thiruvasakam in symphony [Archive] - Page 4

tvsankar

12th July 2005, 10:43 AM

Naan first part of the function ai parthaen.
Father Jegath Pesinar.IR eppadi indha TIS vara paadu patar enru.Apppodhu claps start anadhu,nirkavae illai.Sila seconds kazhithum claps nirkavilllai.Udanae IR audiance ai parthu north style il oru namaskaram seidhar.Avarudiaya humbleness parthu kalangi ponaen.Ippodhum claps nirkavillai.Marubadium IR oru Namaskaram seidhar.Ippodhum claps nirkavillai.
Father Elloraiyum ezhundhu ninru claps seiyungal enru sonnar.(for respect to IR)..Ippodhu ezhundhu ninru claps.Ippadiyaga claps soundae niriya nimidangal irundhadhu.
Ippodhu father IR ku idharkaga Grami award kedaika paadu paduvaen enru sonnar.Appodhu IR audinace ai parthu siritha mugathudan vendam enru kaiyai kaati vittu melae kaiyai kaatinar.GREAT MAN!!!
Next oru Minister pesinar.Bala Murali Krishana pesinar.Avar sonnadhu,'Tiruvasagathuku orugar oru vasagathukum orugar.Ilaiya Rajavin isaiku urugar oru isaikkum urugar"
Ippodhu song onru play seidhargal.Ellar faceilulm excitedaga irundhadhu.
Oru dance programe for a song in TIS,' Muthu natramam poomalai thuki'".Azhagana group dance by youngsters.
TIS isaiyai kettu vittu program parkum podhu oru meaning therindhadhu.Next IR pesa arambichar.'En ooru siva puram"enra songai solli start panninar.Ithudan ninru vittadhu programmme.Remaining portion ini dhan varum i think.

tmrrmt

12th July 2005, 11:30 AM

I am still not able to comprehend this man's Genius, but I am immensely satisfied and relieved that whatever I had thought of him since 1978 (when I first understood that it is because of a man by the name Ilaiyaraaja, the music I listen to, is magical!), is turning out to be true and I am further more sure of my guttoral instincts now more than before!!

Reg IR's future projects - given that IR has at least 50,000 fans around the world, even if 25,000 contribute 10$ each, it would come to 2,50,000 USD and that will be more than enough for IR to come up with another series of albums, something that is purely instrumental! maybe a full-fledged concerto, symphony or even a series of symphonies

To understand the magnitude/enormity of TiS, I was just wondering as follows: did Manickavasagam think of a great genius IR who would be born several centuries later, when he wrote Tiruvasakam ? NO - it was all written extempore - for IR to choose some verses of this work, set music to them, make it in a format that is middle of the line between Indian and Western classical, also accomodate perfectly a score that would involve/require a full-fledged Symphony orchestra, not only manage to retain the Bhakti(devotion) element, but drench it with Bhakti and also stamp his own trademark elements - OOPS, no science can explain this phenomenal accomplishment !!

Just imagine if IR were to compose an entire symphonic work with melodic tunes and lines desgined to bring out the Bhakti element and then Manickavasagar were to come alive and then write lyrics, words for that symphony - it would be 'n' times more powerful than the TiS that has come out!

Keeping the above in perspective, IR to have come up with a score that goes beyond the limitations imposed by the imprompu format of the verses, is something I have no capacity to understand

I hope I have articulated my thoughts aptly

tmrrmt

12th July 2005, 11:49 AM

I do not know how many of you felt this - the rich vocal chorus and orchestral work in the fourth piece sung by IR has some strange sleep-inducing effect! each time I listen to it! even during daytime!

tmrrmt

12th July 2005, 11:55 AM

There is a piece called "Across the Stars" in the STAR WARS album by John Williams - each time I listen to it, it makes me sleep - but the fourth piece from TiS is in a different league and actually drugs you the moment it starts

jaiganes

12th July 2005, 12:03 PM

good analysis madhan(tmmrmt)!! My views are similar.

bachraaja

12th July 2005, 02:32 PM

Pure genius effort from IR. My pick is the 20 sec bit on song 5(Muthu natramam poomalai thuki) running from 4.37 - 4.39. Simply amazing run/movement. When you transpose that with the choral backing(before and after) it gives a unique effect. This song merits grand visual.

Pol Vinayen is an Opera style effort. I am not in a position to comment on this. It just a blisfull experience.

My two cents.

bachraaja

12th July 2005, 02:45 PM

Typo. Its 4.37 - 4.57. Give it multiple hearings to be stunned by the movement.

Mayamalavagaula at its best in this song. IR has exploited this ragam to the hilt and I guess he is simply a master in juxtaposing WCM with this scale. HTNI and NBW both had this scale. He has taken this scale to a diff plane in this song.

On second thoughts both the first and second interlude are grand.

First interlude 1.54 - 2.37 ( This the grandest of all I have ever heard). Running to almost 43 secs and finally culminating with a phenomenal movement at 2.30 -2.38. We need to watch for a subtle WCM/Carnatic fusion. In 8 secs he has produced a beauty.

Second interlude 3.30 - 3.54 - Choral arrangement is fantastic at the end. Esp the Indian and WCM which finishes off in a grand style.

jaiganes

12th July 2005, 03:06 PM

Finally I was able to compose myself to write something on Thiruvaasagam!!!
My blog on thiruvaasagam (http://silencerocks.blogspot.com)
Yoiu can visit by clicking on the www link my profile as well.
Enjoy.

Shankar

12th July 2005, 03:09 PM

Kupps,
I was pleasantly surprised to see "arangamA nagaruLAnE" in your post...I reacted EXACTLY the same way !!!
Right after that, I played the song again and started off with Raja with the lyrics,
"pachcai mA malai pOl mEni
pavaLa vAi kamalachchengaN
achuthA amararE re..
Ayartham kozhundhE...

ichchuvai thavira...
....
...
aranga mA nagaruLAnE"

Fits more or less well into the tune.

Quite an interesting coincidence.

tmrrmt

12th July 2005, 03:29 PM

jaiganes - you have written "it is the confluence of varied musical thoughts in their resonating points and then putting them in the simplest possible context for everyone to comprehend"

I would say "in the simplest possible context for everyone to experience the heightened pleasure of listening"

yeskarthi

12th July 2005, 03:30 PM

A slight digression.

http://www.listeningadventures.org/listeningadventures/high/Fmovement3_final.html

ravidreams

12th July 2005, 03:30 PM

Hi all,

I am new member here and happy to find all the discussions abt TiS. Like everyone, I also got curious to know the meaning of songs and found it. I have uploaded the meanings of songs sung by Ilayaraja at

http://ta.wikibooks.org/wiki/thiruvasakam

You need to have unicode tamil fonts enabled and UTf-8 encoding to read the above site

The complete compilation of thiruvasakam songs and meaning can be found at the tamil virtual university library at

http://www.tamilvu.org/coresite/html/cwhomepg.htm

Ravi

rooky

12th July 2005, 03:38 PM

ravidreams,

The first link is of great help,Thanks man.

jaiganes

12th July 2005, 03:45 PM

Shankar

12th July 2005, 03:46 PM

where do i get those fonts? Any pointers ?

tmrrmt

12th July 2005, 04:04 PM

http://www.cmw.net/festivalmain.htm - can Toronto fans put up a stall for IR during this festival ?

Thanks

kavin

12th July 2005, 04:07 PM

njv

12th July 2005, 04:35 PM

Guys in Bangalore,

I got some CDs from Planet M through my Brother-in-law. I was quite surprised that there were no sleeve notes. I was hoping to find a booklet with lyrics, both tamil and english. I wonder why?
Either pirated, or they sold out and the next release doesnt have the booklet. Check with Tamilmaiyam and confirm that it is not pirated.

njv

12th July 2005, 04:39 PM

http://www.cmw.net/festivalmain.htm - can Toronto fans put up a stall for IR during this festival ?

Thanks
tmrrmt

hopefully some Canadian friends will volunteer. Please kindly post a detailed post about what is expected etc. I will either volunteer myself or find out someone in case if there are no canadian friends to volunteer at this time.

If someone who knows music very well can attend this, it would be helpful. I am going to learn music (TIS effect!), but before Jan 2006, i dont know if I can gain any knowledge.

tmrrmt

12th July 2005, 05:21 PM

One more

http://www.midem.com/App/homepage.cfm?moduleid=2533&appname=100456

tmrrmt

12th July 2005, 05:25 PM

ANAND AND ANAND,DEEP EMOTIONS PUBLISHING,DSK LEGAL,LIVING MEDIA INDIA LIMITED, MUSIC TODAY,MUSIC GALLERY INDIA PVT.LTD, RAVE MAGAZINE,RHYTHM CORNER,SAREGAMA INDIA LTD,TIMES MUSIC
and VALE MUSIC (INDIA) PVT LTD from INDIA are all participating in the above event

Why not WELGATE ?

tmrrmt

12th July 2005, 05:29 PM

njv - did you check your email today ?

ravidreams

12th July 2005, 06:16 PM

where do i get those fonts? Any pointers ?

You can download it for free from

http://www.sooriyan.com/font/

and then change the encoding in view-->encoding menu in ur browser to UTF-8. Then u can read the songs and meanings of TIS songs at

http://ta.wikibooks.org/wiki/thiruvasakam

multinamatheyan

12th July 2005, 06:58 PM

Does any site have the voice clip of ARRs speach at the TiS function? I am trying to put together a promo on local Tamil radios - this clip would help a lot.

Thanks.

multinamatheyan

12th July 2005, 06:59 PM

tmmrmt

I'm in Toronto. I am willing to explore this festival further. Anyone else?

njv

12th July 2005, 07:48 PM

njv - did you check your email today ?
yes. I will take care of that tomorrow (since i didnt have anything on my hand in the morning)

vik_great

12th July 2005, 08:15 PM

Can anyone give an update of the overall sales of TIS?

sats

12th July 2005, 08:27 PM

After listening to TIS multiple times, first it was the music that caught my attention.But now iam enjoying the tamil more than the music. Am i the only one feeling like this ?

emjay

12th July 2005, 09:01 PM

I am sure you are not the only person to feel so. I do not know to write/read Tamil. However, this album has induced an urge in me to understand Tamil literature.

IR rocks :thumbsup:

app_engine

12th July 2005, 11:52 PM

http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=4745781897

This link comes on top if you google for Thiruvasagam:-) Good marketing by some enthusiast (or businessman)...

baroque

13th July 2005, 12:08 AM

njv, Yesterday i saw a posting from you addressing me, ippo kaanum, anyway...
I ordered my cd at tis-usa. I left a message to Dr.Shankar this weekend, we have sent an email yesterday also. pakkalam wait panni... love, vinatha.

njv

13th July 2005, 12:36 AM

http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=4745781897

This link comes on top if you google for Thiruvasagam:-) Good marketing by some enthusiast (or businessman)...
i was worried when i saw it in Ebay cuz lot of ppl are trying to burn CD and sell online, but this one is no worry. He is a CRAZY IR fan

Look at this guy's URL

http://www.audioscrobbler.com/user/harishv79

and his blog

http://debauchari.blogspot.com

baroque

I purposely deleted (for identity reasons), but glad that u read before I deleted the post.

Vijayr

did you received ur cd?

Thanks
njv

baroque

13th July 2005, 12:51 AM

njv, yenna identity reason? I want my cd soon, thats all I care now. Please Dr.shankar, can you call me back?? A friend brought tons of cds from India this week for me, I wanted to support tis-usa in dollars thats why i ordered here. Frustrating... Vinatha.

vijayr

13th July 2005, 01:33 AM

njv, received it, thanks. Are you connected to dvdunlimited? I got a mail from them in my yahoo inbox right after you asked me here 2 days back and I replied back.

baroque

13th July 2005, 01:50 AM

app_engine

13th July 2005, 02:04 AM

OK, oru pAmaraththanamAna kELvi:

web'il AhA, OhO endRu pugazhkiRArkaL, magizhchi...
pathrikaikaL pArAttukindRana, nandRu...
kuRundhakadu viRpanai amOham, miha nandRu...

kuppan-suppan enna ninaikkiRAn? People from TN please post whether this is being played in tea-shops (or village temples), buses , functions / festivals...appO thAn sir adhu prabalam endRu solla mudiyum...please report without any Raja bias...and what about AIR & other FM stations? Do they allocate some time for broadcasting this? (As there are no visuals, we can't expect much publicity with TV channles, however, are they featuring at least in some `news' kind of programs?)...

mrangan

13th July 2005, 02:21 AM

baroque,

Enjoy maadi :-)

- Murali

TISK

13th July 2005, 02:36 AM

appaadaa!
If 'Borouque' is happy, then everyone is!
yevvaLavu periya pEru adhu?! yenna maadhiri aaLu!
avangaLE jolly-aayittaangannaa...... TbI nichchayam success thaan!!
Enjoy!
YIA

thops

13th July 2005, 02:52 AM

baroque...did you order through DVDunlimited or TiS-USA ??

njv

13th July 2005, 03:55 AM

njv, received it, thanks. Are you connected to dvdunlimited? I got a mail from them in my yahoo inbox right after you asked me here 2 days back and I replied back.
I volunteered for TIS activity. You probably dont know, but I only called you on Saturday morning (wake up call) and asked you abt ur CC. Anyways, if you got the CD I am happy.

njv

13th July 2005, 03:58 AM

njv, I got my cd!! :D Thanks for putting up with my polambals!!! :wink: :lol: I saw the cover with From, Dr. V. Sankar kumar etc... appadiye jollyaa pochu!! What a beautiful person!! thanks thanks thanks
Great. Yes, indeed Dr Shankar is a great person. For what he has done to TIS. There are other people also that we need to recall here, Mr Ananth with whom IR stayed during his trip to NJ and who also helped TIS folks get legal copyright with in USA (happened couple of weeks before, so they can sue the folks who release MP3/bring indian version of the CD) and also Mr Sridhar, who started this thread. I couldnt meet Sridhar so far, but that will happen very soon.

Interestingly I met Dr Shankar a year back, but probably didnt know him. He was with IR eating in a restaurant and I was waiting (thavam!) outside the restaurant to talk to IR, since I dont want to disturb him while he is eating. I would love to meet with all of you. Hopefully when IR comes here next time, we can arrange for a get-together.

tmrrmt

13th July 2005, 02:12 PM

http://www.nytimes.com/2005/07/12/health/psychology/12musi.html

An extremely interesting and relevant article - I wonder how many of us hallucinate music ? or do great composers like IR, actually hallucinate music and then pen them down ?

