Music director Maestro Ilaiyaraaja. File photo. Ragu R/ The Hindu

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

Asked whether some knowledge was needed to enjoy symphony, Ustad surprised: “What knowledge you have used to enjoy film music? You are able to differentiate between a good song and not a good song. How do you separate it? Knowledge or spirit? Bhavna is important. ,

Quoting Tamil, Chitiramam kai pajahkam, dehimizam na pajahkam(Practice makes perfection), he said that one needs Rasnai (Taste), “it depends on the level of Rasnai (Taste). One can enjoy cinema songs and separate a good song from a bad because it should have listened to it for a long time. A symphony is not made for everyone. This is something different and you cannot expect equality in it, ”he explained.

Mr. Ilaiyaraja, who introduced Symphony forms in the background score of film songs, said that the greatest musicians in the world would require 10 births to listen and enjoy the symphony.

“I am from India. A South Indian was born in one Plaquate (Hamlet). I could not include a symphony, which I heard as a youth. There is no place for my identity as a film musician. I cannot give a place for the complaint that I have used the background score of a film song. Elements, Indians, should also not be part of a symphony. If these elements are found, some people may say that an Indian has composed a symphony. My purpose is to write a real symphony. While writing, I should also be careful that the sounds and elements found in the composition of the greatest musicians are in my writing. Then people can say that I have copied Bethoven or Mozart and ignored my symphony. I am saying that to convince the difficulties I had to face, ”Mr. Ilyyaraja said, who wrote it in 35 days.

(Full interview will be published on Friday).