Ilaiyaraaja rues loss of unity in music creation

Vijayawada: Legendary composer Ilaiyaraaja, reflecting on the transformation of India’s music industry, rues today’s compositions, saying “they have lost the soul, discipline, and divine inspiration that once defined great music”.

The maestro, who arrived here ahead of his live concert scheduled for November 8 at the Indira Gandhi Municipal Stadium, shared his views on music over the years at a press conference on Friday.

Ilaiyaraaja recalled “the golden age of live orchestras”, when every song was the result of collective emotion and precision. “In those days, sixty to eighty musicians would come together in one studio. We recorded the entire four-minute song live, in a single take.

Everyone, from the instrumentalists to the singers, had to be completely focused. If even one person made a mistake, we would start again,” he said, recalling the rigorous sessions he had shared with stalwarts like SP Balasubrahmanyam and S Janaki.

Contrasting the practices of that era with those of the present, Ilaiyaraaja said modern recording practices have fragmented music creation. “Now, a director explains the scene, a composer writes the tune, lyricists join later, singers record separately, and programmers replace instruments with keyboards. The male singer doesn’t even know what the female singer has sung, and sometimes the director hears the full song only at the end,” he observed, calling it a “loss of musical unity”.

Describing his own method, the composer said he begins writing and composing early each morning, preparing detailed notations for every instrumentalist before rehearsals. “I wasn’t just composing. I was writing every note. At 9 am, rehearsals would begin, and by noon, the song would come alive with perfect synchronisation,” he observed. Ilaiyaraaja attributed the timeless appeal of his music to the spiritual concentration and emotion invested in its making. “Those songs live on because they were made with total focus and divine blessing. Today, that devotion is missing,” he said. “When you listen to those songs, they don’t just reach your ears; they go straight to your heart and touch your soul. That’s why people connect their life memories to them,” he reflected. Ending on a personal note, he added, “I am not someone who speaks much. My life itself has been music. Everything that happened in my life turned into a song. That is the divine gift I was given.” The upcoming event marks Ilaiyaraaja’s first public appearance in Vijayawada, where a 50-foot cutout of the maestro has been unveiled at Eat Street in his honour.