Introducing PolyCaRe

Is PolyCaRe something to do with taking care of polyethylene plastics and what the
hell is that doing in a blog site about music?

Is PolyCaRe something to do with taking care of polyester fabrics?

Is PolyCaRe something to take care of the ice creams and the tulips at the same
time?

Humor aside, first thing is the assurance that you are still in the musical blog on
Raja. Second thing is we are about to analyze an exciting new musical idea that
Raja has used over the years but has never been explored.

In the earlier posts on polyphony, we defined what polyphony in music is. You can
revisit the simple version of the definition, going back by almost 8 years:

http://geniusraja.blogspot.ca/2008/08/introduction-to-polyphony.html

Before, we even go into polyphony, it is important to understand in simple terms,

the difference between harmony and polyphony.

Harmony in music involves two or more voices (can be instrument or human) being
played simultaneously
Polyphony in music involves more than one melody being played simultaneously

We also discussed at length about counterpoints, fugue with various instruments,

which is all part of polyphony. Polyphony itself is harmony too as more than one
melody involves more than one voice too. However, harmony is not polyphony.

We also discussed for a full year about Raja�s Call and Response arrangements in
the �unusual� category. Here is how we defined Call and response type arrangement:

http://geniusraja.blogspot.ca/2013/08/unusual-conversations-introduction.html

Most Call and Response arrangements are like conversations between two instruments
or voices. This is a very common Indian musical feature.

What if these two musical ideas come together?

Will that work together, or work against each other?

While it may sound a bit of a stretch and difficult thing to do, it may also be a
bit scary to the composers of limited talent.

Fortunately, Raja has frequently used these two musical ideas together and has been
delivering great music for the last 5 decades in his interludes and background
scores.

Now, �Poly�phony + �Ca�ll and �Re�sponse becomes �PolyCaRe�!

It is hard enough to do polyphony. How do you do PolyCaRe? Very hard, unless you
are a musical genius where everything comes easy.

Let�s elaborate a little more about what PolyCaRe involves.

A call and response involves at least two instruments playing the same or different
melodies
A counter melody involves two melodies being played simultaneously
So, in a PolyCaRe arrangement, there must be at least three melodies in the whole
arrangement
To be more specific, there must be a background melody that continues throughout
the PolyCaRe arrangement and the Call and Response melodies will be foreground
melodies that come and go
At any time throughout a PolyCaRe arrangement, there are always two simultaneous
melodies. This qualifies the whole arrangement as polyphonic
In other words, in a PolyCaRe arrangement, there are multiple serial counter
melodies that together can constitute a PolyCaRe arrangement � the series of
counter melodies have an inter-relationship among themselves, by way of Call and
Response
There must be at least 4 members to the series of counter melodies for a PolyCaRe
arrangement. Two CaRe arrangements make it four foreground melodies and the
background melody is normally a constant link to the series of four counter
melodies.

Hope that provides clarity on the definition of a PolyCaRe arrangement. This is one
of the most complex orchestral arrangements one can do combining multiple
techniques and it requires a very deep understanding of these component musical
ideas. You will not cross a handful number of compositions if you scan any other
Indian composer�s work. Fortunately, I ended up with about 80 qualifying
compositions in Raja�s work, despite all the constraints I have thrown into this
analysis. Hopefully, this analysis posts will throw light on the high level of
sophistication in Raja�s work in both his songs and background scores.

In my analysis, I found that not one of these 80 arrangements sound like a childish
experiment. Raja has kept these foreground CaRe arrangements, melodious as usual,
that most of us have passed them as simple melodious CaRe arrangements.

A word of caution. Do not start searching for the term PolyCaRe in musicology texts
- you'll find none. Most Western music does not treat relationship melodies beyond
simultaneity. At best, the definition of fugue tries to add a layer of complexity
by defining two different pitches for the two melodies that are original and
imitated. Indian music, though uses Call and Response as a staple technique, does
not really bother to define it . As I mentioned in the sections on 'Unusual
conversations', the requirement to have two calls and two responses to qualify as a
CaRe is arbitrary. I have not seen such a definition. I did that for ensuring that
there is total clarity in understanding the technique.