Thiruvasakam By Ilaiyaraaja
Published by Aakarsh under on Sunday, June 05, 2005
I guess i have already started promoting Thiruvasakam By Ilaiyaraaja (refer my previous blogs). With the project due for release ths month, not much has been done so far, through Media, for promotion due to lack of funds. and few people have taken that responsibility so that music lovers dont miss out a unique album. i am one of them and doing my part, to promote the album. here is a what i wish to put up today.
what exactly is Thiruvasakam?
Thiruvasakam is a set of 51 divinely inspired verses composed by the Shaivaite Saint Manickavasagar. The special significance of the Thiruvasakam is its poetic beauty and the profound emotion it creates while just reading the verses.
Maestro Ilaiyaraaja set music to this sacred text, with grand orchestral-choral backing. though started as symphony, Ilaiyaraaja later clarified that it is not a symphony completely, although it employs some of the elements, but an Oratorio. and Thirusvasakam By Ilaiyaraaja(TBI) can be called as the 1st Indian Oratorio.He used the Budapest Symphony Orchestra for this project, along with many chorus singers from India, Hungary and America(Broadway Singers).
This project has been on since over 2 years. though the composition didnt take so much time(he took a little over 20 days to compose), it was the recording and other issues which delayed the project. the main issue was the funds. This project is financed completely by charity-funds only. and as the recording/mastering needed lot of money, frequent hiccups were inevitable, due to which the project took lot of time to reach completion. TBI is produced by Tamil Maiyam, a registered non-profit tax-exempt organization in India, committed to bring out high quality productions in Tamil art, culture and literature. Tamil Maiyam is led by Fr.Jegath, who is also the principal coordinator of this project. The US activities of this project are managed by the Thiruvasakam in Symphony foundation led by Dr. Sankar Kumar (www.tis-usa.com ).The TIS USA team has done a commendable job in advancing this project.The members of Ilaiyaraaja's Yahoogroup were among the first people to support the project.
Other Key-Players :
Mr. Laszlo Kovacs (Conductor): This Hungarian born musician, well known all over Europe is the Conductor of Thiruvasakam in Symphony. Winner of several prestigious music awards he conducts on an average of 80 concerts every year. In a music carrier spanning almost 40 years he has conducted more than 2500 concerts in 21 countries, which include performances with the celebrated London Royal Philharmonic and Moscow Philharmonic Orchestra. Since 1998 he is a regular accompanist to Eva Marton.
Budapest Miskolc Symphony Orchestra: This 100 year old group is considered the only complete professional Orchestra of Hungary. All it’s 84 regular players are graduates from the Academy of music. For the last 29 years this orchestra has played the National New Year concert for Hungary. It’s uniqueness is it’s tremendous ability to adapt from the Baroque music to contemporary compositions. This acclaimed orchestra has played for Thiruvasakam in Symphony.
Mr.Richard King (Sound Engineer): Mr. Richard King who works for the Sony Music Studios, New York is a phenomenon in the contemporary music industry. At a young age of 37 he has recorded and mixed five Grammy Award winning productions. They include the Oscar award winning Crouching Tiger - Hidden dragon, double Grammy winner - Abrigade Brazil, Benstein: West side story suite, Appalachian Journey and the Brahms/Stravinsky: Violin Concertos. Mr. Richard King who also holds a Masters in Music from the McGill University is rated as one of the ablest and sensitive sound engineers in the world today.
Stephen Schwartz: At the age of 20 he wrote the title song for the play ‘Butterflies are Free’. And at the age of 23 he wrote the lyrics for the double Grammy award winning God spell. Today he is the No 1 play write in the Broadway theatres. His immortal productions are Baker’s wife, Children of Eden, Pocahontas, The Prince of Egypt, Reluctant Pilgrim, Unchartered Territory and the recent musical ‘Wicked’, that opened in the 2003 fall at Broadway. He has translated lyrics of Thiruvasakam into English.
The Project : Music Maestro Ilaiyaraaja has composed music combining the spirit of Indian music and the harmony of symphonic format to lyrics from the famed Tamil spiritual classic Thiruvasakam. The first release is a 60 minutes CD / Audio tape which would also include one lengthy song with English lyrics in the oratorio style. A Complete Symphony Orchestra and more than 100 choral singers feature in this album, making it a first of its kind in Indian music history. The releases in other languages would follow depending on the success of this first initiative.
The album will primarily have 60 minutes of 'Thiruvasakam'. Out of it, a single song (Sivapuranam) will be running for 20 minutes and it is for this one that English is included. This will be like a counterpoint in which Maestro sings one main track containing Manickavasagar's verses in Tamil and another English singer will sing its counterpart in English in another main track. The total output will be something interesting yet clear for comprehension. The other 40 minutes are divided among the other songs, which are the original Tamil verses of Manickavasagar only. Only one song among them will contain accompanying percussion. Others will have the symphony orchestra's backing alone!
