Palakkaad Sreeram sir asked in his facebook wall about the unique transition that is happening on the 33rd bar of the song "Nil Nil Nil" from the movie Pattu Padava. Its a sweet innocuous sounding melody with monstrous technicality. 

Song's chosen scale is Vasantha, but all attempts are made in the Pallavi to conceal that. The only hint is Raaja's refusal to designate C Major as the root chord, refusing to acknowledge the weight of the Dominant 5th note, i.e., the note G or the Panchamam because the raaga doesn't have that although he can't resist the idea of toying with G occasionally towards the end of pallavi. Hence the Pallavi proceeds on the back of F Major. Only to find that, F continues to be the back bone of charanam which clearly starts off as Vasantha, So on the stage 1, the trick is having chosen same main chord for Pallavi and Charanam and yet giving two different feel to the listeners. 

As a stage 2 of the riddle comes this beauty, cake walking in on the 33rd bar, where the key switches to D minor and the song proceeds on a scale similar to Gowri manohari sans Dhaivatham, more with the pakads of Patdeep. You will be flabbergasted to find that Dm is nothing but the relative major of F. More over this phrase goes from Dm -> G major while G is also relevant in the main scale. i.e., G Major = sa + ma + Dha on 2nd kattai gowrimanohari or Ni+Ri+Pa on 1 kattai sankarabharanam. 

So the complete transition during the finishing of pallavi is : Dm -> G -> C -> F leaving you wondering what just happened. This kind of depth in the musical thinking is unparalleled in film music, a reason why his fans consider him on a league of his own.

Nil Nil Nil

Here is a 'Bass over' version of the Piano cover of the song 'Megam Karukayilae'. The Piano track is played by me while the bass guitar track is played by my dear friend Eddie. You can appreciate the rhythm pattern of bass track much better, especially on the last count of each bar. And the first interlude sounds heavenly with the bass accompaniment.

Piano & Baas guitar - Megam Karukayilae - Headphones must

A very unassuming song like many of Raaja's song which one would have overlooked. But just like his all other songs, this is a power package.. 
Very inspiring prelude chorus/ After that prelude violin/ After that the rapturous folk beat/ a neatly arranged Pallavi with Kolaattam (A south indian folk dance akin to Dandia)/ Tabla nadai in Charanam/ SPB's magic with a sweet tune with a tinge of Sarasaangi/ Tisra nadai in second interlude.. Now where do I stop.. 
The prelude of this song has a great influence in me which I recorded today in Piano. See: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HsZXAEvxy2I 

Lalanaamani

Video at: http://youtu.be/fqEW8-y-qqQ 
List of chords at: http://raagadevan.blogspot.nl/2014/02/harmony-in-dissonance.html 

Aboorva Sagothararglal Theme

Bach Chorale Cantata BWV 59

சுகாவும் ஹரியும் கேட்டு வாங்கிய அறுவை சிகிச்சை... 

vicky

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