Instinctive Drive June 18 Instinctive Drive | Page 21

I
laiyaraaja is widely re-
garded as one of the great-
est Indian music composers.
He was born as Gnanathesi-
kan in 1943 in a normal mid-
dle-class family in Pannaipu-
ram, Then he changed his
name to Rajaiya when he
joined school. Ilaiyaraaja
learnt to play musical instru-
ments at his young age where
his master renamed and
called him just ‘Raaja’.
Ilaiyaraaja grew up in a rural
area, exposed to a range
of Tamil folk music. At the
age of 14, he joined a travel-
ling musical troupe headed
by his elder brother Pavalar
Varadarajan, and spent the
next decade performing
throughout South India.
While working with the
troupe, he penned his first
composition, a musical adap-
tation of an elegy written by
the Tamil poet laure-
ate Kannnadasan for Jawaha
rlal Nehru, India's first prime
minister. In 1968, Ilaiyaraaja
began a music course with
Professor Dhanraj in Madras
which included an overview
of Western classical music,
compositional training in
techniques such
as counterpoint, and study in
instrumental performance .
Ilaiyaraaja is a gold medalist
in classical guitar after com-
pleting the course through
distance learning channel
from Trinity College of Mu-
sic, London. In 1975, the film
producer Panchu Arunacha-
lam commissioned him to
compose the songs and film
score for a Tamil-language
film called Annakkili For the
soundtrack, Ilaiyaraaja ap-
plied the techniques of mod-
ern popular film music or-
chestration to Tamil folk po-
etry and folk song melodies
which created a fusion of
Western and Tamil idioms.
He, then was renamed as Ila-
yaraja by the producer of the
movie.
By the mid-1980s Ilaiyaraaja
was gaining increasing stat-
ure as a film composer and
music director in the South
Indian film industry. He has
worked with Indian poets and
lyricists such as Kannadasan,
Vaali, Vairamthu, O.N.V Ku-
rup, Sreekumaran Thampi,
Veturi Sundararama Murthi,
Aacharya Aatreya,
Sirivennela Sitaramasastri,
Chi Udaya Shankar and Gul-
zar and is well known for his
association with filmmakers
such as Bharathiraja, S.P
Muthraman, J. Mahendran,
Balu Mahendra, K. Balachan-
der, Mani Rathnam, Sathyan,
Anthikkad, Priyadarshan,
Fazil, Vamsi, K.Viswanath,
Singeetham Srinivasa Rao,
Bala, Snakar Nag and
R. Balki.
He is credited for introducing
western musical sensibilities
in the Indian musical main-
stream. Being the first Asian
to compose a full sympho-
ny performed by the Royal
Philharminic Orchestra in
London, Ilaiyaraaja is known
to have written the entire
symphony in just thirteen
days which has never been
done before in the world. He
is also a gold medalist in clas-
sical guitar from Trinity Col-
lege of Music, London. Reput-
ed to be the world's most pro-
lific composer, he has com-
posed over 7000 songs, pro-
vided film scores for more
than 1000 movies and per-
formed in more than 20,000
concerts. According to Achille
Forler, board member of the
Indian Performing Right So-
ciety, the kind of stellar body
of work that Ilaiyaraaja has
created in the last forty years
should have placed him
among the world’s Top 10
richest composers.
Ilaiyaraaja is a recipient
of five Indian National
Film Awards– three for
Best Music Direction and
two for Best Background
Score. In 2010, he was
awarded the Padma
Bushan, the third-highest
civilian honour in India
and the Padma Vi-
bushan in 2018, the sec-
ond-highest Civilian
Award by the government
of India. In 2012, he re-
ceived the Sangeet Natak
Akademi Award, the
highexperimental works
in the music field.
Best Indian recognition
given to practising art-
ists, for his creative and
experimental works in
the music field.
In 2003, according to an
international poll con-
ducted by BBC, more
than half a million people
from 165 countries voted
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