If so, then hallucinating music is a welcome sign ?!

jaiganes

13th July 2005, 03:04 PM

hey tmrrmt!
The link says need to be a member to read it.
nyways, I think that music has a great power to work on emotions. I once went to a performance by Sudha Raghunadhan in Hyderabad. I was awake only for the first 30 minutes or so. After that I dont know what happned. I woke up after 30 mins when she was singing annamayya's "Brahmamokade". Before listening to the music I was in a keen mood, however her singing was so soothing that I forgot myself in a trance. Nowadays Bombay Jayshree's voice and Ilayaraja's Nothing But wind have the same effect. Thiruvasagam has an entirely different effect on me. It is very difficult to lose your hearing sensation after a while, then it begins to feel that there is only the music and me in this dark but peaceful world. This, when I am listening to it from my computer speakers in office. The effect is manifold when hearing to it at home. However if the Doctor is gonna say that it is hallucinating, I would call it sonic induced self hypnosis or in short, spell of sweet music by the music charmer called Ilaiyaraaja.
Regards,

tmrrmt

13th July 2005, 03:20 PM

Neuron Network Goes Awry, and Brain Becomes an IPod
By CARL ZIMMER

Published: July 12, 2005

Seven years ago Reginald King was lying in a hospital bed recovering from bypass surgery when he first heard the music.

It began with a pop tune, and others followed. Mr.King heard everything from cabaret songs to Christmas carols. "I asked the nurses if they could hear the music, and they said no," said Mr. King, a retired sales manager in Cardiff, Wales.

"I got so frustrated," he said. "They didn't know what I was talking about and said it must be something wrong with my head. And it's been like that ever since."

Each day, the music returns. "They're all songs I've heard during my lifetime," said Mr. King, 83. "One would come on, and then it would run into another one, and that's how it goes on in my head. It's driving me bonkers, to be quite honest."

Last year, Mr. King was referred to Dr. Victor Aziz, a psychiatrist at St. Cadoc's Hospital in Wales. Dr. Aziz explained to him that there was a name for his experience: musical hallucinations.

Dr. Aziz belongs to a small circle of psychiatrists and neurologists who are investigating this condition. They suspect that the hallucinations experienced by Mr. King and others are a result of malfunctioning brain networks that normally allow us to perceive music.

They also suspect that many cases of musical hallucinations go undiagnosed.

"You just need to look for it," Dr. Aziz said. And based on his studies of the hallucinations, he suspects that in the next few decades, they will be far more common.

Musical hallucinations were invading people's minds long before they were recognized as a medical condition. "Plenty of musical composers have had musical hallucinations," Dr. Aziz said.

Toward the end of his life, for instance, Robert Schumann wrote down the music he hallucinated; legend has it that he said he was taking dictation from Schubert's ghost.

While doctors have known about musical hallucinations for over a century, they have rarely studied it systematically. That has changed in recent years. In the July issue of the journal Psychopathology, Dr. Aziz and his colleague Dr. Nick Warner will publish an analysis of 30 cases of musical hallucination they have seen over 15 years in South Wales. It is the largest case-series ever published for musical hallucinations.

"We were trying to collect as much information about their day-to-day lives as we could," Dr. Aziz said. "We were asking a lot of the questions that weren't answered in previous research. What do they hear, for example? Is it nearby or is it at a long distance?"

Dr. Aziz and Dr. Warner found that in two-thirds of the cases, musical hallucinations were the only mental disturbance experienced by the patients. A third were deaf or hard of hearing. Women tended to suffer musical hallucinations more than men, and the average patient was 78 years old.

Mr. King's experience was typical for people experiencing musical hallucinations. Patients reported hearing a wide variety of songs, among them "Don't Cry for Me Argentina" and "Three Blind Mice."

In two-thirds of the cases, the music was religious; six people reporting hearing the hymn "Abide With Me."

Dr. Aziz believes that people tend to hear songs they have heard repeatedly or that are emotionally significant to them. "There is a meaning behind these things," he said.

His study also shows that these hallucinations are different from the auditory hallucinations of people with schizophrenia. Such people often hear inner voices. Patients like Mr. King hear only music.

The results support recent work by neuroscientists indicating that our brains use special networks of neurons to perceive music. When sounds first enter the brain, they activate a region near the ears called the primary auditory cortex that starts processing sounds at their most basic level. The auditory cortex then passes on signals of its own to other regions, which can recognize more complex features of music, like rhythm, key changes and melody.

Neuroscientists have been able to identify some of these regions with brain scans, and to compare the way people respond to musical and nonmusical sounds.

The New York Times Online Edition

tmrrmt

13th July 2005, 03:22 PM

Only a handful of brain scans have been made of people with musical hallucinations. Dr. Tim Griffiths, a neurologist at the University of Newcastle Upon Tyne in England, performed one of these studies on six elderly patients who developed musical hallucinations after becoming partly deaf.

Dr. Griffiths used a scanning technique known as PET, which involves injecting radioactive markers into the bloodstream. Each time he scanned his subjects' brains, he asked them whether they had experienced musical hallucinations. If they had, he asked them to rate the intensity on a scale from one to seven.

Dr. Griffiths discovered a network of regions in the brain that became more active as the hallucinations became more intense. "What strikes me is that you see a very similar pattern in normal people who are listening to music," he said.

The main difference is that musical hallucinations don't activate the primary auditory cortex, the first stop for sound in the brain. When Dr. Griffith's subjects hallucinated, they used only the parts of the brain that are responsible for turning simple sounds into complex music.

These music-processing regions may be continually looking for signals in the brain that they can interpret, Dr. Griffiths suggested. When no sound is coming from the ears, the brain may still generate occasional, random impulses that the music-processing regions interpret as sound. They then try to match these impulses to memories of music, turning a few notes into a familiar melody.

For most people, these spontaneous signals may produce nothing more than a song that is hard to get out of the head. But the constant stream of information coming in from the ears suppresses the false music.

Dr. Griffith proposes that deafness cuts off this information stream. And in a few deaf people the music-seeking circuits go into overdrive. They hear music all the time, and not just the vague murmurs of a stuck tune. It becomes as real as any normal perception.

"What we're seeing is an amplification of a normal mechanism that's in everyone," Dr. Griffiths said.

It is also possible for people who are not deaf to experience musical hallucinations. Epileptic seizures, certain medications and Lyme disease are a few of the factors that may set them off.

Dr. Aziz also noted that two-thirds of his subjects were living alone, and thus were not getting much stimulation. One patient experienced fewer musical hallucinations when Dr. Aziz had her put in a nursing home, he said, "because then she was talking to people, she was active."

There is no standard procedure for treating musical hallucinations. Some doctors try antipsychotic drugs, and some use cognitive behavioral therapy to help patients understand what's going on in their brains. "Sometimes simple things can be the cure," Dr. Aziz said. "Turning on the radio may be more important than giving medication."

Despite these treatments, many people with musical hallucinations find little relief. "I'm just living with it," Mr. King said. "I wish there was something I could do.

"I do silly things like talking to myself, hoping that when I stop talking, the tune will stop. But it doesn't work that way."

More studies may help researchers find new treatments. Prof. Diana Deutsch, a psychologist at the University of California, San Diego, is planning a new scanning study of musical hallucination on people who are not deaf, using functional M.R.I. Unlike the PET scanning used by Dr. Griffiths, functional M.R.I. is powerful enough to catch second-by-second changes in brain activity.

"It might be awhile before we have results, but it's certainly something I'm very excited about," Dr. Deutsch said. "We'll see where it takes us."

Dr. Aziz also believes that it is necessary to get a better sense of how many people hear musical hallucinations. Like Mr. King, many people have had their experiences dismissed by doctors.

Dr. Aziz said that ever since he began presenting his results at medical conferences last year, a growing number of patients have been referred to him.

"In 15 years I got 30 patients," he said, "and in less than a year I've had 5. It just tells you people are more aware of it."

Dr. Aziz suspects that musical hallucinations will become more common in the future. People today are awash in music from radios, televisions, elevators and supermarkets. It is possible that the pervasiveness of music may lead to more hallucinations. The types of hallucinations may also change as people experience different kinds of songs.

"We have speculated that people will hear more pop and classical music than they do now," said Dr. Aziz. "I hope I live long enough to find out myself in 20 years' time."

tmrrmt

13th July 2005, 03:23 PM

I have posted the entire article, since you need to register with NY Times (which is free!)

jaiganes

13th July 2005, 03:45 PM

Thanks tmrrmt!
I am a subscriber, but i forgot the password! he he he he!
However after reading this I m happy that I am not a patient!
Having said that, it is better to suffer from Musical Hallucinations of IR songs!! ;-) :wink:

tmrrmt

13th July 2005, 04:47 PM

where can one get TiS in UK ? please guide

TISK

13th July 2005, 07:18 PM

Contact sundardhana@aol.com in UK for TbI
Thanks.
YIA!

app_engine

13th July 2005, 08:33 PM

[tscii:286e8ff214]Srikanth defending TiS in Dhool forum where there are some criticisms like `this doesn't have rich orchestration like a typical symphony' and `Raja sings off-key at many places - should've used other singers' etc.

Please read on as this is kind of educating:

//quote//
---------------------------------------------
Thiruvasagam is a massive subject and Western Classical /Oratorio is another massive subject. The composer who tries to merge both the subjects is expected to know at least 80% of both the subjects. I need not vouch for Ilayaraja’s knowledge in both the areas.

In order to review such works the reviewer should have considerable knowledge on both the subjects. I have not come across anyone yet who knows the grammar of an Oratorio and Thiruvasagam together. What I mean is the reviewer’s knowledge should be more than what “Google” search offers. I feel this is essential in order to understand this genre of music.

In the world of Amateur reviewers and Bloggers, I see this. Play the CD and listen to all 6 tracks and start writing a review, “song-A” has mesmerizing counter points all over the track. I bet from the technical side, only a minority would really know about a counter point. There will be just a handful who really understands counter points placed between Thiruvasagam verses.

The next comment, The pitch and landing problems during the rendering. “Many have commented verses are off key in few places and bothering”, I find this to be totally superficial. This is what Ilayaraja has been singing in the movies. This is a known fact that he goes off-key on various occasions in film songs. Nothing new, we need to remember this is not a song, This is a verse so I really do not know if this would fit into the grammar of Carnatic music while rendering.
Yes! I hear "Picth is important in any kind of music" Frankly, this issue does not write off the entire effort. If you don’t agree with me, you should be ready to write of all the songs sung by him in the past.

Crossover or not? How many really know what crossover is all about? Or I would rephrase, what is crossover music? From what little I know - If you remove the lead vocals, this would be a top class western classical work and if you remove the backgrounds scores this would be a Thiruvasagam rendering. Nothing would change; The scores blends well in most “points” when mixed, frankly the blending and negotiations seemed seamless in most places. Why does it blend? Harmonies, Harmonies blend both the forms perfectly and in fact I was amazed to find we can do such things in harmony construction. When a new genre is born there would be confusion that could draw criticism due to lack of knowledge.

Tamilians have been exposed to Ilayaraja’s style of western classical arrangement for 2 decades now. Hence most would not hesitate to second-guess or compare musical parts from his earlier movie tracks. This just shows the enormous following Raja has in film music genre. But think about a westerner who has not heard his work before, he/she would find it unique and talk about this, after all this can encourage more composers to work on this new genre.

Considering all these factors, as I mentioned my Blog http://srikanthd.blogspot.com earlier, Thiruvasagam Oratorio by Illayaraja should NOT be reviewed or compared with any kind of film music. This is different and this needs proper mood to listen. The finer points in music needs to be understood as a whole package, this takes time, time in the sense a calendar not a stopwatch. Bottom line as a whole package - this effort is unique and an experiment that will open a new genre for composers. , a good start.

The only issue I can question at this point of time is producers missing out or ignoring NRI contributions. When corporate sponsors deserves logo for their contributions, I feel NRI deserves an acknowledgement. Most NRI’s in USA know that Mr. Shankar Kumar, Mr.Sridhar Seetharaman and their team of IR fans worked hard to get the funds. Please remember that many contributed from their personal savings just for the passion they have for IR’s music. I like to ask Rev. Jegath, why NRI contributions were never mentioned anywhere?

Cheers.
_________________
Sriks
------------------------------------------------------------
//unquote//

[/tscii:286e8ff214]

njv

13th July 2005, 08:50 PM

app_engine

I dont know if Dr Shankar Kumar or Sridhar Seetharaman is really looking for their name in the back of the cover. It is a team work and they put "TIS-USA" in the back of the cover. I think itis more than enough. What would have been upset for them is to get a song that doesnt meet the expectatino and in that aspect I am sure all who contributed are "more than" happy.

I AM 100% SURE THAT Dr Shankar, Sridhar Seetharama, Ananth Govind and many others who contributed to this are directly or indirectly in maestro's hear/mind. That itself is enough. To my even if I talk to these great people, I get the feeling that I talk to Maestro. Such a diving feeling that you get when you talk to these people. So in a way, they are all "gifted" to have contributed to this task. I joined much later to this effort so I really am missing the finer opportunities, but nevertheless, I will do whatever I can from my contribution for both TIS and any other project that IR comes with (not only IR, but in general any such historical effort, after all it is what Fr Jegath wanted to do, but he wanted to hit big in his first attempt, so IR, so TIS!)

In one way these blogs do popularize the album. So i am happy that people are talking about these.

NormalMan

13th July 2005, 09:04 PM

[tscii:796f408614]

Most NRI’s in USA know that Mr. Shankar Kumar, Mr.Sridhar Seetharaman and their team of IR fans worked hard to get the funds. Please remember that many contributed from their personal savings just for the passion they have for IR’s music. I like to ask Rev. Jegath, why NRI contributions were never mentioned anywhere?

Very apt !! Never once did I hear, read or see these hard working guys being mentioned for their extra-ordinary & ginormous efforts. Atleast they should have been honored during the release in Madras. All it would have taken is 2 minutes. [/tscii:796f408614]

multinamatheyan

13th July 2005, 10:57 PM

multinamatheyan

13th July 2005, 10:58 PM

Normal Man,

when TISK et al are quite happy with the 'recognition' 'reward' they received, why are you bothered by the lack of it?

All these talk of lack of recognition seems to go counter to the spirit of the project.

As njv said, the album says TiS-USA. what more is needed? The individual names of all the NRIs? If so how about me and other Eelam Tamils who contributed? Create another category for NREs?

