String

The genius Carnatic vocalist Madurai Mani Iyer (1912-1968), possibly the greatest exponent of live improvisation in Carnatic classical music, popularized this "English Note" composed by Harikesanallur Mutthiah Bhagavathar (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fNjl5w8Prw0) to showcase his autodidactic (self teaching) talent in expanding beyond his strictly classical training. This piece was extremely popular with an independence era audience that felt pride in one of their own "getting" western music while no Englishman could perform a Thodi alapana. 

Obviously as a Indian classical musician, Mutthiah Bhagavathar only composed the main melody, an incredibly catchy and hummable tune that would have worked in the best courts of Vienna. But Western classical music is about harmony layered over the melody and I was surprised that no one had taken a crack at taking this really catch melody and writing a String quartet around it. 

There were some interesting challenges. Mani Iyer clearly did not keep harmony in mind when he wrote the piece so there are places where the melodic sequence presents quite a hard challenge to harmonize, but all in all, I think it turned out okayish. 

Again, I am quite an amateur and It will be great if more talented musicians take this melody and set it to even better background scores :)

English Note (by Madurai Mani Iyer) - String Quartet

Composed by @hariflute as a memorial tribute to our friend Balachandar's Dalmatian Tommie, who passed away recently. (http://vimeo.com/28183556)
Piano - Harish
Violins (One acoustic &amp; one electric) and Cello - Krish Ashok
The Cello presented a few recording challenges, primarily one of mic placement. But since the notes being played were in the lower registers, it turned out OK. It will be interesting to see how higher pitched notes sound with this placement because they sounded quite nasal when I tried it out.
For the acoustic violin, I used a Samson condenser mic but I'm not altogether sure the placement was right. A 100 year old German violin really ought to have a brighter, heavier sound without any fancy processing. But well, I suppose one has to keep trying. To avoid background noise, I had to switch off the fan and the A/C, which made it quite uncomfortable in the room.
The Electric violin of course is quite simple. Just plugin straight into the sound interface and one is good to go, but unless the instrument is quite high end, it's impossible to get that particular natural violin sound. I'll need a few more promotions at work to afford a better electric violin though.


Missing Tommie

Natpe Thunai (2019)

Venga Mavan :: SenSongsMp3.Co

Piano score recorded through a MIDI keyboard and heavily corrected for mistakes. 

Ave Maria

Ee pakalariyathe...vidarum ninte neela mizhi ariyathe- theevram song

Jhinda-Music is back one last time for 2020 with a single titled "Ghut Ghut". Releasing under 4G-Records on the 2nd October 2020, this reggaeton style single is sure to get you moving! Ghut Ghut features the unique vocal talents of G-Sing from New York and music by Jhinda-Music.

Song Title: Ghut Ghut
Music: Jhinda-Music
Singer: G-Sing
Label: 4G-Records

Ghut Ghut - Jhinda-Music ft G-Sing

Raga: Panthuvaraali (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kamavardani)
Composer: Swati Tirunal

Lyrics & Notation: http://www.shivkumar.org/music/sarasaksha.htm

Thanks to an earthing problem at home, I had to do quite a bit of jugglery to marginally mute an ugly droning sound that crept into the recording. For those interested in sound engineering, I used a high pass filter that removed the annoying bassy part of the drone. 

Saarasaaksha Paripaalaya

A violin and guitar adaptation of the song from Maryan

Yenga Pora Raasa

I take the ridiculous and the sublime, add cellos, violins, guitars and random internet collaborators to make music of sorts

Saarasaaksha Paripaalaya

Krish Ashok

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