Some comments: Quoting Mr.Richard King, "Having now heard the entire work completely in one sitting, I can tell you that you [Raaja] have created a wonderful piece of music - very beautiful and interesting music, with spiritual and contemplative overtones - Bravo."
Quoting Mr.StephenSchwartz ," Last night, at Sony studios in New York City, I hadthe pleasure of hearing the almost finished mix ofIlayaraaja's amazing work. It is unlike anything I've never heard before, a stunning blend of Indian and western music and instruments. I asked Mr Raja if this was something different for him too, and he said he had never done anything like this piece before. I don't know if anyone has. So I believe those of you looking forward to this are in for a great treat. The section to which I contributed English words is about twenty minutes long and dovetails back and forth between Mr Raja singing in Tamil and an American singer singing in English, plus there is a large and beautifully produced chorus. Mr Raja's orchestrations are superb, and the recording engineer, Richard King, has done a spectacular job sonically. I felt so very proud to be a small part of this project."
RELEASE : "Thiruvasagam by Ilaiyaraaja" will be released on June 30, 2005 in a grand event to be held at the Music Academy, Chennai. The CD will be released in the US, during the July 2-4 weekend in Dallas, Texas. More details expected soon. The work will be released in Tapes & Audio CDs priced at Rs.50/- & Rs.150/- respectively. apart from these, a special Collector's Edition pack( priced at Rs.250/-) would be released which would include Audio CD, a special booklet (contents yet to be known..mostly the lyrics) and an exclusive DVD (expected to contain "The Making Of TBI" and comments from celebrities and experts...not really sure.details awaited).
Buy/Order Online : mail to tamil_mai2000@yahoo.com (more details..shall be updated)
So, if any of you is interested, please promote this album, especially through friends and acquaintances who are music aficionados. Promoting it in music-schools(if you know any..like music departments in your respective universities) & other music clubs would be appreciated as this album is aimed at international audience too. the success of this album can prompt Ilaiyaraaja to come up with many more masterpieces(like the Symphony he composed for/played by Royal Philharmonic Orchestra,London in 1990..i hope that gets released!!) and can fetch him the recognition he truly deserves...internationally.
LASTLY, I REQUEST ALL THE INTERESTED PEOPLE TO PURCHASE ORGINAL CDS/TAPES.
what exactly is Thiruvasakam?
Thiruvasakam is a set of 51 divinely inspired verses composed by the Shaivaite Saint Manickavasagar. The special significance of the Thiruvasakam is its poetic beauty and the profound emotion it creates while just reading the verses.
Maestro Ilaiyaraaja set music to this sacred text, with grand orchestral-choral backing. though started as symphony, Ilaiyaraaja later clarified that it is not a symphony completely, although it employs some of the elements, but an Oratorio. and Thirusvasakam By Ilaiyaraaja(TBI) can be called as the 1st Indian Oratorio.He used the Budapest Symphony Orchestra for this project, along with many chorus singers from India, Hungary and America(Broadway Singers).
This project has been on since over 2 years. though the composition didnt take so much time(he took a little over 20 days to compose), it was the recording and other issues which delayed the project. the main issue was the funds. This project is financed completely by charity-funds only. and as the recording/mastering needed lot of money, frequent hiccups were inevitable, due to which the project took lot of time to reach completion. TBI is produced by Tamil Maiyam, a registered non-profit tax-exempt organization in India, committed to bring out high quality productions in Tamil art, culture and literature. Tamil Maiyam is led by Fr.Jegath, who is also the principal coordinator of this project. The US activities of this project are managed by the Thiruvasakam in Symphony foundation led by Dr. Sankar Kumar (www.tis-usa.com ).The TIS USA team has done a commendable job in advancing this project.The members of Ilaiyaraaja's Yahoogroup were among the first people to support the project.
Other Key-Players :
Mr. Laszlo Kovacs (Conductor): This Hungarian born musician, well known all over Europe is the Conductor of Thiruvasakam in Symphony. Winner of several prestigious music awards he conducts on an average of 80 concerts every year. In a music carrier spanning almost 40 years he has conducted more than 2500 concerts in 21 countries, which include performances with the celebrated London Royal Philharmonic and Moscow Philharmonic Orchestra. Since 1998 he is a regular accompanist to Eva Marton.
Budapest Miskolc Symphony Orchestra: This 100 year old group is considered the only complete professional Orchestra of Hungary. All it’s 84 regular players are graduates from the Academy of music. For the last 29 years this orchestra has played the National New Year concert for Hungary. It’s uniqueness is it’s tremendous ability to adapt from the Baroque music to contemporary compositions. This acclaimed orchestra has played for Thiruvasakam in Symphony.
