Monday, August 29, 2005

western music, indian soul

2 movies.
2 pieces.
2 ragas.

1) Mask of Zorro: "I want to spend my lifetime loving you"

Superb piece! Almost completely set in Charukeshi.. a hauntingly intense raga that symbolises the intensity of expression in love. Here is the song. The lyrics are not bad either:

Moon so bright, night so fine,
Keep your heart here with mine
Life's a dream we are dreaming
Race the moon, catch the wind,
Ride the night to the end,
Seize the day, stand up for the light

I want to spend my lifetime loving you
If that is all in life I ever do

Heroes rise, heroes fall,Rise again, win it all,
In your heart, can't you feel the glory?
Through our joy, through our pain,
We can move worlds again
Take my hand, dance with me

I want to spend my lifetime loving you
If that is all in life I ever do
I will want nothing else to see me through
If I can spend my lifetime loving you

Though we know we will never come again
Where there is love, life begins
Over and over again
Save the night, save the day,
Save the love, come what may,Love is worth everything we pay

I want to spend my lifetime loving you
If that is all in life I ever do
I want to spend my lifetime loving you
If that is all in life I ever do
I will want nothing else to see me through
If I can spend my lifetime loving you.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
2) Pulp Fiction: Main theme.

The theme starts with a conversation which is produced here, just for the readers' (in)convenience:

man: "I love you honey-bunny"
woman: "I love you pumpkin"
man: "Everybody cool! This is a robbery!"
woman: "Any of you $@#^ing pricks move and I'll execute every mother$@#^ing last one of you!"

And then, the most pristine Mayamalavagowla I ever heard from a spanish guitar, accurate to a single note, ensues! You have to listen to it to understand how suprisingly faithful the tune is to the raga!

Kedar.

11 comments:

Gandaragolaka said...

I have the song as well. Still figuring out a way to put the pieces online.

Random Walker said...

aakarsh gifted me mask of zorro (cuz i bugged him abt it for my bday) long back... cuz we liked the movie's bgm when we first watched it. brilliant. the zorro's theme is great too.

regarding tarantino. his taste in music is superb. he chooses great songs even in western or spanish genre for his movies -- even in the rather erotic looking song "after dark" from the most pathetic movie called from dusk till dawn, the music is simply wonderful (even though it doesnt fall directly in the context of your post).... and most seductively classy. pulp fiction theme is a class apart (truly indian soul) - but you forget that gem of a composer called thomas newman. his compositions truly reflect western with an indian sound. american beauty's soundtrack is, to me, phenomenal!. the track "arose" is so close to amritavarshini that i watched the movie twice on two consequetive days in hyd just for that piece. another great piece is "lunch with the king" in american beauty. i was in bliss for a week. tracks in scent of a woman, shawshank redemption definitely have european and indian feels blended finely till u cant tell them apart. there are so many pieces... i've gulped more than my share of comment space--more later.

Random Walker said...

comment part 2:

gandar, i have this collection of european and asian folk music (greek--by greek i DONT mean belly dance music, bulgarian, swedish, irish, chinese) all of which remind you of a world sound... and somehow definite shades of indian ragas (in most of them)--specially bulgarian greek and chinese. i would love to share that with you and deserving enthusiasts --ofcourse you gotta appreciate music in an alien language.

Random Walker said...

and there is this 25 min erhu orchestra by a chinese composer and beijing orchestra (ithink)....completely in suddha saveri -- sometimes u even wonder if they are playing phrases of tyagaraja kriti! its called -- butterfly lover.

Gandaragolaka said...

ravi:
have you heard of a band called "deep forest"? They have an album by name boheme. The track "anastasia" is very frequently used by gult composers as background score, and one of the tracks on the side B (a transylvanian melody) is Kiravani.

Also, the very well known pieces that I present every time from SAWF articles of Rajan:
1) Greek
http://www.sawf.org/audio/bhairavi/greeksong.ram

2)Arab (Ghar aaya mera pardesi)
http://www.sawf.org/audio/bhairavi/asmahan.ram

some charukeshis in western music:
1)
http://www.sawf.org/audio/charukeshi/schubert.ram

2)
http://www.sawf.org/audio/charukeshi/mii.ram

3) the last one minute or so of the track "Kashmir" of Led Zeppelin.

The movie "Run Lola, Run" also has a indian clasical music coming in the background (mostly yaman and darbari).

Aakarsh said...

nice blog kedar! the zorro song is one amazing song...i dont remember the pulp-fiction one , though i watched the film..
and ravi! whats this asian folk compilation u r talking abt! do i have it or not? if i dont have it (yet), then what r u doing abt it?

Gandaragolaka said...

which brings me to what I (actually vidya gave the idea!) have been planning for a while. We definitely need to have a ftp repository on the web wherein we can up/download any frickin thing in the universe!

but folks in the usa need take the initiative... what say??

Sketchy Self said...

kedar!!!
e-mail me the song and i'll put it up on mavericks!

Random Walker said...

kedar: i like this ftp idea... but my univ space is so frigging complicated to use (i never used it). we need to figure out something. may be kamalakar can help with his infinite wisdom. or even vidya.

aakarsh: u friggin arseorifice, i sent u all the world folk music, chinese and irish folk--u never bothered. not to mention the recent klpds i had to go go thro.

Gandaragolaka said...

aakarsh!!

dont tell me that 15 GB hard disk that u lost contained these as well!!!!!

Aakarsh said...

ravi: who says i never bothered..i was just making sure if the subject of matter (folk music) is the same one u have sent or something which u got recently.

kedar: rest assured..they r not lost..they wont be.