Life is not what you expect: it is made up of the most unexpected twists and turns.
Ilaiyaraaja
In whosever presence you find peace of mind, devoid of fear, only that person can be your guru.
Music is not a subject to be discussed. It has to be experienced.
Music is the only medium by which everyone is connected in the world.
Music happens. It cannot be made.
Government should take necessary steps to add music into school syllabus and impart knowledge to the students.
Genuine music, to me, is the one which has no purpose. It should be as natural and as purposeless as the flow of the river.
Music has the power to divert the violent minds.
A mother cooking exclusively for her child might be preparing just rice and buttermilk, but it will be immensely tasty. Fast food, on the other hand, may be very tasty, but it has not been prepared exclusively for you, you see.
Anyone who holds a pen these days thinks he or she is a poet.
Right from the 17th century, composers who have taken up music as their means of livelihood went through a hard time financially. They were paid only for commissioned works and public performances. And, when their music became famous, orchestras in other cities and countries would pay a small amount to copy the music.
I would like to inform the public that I have entered into a licensing agreement with Agi Music for manufacturing and distributing my songs in any format and have also granted the license to distribute my songs on digital and new media formats, including mobile ringtones, caller tunes, and online downloads.
Ideally, the music composed these days should sound much better because of the technology, right? But that's not the fact. The sounds that you hear out of technological recording are programmed sounds coming out of a computer.
Can someone do music for 24 hours at a stretch and never get tired? It's me. Because I don't 'work'. I enjoy what am doing. It's not like a regular job.
Questioning the origin of music is like asking why the breeze is soothing, why you shiver in exhilaration when the spray from the waterfall hits you.
Only I hold the right to all my songs.
To me, music is that which connects human hearts. It is something that takes you to unknown levels.
People forget themselves in my music. It's amazing.
I had difficulty in grasping how music was made for films. It was a huge learning curve and the toughest phase of my life.
Do you know it took me 27 years to understand the C major chord on the piano?
Music is as vast as the sky, the oceans, the universe.
Music is nothing but sound, and there is no place for value judgement among various sounds.
Till 2010, there was one national award for Best Music Direction. I have received it thrice - for 'Sagara Sangamam,' 'Sindhu Bhairavi,' and 'Rudraveena.'
I don't believe in making two songs similar. Every composition must have its own unique character.
When you see the ocean and the infinite, it empties your mind.
In India, most people are not aware or are unconcerned about copyright laws. This has proved disastrous for the music fraternity.
Western, jazz, folk, or tribal music, whatever the form, they all have the same sapta swaras as the basis.
The dictionary contains thousands of words on Tamil music. I am not familiar with most of the words, but it shows the rich past of Tamil music.
A director should concentrate on his storyline and his characters.
My practice is to take a sheet, write the song number in the left side, name of the production, and time of recording. Only when I have to fill the name of the singer do we look out to see who is free. When the singers we want aren't there, I end up singing it! That's how I became a singer.
Isn't composing music akin to film direction?
I always felt music to be universal and undifferentiated - Western classical, folk, Carnatic or Hindustani and so on.
For me, my music is part of me, and which is why it seems second nature, and my compositions are instinctive.
The challenge for a good musician is to bring out compositions that seem fresh to the listener, even if the listener has heard the song or the composition before.
For musical compositions to reach a high level and to derive from spontaneity, of course, one has to do the necessary steps to learn the rules and regulations of composing high quality music.
Good music is made with the help of many musicians who express their joy in the swaras.
Music and religion keep me young.
My music is religion, and my religion is music. They are one.
My commercial viability, coupled with my reputation, gives me enough freedom to assert my right as a composer.
No saint in the world lived like the great saint Ramana Maharishi. They say Jesus Christ was resurrected and rose again from the dead. But there's no proof of it. Ramana Maharishi is the only Mahan who has resurrected in life, and that, too, at the age of 16.
The performance of a music director should be judged in a holistic manner, which includes songs as well as background score.
Composing is an emotional thing.
To me, music is more like a spiritual seeking that takes one to unknown levels.
Art is a unifying language for all of us from across the world, and it transcends boundaries.
I truly believe that music or art, in general, is the only thing that can unify a world that is plagued by war and violence, and I believe that it should be taken to more people.
I come from a small village and have had no formal training in music or any classes from the masters of Indian classical music.
Music has done much more for me than I have for music.
There is no guru like our own mistakes.
Many ask me why I work with debutants, but I always tell them that there's space for every one in the industry, and if my music helps him, then I'm glad to be of some help. I will never say no to deserving newcomers.
Many great composers have died in poverty. I have not faced hardships, like having to struggle for food, thanks to reasonable producers.