All this talk is 'sinna thanam' nothing more.

NOM

multinamatheyan

13th July 2005, 10:59 PM

Besides where do you see Fr. Jegath's face or name on the cover?

app_engine

13th July 2005, 11:10 PM

[tscii:61697d56dd]"Crossover or not? How many really know what crossover is all about? Or I would rephrase, what is crossover music? From what little I know - If you remove the lead vocals, this would be a top class western classical work and if you remove the backgrounds scores this would be a Thiruvasagam rendering. Nothing would change; The scores blends well in most “points” when mixed, frankly the blending and negotiations seemed seamless in most places. Why does it blend? Harmonies, Harmonies blend both the forms perfectly and in fact I was amazed to find we can do such things in harmony construction."

That's the best part I liked in Srikanth's posting...That's the unique strength of Raja - to provide high class classicals of east & west together and still maintain them in the possible pure form...and they'll blend so harmoniously together...[/tscii:61697d56dd]

NormalMan

13th July 2005, 11:24 PM

[tscii:778dc903ee]multinamatheyan --> definitelty not sinathamam to me considering the fact how much of energy (time + money + insults ) these guys (esp. Dr and Sridhar) had to spend and face. Dude these guys will not ask or shout for recognition. It has to be given to them. I'm not asking to put their names on the CD covers. All I would have expected is during the release, calling these 2 on the stage and recognizing them. It would not have taken more than 2 mins.

Wait before you jump to conclusions. I'm not de-riding the spirit of the album and its aftermath. I'm a firm believer of the fact that "recognition at the right time, at the right place, in the right way". As time goes by the efforts of these guys will go away from the record. Give me one clipping from the press, where these guys names have been mentioned? Just a lot of aathangam …. Nothing more …. Nothing less.[/tscii:778dc903ee]

Sanjeevi

13th July 2005, 11:56 PM

:clap: :thumbsup:

"Thiruvasagam" thread is the hottest thread, now.

It beats the previous hottest thread by no. of views

"Chandramuki vs Mumbai Express"

Thiruvasagam : 37776 views
CM vs MX : 37367 views

:clap: :thumbsup:

This is the power of IR and IR fans
:lol:

multinamatheyan

14th July 2005, 12:03 AM

Normal Man,

I agree with you regarding the effort put in by TISK et al. I have the utmost respect for them in that regard.

As far as calling them on the stage, I believe Dr. Sankar Kumar was in USA while the release function was in Chennai. When the release was held in USA, Dr. et al was on stage with Fr. et al.

I think TISK should clear the air about all thse accusations. I feel it is being directed at Fr. Jegath and it leaves a bad taste in the mouth.

mrangan

14th July 2005, 12:03 AM

Some of us who had ordered the special edition package did not receive the DVD since they went out of stock. There was a message in the package that the DVD would be sent out on July 8th. I was wondering if there is any update on this.

Thank you,
Murali

njv

14th July 2005, 12:06 AM

Wait before you jump to conclusions.
All right guys... no is doing anything to spoil TIS. Normal man want them to be on stage and it is a valid thing. They did that in Dallas function. I believe Dr Shankar was on the stage and was driving the show. As far as Sridhar goes, I think he is trying to be behind the stage for whatever reason. He is the one who started the whole thread and now he is quite. I will ask him to join us again. Since there was no official release near NJ, he is not on the spotlight, but nevertheless we WILL have a grand success function in NJ soon and he will the man of the match!

app_engine

14th July 2005, 12:58 AM

http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/detail/-/B000A7QCBO/qid=1121215719/sr=8-2/ref=sr_8_xs_ap_i1_xgl15/102-6421640-2279320?v=glance&s=music&n=507846

e-bay mattumalla, amazon.com'ilum namma debauchari uLLAr...Hindu'il search paNNumbOthu, idhu dhAn top'pil varudhungO...

emjay

14th July 2005, 01:07 AM

Lot of people's will, help, interest and enthusiasm is behind the success of this project. I agree with NormalMan that recognition does motivate one unless we are above those feelings. Lot of things have gone wrong in this project and done unprofessionally.

Having said that, it is quite easy to point mistakes from being outside the circle. The organizers might have had their issues as well. Let us keep all the bitter feelings aside and learn from this project. Discussing those IS OF COURSE in the interest of future projects provided everyone takes in the right spirit. Moving forward, we can make sure that such things do not recur.

TISK

14th July 2005, 02:09 AM

I want to thank each and everyone who have expressed their views in this matter of 'being on the stage'.

Fr. Jegath has always been very understanding to our cause and has not failed to recognize us at every stage to his ability and I was given the center stage in Dallas at FeTNA conference along with Mr. Socrates and Mr. Paul Pandian and similarly he has not failed to recognize TiS USA at every function he spoke. As noted, Venkat Bala was honored in Boston.
TiSUSA has been mentioned in the backcover of the CD box in the US editions.
We did this for our love for Tamil, TiS, IIR but finally ended up doing for the sincerity of Fr! That's the truth. And we are happy with what we did.
Thanks and let us end it here.
Thanks again to you all!
YIA!!

Cacaphonix

14th July 2005, 03:21 AM

aah...adhu Eppidi TISK?

Neenga ungaLukku mattum sonneenga. What about Sridhar? Until he comes and join us we will continue :)

summa ulalaakkaachikki :D

TISK

14th July 2005, 04:28 AM

Please leave Sridhar alone!
But for him, i wouldn't have been here.
He started this and probably will end this once we finish all those unfinished tasks!
He is a great soul and give him his peace!
YIA!!
Yes... yellaam iraivan aruL!

p.s. 'pEsaama indha CD-kku YIA-nnu pEru vechchirukkalaam!!'

njv

14th July 2005, 04:43 AM

TISK

YIAnna Yellaam Iraivan Arulnnu iththananaal theriyala. Edho neenga konjam kushiyaagi rajni stylela YIA sonneengannu nenechchaen.

LOL

Cacaphonix

14th July 2005, 04:58 AM

But for him, i wouldn't have been here.

TISK,

Indha sentence edho avara pugazhuradhukku sonna maadhiri theriyalayE ;). Does Sridhar know about this statement? Idha padikkaradhukkaavadhu avar indha thread-kku vandhu engaLOda sandaiyila kalandhukkanum :D

Neenga sonna naanga vitturuvOmaa, verum vaaikki aval kidachchirukku, naanga mellaama iruppOmaa.

NNN (Narayana Narayana Narayana)

tmrrmt

14th July 2005, 01:53 PM

Guys - can anyone staying in New York get hold of the contact details of the following music critic/reviewer ? :

Mr.ALLAN KOZINN, who is a bigtime classical music reviewer

tmrrmt

14th July 2005, 03:17 PM

My take on the fourth piece sung by IR - leaving aside the 20 minutes of transcendental magic, which is the second piece, I think, this piece carries with heavy emotions - while he starts the song in a high pitch, the link between the initial singing and the vocal + string chorus that follows is something like linking astronomy with biology!

I think conceptually, IR first composed for the verses of this fourth piece and then composed the vocal orchestral piece and then linked the two! but only a supreme genius can do such linkings! I don't know if others also felt this way

crvenky

14th July 2005, 11:49 PM

tmrrmt, I think you are referring to Umbarkatkarasaey only. Its the most under-appreciated song in the album, but very heavily emotional. Be it the Hamsanandhi stanza (4th?) and then the motherly paal ninaidhottum and then the awesome chorus before the climax para. The other theme chorus after the 1st stanza is also haunting, which is repeated 2 or 3 times.

multinamatheyan

15th July 2005, 01:44 AM

tmrrmt

Please check your PM.

Thanks

tmrrmt

15th July 2005, 10:17 AM

multinamatheyan - just check your mail

karthik_sa2

15th July 2005, 01:56 PM

I WAS actually there on the innaugaral function of thiruvasagam in symphony oratorio.i was kinda stunned when i heard the opening song.it was terrific.esspecially some ofd the chorus works and violins.it was really grand.again raja has proved tyhat he is a musical genious and lets see if people can atleast now realise it.also kudos to jegath casper who produced it.think the album is already doing great.lets encourage raja to give us more such works by making this album a sucess.can anybody tell me where was spb on the innaugral function?y he didnt attend the function?was he not invited?

tmrrmt

15th July 2005, 06:04 PM

[tscii:1cadcd5e7b]HEre is the feedback I received from hardcore WCM listeners after I posted about TiS in a music discussion forum on the web

-------------------------------------------------------------
"I thought I'd see if I could find a free listen to your music somewhere. Here's the link, for everyone to enjoy:

http://www.raaja.com/index2.html

Click on all 6 links under the title "Thiruvasagam" for minute-long excerpts. You'll find the music to be a little like Ravi Shankar's Concerto for Sitar and Orchestra, except a little more minimalist. Then there's the inclusion of one of those earnest-sounding Broadway blockbuster voices in the second track. That's irritating.

My favorite part of the webpage is this gem:

The Raaja FAN CLUB

• "The (innumerable) fans, their sites and clubs should come under one umbrella" -- Ilaiyaraaja [the composer]. Click here to make his wish a reality.

Anyway, sorry, this kind of crossover ain't my type of music.

Now, Ilaiyaraaja meets Stockhausen --THAT'S my kind of crossover...
---------------------------------------------------------------

What do you guys think ?[/tscii:1cadcd5e7b]

Shankar

15th July 2005, 06:31 PM

I am not sure how much importance you can give these guys...be it a positive/negative review, we should give some weightage based on the credentials of the guy who's reviewing it.

Shankar

15th July 2005, 06:49 PM

Does anyone know the contact details of Zubin Mehta (famous conductor of the Israeli Philharmoic Orchestra) ? the intent is to send a copy of TbI for him to review.

njv

15th July 2005, 06:54 PM

Yesterday someone said that even "New" songs are better than TIS. I just dont know how to react to these kind of comments. So my take is ignore all these review. If you like it, enjoy it.

TIS_AUSTIN

15th July 2005, 07:28 PM

Shankar/njv,

Just ignore these guys.....IR couldn't have said it better.....

"EDHU KUPPAINNU KOZHIYA PORUTHU IRKKU......" :lol:
Cheers
Bala.

emjay

15th July 2005, 08:48 PM

njv,

Best way to react to such comments is JUST NOT TO REACT. For one to hear, enjoy and feel TiS, one should be gifted and should have some musical knowledge and sense!

Let us move on, thanking God for giving us that sense.

-MJ

Kupps

15th July 2005, 09:32 PM

vElila pOra Onaana vEtila vitta maadhiri irukku.

We got a negative feedback and we are now saying that we need to ignore. Lets set our priorities straight. One of us has requested for a Hardcore WCM person to review. I am not sure how much they would expect a this kind of classical crossover. Those Hardcore WCM/reviewers probably would have listed to crossovers of different nature, what we have exposed them is an entirely, drastically different crossover (rather I would term it as meeting/rendezvous of classical forms and presentations). We are bound to get such negative reviews only. When our own hard core devotional songs listener would find it difficult to accept this kind of presentation, then think about them. In my humble opinion this album would never get a great review from any hardcore fans/reviewers of one classical form or other at present.

As srikanth said its different form of music.

People of different ears would tune themselves to appreciate such a kind of music only when we have a substantial number of such albums released and a majority of them are great. Once people accept that then they may come to the past and would be able to accept/appreciate and even rave about TiS. We all know that TiS is perhaps the first of its kind that tried to reach a wider audience.

Let me end with this note:
We are like "kuraLi viththai kaaran" we ought to pick the "Onaan" of fence and allow it to crawl on us. It might be difficult for us in the initial stages after that we would get used to it and even the Onaan would appreciate the better medium for crawling than the fence :)

NOM. AIMHO.

vijayr

15th July 2005, 09:52 PM

tmrrmt, if you are going to ask for reviews you need to provide full samples man, not 1-minute clips. And I believe the right kind of person to review this would be someone of (South)Indian origin who has knowledge of both ICM/WCM and preferably some Tamil knowledge as well. Someone like say V.S. Narasimhan(or other members of the Madras String quartet) would be able to do some kind of justice, atleast to the musical portions if not the literary aspects. For the westerners the tunes would sound quite weird.

app_engine

15th July 2005, 10:15 PM

Appreciation of any novel attempt requires `OPEN' mind, which is quite rare in the world. (Many claim to have that but not in reality, including most of us...I claim to enjoy food items from varied countries but can never give lasagna or pizza the same marks as rice with murungakkAi sAmbar + kizhangu masAl + elumichchai ooRugAi...and definitely will take time to enjoy pizza immersed in sambAr, even if it is from annapoornA Gowri shankar):-)

This `crossover' attempt to orchestrate for ancient Thamizh literature is entirely new and the best capable living person has started that! It needs to be really pushed to the masses (also through media like broadcast/ telecast and other casts and not just through sale of the album)...and they will develop a taste in due course...which will encourage more such works to come up in the future, thus making more people to show interest in the literature. I'm 100% sure more people have talked about the book in the last one month than I've ever seen in the last 30 years or so...

Remember Raja raised the standards of an AVERAGE movie song listener (to look for ragAs, interludes, instrumental part etc.) which took a while. It didn't happen with annakkiLi but gradually by the time he was doing sigappu rOjAkkaL, nizhalgaL and nenjaththai kiLLAthE...Similarly, TiS should be considered as a beginning for many more great things to come...What about ThirukkuRaL next? (Probably among the least religious ancient works with high morals...)

I read somewhere that Bharadwaj is inspired to do similar work for another literature...as more people jump in, there'll be more sponsors / listeners, which I feel is good for Thamizh...mellaththamizhini malarum:-)

emjay

16th July 2005, 01:52 AM

Here are some reviews @ amazon.com:

http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/customer-reviews/B000A7QCBO/ref=cm_rev_all_1/102-2269831-4239310?%5Fencoding=UTF8&s=music

teja

16th July 2005, 05:37 AM

Nice article on IR and TIS...
http://www.eenadu.net/ncineshow.asp?qry=cinefront1

Maestro says "Now a days, those 30 second ad jingles sound better than film songs..."

TIS_AUSTIN

16th July 2005, 05:53 AM

"Evvaraina ikkada eenadu article'ni TRANSLATE chesi chepputhara??"

Can any telugu folks translate the eenadu article and post it??

Thanks

baroque

16th July 2005, 07:13 AM

My tribute to Raaja!!! kettachu, amazing, fantastic!!!

