Tamil Nadu - Fine arts - Legends of Tamilnadu - Ilaiyaraaja
Legends Of Tamilnadu
Ilaiyaraaja
Ilaiyaraaja இளையராஜா, pronounced born Daniel Rajaiyya on June 2, 1943 is an Indian film composer, singer, lyricist and the first Asian composer to score a symphony for the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra. He is a gold medalist from Trinity College of Music, London, and has composed over 4, 500 songs and provided film scores for more than 900 Indian films in various languages in a career spanning more than 30 years.He is usually referred to by the title Isaignani (literally meaning 'a man with great knowledge in music'), or as "The Maestro". He is based in Chennai, the centre of the Tamil film industry |
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Ilaiyaraaja has been a prominent composer of film music in southern Indian cinema since the late 1970s. His work integrated Tamil folk lyricism and introduced broader Western musical sensibilities into the South Indian musical mainstream. He has thrice won the Indian National Film Award for best film scoring.
In the 2000s, he composed a range of non-film music, including religious and devotional songs, an oratorio, and world music. He is married to Jeeva, and the couple's two sons Karthik Raja and Yuvan Shankar Raja and daughter (Bhavatharini) are film composers and singers.
Life Started
Ilaiyaraaja was born as Daniel Rasaiyya in Pannaipuram, Theni district, Tamil Nadu, India, as the third son of Ramaswamy and Chinnathayammal. Growing up in a rural area, Ilaiyaraaja was exposed to a range of Tamil folk music. At the age of 14, he joined a travelling musical troupe headed by his elder stepbrother, Pavalar Varadarajan, and spent the next decade performing throughout South India. While working with the troupe, he penned his first composition, a musical setting of an elegy written by the Tamil poet laureate Kannadasan for Jawaharlal Nehru, India's first prime minister.
In 1968, Ilaiyaraaja began a music course with Professor Dhanraj in Madras now Chennai , which included an overview of Western classical music, compositional training in techniques such as counterpoint, and study in instrumental performance. Ilaiyaraaja specialized in classical guitar and had done a course in it with the Trinity College of Music, London.
