Ilayaraja

                                     Music Composers

Ilayaraja being one of the earliest composer who started using western classical harmonies and orchestration makes him one of the greatest composers in India. His musical style has inspired several composers and has been a boon to change the approach of Indian filmmakers towards background scores.

Early life

Ilayaraja was born in a normal middle-class South Indian family,he lived in rural area as a result there was a huge influence of Folk music on him. He joined a local band formed by his elder brother and spent a decade performing for them.While working with them he first penned his composition.After sometime he began to learn from Professor Dhanraj who gave him an overview of western classical, 

composition techniques. Later on he did an distance course to learn Piano from Trinity college of music, London.

Career 

In 70's he played Guitar, Keyboard, Organ for several composers.He got an opportunity to assist the Legendary Kannada composer G.V Venkatesh. He used to orchestrate and work under the guidelines given by Venkatesh. In this period he learnt alot about film music and composition techniques. He would write his own compositions and would use Venkatesh's session musician and would tell then to play his work in leisure time. He got his first break with Tamil film' Annakali '. He was asked to compose 5 songs.He experimented the Tamil poetry with western classical arrangements which brought new sound in the film music.He soon got recognised as a Tamil film composer, his collaboration with some finest directors brought his music alot of attention.He is not only known for his songs but also for his background scores. He was the first Asian to write full symphony for Royal Philharmonic orchestra.He has scored for over 1000 film which include Tamil ,Kannada,Marathi ,

Hindi,English. And has composed over 7000 songs.He has won 5 National award  3 for best music director and 2 for background score

Musicality

Ilayaraja has always unique by experimenting with different genres, Jazz,Western Classical,Funk,Hip-Hop. He fuses the electronic sound with traditional rhythmic instruments and a sweet melody which makes it very catch and upbeat. He fuses Carnatic raagas with electronic sounds

and western classical string arrangements.his musical pieces are always up to the mark. He is also a gold medalist from Trinity college of Music ,London.

He has created a raga called ‘Panjamukhi’.His Rakkamma Kaiyatattu was placed #4 in the list of 10 most popular songs of the world. He has composed a telugu song by only using three notes (Sa, ri and ga).

He one of the living legend in India.