Dear Shri. Ilayaraaja,
"Thiruvasagam by Ilayaraaja" held me in a state of
enchantment , what a magic spell!!! Shri.Ilayaraaja
becomes one with the music!! The Great composer
Ilayaraaja indeed has given a world class
music!!!(ofcourse romba naalavey koduthundudhaan
yerukka!! from 'chinna kannan azhaikiran...' to
Guru,Avatharam ... the list is endless!!!). Singer
Ilayaraaja's singing induces a great emotive feeling.
The artists zest is in volumes!!! Thanks Raaja!!
Love, Vinu.

tmrrmt

16th July 2005, 09:05 AM

Dear all - let me put things straight - I wanted just logged on to the one of many classical discussion fora on the web, and gave an intro to TiS and someone responded - after my rejoinder to his response, the same someone is now intrigued and is beginning to listen to IR's other samples

That was not a review he gave, only a response after listening to the one minute (or lesser than that) clips from the Raajangahm site

The whole attempt was to see how ears tuned to hard core WCM would react to this unique album!

For reviews, attempts are being made to contact big time reviewers

tmrrmt

16th July 2005, 09:10 AM

Pls read "I wanted just logged on to" as "I just logged on to"

tmrrmt

16th July 2005, 09:21 AM

Here is the responder's reply to my rejoinder:

--------------------------------------------------------------
And I do remember that the Indian-style singing seemed sensitively done, with subtle restraint. Give me an idea, please, of about how much, percentage-wise, the Thiruvasakam CD is composed of that Western Broadway singing in English. If it's just a moment or two, I can probably handle it. If it's substantial, I'll probably pass. And yes, I can go back and listen to more of the composer's music.
-----------------------------------------------------------------

SO you see, NEVER-SAY-DIE and you will get your share of the PIE!

tmrrmt

16th July 2005, 04:14 PM

Guys - I have a very important suggestion to make - let us make a list of major important Symphony Orchestras and see which of these are located in your place of stay - then can we see if a copy of TiS is personally handed over to the music director/conductor of each of these orchestras by the concerned TFM-DFer ?

Thanks

njv

16th July 2005, 06:54 PM

tmrrmt

i have been thinking about it. Let me first see if we can go to these places and atleast give the CD to them (not to the office folks but to composer). There are plenty of musical shows (speically symphony) happening in Lincon center here.

I also send some samples to few oratorio societies based on their request. I hope they get back to us with some review.

Apart from us few more people has to get involved
1. wellgate to start the nomination process for grammy or other awards and present themselves in trade shows
2. Tamilmaiyam - they can also do 1
3. IR - he need to be involved and he sure can reach lot of these folks easily than us.

tmrrmt

17th July 2005, 11:26 AM

Kupps and TISK - relax - no hard feelings at all! I was only sharing this news with everyone - cheers! btw, that responded is bidding for TiS on ebay - if not, he is going to order it from TiS website! now, that is something to cheer about

cheers!

krish244

17th July 2005, 11:02 PM

Found this link about TIS on FRONTLINE:

http://www.frontlineonnet.com/fl2215/stories/20050729004110200.htm

Krishnan

NOV

18th July 2005, 08:32 AM

[tscii:0a5c09b705]http://www.thestar.com.my/news/story.asp?file=/2005/7/18/central/11500293&sec=central

Hundreds get their hands on collector’s item

By BAVANI M
Photo by SAM THAM

HUNDREDS of people turned up at Wisma Peladang in Petaling Jaya yesterday for the launch of an audio CD collection that featured symphonic renditions of the ancient Thiruvasakam, a collection of Tamil devotional hymns dedicated to the Hindu God Shiva.

Renowned Indian composer Dr Ilaiyaraaja composed and orchestrated the songs.

Called Thiruvasakam by Ilaiyaraaja: A Classical Crossover, the collection features the Budapest Symphony Orchestra, comprising 260 musicians and 130 singers.

The visitors were mostly die-hard fans of Dr Ilaiyaraaja and came to get copies of the collector’s item.

Usha Rani said the collection, which comes with a audio CD, VCD and a booklet with lyrics that were hand written by Ilaiyaraaja, was “a must-have” for all fans of the composer.

“It’s exciting, interesting and unique,” she said. “Everyone must own a copy if it.”

A spokesman from Agi Music, the CD’s distributor in Malaysia and Singapore, said musicians from three countries were involved in the collection’s making.

“Apart from Ilaiyaraaja, Hungarian conductor Lazslo Kovacs, New York-based songwriter Stephen Schwartz and sound engineer Richard King were involved in the project.”

Ilaiyaaraja has scored music for over 4,000 film songs in a career that spans three decades.

Thiruvasakam was written by a ninth century Tamil poet Saint Manickavasakar.

G. U. Hope, an Englishman, translated it into English in the 19th century.

Thiruvasakam by Ilaiyaraaja is a unique attempt to present select verses from this work in the oratorio musical form, synthesising ideas from both the Indian and Western classical traditions.

The collection is available at all major Indian music stores and is retailing at RM35 a copy.

CDs sold during the launch will be channelled towards religious, social and humanitarian services carried out by the Malaysia Hindu Sangam.

For details, call 03-4041 4667/4669.

[/tscii:0a5c09b705]

Shankar

18th July 2005, 02:45 PM

Review of TbI in Indiaglitz...
http://www.indiaglitz.com/channels/tamil/albumreview/3004.html

tmrrmt

18th July 2005, 03:28 PM

Shankar and others the review in Indiaglitz is the first genuinely balanced review written on this album - hats off to Indiaglitz!!

njv

18th July 2005, 06:41 PM

TIS will be played in Bridgewater Temple (NJ, USA) on Monday evening (thats the "timeslot" they have for Lord shiva!!!!).

One of the priest who listened to it says "Its a must to have for temples". He rated this product very high from "religious" perspective and he was very impressed with the first song.

Efforts are on the way to play TIS in temples around NY/NJ area.

njv

18th July 2005, 06:46 PM

Also, I will post the review by Ashok Shukla, sound engineer. Ashok Shukla was a sound engineer for lot of well known movies and he worked in few Tamil movies as well. His first tamil movie was "Oomai Vizhigal".

You can find his work at

http://www.imdb.com/name/nm1107742/

Mr Ashok Shukla is a great fan of IR. He said he is going to review the album only from orchestraization (spelled right?) perspective. After 1st week when I talk to him to get the review, he said, he couldnt pass the first two songs, and he is hearing them again and again. He never had time to go beyond the first two songs. Today he said he is almost completed and will give me some review.

I will also post the review by a Western classical (violin/vocal) music teacher in a week. She love indian music and for that reason ended up marrying an indian (poor girl, this guy has no ears! I mean music ears!) whom she met in India during her trip to Chennai to learn carnatic music.

TISK

18th July 2005, 06:55 PM

'Shankar's and NJV's' posts are real sweet on this Monday Morning!

I am saying at least a 100 times 'Thank You, Lord' for giving us the opportunity to associate with this project and the count is already 8 sofar[counting those Paypal Orders and these posts!!]for today!

Friends, as said earlier, we have more work to do. All those who have bought this great album, please get one more for your friend or your family or encourage them to purchase one to finally heave a sigh of relief!

Thank you! [9!]
YIA!

njv

18th July 2005, 07:25 PM

TIS now available at India Mart, Irving, Texas (972) 438 6865 .

TIS will be available (in couple of days) at Bombay Video (Devon st) Chicago from this week.(773) 743-5575

Fans in respective area, please buy TIS from them so that they can order more.

TISK Sir & All

Our next target should be to sell TIS for retailers. Even if you bought TIS already, please go to your video store and ask for TIS. Once they see the demand, they will try to buy atleast few copies.

Thanks
NJV

TISK

18th July 2005, 08:14 PM

HERE IS SOMETHING FOR YOUR PERUSAL AND PASS-OVER TO YOUR FRIENDS.
THIS CAN BE HAD FROM OUR WWW.TIS-USA.COM SITE.
PL. PASS IT ON.
THANKS.
YIA!
:: Volunteer distributors
City Volunteer Contact information
Arizona Isaiosai
Austin Bala Beddhannan
Austin Sai Sivakumar
Bay Area Padmakumar Nagarajan (650) 577 8473
Bay Area Anand Alaghu
Bay Area Mani Manivannan 510-796-2433
Boston Venkat Bala
Boston Odi Odaiyappan
Canada Dushyanth Gnanapragasam (416) 995 2984
Chicago Ram Raghuraman
Connecticut Socrates 860-559-0377
Dallas Mukund Parthasarathy
Detroit Arunkumar Mohunraj
Houston Sathish Kumar 281-240-9461
Los Angeles Ramesh Ganesan
Maryland Kolandavel Ramasamy 410-531-6390
New Jersey Balaji Krishnamoorthy DVDunlimitedonline.com
New Jersey Jeeva Sivaraman 732-274-3436
Raleigh/Durham Tower Restaurant
Raleigh/Durham Triangle Indian Market
San Diego Anush Anand
Seattle Sujatha Rajarajan
St. Louis Porchezhiyan 314-878-5832

:: Other online options
DVDunlimitedonline.com
E-bay

TISK

18th July 2005, 08:16 PM

Contact details for the above may be had from our site www.tis-usa.com at the 'order' page.
Thanks.

Cacaphonix

18th July 2005, 08:50 PM

walrus,

which symphonix? The RPO one? I have no idea how it "looks", also even if I had I cannot say whether its good/bad.

Anyway i assume your question is about TiS.

"Astreriks" my answer. Definitely i feel TiS unsuits me, i mean, my name :)

Though I have added a full-stop it is upto you to assume a colon after the word "answer" and a comma after "Astreriks" ;)

TIS_AUSTIN

18th July 2005, 09:00 PM

Review by IndiaGlitz ... reflects most of my thoughts on listening to TBI. I am not a good writer ... I was happy to see some of my similar thoughts are neatly presented... like the 4th song which has very good malayalam flavour with pure tamil lyrics suported by both Indian and Western instruments.
... Sai

emjay

18th July 2005, 09:37 PM

I could feel that everybody agrees to the fact that TBI is first of its kind. But, there seems to be couple of common thoughts expressed by folks (in different blogs, websites):

Lot of people seem to have problem with IR singing most of the songs. One observation was that the instruments used & arrangements weren't grand enough as one would expect from a Symphony.

1) "IR is off-key at few places" - AGREED.
"His voice seems to be old" - AGREED.
"He is not able to scale enough with his voice" - AGREED.

How does that matter in THIS album?
Having agreed to all of the 3 above, I love to disagree completely with the argument that "Unni, Hariharan" would have done a better job.

I have often wondered why the pointer on the AC control unit points at 60 F looking at it from my bed or from my desk. Then, when I went near it...I found that it was because there is something called "Parallax Error"

Let me explain what you might already know: "Error that can be introduced when not reading an instrument directly from its front, due to the separation of the indicator and the scale being read."

The same is happening to so many people.. Voice has various attributes. Scaling is one of them. He might have not outscored in Scaling. Come on!! Have you ever questioned why "Pithukuli Murugadas"'s voice not soft?

Whenever I hear to "Murugadas"'s voice... I think of "Chinna Kannan" dancing in front of him...and he melts while praising Him.

IR has melted and has succeeded in melting thousands of souls with his divine voice...
If you see "off key" here.. you are having "Parallax Error" (not in vision) but in music...
So, my prescription to you is try to come to the RIGHT Plane to join the journey..

What matters the MOST in this album are:

a) Delivering the DIVINITY to thousands of SOULS.
b) Making the younger generation look back at Thiruvasagam, a great epic.
c) Delivering in musical form without distorting its beauty with RIGHT Pronounciation.

Did IR succeed? A Big YES!!

His objective succeeded!!

2) He is not proving his musical competencies here..He has done that already to the world.
This album is to deliver Thiruvasagam in musical form to make younger generation aware!!
He is not trying another GURU here...

As a software developer, I might know 100 technologies, components. But, I apply only those based on the problem I attack, client I deal & budget that I have.
Quite as simple as that..

Rest my case.

rooky

18th July 2005, 09:43 PM

People in this forum would be more than happy if all of us discuss about TBI alone here.

Topics not related to TBI could well be posted in a different thread.I certainly don't enjoy reading some unrelated stuff here and am sure that this is the case with most of the regulars here.

TISK

18th July 2005, 10:21 PM

Once again, I plead with everyone to leave Anand at peace and give us a break with this.
More than Anand, this is distracting more-- these continued postings on his write-up and this constant dwelling on it.
After much labour, TbI has hit the public and let us spend our time on this please!
Thanks.
YIA!

May I request the Admins to delete any further postings on the Outlook topic? Thanks.

Cacaphonix

18th July 2005, 11:14 PM

Once again, I plead with everyone to leave Anand at peace and give us a break with this.

We take the liberty of changing it as "rest Anand in peace" and continue with our beating him to death :)

TISK ippa enna seiveenga, ippa enna seiveenga :)

app_engine

18th July 2005, 11:16 PM

TISK, neenga romba straight forward'A irukkeenga:-) indha mAdhiri controversy ellAm oru style of marketing theriyumO?:-)) NOM!

BTW, are we out of the woods? (Means, has Thamizh Maiyam and associates sold enough to breathe out of loans?)

19th July 2005, 12:53 AM

http://aruls.blogspot.com/2005/07/blog-post_18.html

TISK

19th July 2005, 02:17 AM

app_engine,

Didn't you see my earlier posting today on the same subject you had asked me [still not out of woods!]
Hence the plea to get one more person to buy the Cd!
Thanks.
YIA!

TISK

19th July 2005, 02:18 AM

Hence the plea to get one more person to buy the Cd!
I mean by each one who has already bought!!

yeskarthi

19th July 2005, 12:42 PM

Dear friends,

Is there any plans to release TIO in DVD format with 5.1 recording ?

19th July 2005, 12:47 PM

Once again, I plead with everyone to leave Anand at peace and give us a break with this.
More than Anand, this is distracting more-- these continued postings on his write-up and this constant dwelling on it.
After much labour, TbI has hit the public and let us spend our time on this please!
Thanks.
YIA!

Discussion on outlook article moved to,

http://forumhub.mayyam.com/hub/viewtopic.php?t=4174

You may continue discussions there. Further digressions will be deleted.

jaiganes

19th July 2005, 04:06 PM

alwarpet_andavan

19th July 2005, 04:37 PM

Hi rr!
By moving and creating a separate thread you have finally managed to create some legitimacy to the views of a journalist who looks at the entire world with a red prism. These views would have been better left unresponded. If you feel that this is a digression, then please delete it.
FYI,
IR's life began througha RED prism. A prism is a prism, whether its red or white or whatever. As long as the Reds dont complaint about you looking through another prism, you can leave the Reds alone.
Sorry for the digression.....

jeera

19th July 2005, 07:50 PM

Dear friends,

Is there any plans to release TIO in DVD format with 5.1 recording ?

