Ilayaraaja Guide, Meaning , Facts, Information and Description
Ilayaraaja (born June 2, 1943) is India's most prolific film music composer, having composed for over 700 films over a career of more than 20 years.
Ilayaraaja was born in a poor rural family in Pannaiapuram near Madurai, Tamil Nadu. Although he did not have any formal education, he completed a course in classical guitar (higher local) with a gold medal at the Trinity College of Music in London.
Ilayaraaja has composed for more than 750 films. His first movie, Annakilli, was instrumental in bringing about a fusion of Tamil folk music and Tamil film music.
He won the national Best Film Music Composer award three times for Saagara Sangamam (1984), Sindhu Bhairavi (1986) and Rudra Veena (1988). He is the first Asian to compose a fully-fledged symphony for the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra (RPO). His music is mainly associated with the 80's, a decade in which he completely dominated the music arena.
Besides scoring music for Tamil and other Indian films, Ilayaraaja has written two fusion albums, blending western classical with Carnatic raagas. The first,How To Name It?, was dedicated to Carnatic composer Tyagaraja, and to Johann Sebastian Bach. The second, Nothing But Wind has a final conclusion that suggests music is nothing but wind.
While he has developed associations with Carnatic musicians like Mangalampalli BalaMuraliKrishna and T.V. Gopalakrishnan, he has also come in for some flak from conservative Carnatic music fans for retuning some of Tyagaraja's compositions.
In 2002, his compostion "Rakkama Kaiya Thattu" from the movie Dhalapathi stayed on the top for quite a while in the BBC poll for the best song, before finishing at 4th place. Poll Home
He was the music composer for the Miss World 1996 Pageantry, held in Bangalore. His latest hits are Pithamagan (2003 Tamil movie) and Virumandi (2004 Tamil movie).
He is currently working on a symphonic project about Thiruvasakam.
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2 His Successful Albums 3 External links |
Ilayaraaja's birth name is Gnanadesikan and in school records Rasaiya. Though by birth he is a Christian, but latter the whole family became strong Hindu. He is much attracted to the love of his mother Chinnaththayi as the whole family suffered by poverty when his father Ramasamy died too early. Gangai Amaran (by birth Amarsingh) is Ilayaraaja's brother who is also a composer.
Ilayaraaja is married to Jeeva and the couple have 3 children: sons Karthik Raja and Yuvan Shankar Raja are composers and the daughter Bhavatharini is singer and composer.
This is an Article on Ilayaraaja. Page Contains Information, Facts Details or Explanation Guide About Ilayaraaja Personal Life
His Successful Albums
External links