The Hindu : National : Thiruvasagam by Ilayaraaja to be released on April 14

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Friday, Feb 11, 2005

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Thiruvasagam by Ilayaraaja to be released on April 14

By Swahilya

Music director llayaraja addresses the media on his new album on Thiruvasagam in Chennai on Thursday. - Photo: K.V. Srinivasan

CHENNAI, FEB. 10. "When you hear the Thiruvasagam, I have no bit of a doubt that you will be transported to a place you have not heard so far," says music maestro Ilayaraaja.

In a voice charged with devotion, he was talking to mediapersons here today on a music project, "a task which God has given me," — the Thiruvasagam in Symphony.

While doing "girivalam" (circumambulating the hill) in Tiruvannamalai, his heart melt when a friend chanted the 51 verses of Thiruvasagam, the maestro said narrating a project that was conceived four years ago.

"What I am saying is no mythological story, but history," he said giving an account of the story of a Minister in the Pandya Kingdom who had the rare opportunity of having a vision of Lord Siva, who blessed him by placing his right leg on his head and giving him the name Manickavasagar, one of the top quartet of the Saivite saints of Tamil Nadu. "That was his spiritual realisation that led to the composition of the Thiruvasagam," Ilayaraaja said.

The whole composition of six select verses in symphony is "not to prove my musical talent, but is meant for the younger generation. Not because they are going in any wrong direction, but I feel it is my duty to make them know what I have felt," Ilayaraaja said.

"Our people study, get degrees and even get successfully employed. But my effort is to tell them whether they have realised the reason for which they came to this earth. I want to show our youth the treasures we possess," he said.

The whole composition "happened in 12 days," corresponding with the last 12 days of Manickavasagar's life.

Father Vincent Chinnadurai of Tamil Maiyam — which has produced the album to be released on April 14 — said the product, which was called `Thiruvasagam in Symphony,' would now be called, `Thiruvasagam by Ilayaraaja.'

After the launch in Chennai, events will be organised at Chidambaram, Tiruchi, Thanjavur, Coimbatore, Madurai, Tirunelveli and Nagercoil and select cities in the U.S., Canada, the U.K., Germany, France, Switzerland, Dubai, Malaysia and Singapore.

The high-profile team of artists and engineers that was got together to create the masterpiece came from the Budapest Symphony Orchestra, with 140 players and Stephen Schwatz, the American playwright, and Richard King, the five-time Grammy Award-winning sound engineer of Sony Music, New York. More than 200 vocalists and instrumentalists from Mumbai, Chennai, Bangalore, Thiruvananthapuram, Budapest and New York were part of the ensemble.

Father Jegath Gaspar of Tamil Maiyam said that as Catholic priests, they have taken up this project to highlight Thiruvasagam which says that god is one — "I salute the one that is called Siva in the south, but known as God throughout the world."

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