TISK

This is not a complaint - but neverthless, there are a lot of people under the impression that the DVD is going to be released and the DVD is to contain the songs. I tried telling them that the DVD even if released might not contain songs but just video recordings of how TBI was done.

Could you please let us know when if at all the DVD is going to be released and what it would contain?

njv

19th July 2005, 08:11 PM

jeera

yeskarthi question is valid. yeskarthi wanted to know if TIS AUDIO is going to come in Dolby 5.1 format.

yeskarthi

I dont think DVD audio is popular in indian music industry. So dont expect the same. The only DVD audio that I have seen so far are for Boys and Manmadhan.

Thanks

TISK

19th July 2005, 08:21 PM

The much talked about DVD is not yet out anywhere!
IIR is still making some corrections here and there and hence the DVD hasn't gone into final production as of today.
Fr.Jegath is hopeful of getting it underway by today and an official announcement will be made at our site in the next 24 hrs.
The proposed DVD will have a few bits of the songs in the background and will mainly be covering the Hungary recording and a few interviews by the participating artists including IIR and Fr.Jegath. I have only seen a rough version of it and I understand more corrections have been made since then and I am not in a position to comment on the final edition.
Pl. bear with us and we will announce once we hear something positive soon.
I am also trying to get the dance number played out by the Stella Mary's students during the Launch in Chennai as a bonus and let me hope that it materializes.
Please get that one extra original CD/DVD for yourselves to see some cheers on us!
YIA!

19th July 2005, 08:39 PM

Hi rr!
By moving and creating a separate thread you have finally managed to create some legitimacy to the views of a journalist who looks at the entire world with a red prism. .
No it doesn't make it legitimate. If it did, how would you interpret so many like viyay,Naaz,etc who have responded (and still doing). The idea was to redirect ppl, who you know would be posting even if the digressions were deleted, and keep this topic sane. No other intentions. Ok, let's stop this here.

cry_sandiego

19th July 2005, 10:20 PM

Guys.

Finally got the CD and listened to it last night. yet to go past the first 2 tracks.. ( just started on the third - Ko thumbi by Bavatharini )

I have just one word to describe the first 2 tracks - Ecstatic.

Knowing Sivapuranam verses very well( atleast the sequence ) , i noticed that IR had juggled the verses in the second track very much. I do not want to start another controversy here, but wanted to know if it is a common practice for thiruvaasagam verses to be sung in any order.. I did not see any distortion in meaning as each line is sort of indepenedent of the others, i guess.. Can somone comment on it..

The Polla Vinayen track is really heavy duty.. Especially towards the end - with the choir/chorus weaving in and out. man that was cool !.

The booklet calls one portion of the track as a Cappella . can anyone throw more light on this one.. I guess it is a category where there is just a solo voice and no music at all..not sure.. Is it a commonplace in a Oratario.?

http://w3.rz-berlin.mpg.de/cmp/musical_forms.html

I will write again after I get thru all the tracks..but yet to come out of the shock of Polla Vinayen.. It gave me goosebumps at a couple of places..( Eesandi potri, Enthai adi potri , neyathe nindra nimalanadi potri is one place and Maasatra Sothi Malarsudare is another ..- the chorus is amazing. )

arun

19th July 2005, 10:49 PM

cry_sandiego,

Your guess on A cappella partly right. "A cappella" is vocal/choral music without any supporting instrumental music. It need not necessarily be a song with a solo voice. A song which uses multiple voices (like a choir) without any musical instruments is also an A cappella.

app_engine

19th July 2005, 11:51 PM

Some more blogs...
http://brangan.easyjournal.com/entry.aspx?eid=1167321
http://ramanick.blogspot.com/2005/07/thiruvasagam-maanikavasagar-aruliyadhu.html#comments
(the second one is supposedly by an ARR admirer)

cry_sandiego

20th July 2005, 01:20 AM

thanks Arun..

MSK

emjay

20th July 2005, 02:47 AM

Your attention PLEASE !!

This is what I found in one site (http://www.dhool.com/phpBB2/viewtopic.php?p=7498) about TiS piracy.. Could we do something about it???

Posted: Tue Jul 19, 2005 12:45 pm Post subject: re: SOTD #650: puRRil vaazh from Thiruvasagam

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Greetings to everyone:
I am writing this from Toronto. For the last few days I was trying to get the "original" Thiruvasagam CD from the local stores here, sad to say none of them have it. BUT they are selling the pirated copies for CAD$ 5. I am very sad and preety upset. I mentioned my dissapointments with the shop keepers. Obvisouly they care less. not one store..Toronto's 3 popular Tamil Video/Audio stores doing the same thing.
My Question is? Is this project legaly registered? Copyright !!!
If so can someone do something about such activities?
It is very sad, People have gone through so much to get this projet done selling their properties, putting forward all their life time savings...
I am determined to get the original and original only. I don't know why they did not market the CD here.
I have no problem mentioning the names of the Stores.
As Tamils we should appriciate the boldness and courage of people like IR and all those involved in bringing up Thiruvasagam in simple form for us.

TISK

20th July 2005, 03:06 AM

Thank you! I will attend tothis and will let yu know soon.

TISK

20th July 2005, 03:09 AM

Thank you! I will attend to this and will let you know soon.

In the meantime, pl. get in touch with Mr.Dhushyanth at dushyg@gmail.com. You can get his details from www.tis-usa.com at the order page under 'volunteer distributors' for your copy. YIA

njv

20th July 2005, 06:23 AM

multinamatheyan

20th July 2005, 07:47 AM

njv,

please check your PM and reply to me. Thanks.

mrangan

20th July 2005, 09:51 AM

A suggestion for the TIS marketing team. How about selling it in Italy through Massimo Simonini, the person who produced the Italy concert?

- Murali

tmrrmt

20th July 2005, 12:50 PM

mrangan - "How about selling it in Italy through Massimo Simonini, the person who produced the Italy concert? "

makes perfect sense!

mrangan

20th July 2005, 01:02 PM

Similarly there might have been contacts in the western music world (like composer John Scott of RPO) who have some knowledge and appreciation for IR's music. They could be channels for introducing this work to the western audience.

Another idea is to sell some copies through squidco.com. I think they would be interested in it since they have been selling the Italy concert CD in the US. May be some customers of squidco might get curious and buy it.

Just my 2 cents.

- Murali

njv

20th July 2005, 03:15 PM

Multinamatheyan

Ayngaran's contact

Nithya Mathi
Phone: 416-266-5566

Yes they will carry TIS. They are waiting for TIS from London. Apparently Father had a deal with Ayngaran to sell in London/Canada.

I am supposed to send a complimentary copy of TIS, HTNI, NBW to ReR, the company which distributes Music Journey across the globe. They are interested in selling them as well, but want to listen to it first. Once they agree, we can ship them in bulk. FYI they mentioned that they sold more than 1000 CDs to retailers, other than Indian retailer!!! so they must be having some (good) connection. The guy who is incharge in USA is in an european tour (and all the folks who work there are musicians! and this guy just love IR), so I will have to wait until he is back in US.

multinamatheyan

20th July 2005, 04:39 PM

Great news njv. :thumbsup:

Ayngaran has a very wide network around the world. They will also be better suited to combat piracy.

I will contact them and coordinate the Canadian promotions accordingly.

kannansanderson

20th July 2005, 06:41 PM

http://www.geocities.com/kannansanderson/ganani/page_1.jpg

kannansanderson

20th July 2005, 06:52 PM

This is Ganani's article on TiO in the latest issue of his magazine Theem Thari Gita!

If you have to post negative reviews and sidetrack this topic, go to the 'TiS criticisms' thread instead..

app_engine

20th July 2005, 08:03 PM

kannansanderson,
link for pages 8 & 9 does not work...

emjay

20th July 2005, 08:40 PM

kannansanderson,

None of the links work.. It says that the website has exceeded the amount of data transfer!!

rooky

20th July 2005, 10:29 PM

All popular things will have some negative criticism :) None can escape this.

Sanjeevi

20th July 2005, 10:36 PM

* deleted *

Kupps

21st July 2005, 04:11 AM

RR,

Time has come to rename the thread "Comments on Anand's Outlook Article" into "Comments on criticism on TiS" and move all comments (including comments on gnani's) into that thread. :)

cry_sandiego

21st July 2005, 05:34 AM

Yes.. lete's use this only for talking about the songs and it's quality and not other issues..

I would love to hear from experts on the intricacies of the tracks of TIS .. scales, instruments , chorus etc..

cheers
MSK

TISK

21st July 2005, 07:43 AM

Forget about he experts!
TbI was not made for experts!
it was conceibved and composed by an expert for the common man!
that's how TbI should be approached.
If you go with your critical lenses and start analyzing it you will find 101 holes and everyone may appear to be legitimate and valid.
But, that was NOT the purpose of this great album.
Scholars already know Thiruvasagam; they need not be introduced to this.
Music experts have already heard many such classics; it is not to impress them that this was composed.
Glimpses of such fine tunings have already been introduced by IIR in his film songs and such experts may find similar tunes in this album to over 100 movies.
But, it is for the common man who hitherto hasn't known Thiruvasagam, its great lyrics, its adaptability to such catchy tunes, its richness to stay fresh even after mixing it with western orchestra, the clarity of each word exponently brought out by IIR with his soulful rendering, the divinity which could be extracted even from western musicians, be it a singer, a chorus or the orchesrta... these are the acheivements of TbI which catches the 'common man' and make him raise his collar in pride to see his mother tongue piece able to bring out the feelings within him on the very first hearing itself.
No one can, however expert he/she may be, deny the awe that surrounds him/ her when they heard it for the first time and only later, much later, that they started to feel those negative pointers that they are able to make out.
it is very interesting to note that all of them can only say the same few things.
Do you think IIR was not aware of this?
being an expert by himself, won't he have felt the same things that others pointed out?
It is that extra feeling, joy, awe, paravasam, that he must have felt overall when he heard the final version, that must have prompted him to send out as it is felling confident that the ordinary man will also fel the same and also would have felt blessed to have been introduced to such music in his/her lifetime.
having said all these, i am not trying to side with IIr but appeal to your senses to get out of your 'expert' feelings and come down to earth and look at this from a common man's view point! that's all i am asking.
Let us take the second song:
Leave alone all the nicest orchestration, pitfalls etc. etc. and try to visualize that song in this fashion as it appeared to me.
Just start the song and close your eyes and try to visualize a river taking its origin drop by drop and as the song progresses, try to follow along with that river's course-- its stagnating moments, gathering momentum moments, flowing moments, smooth sailing moments, little drops thru the rocks, slight increase in its force and finally the big falls [aruvi] ending its journey gleefully towards the great ocean[GOD] --and try to simulate a spiritual as well as natural experience!
You will understand what I mean!
I have said enough1
Thanks.
YIA!!
PL. ORDER THAT EXTRA CD FROM US!![www.tis-usa.com]

mrangan

21st July 2005, 01:38 PM

Digression:

If any of the admins of Raajangahm are reading this thread, I have a couple of requests.

At the raaja.com site, none of the links in the top level menu work - either from Firefox or from IE.

A very earnest request - I hope you have the discography in a database like MySQL. Is it possible for creating a database dump and posting a link to the dump file somewhere in the raaja.com website? Either as MySQL dump or in some XML or whatever format. This info is very valuable - kudos to the people who created it. I have an ambitious project in mind for organizing my iPod. The discography db could be very very useful. I guess other fans will also be interested in getting access to this information.

Thank you,
Murali Rangan

Sanjeevi

21st July 2005, 03:14 PM

Admin why did you delete my last posting?

discussion forumla konjam limit thanda kudatha?

OK. From IR avatar, it is wrong to put that type of comments.

sivakumar99

21st July 2005, 06:40 PM

hi tis team,
i have couple of friends in swiss and norway, they were asking me about the availablity of the cd. when is it planned to sell them there.

they also told me that since it is not available there, pirate cds are on sale there

njv

21st July 2005, 08:04 PM

Sivakumar99

My recommendation would be to order from TIS-USA.com or DVDUNLIMITEDONLINE.com. Since they dont have TIS over there, may be they can order them in bulk (as much as they can) and ask for either some discount on the CD or some discount on shipping. For upto 10 CDs, it would cost USD 9 to ship anywhere in the world. For upto 3 CDs (TIS CD only cuz, it is slim), it would take USD 5.

They can also volunteer and start selling TIS over htere. Please check if they want to do this.

Thanks

multinamatheyan

21st July 2005, 09:55 PM

NJV,

Doesn't Ayngaran have a presence in Norway etc?

njv

21st July 2005, 11:42 PM

No they dont. They have in London, Canada, France. They had in Australia, but it seems they closed it down. Not sure.

emjay

21st July 2005, 11:56 PM

Dear All,

I am living in Detroit, MI. We are trying to co-ordinate here to play TbI (Track 01 & 02) in "The Hindu Temple" @ Canton soon. This way, we can give devotees a listening experience. I am sure, once they hear, they will throng to buy 'em. Just thought of sharing in the forum so that if you think it is a good idea, you can do in your area as well.

If you have any suggestions of how to do (BEST POSSIBLE WAY) the above, please share.

Also, any volunteers from MI are appreciated. (My PM: mohanjraman@gmail.com)

-eMJay

app_engine

22nd July 2005, 12:48 AM

emjay, pls check your forum message box...

tmrrmt

22nd July 2005, 03:11 PM

is there any TFMDFer from Virginia ?

tmrrmt

22nd July 2005, 05:11 PM

all Bangalore TFMDFers, why don't we have a get-together sometime - it will be thrilling to meet the others in person !

jaiganes

22nd July 2005, 05:52 PM

hey madhan. not this weekend. I am in Chennai!!!
Next weekend is fine with me.

Cinefan

22nd July 2005, 06:07 PM

hey madhan. not this weekend. I am in Chennai!!!
Next weekend is fine with me.

Sir,ippo ellam adikkadi Chennai pora maadhiri irukku :)

BTW,the kannada remake of Sathi leelavathi is slated for release on Aug 18th.I,Alwarpet Andavan,Rajaram(if he is interested)&Sakalakala Vallavar are planning to see it together(minus Wife,kid,girl friend,boy friend etc etc etc),I take this opportunity to invite other bangalore based hubbers(including fans of other actors,that it's a Kamal film is incidental) for this event.The venue&date(preferably a weekend)can be decided once the release date of the movie gets confirmed.

