of Thala vottams.. Yet this is a bonafide classical instrument that has survived the test of time like no other.. Isin't this absolutely unique or am I going overboard here..!!
Next, this is in principle a melody instrument.. but the way of playing (by striking the bowl with a cane) and the crispiness of the output is akin to a Rhythm instrument.. just like a Drums or Mirudangam. So the melody played by this instrument involuntarily gets a rhythmic feel to it.. In fact if tastefully used, this instrument can well be used just as a percussion instrument.. Just a crazy thought crossing my mind...
To round up, I came up with couple of interesting references in the net...
- About an 80+ Maami who is apparently a legend..
- And this video... I was really dumbstruck.... She is so nimble that it completely contradicts the persona.. I was thrilled.. really really thrilled to watch this video. Such artists are one of a life time artists. I only hope that the legacy passes on...
And, If I do get an opportunity, this is definitely the next instrument I am going to learn..
With Love
Vicky
Contine reading on Jaladharanagam (only) below.
Contine reading on Jaladharangam, Ilaiyaraaja and "Kotha Malli Poove" here..
So a casual browsing on Jaladharangam or Jal Tarang (So its called in the Hindustani music where its been around for longer than in the south) became a temporary obsession and I used the too-many-choices that was available to my advantage..
Firstly it is humbling to know that its one of the very ancient instruments..
Secondly it is alarming to learn that code red is designated on this instrument as there is hardly any mainstream players left :-(
While the conundrum of music found in nature is easily exemplified by Flute - a case where it is believed that the ancient man noted the wind blowing through the holes in bamboo that are made by beetles created music, I wonder why the beauty of sound waves produced by striking a container that's filled with just plain water (another natural element if you missed it) is often drowned. Also in a literal sense that is !!
There are couple of things that immediately strikes me as far as the uniqueness of this instrument is concerned.
Just think about the beauty of sound engineering here.. The proportion of size of the container viz the level of water in them, producing the same musical notes capable of any other acoustic or electronic instrument.. Also the technology scalable to same frequency ratios between successive notes.
Secondly, as far as I can think right now, this is the only (or certainly one of the very few) instrument where a single working atomic piece of an instrument is used to produce only one note (one swara); In fact what you call as Jal Tarang is a collective term used to denote 22 unconnected different cups placed around the artist. So put in perspective, Keyboard or Violin or Flute or Guitar or any instrument that I can think of has one integral piece of instrument, from which all the swaras can be produced. But here, if you want to play all the 12 notes in an octave, you will need 12 disparate instruments placed next to each other.. So from an acoustical engineering stand point, its as digital as possible that music can get ... With no viability of Analog sound (i.e., no possibility of one note "becoming" another through 'Gamakas'), Imagine the challenge that it poses to the artist as an Indian classical art instrument, a genre where usually a note arrives sliding from/to another... Combine with it, the natural short span of the note produced by this instrument (or 'Sustain'-ability as one would like to call it in musical terms).. With almost no reverb, this makes it unsuitable for establishing notes in a Raaga where usually artists hold on to a swara (especially at high pitches) for couple of Thala vottams.. Yet this is a bonafide classical instrument that has survived the test of time like no other.. Isin't this absolutely unique or am I going overboard here..!!
Next, this is in principle a melody instrument.. but the way of playing (by striking the bowl with a cane) and the crispiness of the output is akin to a Rhythm instrument.. just like a Drums or Mirudangam. So the melody played by this instrument involuntarily gets a rhythmic feel to it.. In fact if tastefully used, this instrument can well be used just as a percussion instrument.. Just a crazy thought crossing my mind...
To round up, I came up with couple of interesting references in the net...
- About an 80+ Maami who is apparently a legend..
- And this video... I was really dumbstruck.... She is so nimble that it completely contradicts the persona.. I was thrilled.. really really thrilled to watch this video. Such artists are one of a life time artists. I only hope that the legacy passes on...
And, If I do get an opportunity, this is definitely the next instrument I am going to learn..
With Love
Vicky
March 30, 2008
Stumble Upon Raaja
You can define yourself a genuine fan or follower of something when you have learnt the art of distinguishing it/ them from the rest. So I feel, your benchmark to become a true Illaiyaraaja follower can be measured by the same postulate! But the challenge is, souls like Raaja are more trend setters than followers. And there are a few successful followers who tempt you to take the bait. So when you hear a good "Raaja - like" song that you have never heard before, the following can happen.