Mr.Richard King (Sound Engineer): Mr. Richard King who works for the Sony Music Studios, New York is a phenomenon in the contemporary music industry. At a young age of 37 he has recorded and mixed five Grammy Award winning productions. They include the Oscar award winning Crouching Tiger - Hidden dragon, double Grammy winner - Abrigade Brazil, Benstein: West side story suite, Appalachian Journey and the Brahms/Stravinsky: Violin Concertos. Mr. Richard King who also holds a Masters in Music from the McGill University is rated as one of the ablest and sensitive sound engineers in the world today.
Stephen Schwartz: At the age of 20 he wrote the title song for the play ‘Butterflies are Free’. And at the age of 23 he wrote the lyrics for the double Grammy award winning God spell. Today he is the No 1 play write in the Broadway theatres. His immortal productions are Baker’s wife, Children of Eden, Pocahontas, The Prince of Egypt, Reluctant Pilgrim, Unchartered Territory and the recent musical ‘Wicked’, that opened in the 2003 fall at Broadway. He has translated lyrics of Thiruvasakam into English.
The Project : Music Maestro Ilaiyaraaja has composed music combining the spirit of Indian music and the harmony of symphonic format to lyrics from the famed Tamil spiritual classic Thiruvasakam. The first release is a 60 minutes CD / Audio tape which would also include one lengthy song with English lyrics in the oratorio style. A Complete Symphony Orchestra and more than 100 choral singers feature in this album, making it a first of its kind in Indian music history. The releases in other languages would follow depending on the success of this first initiative.
The album will primarily have 60 minutes of 'Thiruvasakam'. Out of it, a single song (Sivapuranam) will be running for 20 minutes and it is for this one that English is included. This will be like a counterpoint in which Maestro sings one main track containing Manickavasagar's verses in Tamil and another English singer will sing its counterpart in English in another main track. The total output will be something interesting yet clear for comprehension. The other 40 minutes are divided among the other songs, which are the original Tamil verses of Manickavasagar only. Only one song among them will contain accompanying percussion. Others will have the symphony orchestra's backing alone!
Some comments: Quoting Mr.Richard King, "Having now heard the entire work completely in one sitting, I can tell you that you [Raaja] have created a wonderful piece of music - very beautiful and interesting music, with spiritual and contemplative overtones - Bravo."
Quoting Mr.StephenSchwartz ," Last night, at Sony studios in New York City, I hadthe pleasure of hearing the almost finished mix ofIlayaraaja's amazing work. It is unlike anything I've never heard before, a stunning blend of Indian and western music and instruments. I asked Mr Raja if this was something different for him too, and he said he had never done anything like this piece before. I don't know if anyone has. So I believe those of you looking forward to this are in for a great treat. The section to which I contributed English words is about twenty minutes long and dovetails back and forth between Mr Raja singing in Tamil and an American singer singing in English, plus there is a large and beautifully produced chorus. Mr Raja's orchestrations are superb, and the recording engineer, Richard King, has done a spectacular job sonically. I felt so very proud to be a small part of this project."
RELEASE : "Thiruvasagam by Ilaiyaraaja" will be released on June 30, 2005 in a grand event to be held at the Music Academy, Chennai. The CD will be released in the US, during the July 2-4 weekend in Dallas, Texas. More details expected soon. The work will be released in Tapes & Audio CDs priced at Rs.50/- & Rs.150/- respectively. apart from these, a special Collector's Edition pack( priced at Rs.250/-) would be released which would include Audio CD, a special booklet (contents yet to be known..mostly the lyrics) and an exclusive DVD (expected to contain "The Making Of TBI" and comments from celebrities and experts...not really sure.details awaited).
Buy/Order Online : mail to tamil_mai2000@yahoo.com (more details..shall be updated)
So, if any of you is interested, please promote this album, especially through friends and acquaintances who are music aficionados. Promoting it in music-schools(if you know any..like music departments in your respective universities) & other music clubs would be appreciated as this album is aimed at international audience too. the success of this album can prompt Ilaiyaraaja to come up with many more masterpieces(like the Symphony he composed for/played by Royal Philharmonic Orchestra,London in 1990..i hope that gets released!!) and can fetch him the recognition he truly deserves...internationally.
LASTLY, I REQUEST ALL THE INTERESTED PEOPLE TO PURCHASE ORGINAL CDS/TAPES.
4 comments:
only need to know when.
release function on 30th..so, probably it will hit the stands by 1st or 2nd july i think..
in USA the cds are expected to be in music stores in Mid July
Kamal,
Have you purchased a CD of IR Live in Italy? Is it available in Hyd? I haven't checked in Bangalore yet.
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