So we kept listening to the 40th Symphony (Mozart), Four Seasons (Vivaldi), Fur Elise (Beethoven), Chopin, and all those greats because symphonies were supposed to be 'their' domain.

Till Illayaraja changed that.

He composed his own symphonies in 2 albums.

'Nothing But Wind' (call it sheer magic)
and 'How To Name it'.

I wonder whether someone would want to share it here.

Oh wow! Thanks for the info Mandrake. I shall check at the local stores if I can avail. Shux I went to the music shop yest and wasnt aware of it

N

I have both the albums. The second one is titled "HOW TO NAME IT".

Later this week I shall start uploading them. Hope you won't mind the wait. Thanks!

Right! Even I was confused How To Name It
Mind waiting??
Unniji I never mind waiting when you ask.
I have seen your phenomenal ability to keep the given word!

Thanx in advance (will thank you again after d/s )

Let me reduce Unni's burden with a couple of tracks from "Nothing But Wind".
I'm surprised no one mentioned that flute was played by Pt. Hariprasad Chaurasia for this album.

Song of Soul

Nothing but Wind : What a lovely name, so profound yet that's what music from a flute is !!!

A tribute to Mozart !

Here are the 10 tracks from the CD "HOW TO NAME IT?", MUSIC: ILAYARAAJA.

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Wow! If Unni has it in his collections, that means it is a COLLECTORS' ALBUM!!

ohhhhhhh Landmark here I come searching for the albums

N

No, WAIT! We'll get Priya to dowload the 10 tracks uploaded in 128 kbps, then she can burn the disc and send it to you, na?

And why can't U just send her the thing Urself!!!!! In 320 kbs!!! Considering Ur boasts!!!!! USA mein post office nahin hai kya???
Sheesh!!! With friends like U one longs for enemies!!!!!

Any dearth of them in the forum? Or you just adding to your "collection"?

Droll!!!!!
U just take care or there gonna be one less pretty soon.

Your only "friend" in the forum. Surely, you can't afford to lose me too.

Doubt if anyone could afford to lose U, Unni.
Itni badi collection ki baat hai aakhir!!!!

And I'd always thought you liked me for my looks and brains.

Oh I'm sure I will........once I find them!!!!!!!!!!

na na that is only when Unni uploads kacche daage which I cant keep track of

Grrr I am sure these albums are easily available in my city or in the city from where your wife (UNNI) hails from he he he , so let me not bother Priyz for the moment

N

ATTN: Unni!!! Mark the words!!!!!
But Nim do not let Unni off the hook that easily. Ask him to mail U the album, na? Ha... the badshahs of yore used to scatter rubies and emeralds and the odd diamond wherever they went and to whoever was in need. Sigh!!!

Wow ... thnks for uploading these melodious pieces by maestro Unni ji ....

Thanks a lot betaaj Badshah of HF :-)

- Man

Bibhas ji and Unni ji, that was a great job!!

However, I believe you have forgotten to add one track from 'Nothing But Wind'.

'Composer's Breath' is missing here.

Can you pls chk that?

If Bibhas does not have it on CD, I can provide it from my audio-cassette. Infact I'm grateful that Bibhas uploaded the tracks from this album, since I don't have a CD of it.

Mandrake & Unni,
Strangely, "Composer's Breath" is missing from my collection ! Unni, please go ahead and upload.

On another note, today is Maestro Ilayaraja's 62nd birthday. Happy Birthday to him.

Bibhas

Bibhas, how could you miss the BEST part of Nothing But Wind???
Composer's Breath is where Chaurasiyaji cuts loose, 17 mins 17 secs of sheer, heady magic. Just the flute mainly.
I would trade all the other tracks for this one track!!
And I am sure, so would you when you hear it

Mandrake,
I know. It's the piece de resistance of the album. I have heard it and I think I had it at some point but I am unable to find it on my HD. I hope it's only mis-annotated which is making the search fail and that I have not lost it.
Bibhas

Unni, Bibhas and Mandrake

Hot off the CD:

Nothing But Wind - 04 - Composer's Breth.part2.rar

Anurag, pardon my confusion, but though part 1 is 9.54 mb and part 2 is 5.83 mb as u/l ed by you, when I unzipped them, they were not only identical sized files, but also played identical (same file). The unzipped file is 15,818 kb in both.

What's the problem? Did I goof up somewhere?

