Pnjaabi on Voilen
There is one scene in the pathbreaking movie Cash that bothered me. It was eating away at some portions of my brain while I was reviewing the movie in this post
So I decided to attempt to set the matter at rest here. The culprit is this:
The most annoying character in the movie, the butler aboard a luxury yacht derisively laughs at the man whose clothes are stitched by the sister of Armani (since morning) for his humble request that 4 “voilen” players play some earthy pnjaabi music while he romances his girl on the boat.
So, the butler has, with one careless statement,
1. Insulted Armani (because insulting the hero is like insulting his tailor)
2. Insulted Pnjaabi music (by claiming that it is not sophisticated enough to be played by an elitist instrument like a violin)
3. Insulted Violinists (by claiming that they cannot play this high energry fun form of dance music)
So, I have gathered 3 ordinary violinists (Me, me and me) and a fake cellist (Me) and proved beyond all traces of doubt that Pnjaabi music can be played on violins. So here is a rough cut version of Pnjaabi on Voilen
If you cannot see the WordPress audio player widget, click here to download the mp3.
For the musicaly inclined,
The 3 violins were recorded on separate tracks and merged using Apple Garageband. The Cello is nothing more than a violin whose pitch was electronically lowered by an octave using a guitar processor.
Update: Mr Butler, we now have a Sitar playing Bhangra as well. Awesome, Priyank!
Wow !
You are one talented guy.
Voracious Blog Reader
The fact that you did it is awesome. And it sounds pretty damn good as well.
too much boss. sudsuddenly after listening to your pnjaabi muzeek i have gotten cravings for the sarson ka saag and the dhabey di daal. this is proof of your immense talent.
lol @ sister of armani
Voracious Blog Reader, aikaterine
Thank you very much
Pri,
Thank you. I remember a very pricey pnjaabi restaurant in Denver, whose name seems to have escaped me now. They charged us $9.99 for 2 samosas and $20.99 for a vegetarian side dish.
awesome!
Nice effort man; sounds interesting. Do you record in a studio?
Diviya,
Thank you
Ashwin,
The studio is my bedroom, apple mac mini, a mic, guitar processor and instruments.
As much as the carnatic guy (incidently am a violinist too) in me wants to reprimand you for this blasphemous act (punjabhi over kaaapi) cannot help appreciate the sound; after all the violin is truly elitist !
Befitting answer to one punjabbhi who once asked me when i was playing thodi in my room “Oyee, yaar tere violin se hamesha sad sound kyon aata hain?”….
Long live the violinists
What clean fun it is reading your posts!
Quite like making comments after reading them.
So, this class of music is not really the Blues, is it? More like Voilet, eh?
Rambodoc,
No. Not the Missisippi Delta Blues. This is the Sutlej Sarson Violet
Ashwin,
Another violinist. Whatay pleasure. We are apparently a rare, unglamorous, non-chick-scoring species, a big part of the reason I decided to learn the electric guitar.
Welcome
Kaapi, you say? I always thought the traditional bhangra tunes had the notes of Thodi without the dhaivatham.
You have inspired me to produce bhangra on my Sitar. I’ll ping you when I post that
I would like to hear ‘Daler Mehdi’ on Piano.
//Insulted Pnjaabi music (by claiming that it is not sophisticated enough to be played by an elitist instrument like a violin)//I agree.
aaah-ah! Super!
But I miss the percussion – thought you would have somehow pulled it off with violin.
Arun,
Im not that good
Prerna,
Most of the piano you hear in my compositions were painfully played note by note and digitally edited for corrections. Perhaps one of the other readers of my blog can take up this challenge?
I am not much of a keyboardist. The most I can do is use my index finger and play “Ek do teen”
I think your earlier himesinging podcast set the expectations for me – don’t know why. I still think you can do it
Btw, I am glad that both of us have undergone similar, extensive, sophisticated training on the piano. But in my case, it actually also applies to violin, guitar, flute, sitar, veena …
Arun,
, no real instruments except the voice.
Himesinging involved the creative use of garageband instruments and fx using midi notes played from the keyboard
To get a decent percussive effect with violins, perhaps some good attack/chorus effects will be needed. Since I played this on an electric violin, the pure acoustic pressure related fx tend to get lost. Let me try sometime with the acoustic violin
Ashok machaan, couldnt agree more on your description of violinists; what a price to pay for being elitist !
What we have though is MAMI POWER ; having the company of roots rather than having the fruits !
Smart move that for the glam quotient i say; so which one do u like more? Is it even possible to like some other instrument ?
Well, the guitar is incredibly versatile and thats why it is the most popular instrument in the world. Its hard for me to say which one I like. I use both for different expressions, so there is rarely a contention.
Excellent post – I have been an avid reader of your blog since I read “Ettukal Peter”. I really look forward to some matter and jilpa with my morning coffee. Punabi violin is a nice oxymoron. I think I better stop at that and to paraphrase a comment that my friend makes – Punjabi music is invariant to Doppler effect. Keep writing. encore
Rajendran,
Thank you
Thanks for the link. And I am surprised why the track back didn’t appear here automatically .
Takes a while for wordpress.com to update.
Finally, this bandwidth challenged fan of yours heard this yet-another-amazing-piece-of-creativity!
If they can play Flight of the Bumblebee on the violin, what can they not play?
The mixing is superb, Ashok. Keep up the good work. I really do wish you had a percussionist on the keyboard with you!