| ‘Rahman
the wizard’- Stanford University
recognizes him so! |
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For
the India’s Consul General in San
Francisco, Mr B S Prakash, it was an event
that made him feel proud to be an Indian.
India’s top Music Director, A R Rahman
was honoured by the music and humanities
department of Stanford University, a prestigious
university known for excellence in science,
engineering and technological departments. |
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Insha Allah: it’s God’s
Will!
While the audience sat expectant and
electric, preparation behind the stage
was well-orchestrated and intense.
The participants were dressed to gig
to A R Rahman’s hits. However,
Rahman himself sat quiet, cool and
collected. This man, call him a man
of God if you want for he is so prayerful
most of his day, is used to being
applauded and eulogized. Celebrity
status, for him, is a gift of God
and all glory went to God finally.
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Rewriting music for cinema?
For Rahman, the path from a backyard studio
outfit to the auditoriums of Stanford University
has been a long but steady one. Even though
he knew that he would rewrite the way music
was composed for cinema, he would keep himself
unassuming and go ahead with what he thought
he was good at—music.
Music was not simply the notes you wrote
and played. |
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| Rahman,
familiar as he is with a variety of styles—classical,
Sufi, and fusion and also light-music that
is used for commercial cinema—created
versions that would set new trends in cinema
music and re-recording. |
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American researcher analyzes
Rahman’s music
This was clearly analyzed by an American
researcher, Natalie Sarrazin that
day at Stanford when she deconstructed
Bollywood music and dissected Rahman’s
style to illustrate how Rahman set
a new trend.
Says B S Prakash, recalling that day’s
programme: Rahman changed the sound,
utilizing new musical idioms that
can be understood by Westerners and
Indians alike, Natalie said.
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The
changes included disregarding old musical
codes, layering instruments one at a time
and using an almost minimalist approach
to placing each sound thoughtfully and deliberately
on a blank canvas. Example: Before the advent
of Rahman it took a hundred violin plaintive
strings to show the impending romance; a
whole huge orchestra swept up emotions.
Rahman had changed that. He had made street
sounds respectable, made you listen to a
single beat say the rice husk being pounded,
to natural sounds of daily implements and
so on. Natalie also illustrated all this
with bits and pieces from movies old and
new and it was like a university class with
a difference: familiar images from Raj Kapoor
to Anil Kapoor and tunes from Taal Se Taal
Mila were the subject of the discourse. |
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Rahman:
truly global
Rahman is truly a global
music director today—working
with Andrew Lloyd Weber, composing
music for Lord of the Rings Musicals,
Chinese movie Warriors of Heaven and
Earth and the yet to come Elizabeth-II
by Shekar Kapur.There is something
in him and in his music that is totally
beyond borders of nationality, religion
and the humdrum traps of everyday
world. |
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He
is now going beyond even his names—Dileep
Kumar, A R Rahman. He is now a synonym for
music that captivates you whether you are
an Indian or American or Chinese. |
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