Enna Jai,Ok va.Plz note:"minus wife" :D

TIS_AUSTIN

23rd July 2005, 12:59 AM

Hi All (Austin Makkale),

Thiruvasagam by IR CD is now available at Gandhi Bazzar and Taj Grocery from today, for $15

Thanks

Sai

M: 512-576-4271

rags141

23rd July 2005, 01:19 AM

Hi,

I ordered the SPECIAL EDITION package (with the DVD) and havent recd the DVD yet. When I recd the TIS CD, I recd a note that the DVD should be shipped by July 8th. Its 22nd now and no news of it yet.

Could the person concerned take appropriate action.

Thanks

Rajesh Raghunathan

app_engine

23rd July 2005, 02:16 AM

http://www.screenindia.com/fullstory.php?content_id=10772

another news report from a popular magazine...

app_engine

23rd July 2005, 02:26 AM

http://www.chennaionline.com/music/Events/2005/07thiruvasagam-nellai.asp

Looks like this is still continuing...encouraging students to mix music into rich Thamizh litt is probably one of the good results of this project...

jaiganes

23rd July 2005, 09:12 AM

Aug 18th I will be leaving for chennai because of Aug 19th is Varalakshmi viradham.!!!! Probably I will catch it the next weekend.

End Digression

As I had expected, "Umbarkatkarase" is making ppl melt. This is one song which exactly qualifies as an earnest appeal of a bhakta to his deity. the music of maestro simply "emotifies" the beautiful lyrics and show us the maniccavasagar in trance before Lord Shiva.

Vysar

24th July 2005, 10:19 AM

A record sales in America and also in India

http://www.dinakaran.com/daily/2005/Jul/24/cinema/CineNews1.html

Sanjeevi

24th July 2005, 10:02 PM

India Today, this issue has out with Ilaiyaraja Cover Story including IR's interview.

Fans, read and enjoy.

rooky

24th July 2005, 11:18 PM

A record sales in America and also in India

http://www.dinakaran.com/daily/2005/Jul/24/cinema/CineNews1.html

I was looking for such sales figures from populkar papers (like dinakaran).This would definitely promote the album further.

multinamatheyan

25th July 2005, 09:01 AM

I was visiting some folks here in Toronto, and the famous carnatic vocalist Bhushani Kalyanaraman was there.

I mentioned TiS, but the rest of them had no clue what I was talking about.

Before, I could speak, Bhushani took over and started paying glowing tribute to this work. Her concluding statement was 'antha manushan oru grand strokela, thiruvasagaththa ellaarum rasikira mathiri popuplar aakittaar'

Needless to say, everyone in the room wanted a CD:-). My job was made easy.

tmrrmt

25th July 2005, 09:27 AM

multinamatheyan - keep up the good work!

btw, have you decided whom you are going to approach for giving TiS in Toronto ?

thanks

tmrrmt

25th July 2005, 09:32 AM

raja_fan

25th July 2005, 09:51 AM

Sanjeevi,

India today - tamil or english..?

Sanjeevi

25th July 2005, 12:03 PM

Sanjeevi,

India today - tamil or english..?

Tamil edition

Ofcourse, I have expected on every India-Today (Tamil) issue (for the past 5 issues) with IR's cover story after the huge success of Thiruvasagam. Now it is the time. Enjoy.

Sanjeevi

25th July 2005, 12:04 PM

TISK

25th July 2005, 07:35 PM

Please make it your committment to promote ONE MORE CD by each of you so that we are able to pay back all those great friends here who came up readily with loans to make this happen!
Pl. visit www.tis-usa.com or call 919-413-3913
Thank you!
YIA!!

njv

25th July 2005, 09:18 PM

Guys! the same person (American) who was skeptical about TiS after listening to the clips from raaja.com, is now gaga about IR's NBW after listening to "I love Mozart" !! and now he wants to listen to TiS!

"thank you. That was a pretty good re-working of the Indian melody into a Mozartian framework. I'm mightily impressed. If anyone else wants to page back and click on the link and hear "I Love Mozart" in that context, you may find it interesting."

how is that ?

for Western ears untrained to listen to the kind of crossover music, that IR is so gifted with, it takes little bit of explanation and patience for them to understand and once they do so, the floodgates open up!

We should keep this point, while marketing IR's works abroad
tmrrmt

Good work. Most of us here dont knwo what you you are doing behind the scene, but knowing what you are doing I really hats off to you.

Please DONT EVEN HESITATE in what you are doing. I will do whatever I can do make IRs album popular to western ears.

I am still waiting for reviews from couple of ppl. They are busy and dont understand our wishes, but hopefully they will come back to me soon.

TISK

26th July 2005, 02:27 AM

Here is a mail from my American friend who bought a Cd from me! And, he came back and got two more for his daughters!!
If only others also follow suit....!
YIA!!

Dear Dr Sankar Kumar:

I shall always recall with joy the first time I heard the Thiruvasagam in Symphony. Now listening each night is pure joy! I have purchased additional Cd's for my family. American listeners shall have great esteem for this epic work.
The TIS foundation I am sure shall continue to provide important services to the Tamil community by its association with endeavors like this. I know you have been
very instrumental in the success of this production.
Thank you very much for your hard work so that others can experience Thiruvasagam in Symphony.

your friend
love all, serve all.
Dr T***** M*****

vijayr

26th July 2005, 02:38 AM

TISK, any rough figures on CDs sold so far and number of CDs that need to be sold to break even would provide an overall perspective. Otherwise, to a general outside viewer like myself it sounds a little surprising that even after the awesome initial opening sales and subsequent sales(TIS has been topping the charts in TN too for two weeks in a row, apart from US) you guys are still are'nt out of the woods yet.
What's the cost that you are trying to recover?

I have been reading blogs like the one below

http://sambharmafia.blogspot.com/2005/07/tis-breakeven.html

that already claim a profit. There might be others too who think like this.

tmrrmt

26th July 2005, 01:11 PM

a BACH music festival is going on right now in California

http://www.bachfestival.org/

can a few guys based in California visit the place and gift TiS CD to the main organisers and also see if you can use the same to promote TiS there ?

Thanks

TISK

26th July 2005, 07:10 PM

To tell you in brief, US has been left alone to mend its own fences by the 'vested interests' and hence the plea!
More if you care to call me in person.
Thanks.
YIA!

vijayr

26th July 2005, 07:30 PM

TISK, sad to hear that. I'll do whatever I can.

ananth222

26th July 2005, 08:13 PM

emjay

26th July 2005, 10:58 PM

Dear Folks,

It is very disturbing news!!

Why shouldn't we think big? Like contacting borders & barnes&noble book store.

TISK,
I did some research on this. Please call me @ 734-377-5570. We shall discuss further. (I couldn't reach you)

mohanjraman

njv

26th July 2005, 11:32 PM

TISK

Dont worry. The fire is on. I shiped 10 CDs to Bombay Music in Chicago and sold all of them in 1 day. I am shipping 25 more. Like I said, the next target should be the retailers.

If all you volunteers can go to your nearest retail shop and ask them to bring the CD, that itself is enough.

Thanks
NJV

app_engine

27th July 2005, 12:03 AM

http://216.65.197.170/kumudam/270705/pg3.php

arasu badhilgaL praises TiO...

app_engine

27th July 2005, 12:21 AM

I don't think there would have been so much of interest in the web on the `breakeven' for any other musical project:-)

Again, not so many would have come in the open as to the expenditure and such details...bramikka vaikkum aLavukku awareness...agreed it invites criticism from some quarters as to `why Budapest, why this, why that' etc.,nevertheless, the openness of the organizers is commendable...which is why most nalam-virumbikaL are thinking like `how many so far sold' `how many more to be sold to break-even' etc.

Hopefully, the line will be crossed soon and TISK will announce the happy news quicker...

27th July 2005, 12:54 AM

Have the DVD's started shipping. If not any planned dates?

TIS_AUSTIN

27th July 2005, 06:59 PM

Here in Austin, myself and Bala have given few CD's to local Indian Grocery shops and it is on going well...

Basically people are not completely aware that it is available in (few) grocery shop also, in spite of putting few flyers and posters.

We plan to send e-mail to tamil sangam members close to week end.

I think this can be done in other places too..

Sai & Bala

njv

27th July 2005, 09:03 PM

TIS Austin

I shiped to India Mart, Irving, TX also last week. More than Grocery shops, try the local video stores. Ppl normally look for CD in video stores than Grocery stores.

I faxed to more than 25 stores and 2 of them responded so far. More will respond if people in different are enquire about the product in their store. Please do that.

Thanks
NJV

TIS_AUSTIN

27th July 2005, 09:39 PM

NJV,

Here is Austin, we don't have exclusive local Audio or video stores.

Any way that's good suggestion.

Tamil Sangam in Austin is going to play "Priasaki' movie, we are planning to sell few cd's when people come to collect tickets and also in theater.

TISK

27th July 2005, 10:57 PM

Bala,
Pl. call me! Tx,
YIA!

vijayr

28th July 2005, 01:18 AM

Just FYI, those who have subscribed to SS music channel via numtv.com (webcast) can view special programmes on making of TIS, TIS release function etc in the archives section of SS music channel. They have so far shown 2 or 3 progammes regarding this. I havent seen them yet, but will soon.
(those with cable modem or better can also watch Jaya/Raj/Raj digital and a bunch of other channels smoothly without too many buffering probs on that site)

balaji

28th July 2005, 02:13 AM

Vijay

Have you ever tried connecting the TV to see the webcast (I believe it is possible)? If so advise

Bala

vijayr

28th July 2005, 02:26 AM

balaji, no havent yet. I believe the site has some instructions on how to do it.

NagaS

28th July 2005, 12:34 PM

A "critical" vimarsanam on the way IR has 'swapped' some thiruvasaga lines in his work :

http://www.geotamil.com/pathivukal/elangovan_on_thiruvasakam.html

NagaS

tmrrmt

28th July 2005, 12:37 PM

Hi everyone - I have got another extremely positive response from a guy based in the US

"Of the 4 audio samples on the first page of that site (raaja.com), I enjoyed #3. The music is indeed different. Very interesting in fact. Something you just don't hear in the US. Thanks for visiting with us and sharing this information.

You said that millions in India hold him dear. Does this mean that this type of music dominates India in popularity? Or is there an Indian equivelant to western pop music or something that is more popular with the people

Jason, Wisconsin, USA"

dodo

28th July 2005, 03:35 PM

Todd Mccomb should be a good person to review this album. Check his website htttp://www.medieval.org

app_engine

28th July 2005, 06:25 PM

Good link NagaS...I really appreciate the concern of the writer - especially his suggestions to Raja in the end (the one to have some real critics around him and not just `thudhi pAdikaL' has been long due:-))

TIS_AUSTIN

28th July 2005, 06:35 PM

Critical vimarsanam... which NagaS has posted ... is good..

I could feel that person has genuinely, honestly and politely put his thoughts...

NagaS

28th July 2005, 06:45 PM

exactly -- when I read it, I sort of felt bad for not knowing thiruvasagam so well and assuming IR would've done it 'as it is', without any modifications.

Thinking of this, Yuvan spoilt a Thiruppaavai song in Nandha, By just changing the lines here and there and totally spoiling the meaning ...

IR also kind of mixed a few bharathiyar songs for movie "bharathi" (example, agginik kunjondRu kaNdaen, was mixed with a song on mazhai and similarly, "keLadaa maanidavaa" had some other bharathiyar songs mixed) - But that was not very odd / didn't give any wrong meaning !

In case of TiS, it looks like a genuine mistake and I hope somebody takes this information to IR. A very well written vimarsanam !

NagaS

njv

28th July 2005, 09:29 PM

Thamil Ini Mella Chaagumnu Bharathiyaar sonnathu ivanunga maari aala paarthuthaan. Whats the difference between these people and the people who burn buses. Nothing.

If Karnataka decide to give water to Tamil Nadu, these people will find the "critic" reasons why they decided to give water and will stop the water from flowing.

If Pak stop its support to sponsor terrorism, these people will find reasons why pak decided to stop it and will encourage pak to do it again.

These people will never change. dont read these stupid blogs and end up being one of them.

Learn to appreciate what is good.

multinamatheyan

28th July 2005, 10:57 PM

I din't find this 'critical vimarsanam' all that great.

He contradicts everything he said in the first half, with everything he says in the second half.

He first says that people knew little of and was not attracted to Thevara Thiruvasagam.

Then he says that poeple were attracted to the same because of it's natural rythm and Raja spoilt it.

He also has many facts wrong. Where did he hear that Raja is going to release the rest of the Thiruvasagam?

He asks, if Raja only sings 6 or 7 from each pathikam, who will sing the rest? My suggestion to him is he does, since he seems to know so much about it and he believes that it can be sung with one Shruthi petti.

I got a gist of what to come in the early part of his article when he complained that no one related to thevara thiruvasagam were present at the release function. I think he is bitter that he was not invited.

cry_sandiego

29th July 2005, 12:26 AM

Guys,

I read the review.. My thoughts..

1. Seems to be sincere and has good thoughts.
2. there are a few contradictions.. shows that in his sincereity he just thought aloud and did not make it very coherent.
3. His logic of who will sing the rest of the thiruvasagam is completely illogical.. So if IR tunes some thirukurrals, will he ask who will tune the remaining 1300 or so .!! does not make any sense.

I recite the compelete sivapuranam peice starting with " Namasivaya Vazgha .." all the way to " Solliya paatin porulunarnthu solluvar ..." everyday morning .. So when i listened to Polla Vinayen , the first thing that stuck me was the sequence change and some missing verses as i had mentioned in my earlier post..

But i did not see any distortion in the meaning..Infact it was very clever the way he weaves the different sections of the verses and it mixes brilliantly with the choir and chorus..and i have no problem with him missing some verses.. Let's look at it this way.. In it's extremely original form it has been in print for many many years..how many people did thiruvasagam reach.. and now due to TIS, how many people have listened to Thiruvasagam..

And also i do not agree with him arguing that the english lyrics should not have been interposed with the tamil ones.. This is one way to make it reach a wider audience.. and it is just a translation and not anything unrelated..

