How L. Subramaniam’s ‘Raga Harmony’ concept can help create a global composition

Violin maestro L. Subramaniam recently published his doctoral thesis as a book, Raga Harmony (Westland). The book explains how he integrated the Indian raga system with the harmonic structure of Western classical music.

Subramaniam proposes a path-breaking 36-scale concept, which will make it possible for the Indian ragas to be played by western orchestras. He recognises in the book that such attempts have been made by music composers of Hindi cinema, especially during the time of Shankar-Jaikishan, R.D. Burman and Laxmikant Pyarelal.  However, they could accomplish this only with the help of Goan arrangers, who were trained in Western music. What Subramaniam suggests using the popularity of Indian film music as an example is that with a method and concept, it will allow for non-westerners to create western compositions, and western musicians to use other tonalities. This will serve as a methodology to create a truly global composition.  His endeavour in Raga Harmony is to provide for a system that enables such a musical concept.

Subramaniam has been thinking on these lines for several decades now, backed by the rigour of practise, reflection and performance. The book, in a way, is a culmination of these thoughts. Raga Harmony is laced with interesting pictures of the musician directing the Leipzig and London Philharmonic Orchestra, playing with Yehudi Menuhin, conducting his composition the ‘Global Symphony’ and more. 

Excerpts from a conversation.

This is a highly specialised area of discussion. Who is the reader in your mind?  

L. Subramaniam (LS): My readers are musicians, composers, and more specifically, Indian composers, who are not familiar with the system of western harmony but would still like to compose for orchestras. Being Indian musicians they will be familiar with raga concepts. They can create soothing, powerful, new harmonic structures without having to know the western theory. 

L. Subramaniam at the Houston Symphony.
| Photo Credit:
Courtesy: indianviolin.com

Musicians who want to improvise over western harmonic progressions may do so if they understand the raga on which the harmony is built. Having said this, the system is further useful to those who are well-versed in Western music harmony and theory. Western classical harmony has seen changes and innovation all through its history. The concept of Raga Harmony likewise is a new system of composition, allowing for endless innovation and new possibilities. 

For non-musicians too, it would serve as a useful insight into harmonic composition. In music, there is horizontal motion and vertical motion. Horizontal motion includes melodic lines. Vertical motion includes additional notes that support the melody, thereby creating harmony. Even though a Western classical orchestra might have 80 musicians, not everybody plays the same melodic lines simultaneously. Different instruments play different melodies to create harmony. Indian music is largely based on melodic or horizontal motion whereas Western music is largely based on vertical or harmonic motion. Raga Harmony bridges the gap between these two approaches. 

You have, for several decades, worked collaboratively, creating a bridge among Carnatic, Hindustani and Western. Did you wish to initiate a dialogue of a different kind now?  

A musical dialogue between L. Subramaniam and Ustad Ali Akbar Khan.
| Photo Credit:
Courtesy: indianviolin.com

LS: My dialogue between Carnatic and Hindustani music began in the late 1970s with my jugalbandi with Ustad Ali Akbar Khan. We performed at Lincoln Centre in New York and at Berklee and made a few albums together. The dialogue with the West also started for me around the 1970s when I began to write ensemble compositions for my albums, which featured some of the jazz greats such as Herbie Hancock, George Duke, Stanley Clarke, Hubert Laws, and of course Stephane Grapelli. On the Western classical front, I wrote a composition called Journey for my collaboration with Yehudi Menuhin, different compositions for Jean Pierre Rampal and many more. I used a new term — Global fusion concept for this kind of music. The orchestral composition began with a major composition titled Double Concerto for Violin and Flute in 1983 and I premiered this in Los Angeles with Hubert Laws on March 14, 1983 at the Dorothy Chandler Pavilion. In 1985, Fantasy on Vedic Chants which I wrote for maestro Zubin Mehta was premiered in New York by the New York Philharmonic with four concerts in the season. Since then, I have written a lot of orchestral compositions for major orchestras.

L. Subramaniam with Kavitha and Bindu at the Lakshminarayanan Global Music Festival 2023.
| Photo Credit:
Courtesy: subramaniamfoundation.org

Lately, I have also had the opportunity to write for Indian voices  using Kavita or Bindu’s vocals with a major choir. This dialogue with orchestras started much earlier and is continuing to grow to a higher level. When I began composing, I was trying to create a new system inspired by my Carnatic music heritage. This fascinated many composers, critics and conductors around the world. That led me to pursue this new direction. 

Unlike the Western system, a large part of which is written and therefore fixed, Indian music, despite a strong theoretical basis, are innovative and improvisational. Do you think a performer can make these theoretical positions part of his conscious process?  

L. Subramaniam accompanying Chembai Vaidyanatha Bhagavatar on the violin. He says when he began composing for Western orchestra, he was trying to create a new system inspired by my Carnatic music heritage.
| Photo Credit:
Courtesy: indianviolin.org

LS: Knowing the strength of Carnatic music calculation will help to create complex polyrhythmic structures in compositions and will also enable improvisation in polyrhythmic cycles. Getting familiar with these rhythmic concepts would allow musicians from anywhere in the world to play in different polyrhythmic structures such as 5 and 3/4, or 21 and 3/4; or subdividing each beat into number of pulses (notes) like 3, 4, 5, 7, 9 and multiples of that. 

Learning concepts of Raga Harmony bridges the gap between the two systems. While students may use it to create new music, it also gives them a vocabulary to explain their work to non-musicians.  

L. Subramaniam conducting the Halle Orchestra.
| Photo Credit:
Courtesy: indianviolin.com

You have talked about your experiments with Raga Harmony. How did you compose it, and your experience in guiding the musicians in your team. 

LS: After finishing my Masters in Western Classical Music, I wanted to create a system that was different from existing ones both in the West and India. I began to write a lot of compositions keeping different ragas in mind and creating complex harmonies that are pleasing and smooth to hear. I have continued to develop this system since then. When I went to Moscow, one of the professors approached me and asked me to explain how I created the harmonies in Fantasy on Vedic Chants, which I had also played at the Tchaikovsky Hall with the Moscow Symphony Orchestra. That set me thinking. So I decided to write a book on raga harmony. Instead of just writing it as a book I thought of making it a thesis for my Ph.D. so that it will be scrutinised by others and accepted by scholars. 

How do you view Ilaiyaraja’s experiments in this regard? Nothing but Wind, How to Name it, and Thiruvasagam.

LS: My friendship with Raja goes back many decades. He will go down as one of the greatest music composers of Indian cinema. Initially, my elder brother, myself and Raja, studied from my father Prof. V. Lakshminarayana. During the Lakshminarayana Global Music Festival in 2021, Raja spoke about a piece he wrote in 1993, which was recorded with the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra. Incidentally, we are also working on a collaborative special project.