- You take a cautious approach.. You are not fully sure about its origin. Nonetheless you enjoy the song and make it a point to check who is the composer. When you find its not Raaja, you feel happy because you feel vindicated. (Eg: When I heard "Thulli Thulli pogum pennae"); But at the same time you feel sad because you couldn't be so sure yourself to begin with. You are still a boy, you are yet to make that crossover to a mature fan;
- Or You swear to death that, "this is Raaja..!"; Your beliefs are so strong that when you finally find out that its infact not Raaja, you see more red than disappointed. Because you refuse to believe the reality and rue on your wrong judgment at the same time.. because you have to deliberately downgrade the song you liked as it missed out on your definition of a good song, usually only accredited for Raaja's !! (Eg: When I heard songs like, "Oh... Ponmaanguyil Singaramaai", "Oru Kaadhal Enbadhu" for the first time); And actually on subsequent listening in hindsight, they no more seem as attractive as it was !!!
- Or You just know its Raaja. Verifying its authenticity is a mere matter of formality. (For example When I heard "IlaVenil Idhu Vaigasi Maadham" for the first time)
So recently I heard this one from a Talent hunt show - one from the 3rd category. The decent job of replication both by this aspiring singer and the accompanying orchestra didn't make me miss the original flavour for a first time listening.. The prelude was so rich with its whistle flute (like the one from the orchestration piece of "Isai Paadum Thendral"), that I was immediately convinced this is Raaja. Those Guitar strums through out the song and the rhythm arrangements with those variations.. Those out of the world chord sequences (Don't miss the augmentated chords on "Kathakal sollu nee" in first line.. bliss...) The unorthodox turn midway of the stanza's melody touching the chinna Gha and thus exhibiting the heights of innovation on an otherwise major oriented melody... I was dead sure this is Raaja. And I was smiling when the 2nd interlude started.. because I was expecting it to be strings show and sure it was.. that brahmaastra of Raaja, the "String Ensemble", again stamping its authority all over... my moments of self anointing glory.. for having expected the unexpected...
But a bigger boost when you come across such beauties is that, your day is made and you get this unusual satisfaction as if you have done something good yourself just listening to them while in reality the composer has just accomplished the divine task of exuberating his feelings through the listener.. The composition itself is a 20 or 30 or even centuries old is irrelevant, for its these numbers you call timeless...
With Love
Vicky
PS: Later I learnt from a friend that this song, 'Poonkaattinodum' is one of all time classic songs in Kerala from a movie called "Poomukhappadiyil ninneyum kaathu" and I might actually be jailed for tagging this an anonymous song.. I hope I am not alone !!
- You take a cautious approach.. You are not fully sure about its origin. Nonetheless you enjoy the song and make it a point to check who is the composer. When you find its not Raaja, you feel happy because you feel vindicated. (Eg: When I heard "Thulli Thulli pogum pennae"); But at the same time you feel sad because you couldn't be so sure yourself to begin with. You are still a boy, you are yet to make that crossover to a mature fan;
- Or You swear to death that, "this is Raaja..!"; Your beliefs are so strong that when you finally find out that its infact not Raaja, you see more red than disappointed. Because you refuse to believe the reality and rue on your wrong judgment at the same time.. because you have to deliberately downgrade the song you liked as it missed out on your definition of a good song, usually only accredited for Raaja's !! (Eg: When I heard songs like, "Oh... Ponmaanguyil Singaramaai", "Oru Kaadhal Enbadhu" for the first time); And actually on subsequent listening in hindsight, they no more seem as attractive as it was !!!
- Or You just know its Raaja. Verifying its authenticity is a mere matter of formality. (For example When I heard "IlaVenil Idhu Vaigasi Maadham" for the first time)
So recently I heard this one from a Talent hunt show - one from the 3rd category. The decent job of replication both by this aspiring singer and the accompanying orchestra didn't make me miss the original flavour for a first time listening.. The prelude was so rich with its whistle flute (like the one from the orchestration piece of "Isai Paadum Thendral"), that I was immediately convinced this is Raaja. Those Guitar strums through out the song and the rhythm arrangements with those variations.. Those out of the world chord sequences (Don't miss the augmentated chords on "Kathakal sollu nee" in first line.. bliss...) The unorthodox turn midway of the stanza's melody touching the chinna Gha and thus exhibiting the heights of innovation on an otherwise major oriented melody... I was dead sure this is Raaja. And I was smiling when the 2nd interlude started.. because I was expecting it to be strings show and sure it was.. that brahmaastra of Raaja, the "String Ensemble", again stamping its authority all over... my moments of self anointing glory.. for having expected the unexpected...
But a bigger boost when you come across such beauties is that, your day is made and you get this unusual satisfaction as if you have done something good yourself just listening to them while in reality the composer has just accomplished the divine task of exuberating his feelings through the listener.. The composition itself is a 20 or 30 or even centuries old is irrelevant, for its these numbers you call timeless...
With Love
Vicky
PS: Later I learnt from a friend that this song, 'Poonkaattinodum' is one of all time classic songs in Kerala from a movie called "Poomukhappadiyil ninneyum kaathu" and I might actually be jailed for tagging this an anonymous song.. I hope I am not alone !!
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