On a lighter note..I guess he has not heard some of kavi persasu's algorithmic "toiletkku tissue paper Azhagu...cell phone'kku CDMA alazghu " kavithuvam's :-))

Cheers
MSK

TIS_AUSTIN

29th July 2005, 01:16 AM

MSK,

I would appreciate if you could let me know some more details on thiruvasagam... basically I wanted to know how many songs are there and how many versus each song has...

Thanks

Sai

Nayagan

29th July 2005, 03:13 AM

Any1 know if the CD is available in bay area, CA?

Also anywhere on the net I can listen to samples?

TIA

sats

29th July 2005, 03:26 AM

cry sandiego

"Let's look at it this way.. In it's extremely original form it has been in print for many many years..how many people did thiruvasagam reach.. and now due to TIS, how many people have listened to Thiruvasagam.. "

NETHIADI :clap:

TISK

29th July 2005, 04:20 AM

I was fortunate to be with IIR when he explained his concept of Thiruvaasagam to Stephen Schwartz.
'This is not the whole thiruvasagam which contains over 600 verses. I have selected a few verses from it to show its greatness to our younger generation and to the western people who don't know what kind of treasures we have which is not appreciated by these people. Several hundreds of years ago this grreat nman has talked about universal oneness and one GOD for all of us. And, today we are facing lots of conflicts in the name of religion and God and are waging wars. I am presnting a few songs as it is and the for the main piece, I have selected SivapurANam and ONLY there, I have re-arranged the verses to bring out the essence of oneness to MY satisfaction. And, for this, I want your English translation"
So saying, he got up from his chair and went to SS's piano and without any prompting started playing and singing, 'Pollaa vinaiyEn' with notes! ...that was a memorable moment!

let these people talk whatever they want!
The fact is that today every common man is walking in the streets singing 'puRRil vaazhum aravum anjEn' and is stopping where these Odhuvaars sing Thiruvaasagam [which they have been singing so far with no audience] and are looking at them with reverence, more people are getting into buying the whole Thiruvaasagam!
That was made possible by this layman from paNNaipuram!
Yellaam Iraivan aruL!!

TISK

29th July 2005, 04:21 AM

Pl. send the above mail to the gentleman who wrote that review! Thanks.

hubble

29th July 2005, 04:38 AM

You can get the Thiruvasagam CD in the Bay Area in the following locations

1 Raaga Music Store
(408) 616-8864
1016 E El Camino Real
Sunnyvale, CA 94087

Bangla Bazar
(408) 738-3213
924 E Fremont Ave
Sunnyvale, CA 94087

Nilgiris Inc
(408) 746-0808
(408) 746-2822
1187 W El Camino Real
Sunnyvale, CA 94087

Coconut Hill
(510) 656-9671
46121 Warm Springs Blvd
Fremont, CA 94539

vijayr

29th July 2005, 05:09 AM

Had a pleasant surprise. Its always gratifiying when you enjoy a particular piece and then later find out that piece of music occupies a special place in the composer's heart too. I had earlier mentioned about the line "gNaanaar en uLLamaar..." from the second stanza of the Pooveru Konum song and how myself and my friend MS were both impressed with how the meaning in those lines being aptly reflected by the tune/rendition/background giving several goosepimple-inducing moments. Surprise, I watch TIS release function yesterday night on SS Music and IR starts off his speech by rendering this very same line. And then in the programme "Talking with Maestro" on the same channel this very same line is again played at the start of the programme just before IR starts talking.

TISK

29th July 2005, 07:35 AM

naan aar ?--who am I?
en uLlam aar?-- What kind of it is my mind?
gnaangal aar?-- Wht type is my knowledge?
ennai yaar arivaar?-- who will be knowing of me?
vaanOr piraan-- The Lord of the dhEvaas
ennai aaNdilanEl-- if He doesn't take over of myself
madhi mayangi-- [this should be inserted as "ennai madi mayangi aaNdilanEl]if He doesn't show mercy
oon aar udai thalaiyil-- in the broken skull as the vessel,
uN bali thEr-- taking alms as 'pichchai',
ambalavan-- the One who dances in the 'ambalam'
thEn aar kamalamE-- at His sweet feet which is like a lotus
chenRu oodhaai-- go blow your whistle
kOththumbee-- O, King Bee!

YIA!!

cry_sandiego

29th July 2005, 07:50 AM

Now I am hooked to Ko Thumbi.. It took me a whole week to get over Poovar Senni and Polla Vinayen and now I am onto Ko Thumbi..

Man, Bavatharini's voice is so soothing.... To me this track sounds more "light" ( meaning in the TFM sense ) than the first 2 but still very skillfully sung....

The first 2 tracks always make me stand up ( i do not know why ..especially towards the end when the chorus goes .. Eesanadi Pottri .enthai adi Pottri.. neyathe nindra Nimalan Adi pottri.. it's like you get a few inches elevated . Especially in my home theater system , the effect is awesome..Watch how he builds the tempo starting with the lines " Vetru Viagaram Vidukudambin .."

The chorus has done an amazing job in " Maasatra Sothi Malarntha Malar sudare.."..

Oops.. i guess I am wrong in saying that I am over the first 2 tracks.. Will write more about Ko thumbi tomorrow..

Cheers
MSK

sureshmehcnit

29th July 2005, 11:04 AM

http://ursmusically.blogspot.com/2005/07/talking-with-maestro.html

Shankar

29th July 2005, 12:12 PM

One very interesting thing happened in Trichy (my hometown)..I had earlier mentioned here that we should request temples to play TiS so even those who cannot afford the CDs can listen to it....And this wish of mine came true yesterday...I visit trichy every fornight, and I had mentioned it to my father about playing TiS in temples...He said, "your intent is good, but I'm not sure if the oodhuvArs would approve of WC orchestration, and might think it sounds like a movie song..."

he in any case mentioned about this to the oodhuvAr in the temple (vekkALi amman temple is quite famous in trichy and you have at least a thousand visiting the temple every day)...and luckily the cassettes have been released by then...He apparently picked up a copy, and next morning (my dad goes there everyday) my dad heard "poovAr senni mannan" playing early in the morning in the temple !!

Whichever moron said Raja had deviated from the traditional way of singing ThiruvAsagam will have to eat his words, and the odhuvAr apparently said this is a great work.

I wish TiS would be played in thiruvAnaikkOvil in trichy (for its one of the pancha bootha lingams - jambu lingam - water) and all the other shiva temples in TN !

Playing this in temples is a sure way of reaching masses, it might not add much value to tamil mayyam's effort to pay-off the loans, but would surely achieve the original intent of the work - that of reaching thiruvAsagam to masses

tmrrmt

29th July 2005, 12:18 PM

Shankar - are you sure TiS audio cassette version is out ?!

Shankar

29th July 2005, 12:20 PM

Yes i think it's avbl...Cinefan (i think) had mentioned it earlier...My dad said the OdhuvAr didn't have a cd player, and he bought a cassette...

Cinefan

29th July 2005, 12:21 PM

Shankar - are you sure TiS audio cassette version is out ?!

Yes.Saw them displayed in a shop inside jayanagar shopping complex here yesterday.

alwarpet_andavan

29th July 2005, 12:57 PM

My grandfather is creating a record of sorts. A few nights back, he listened to the whole album twice on the trot, and for two nights. That really surprised me. I'm yet to get over the EXPERIENCE.

Like someone here remarked "Kothumbi" is a *light* song and it had a lifiting experience on me..... especially when the song starts with violins playing Sudha Dhanyasi.......
How much more apt can one get????????

There are so many moments and surprises at many turns in the album.

Can someone clarify this???/
The last song starts with "Maand" (the AlAp)? And is it "Kaapi" that the song ends with? Whatever it is, Ilayaan kills without a weapon in this song........

What Sandhya Vandhanam and Gayatri japam cannot do, Thiruvasagam by Ilayaan will! :)

tmrrmt

29th July 2005, 01:42 PM

alwarpet_andavan - adhu yenna 'Sethu' Seeyan maadhiri TiS Ilayaan ?!! --))

tmrrmt

29th July 2005, 01:44 PM

alwarpet_andavan - adhu yenna 'Sethu' Seeyan maadhiri TiS Ilayaan ?!! --))

raja_fan

29th July 2005, 01:49 PM

alwarpet_andavan,

"What Sandhya Vandhanam and Gayatri japam cannot do, Thiruvasagam by Ilayaan will! "

You are trying to start a new debate / clash. I am not sure whether you are atheist..or against these rituals etc..

But one thing is for sure..To praise one thing, you dont need to underrate another..
Believe me..You have to experiment chanting Gayatri Mantra atleast for a month and then judge its power ! Sandhya vandhanam / Gayathri do not belong to any particular community. ( though it appears to be like that throughout times..)
Any man can bring his thoughts under control and attain peace through these methods, that our ancient rishis gave us for free

alwarpet_andavan

29th July 2005, 02:06 PM

alwarpet_andavan - adhu yenna 'Sethu' Seeyan maadhiri TiS Ilayaan ?!! --))
:lol:
Coined by a friend and fellow-"Ilayaan" fan......

alwarpet_andavan

29th July 2005, 02:09 PM

raja_fan,
Thangal (matravargal) manadhai punpaduthiyadharkku mannikkavum.

Maybe i have to rephrase it as "What Sandhya Vandhanam and Gayatri Japam didn't do for me, Thiruvasagam By Ilayaan did".....

irfansong

29th July 2005, 02:23 PM

Dear Guys,

As you all mentioned, Kothumbi has got attention now and u know? Umbarkat karasey... is still greater....
Appa...! I cannot express the joy I get after hearing Umbarkat karasey...

Just hear it in Earphone to feel its greatness. That too.. when Raja melts into the lines... "Vidaividaathu handa vinnavar kovey.. " Really chanceless buddies....! I saying to myself every day that I should've been sooooo lucky to born in this era. This is IR's era.

My friend Mr. Gomathi Nayagam said after hearing Kothumbi, ' Anda saraswathiye nerla vandhu padina mathiri irukku'.

I bought a CD for my house and u know for the first time my cousin (8 yr old kid) was hearing to the songs and unconsciously she was tapping her fingers according to the rythm and that knocked me of the success of TiS and the greatness of IR.

Masters create masterpieces...
Here our Maestro has created a Maestro piece.

This week's India today has published a cover story of IR. Its really great. They've taken an interview also.

No words to express the joy that we enjoy hearing TiS. In SS Music, IR was saying that he cannot go about saying people to have a calm mind but he could do it through his music... Anyone could give the exact words? In SS music itself, those foreign musicians were speaking about IR. Will they include those info in the VCD?

Is the VCD coming? Father Jegath, we're ready to buy original versions of the VCDs. Please release it soon.

Regards
Irfan

Shankar

29th July 2005, 02:44 PM

irfansong,
Same here...to me, umbarkatkarasE is THE best...he choral chant is divine...and you can really feel it when Raja sings "empoRuttunnai chik ena pidithEn, engezhundu aruLuvadhiniyE"

sats

29th July 2005, 06:39 PM

Check this week vikatan , to know what ARR has to say about IR and Thiruvasagam.

alwarpet_andavan

29th July 2005, 06:41 PM

Letter from Fr.Jegath

http://groups.yahoo.com/group/ilaiyaraaja/

[tscii:9bb3540b4f]
Dear Friends,

I just returned from the USA. The launch of Thiruvasagam in Dallas
and Washington were grand. The feedback has been tremendously
positive. The TIS-USA team under Dr. Sankar Kumar is doing a great
job propelling the promotional efforts in USA.

A royal salutation has to go to the friends of Yahoo Groups who have
successfully ensured that Thiruvasagam is not abused by MP-3
downloadable websites. You have achieved what no policing or
enforcing authorities could ever imagine to achieve. This is the
supreme beauty of any activism that emanates out of genuine
conviction.

While I happily inform you that the market demand for Thiruvasagam
has been unprecedented the supply has been unprofessional and
disappointing. It is painful, but I am helpless.

Now that I am back in India I would like to focus on corporate and
institutional bulk sale. If you have good contacts please talk to
them and do let me know.

With your activism and fervent support it may not be difficult to
sell a million copies in one year. Let us do it. This is an honor
this album deserves.

Fr. Jegath Gaspar.[/tscii:9bb3540b4f]

TISK

29th July 2005, 07:31 PM

Dear all,
While we are appreciating this great music album to our heart's content, please take a moment of your time and make just one moreperson o buy this Original CD to brighten our day!
The order page at our site is not reflecting the enthusiasm you all express.
I am sorry to say this repeatedly and hope you all will pitch in and let us not face the same apathy as we experienced during its production, now that we have delivered the goods and it is upto you all to make it sell.
YIA!!

vijayr

30th July 2005, 02:25 AM

I had the pleasure of watching the programme "Talking with the Maestro" on SS music.( If you missed it, but have access to numtv.com you san still watch it from the archives). This should be an interesting watch esp. for IR fans.

A few snippets that I remember from the programme. Some of the foll may also go a long way in explaining some misgivings/complaints/criticisms about the projects that we have seen so far :

1. IR opens the programme with a gentle smile with "Naan yaar en uLLam yaar"(Thanks TISK for the meaning) playing in the background besides other pieces. He is shown walking inside the studio in slow motion. He says that studio is like his house since he spends most of his time there and goes home only to sleep.

2. TIS was not composed with an aim to show his creativity/ingenuity in composing WCM pieces. It was not meant to stimulate the intellect in the listener but to move him and make him appreciate the spirit behind the work.(explains why some didnt find this to be a grand symphony). He says although he wrote 90 lines for all instrument players(he actually shows the score sheets and says he is still the only MD to operate this way in India), overall he would call it a simple orchestration set to convey the spirit and now show off grandeur.

3. Amongst the ppl, who were left out during the thanksgiving ceremony at the TIS release function, he mentions Karthik Raja as a behind-the-scsnes guy who did a very critical part in the album. It seems they had to prepare what he called a "click track(?)" with just the instrumentals alone which later had to be synchronized with his vocals. The track needs to have appropriate markings in order for Raja to be able to sing and synchronize easily. The timing aspect of this was very difficult to do and he said KR is the one who prepared this track. He expresses his thanks to Peter of Hungary too who tooks pains feeding to the computer all sheets that IR wrote and did it over a month.

