Sendhaamarai - My First Ever fully Orchestrated composition

Song : Senthaamarai
Lyrics : Udhaya
Vocals : Mux, Meera
Composed and Orchestrated by : Murali Venkatraman
Album : Blogswara



Sendhaamarai - An old Hansdhwani Composition | Music Upload


Today is an important day for me as a musician, especially as a composer. An album named Blogswara has been released with some compositions of mine along with those of my friends. What is unique ? The album was entirely done over the net without the artists ever meeting each other face to face! All over the world a talented buch of indian bloggers, came under the intitiative of Joseph Thomas - a singer par excellence - in an effort to produce a music album which would be done exclusively for the love of music ! Serious effort with blood, sweat and time was to be there, but it would be free and serve as a primordial advocate of 'free music' !

I was one of the earliest to join blogswara as a composer/singer. I have been composing for almost 3-4 yrs with a bank close to 500 tunes, all in the need of orchestration. Finally one of them rolled out of my bag and here it is before you for your feedback. I composed and orchestrated the song and sent it to Mux Mukundan and Meera who sang the lyrics of Udhaya.

Music has a strange power. Udhaya - the poet and I - the composer/singer, have been working on many tunes for 3 or more years now without ever thinking when would all the songs that we both make, see the light of the day. If I were to quote the relation between me and Udhaya, I would lilke to recall SPB's quote on kamal - 'down the time lane there had been a soul exchange betwen us'. We may have not achieved as much like SPB or Kamal but the quote certainly applies to us. Somehow our love for tamil and music matched harmoniously and we started doing songs. Today the first one has sneaked out and our longstanding wish has come true and we are awaiting the judgement of you, the listeners!!

Meera - who came as a visitor to my blog, has become a very good friend and Mux - the ever sweet guy - has been very helpful in clarifying many things about recording and singing. When I played this song to our dhooL friends, they liked it and suggested I could put this up as SOTD.

For a guy without any kind of formal training in music, it has been an steep uphill climb. I have just left the rock bottom and started going up. The mountain that music is, grows at a rapid pace and reaching the summit is beyond dreams. But the path of exploration itself gives me immense pleasure and I am happy to be pursuing it. Dhool.com itself was one such venture with BB and this is the next phase I would like to be active in. Dhool SOTD visitors are requested to visit the album web site and listen to all the songs of my fellow artists and pat them for some of their wonderful efforts. Any comments, criticizms are welcomed with open hands. Most of us knew nothing about recording, mixing, MIDI etc, and we are learning. It is a long way, but we are crawling. We will hopefully reach a state where we can look back and say "well..that has been a long walk"

Presenting to you "sendhaamarai cheNdaip pOlE sooriyan angE sarigirathE" as SOTD today.

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Blogswara - releases today !!!

A unifying musical endeavor in excellence sans the commercial elements using the power of net. This is how I would describe this venture which is a brainchild of Joesph Thomas ( popularly Jo) a singer with a mellifluous voice. This project may have been conceptualized by a few others, but was singlehandedly spearheaded by Jo. This venture has opened new channels to work with some wonderful artists like anup, meera, ajay and more.

Today around 2:30 pm Blogswara goes online. This is the first album in which I have donned the roles of a singer and composer. Hence I can confidently say this is my first album venture ! I seek the support of all my blog visitors to spread the word about Blogswara and enjoy the music that has been produced by the artists involved. Any feedback, positive or negative, will be appreciated wholeheartedly.

Watch out for Blogswara at 2:30 pm EST today !!!!

A duet with Jo - thendrale ThendralE mella nee pesu

Jo and I had been contemplating singing a song together. One of the songs that we planned was "aruvi kooda jathi illaamal surangaL paadudhu". Since that needs a good amount of karaoke work, when Anand prabhu gave Jo the karaoke of "thendrale..thendrale", he suggested we both could sing it for fun. Jo has sung the portion fo Unni Krishnan and I have sung Mano's portion. It can be found here:

http://jocalling.blogspot.com/2006/05/duet-with-murali.html

Please leave your comments in Jo's blog. It is a casual rendition by both of us - kind of a break in between the work associated with blogswara.

