A friend of mine was a bit confused with the time signature ,the way vocal scats and chorus were rendered in the prelude and interlude of the song ' Kannaalane ' composed by A.R.Rahman , from the movie ' Bombay '.
There was an article by Mr.Ramesh on the same topic with justified comments to the question at http://rameshonmusic.blogspot.com/2007/10/overlapping-talas.html
The song starts with gumusumugumusumuguppuchip..... which is a 7 count phrase. The time signature is 7/4 at the start of the prelude for a length of four bars (28 counts) and changes to 4/4 on the 5th bar. From 'maamangaaran raathiri vandhaa' , the vocal scat is added with an extra gumusumu to make it a 8 count phrase , which keeps repeating till the pallavi begins.The Bass Guitar blends from the 9th bar.Though the first half of the prelude is in sync with the counts , the second half is not the same when it changes to 4/4 . It is confusing (rather odd) as the first line (maamangaaran..) of the chorus starts on the beat and the second line (maaman thandha..) starts on the upbeat before the bar ends. Please listen to the audio clip below. I have mixed a tambourine to specify the counts.
If the prelude was in 7/4 and the song in 4/4 or viceversa , it would have been a POLYMETRIC song . Likewise if the melody was in 7/4 and the rhythm in 4/4 ( like in the interlude where the tabla adds ) it would be a POLYRHYTHMIC composition. So how to define this song musically ? Is it a song with POLYRHYTHM or POLYMETER ?
Posts
No comments:
Post a Comment