3. Programme then shifts to IR's longtime loyalaists and co-musicians -Viji Manuel(KB), Sundarraajan(vocals assistant), Purushottaman(or Puru -rhythm guru), Sada(guitar guy) and Bharani(KB)

4. Viji Manuel said once he had to play 2 KBs at the same time. All his fingers were in use at the same time and Raja still wanted him to hit one more extra note with a bang. Viji said he had no more fingers to do what IR asked him to do and when the time came he had to hit the note on the KB with his nose!He ended by saying that he would go all out to do anything Raja asked him to do. He also sings the English lines in TIS and mentions that Stephen Schwartz selected a singer who sounded exactly like him. He has been with IR since day 1 and recalls playing for IR for the BGM of Uravaadumm Nenjam- IR's second or thirs movie upon IR's insistence.

5. Sundarajan said they were all kind of MDs themselves - a bunch of MDs working together for one big MD. It gave them the utmost satisfaction. He says although the flow of the music is unpredictable, there is a cogency to the whole work.

6. Arunmozhi(the flutist Napoleon) says that IR is the only MD he has come across who does everything himself. Other MDs atleast had a portion of the music making process given to someone else. But IR does the entire composition work himself without delegating any of it to his assistants. In that sense, he was a complete composer.

7. Sada - a long time guitar player for IR says everyday its something new at the studios for them. Everyday, new challenge playing for IR.

All the above artistes, after having been with IR for a long time wanted to contribute something musically to TIS and expressed their wish to IR. IR, in turn, used them at appropriate places in TIS. It was heartening to see the mutual respect these artists shared for each other.

8. IR thanks someone named Govindh in NJ, who take care of the hospitality/food and someone named Arvindh in Hungary whose wife took care of food/hospitality during his entire stay in Hungary. He mentions someone else in Singapore too. These names might have been missed earlier during the release function and hence IR recalls them. He also said that he is unable to express thanks to his fans who waited for hours outside the academy. Some of them even got injured from the rush, glass breaking etc. and he hopes that his music would provide the healing.

9. He also mentions with a smile that this work is copyrighted and cannot be copied like some of his TFM songs without proper action being taken. He looks almost embarassed while making this statement.

10. They also show a couple of Hungary artistes , Laslo showering praises on the work and the recording of the "vel vel" chants towards the end of Polla vinayen

11. He says when ppl ask him "ippo irukkara cinema music paththi enna ninaikareenga?" he says the answer is present in their question itself. It is "ippo irukkira music" meaning something like this wasnt present before nor will it remain long after. But he is not willing to criticize the present day MDs but mentions in the same breath that he minimizes loops usage("ilai marai kaayaaga use pannugiren")
and focusses on imparting soul to the songs.

12. He says he had his own doubts as to how it sound nitially and whether it would be accepted by the people. He wrote 2 scores for Polla vinayen before settling on the final one. After sometime hejust concentrated on what he would do and didnt bother himself with the commercial success/acceptability of the project. He says anything that is atempted with genuine conviction would reach the ppl and so he no longer felt any doubt.

13. He says the order of songs/verses had to be re-arranged because in his opinion he thought this would convey the main concept "oneness of God" better. He didnt mean to offend any "Odhuvaars" and nor is this the only way that TIS has to be sung. He says he did it that way(song 2 ) so that it conveys
the meaning better in his opinion.

14. He says that since he has repeated often that since this was done keeping the younger generation in mind, he wanted to hand over a copy to a "representative" of the young generation to see how they respond. He then hands it over to his grandson (KR's 2-year old son) who gets it gleefully much to this Thatha's pleasure :-)

15. He concludes by saying that he hopes to meet us in many such programmes in the future and hopefully he would have the opportunity to do a lot more such projects. In slow motion, he walks into his house, a satisfied man atleast for the present, with strains of "Puttril vaazh aravam anjen" playing in the background.

---------------------

If I remember something I missed out, I'll add it later on.

vijayr

30th July 2005, 02:27 AM

If there is some way to capture the stream file and store it as an .asf file without too much hassles I can do it. If any one has ideas let me know. Its a 40-50 min programme with ads.

30th July 2005, 02:31 AM

thanks vijay for posting IR's interview.

thops

30th July 2005, 03:49 AM

i'll rip the audio and put it up soon...i am also trying to figure out how to rip the video...

prabhudas

30th July 2005, 04:33 AM

Vijay,
thanks for translating the program highlights, despite watching it on SS channel in India, I felt watching it second time reading your post. I guess much of this might be in the "making of TIO"VCD/DVD.
SS channel did a great job telecasting much of the release function and "Talking with Maestro" with multiple repeat telecast.

For all those questioning about Mayyam and other project organizers not giving appropriate credits to USA-TIS team,
Rev.Fr.Jegath thanked every individual ( a long list) who put anykind of efforts in making this project see the limelight, at the release function on the stage which included the SSSSAV team, Thops and many others.

Prabhudas

vijayr

30th July 2005, 05:53 AM

True, SS channel deserve some much needed credit. Not just for the program but the way they chose the right pieces in the programme to enhance the mood at the right places, including HTNI and NBW. Tasteful.

I forgot about the other programme, the release function itself, which was also well edited and presented the essence of what Kamal, BR, Vaiko(in terrific form), Rajni and IR said during the function.
Vaiko explained in simple terms as to why certain verses appeared in the order they did in the album. He had listened to it 20 times atleast before the function and had more than done his homework. A mini thesis I should say. He probably knew a lot about Thiruvasagam from earlier on too. He covered Mozart/Beethoven/RPO/Stephen Schwartz's comments/literary aspects etc. during his long speech.

Kamal's speech was pretty neat and succint. When IR took over the mike he first praised Kamal(actually called him an "intellect" :-) ) and said how despite his beliefs Kamal had took in the essence of the music well. Kamal, like Rajni, had obviously heard it during the making. Kamal remarked that himself and IR knew that this should have come out some 20 years back.

sivakumar99

30th July 2005, 11:17 AM

hi all,
try to get the video version relased by agi music, malaysia. which has detail coverage of making of thiruvasagam.

great package by them, cover design and cd layout was excellent

multinamatheyan

1st August 2005, 08:59 AM

The following are TiS booths to be set up in Ottawa and Toronto, Canada respectively

FRIDAY AUGUST 05, 7:00PM - The Hindu Temple in Ottawa

Sunday AUGUST 07, 6:00PM - Yorkwoods Library Theatre in Toronto (Geetha Rajashekar concert)

Please pass the word around to those whom you know in these two towns. For cantacts, they can call 416 995 2984

Thank you

rajdes

1st August 2005, 10:55 AM

vijay, saw the programme and also rad your write-up. Well-written and very informative - I realied I had missed some of the snippets you wrote while watching. Good job there.

vijayr

1st August 2005, 11:57 AM

A couple of things I noticed on further viewing:

There is a short bit for about 4 to 5 seconds when the line "Aakkam arivu.." from Polla vinayen plays at a high picth in the background and IR is shown nodding his head appreciatively in a recording session. A rare shot worth keeping.

And Muthulingam's poetic comment on TIS:

Manidhanukkukaaga manidhan sonnadhu ThirukkuraL
Manidhanukkaaga kadavuL sonnadhu bagavadh geethai
KadavuLukku manidhan sonnadhu thiruvaasagam
Maanikavaasagar solla iraivan than karaththaal ezhudhiyadhu thiruvasagam
adharkku IsaigNaani than suraththaal ezhudhiyadhu Isaivaasagam!

Viji Manuel seems to be a pretty cool guy overall from what I saw. If someone gets to meet IR at Prasad studios in the future, they should try to chat up with him.

sivakumar99

1st August 2005, 12:17 PM

thiruvasagam dvd is available at http://www.dvdunlimitedonline.com/shop/

also check out this site for some more info
http://www.tamilnation.org/sathyam/east/thiruvasagam/tvasagam0.htm

rajasaranam

1st August 2005, 02:37 PM

An interview from frontline
http://www.frontlineonnet.com/fl2215/stories/20050729003510400.htm

rajasaranam

1st August 2005, 02:50 PM

irfansong,
Same here...to me, umbarkatkarasE is THE best...he choral chant is divine...and you can really feel it when Raja sings "empoRuttunnai chik ena pidithEn, engezhundu aruLuvadhiniyE"

there are many other verses where IR has put in his soul deeply and sung
some of the lines which makes me melt are
'poi ayiyanavellam poyagala vantharuli..mei nyanmaagi milirgindra meisudarae...'
'sella nindra ithavara sangamathul... ella pirapum piranthilaithaen...'
'vilangu manathaal vimala unaku... kalantha anbaagi kasinthulurugum... ' listening to this we can really get into the ocean of love the way he renders 'kalantha anbaagi...' out of the world ....
and again at 'Karantha paal kannalodu.... nei kalanthar pola...' the way he renders this...no words to expalin...
we can be proud for being IR fans for no one else could have sung these lines with so much emotion and feelings in it :oops:

jaiganes

1st August 2005, 03:26 PM

Every time i hear IR sing "Thaayir chirandha dhayaavaana thaththuvanaEE" with all the modulations that a human ear never expected, I feel that no one else could have sung this better.

crvenky

1st August 2005, 03:59 PM

rajasaranam,

one more: 'ammaye appa oppila maniye, anbinil vilaintha aaramudhe'. The music is also just great in this place.

rajdes

1st August 2005, 05:14 PM

A lot of people have been raising questions "why public subscriptions for sponsoring the project? why not personal pocket of iR ?" etc. Hope the following excerpt from his frontline interview answers these people:
"
Ilaiyaraaja took over again at this point): I started working on the project as early as 2000. When I approached big people for funds (I don't want to mention any name) many could not even understand the concept or its significance. They did not realise that it would get a place in history later. They saw it only as scoring music for some devotional songs and wondered why it should be so expensive. They did not respond. More than their refusal to participate, I was hurt by the way they approached the project. Generally I do not go for such help. About 10 years ago I undertook to construct the principal towers of the Siva temple at Thiruvannamalai and the Vaishnavite temple at Srirangam; I spent my own money for the projects. I did not collect money from others. I could have completed the Thiruvasagam project also without any financial assistance from others, but did not wish to do so. Because, when the project was conceived, I was reminded of a remark made by the late Kanchi Senior Acharya. He said that in the olden days, even if a king wanted to construct a temple tower, he would not do it with his own money, but collected funds from the people for the purpose. The idea was that there should be participation by the people. That was why I was keen that others should also join in this venture. Significantly, my fans have extended their help and Tamil Maiyam had taken their money only as loans to complete this project. Fr. Vincent Chinnadurai has been the key person in coordinating the entire work and I should thank him for this
"

Shankar

1st August 2005, 06:12 PM

rajasaranam,jaiganes,rvenky,
I just loved the song fully...But the lines which moved me to tears were...
"nOkkariya nOkkE, nuNukkariya nuNNuarvE
pOkkum varavum, puNarvumillA puNNiyanE
en sindhanayyuL, oottrAna unnAr amudhE
udayAnE..."

If you notice, Raja *probably* wanted to stress these lines, and the portion - mAsatra sOthi slowly moves towards the crest ("mAsatra sOdhi..anudhE siva puranE" < "pAsamAm patraRuthu.."AriyanE" < pErAdhu...oLikkum OLiyAnE") till it reaches the above lines...

vijayr

1st August 2005, 08:32 PM

rajdes, IR explained the reason as to why he was collecting funds much earlier, when he visited US and spoke at different places. Apparently someone from the audience had raised this question and he gave this reply. I do hope he gets some corporate sponshorship in the future. And something gets done about his RPO symphony#1. I just cant believe that such a work would go unreleased.

sats

1st August 2005, 08:47 PM

You can listen to Vaiko speech on the "thiruvasagam" cd release function here

http://www.tamilnaatham.com/Speeches.htm

app_engine

1st August 2005, 11:46 PM

http://www.hindu.com/fr/2005/07/29/stories/2005072902210200.htm

Singer Manjari interview...there's question about TbI...

TISK

2nd August 2005, 02:16 AM

makkaLE!
manRaadik kEtkiREn!
vaazhvikka vENdum enRu virimbinaal,
innum oru CD yaaraiyaavadhu vaanga vaiyungaL!
yellaa vgaiyilum ungaLaal aana udhavi seyyungaL!
innum oru 3000 CD viRRaalthaan namadhu kadanai adaikka mudiyum.
naamthaan nammkkau udhavi indha vELaiyil!
namadhu balam enna; naam yaar enbadhai ulagiRku puriya vaikka vENdiya nEram idhu!
If you all can individually push one more person to buy this CD, then I promise you that I will come out with the facts!
My loyalty lies with the people who came to our help to make this happen.
Once, I fulfill that committment, I will be free to talk to you openly!
Until then, i am tied!
Please help us!
Spread the word and make it happen!
I still have faith !
Pl. visit www.tis-usa.com and place your orders.

YIA!!

cry_sandiego

2nd August 2005, 02:17 AM

Here is my observations ( so far) on track #3 .

There are about 6 verses ( each about 4 lines ) in this song with the last one being the repeat of the first one.

The first verse starts very very melodiously .. I guess the opening is SudhaDhanyasi scale. . but then it gets a little different.. ( maybe i am wrong ( Can someone confirm if all the verses are set in the same scale.. I get a feeling that especially the IR sung verses sound different to me ).

Bavatharini has rendered this first one very well. Then IR picks up the second one with Bava singing the third.. Now for whatver reason ( I am sure there is a technical reason ) IR has sung all the remaining verses until the end.. I was expecting that they would alternate for all of the song.. ( i was guessing that the later verses had some really tough lyrics ( in terms of pronounciation i guess )..
I would like to know if there is any reasoning behind this.

Also the timing on the first 3 verses was right on the money.

Besides, the meaning of these verses are so beautiful.. I felt ashamed that I have never heard of this song until now.. Look how effectively Maanickavaasagar portrays the helplessness of man in the ways of God..

"naanaar en uLLamaar gnaangaLaar ennai aar aRivaar
vaanOr piraan ennai aaNdilanEl ?"

And to top it, IR has sung the verses so soulfully.. Now I can see why IR wanted to sing it himself..Besides these verses when you understand it leave you in tears man.. I mean it..

Also in the last but one verse, see how he skillfuly repeats "Aayapiran" to keep up the scale and it is done so well..

I just can't get over this song.. Believe me I still have not listed to the other tracks more than once.. I have heard many say that "Umbakatkarase .." is very good.. But i seem stuck in this song.

Also, a couple of lines, I was not able to understand the meaning.. if someone can help me there that would be great.. For ex, what does " Kunipudaiyaan " mean.. I know Maanickavasagar refers to Sivaperuman, but what is the exact meaning..

Guys, this track is fabulous.. I thought Polla Vinayen was worth all the efforts.. but now this seems like a treasure trove..,

More later

Cheers
MSK