Snake

I have seen a lot of snakes in my life, long, small, thin, fat..all. Cannot even keep a count of how many. CECRI - my undergrad college, was one place where I have seen so many of them. I have usually seen them in the night. Very rarely in day time. Not even once have I tried to kill them and somehow I never felt they were going to hurt me. Always ensured they passed and then I went on my way.


4 or 5 days back, I saw one in Columbia at 5:00 pm. I was on my way to get a sandwich from SUBWAY. The snake had come out of the nearby woods and was trying to enter the road through the sidewalk. It was probably 3-4 feet long. I stopped 5-6 feet from the snake. It was still. I thought it was dead. But then I saw it moving slowly. I have always seen snakes responding very quickly to vibrations. This was probably old or infirm. The traffic was just building up and death was written on the walls if it would attempt crossing.




In an attempt to save it from getting run over, I diverted the traffic standing a little away from the snake and fortunately it slowly understood the gravity and receded into the woods. I also took two pictures with my cellphone camera.

Poonkadhave thaaz thiravaay

Song : Poonkadhave thaaz thiRavaay
Singers : Deepan chakravarthy, Uma ramanan
Composer : Ilariyaraja
Movie : Nizalgal
Lyrics : Vairamuthu

Performed by : Murali Venkatraman, Meera

Not much intro is needed for this brilliant piece from IR. I sang this with Meera. She has an interesting anecdote to say about the song. You can listen to it here:

http://swarasthaanam.blogspot.com/2006/05/thhaaazzzhhhthiraavaaaiiii.html

You may leave your feedback in her blog.

Kaatrinile varum geetham

I would call this an audacious effort bordering on blasphemy. This is a song which has been immortalized by the legend M.S. Subbulakshmi. MSS was the edifice of divnitiy. Had meera wanted to re-live, she would have chosen MSS's voice for rendering all her songs.

After recording a song for blogswara over a period of two days, my vocals had strained a lot. I rested myself against the chair and was enjoying the quiet night, the silence of which was interrupted only by the gentle breeze. This song popped in my mind from nowhere and wanted to sing. My friend naliniraj helped me locate the lyrics and I just sang with the shruthi.

Towards the end of the song, I had a few tears in my eyes, with my mind garbled by two thoughts. I am a devotee of Baby Krishna myself and the lyrics were moving me. Also the weight of the fact that the divine lady is not among us added more sorrow to my mind and I could not escape the tears.

This may not be my best rendition. The thoughts and the vocal strain have definitely distorted the song at a few places. But it certainly is one that came from my heart. You folks let me know if it is acceptable.

Oh butterfly

I sang this song with Nyneishia. Please visit her blog to listen to the song. You may leave your valuable comments there.

http://nyneishia.blogspot.com/2006/05/oh-butterfly.html

Mandram vandha thendralukku

Song : Mandram vandha
Movie : Mouna ragam
Composer : IR
Singer : SPB

Performed by : Murali

This song is special to me since it was the first one that introduced me as a singer to my undergrad college. I have sung this song so many times on stage, that I have forgotten the count. Recently Sukhanya, a blogger friend and VRS - a cecri friend talked about me singing this song. I thought after so many songs in my blog, this is something that I had to sing since I have sung this the most in concerts. The track does not have any music. Just shruthi and my voice. LEt me know what you guys think.

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Ennai yaarendu enni

Song : ennai yaarendu
Film : paalum pazamum
MD: Viswanathan - Ramamoorthy
Singers: T.M.S, P.Susheela

Performed by : Murali

A friend of mine Naliniraj during a conversation asked me to sing some of her favorite songs which included some of Shri. T. M. Soundarrajan's numbers like "naan malarOdu thaniyiaaga", "ennai yaarendru". I was pleasantly surprised since I have NEVER been asked to sing any of this great singer's numbers. Also exempting "paattum naanE" and "chandrodhayam oru", I have never sung T. M. S numbers on stage.I told Nalini: "Nalini : If I sing his songs, the song will sound very different since my voice nowhere close to TMS". But Nalini insisted that it is fine to sing in my voice. In a burst of inspiration last week I picked this song up and sang.

I did not sit and listen to the original before snging this song. Whatever has been sung is from the previous listenings in the radio. I sang Susheela's portion too. The melody is just too good.