Symphony cannot be explained, it should be experienced, says maestro Ilaiyaraaja

Music Director Maestro Ilaiyaraaja. File Photo. Ragu R./The Hindu

Music director Ilaiyaraaja, the first Indian to write a symphony, has said a symphony should not be explained but experienced. “Music is an experience,” he said in a conversation with The Hindu at his studio in Chennai on Wednesday (January 29, 2025).

Asked whether some knowledge was required to enjoy a symphony, the maestro wondered: “What is the knowledge you used while enjoying film music? You are able to differentiate between a good song and not a good song. How do you differentiate it? Knowledge or feeling? Feeling is important.”

Quoting the Tamil saying, Chitiramum Kai Pazhakkam, Senthamizhum Naa Pazhakkam, (Practice makes perfection), he said one required the rasanai (taste), “It depends on the level of rasanai (taste). Someone can enjoy cinema songs and differentiate a good song from a bad one because he should have been listening to it for a long time. A symphony is not composed for everyone. It is something different and you cannot expect equality in it,” he explained.

Mr. Ilaiyaraaja, who had introduced the forms of symphony in the background scores of film songs, said one would need 10 births to listen and enjoy the symphonies of the greatest composers in the world. 

“I am an Indian. A south Indian born in a pattikadu (hamlet). I cannot incorporate into a symphony the music I listened to as a youth. There is no place for my identity as a film musician. I cannot allow room for the complaint that I have used the background score of a film song. The element, Indian, also should not be part of a symphony. If these elements are found, some might say that an Indian has composed a symphony. My objective is to write an actual symphony. While writing I should be also careful that the sounds and elements found in the composition of the greatest composers are in my writing. Then people may say I have copied Beethoven or Mozart and ignore my symphony. I am saying this just to explain the difficulties I faced,” said Mr. Ilaiyaraaja, who has penned it in 35 days.

(Full interview will be published on Friday).