Sita seemantham also has lovely pieces of violin in the interlude. This beautiful prelude sets the tone for the graceful flight of the Pushpaka vimana in the skies. Jagadananda karaka has a lovely prelude which sounds like a western symphony. Sreeramarajyam featured two songs with superb instrumentation. After a long gap after his peak period, Ilayaraja showed that age does not diminish oneвЂ™s creativity in music. The song also featured rhythmic use of brush like sounds in the interlude to depict the brush strokes of the artist in the movie. Suseela with her rich, clear voice and strong tone showed us why she is the Nightingale of the South. Ghallu Ghallu (Swarna kamalam) is a memorable song for many reasons. It is said that Ilayaraja used an orchestra of more than 100 musicians to bring out the required deep and emotive effect from violins and percussion in Sagara sangamame (Seetakoka chiluka). Only Ilayaraja could come up with an innovative use of guitar and percussion in Lalita priya (Rudraveena). The two super-hit songs from Sagarasangamam also have attractiveВ vocals вЂ“ the echo and overlap of JanakiвЂ™s voice in Om namah sivaaya and the rhythmic juxtaposition of SailajaвЂ™s voice to add additional rhythm to SPBвЂ™s voice in Nada vinodamu. The other song from Swarnakamalam, Siva pujaku features lovely chorus as well as overlapping recital of sansksrit verses at the end of the song by SPB. Kottaga rekkalochena (Swarnakamalam) features beautiful use of the flexibility in JanakiвЂ™s vocals. Sangeeta ragamalli also features interesting jump in pitch in the charanam and lovely emoting by SPB. And observe the beautiful use of the thanam in Sangeeta ragamalli (Ragamalika). Notice the beautiful use of overlapping vocals of SPB in Keeravani (Anveshana). These vocal variations lent an additional charm to the song and made it memorable. Ilayaraja was very creative in introducing different vocal elements into his classical tunes. The songs will keep playing in the current window as you browse in the new window). If you want to listen to the songs without any break, open a new window to browse further on this site or another one. This is because the player is embedded on this page. ( You may find that the music stops if you click the back button or some other link on this site or another site. The player automatically shuffles songs on repeated plays. If we cannot link a film song directly to a classical raga, the differences can be explained as вЂcomposerвЂ™s freedom and creativityвЂ™ and we can thus indirectly link the film song to a classical raga!В However, in this post, I am using the term classical songs of Ilayaraja only to those tunes which an average listener or a casual listener can identify as a вЂclassical oneвЂ™.Д®njoy 12 of his classical songs on the player below. This focus on melody and his innovation in vocals and instruments make his songs extremely pleasant and attractive both for the ears and eyes.ДЄlmost every film song (including what we feel are вЂњwesternвЂќ songs in our films) can be traced to some classical raga or the other. At the same time, Ilayaraja never compromised on melody. Each of his classical songs has something innovative in the vocals, instrumentation or both. Ilayaraja introduced innovation in vocals and instrumental arrangements. llayaraja made a difference by introducing unorthodox and innovative elements in his classical tunes. They were extremely skilled in adapting concert style music to fit the abridged needs of film music. The orthodox style of these stalwarts retained all the melody and beauty of concert style classical music. Even in later years, composers like Ramesh Naidu created classical tunes in the orthodox style. The stalwarts of the golden era of Telugu film music (1950s,60s) like Pendyala, Ghantasala or S Rajeswara Rao composed classical songs in the orthodox style.

IlayarajaвЂ™s classical songs are different.

Spb ilayaraja instrumental