Jaadugar-ji,
What Anurag uploaded is one track split into two parts. You only need to unzip part 1 and the program takes care of unzipping the 2nd part and combining both parts to make the complete track. This is how we get around the 10MB limit for big files. In this case, the size of the combined file is 15.8MB and what you have is two copies of the complete "Composer's breath".

On another note, can someone throw some light on the technical (musical, not comp) aspects of this track? IR/HPC start off with Malkauns and do grahabedham to end up with a myriad of raagas in succession-am I right ?

Bibhas

Bibhas-ji, thanx. So I am hearing to the complete piece
Regarding your deducing the music flow, you got that spot on. However, there is something here that is somewhat not too clear.
Just like all true symphonies, IR crafted every single note into place. So the entire symphony was documented in totality.
Panditji flew to Chennai by the morning flight, finished the recording in one day, and flew back the same day. (That's what I read).
2 things: if every note was crafted (great job), then did Panditji memorize the whole thing? (or read? even more difficult)
If it was to be played as precise notes, why Panditji? That's the job of any competent flautist. Most people could have done that. (Promoting the album?)

Mandrake,
I am sure you noticed the rasa/bhaava/emotion flowing out of Panditji's flute in this piece. I am not sure "any competent flautist" could have done that ! It is this single feature that attracts me to Hariji's bansuri so much. There are other flautists that are very good musicians and can play a raaga to absolute perfection but none can make the bansuri emote like Hariji does
Bibhas

Bibhas I agree with you fully on Panditji's uniqueness. I cannot ever figure out how the flute actually comes ALIVE in his hands. I am a total admirer of that man. And I wonder sometimes: did Krishna have such an effect on the people then? Or better? WHAT can be better?

Mandrake, couldn't have put it better myself. The piece that always stands out in my mind, even amongst Hariji's innumerable excellent recitals, is the short piece he played in A.R.Rehman's Jana Gana Mana. I always respected our National Anthem but when I heard Hariji's piece, "mere rongte khade ho gaye" ! And if you've seen the video of this, then you'll see that it's coming straight out of Hariji's heart, it's written all over his face as he's playing that piece.

Bibhas, while on the topic of Hariji's contribution, something else comes to my mind.
Can we start a thread where all the classical greats have participated in some manner to film music directly? As in, either playing a musical piece, or singing.
The few instances that come to the mind right away are:
(1) Hariji playing in Ka karoon sajni (swami)
(2) Kartik kumar's sitar in tere bina zindagi se (aandhi)
(3) Bhimsen Joshi is many songs
(4) Jasraj in Umraao Jaan

Is such a thread worthwhile?

Would like your comments pls

I am given to understand that both Pt. Hariprasad Chaurasia and Pt. Shivkumar Sharma started their musical careers as accompanying artistes in the Hindi Film Industry. In which case there must be numerous film tracks to which they've contributed.

In the interview with Pt. Hariprasad Chaurasia which was featured earlier in HF, he says that it was Pt. Shivkumar Sharma who asked him whether he intended to continue on the same track or move on to a higher form of music.

The rare occasions when other classical doyens participated in a film track are invariably cited, e.g. Pannalal Ghosh for a Lata-ji track or the sitar-vaadan in Rafi-sahab's "Madhuban Mein Radhika" in 'Kohinoor".

You mean direct contribution, not composing music like Shiv-Hari or Ravi Shankar ? Certainly a nice topic-already learnt something new about (1) and (2). Start away and I'll contribute my 2 cents...


Unni- Which Lataji's track is that and who played Sitar in "Madhuban mein..."

Ustad Ali Akbar Khan played the sarod in "Suno chotisi gudiya ki lambi kahani" ("SEEMA") sung by Lata-ji.

Pannalal Ghosh played the flute in "Main piya teri" (BASANT BAHAR) sung by Lata-ji.

Ustad Abdul Halim Jaffer Khan's sitar was a permanent feature of melodious Hindi film songs. Composers of the caliber of Naushad, C.Ramchandra, Madan Mohan, O.P.Nayyar, Roshan, Shankar Jaikshen, Vasant Desai, Anil Biswas and Sudhir Phadke have drawn heavily on his sitar-vaadan while composing tunes. The enchanting piece in the raga 'Hamir' after Rafi-sahab's vocals in the song "Madhuban Mein Radhika" has been played by him.

At mehfils, at the request of the audience, Ustad Bismillah Khan would play a refrain of a song from "GOONJ UTHI SHEHNAI", viz. "Dil ka khilona haaye toot gaya", the composition of which was attributed to him.