Kartikey Sehgal

 Here is a gift. Selected works of ‘Father of the Symphony’, Joseph Haydn. These are my selections  from his 106 symphonies. This man made many, many symphonies.

 Music fans have complained that Haydn is boring and ‘repetitive’. He wrote for the court and for  entertainment. He wrote so that the princes and the common man could identify and move along and  not be challenged or shocked. ‘But’ he also composed masterpieces that remind you of the style of  Mozart and Beethoven, who had dedicated their compositions to Haydn. 

 Because he composed a lot and often in speed, you are bound to find repetition if you listen to  everything. My selection of 22 movements have melody, style and grace. I challenge you to find this  selection boring or artistically inedible. 

 Here is the first track from the selection – online. An underrated and ‘unheard’ composition from his  early life. Symphony No 4, Mvt. 2 (Audio only Link).

 Ideally, you will listen to this selection and get back to me. So we can discuss Haydn’s music and talk about the violin strings. This will do good for your music study.

 I have divided the 22 movements into folders of six onto a safe web-sharing depot – mediafire.
Each folder is approximately 20 MB in size to aid listeners with slow internet connections. All files are MP3s. 

It gives me immense pleasure to listen to this selection of fine Haydn music. 
I hope it generates and sustains your interest in western classical music and that you seek more of such music.

Link to Music:

Click to Go to Link

This will take you to a page on mediafire that has links to six folders. Click on each folder to download.

Kartikey Sehgal

My vocals for the song ‘Goriye Ho Meri Raniye Ho’ (alongwith Seema Sehgal) from the album “Tale of a Virgin River”. 
 
Singers: Seema Sehgal & Kartikey Sehgal 
Composed by Seema Sehgal 
Lyrics: Yash Sharma
Arranged by: Sandesh Shandilya
From the Dogri Album ‘Tale of a Virgin River’ 

Goriye ho meri raniye ho by kartikeys

Kartikey Sehgal

Sung during the September program in Mumbai… my compositions of Faiz’s ‘Chopin ka Nagma’ and Ahmad Faraz’s ‘Tere Kareeb Aake’… sung by the mellifluous Seema Sehgal.

Savage storm and without storm. Unshaven or impeccably dressed. Amidst the clinker of construction sites and folk songs of sparrows.

Enjoy listening to them as I have enjoyed making them.
[Click on the ‘Orange Play’ button]

Chopin ka Nagma
Writer: Faiz Ahmad Faiz
Composer: Kartikey Sehgal
Singer: Seema Sehgal

Chopin ka Nagma by kartikeys

Tere Kareeb Aake
Writer: Ahmad Faraz
Composer: Kartikey Sehgal
Singer: Seema Sehgal

Tere Kareeb Aake by kartikeys

Shaival Thakkar

On the 21st of September, I read on a fan-site that the musical group REM has decided to call it a day. After 31 years of making some great songs and performing all around the world, they have decided with mutual consent to break up. On the day I read this news, there were some 20,000 comments on that story from fans across the world.

The next day, the number of comments went up to 40,000 and more.

However, most people here in India know REM mostly through 2 songs ‘Everybody Hurts’ and ‘Losing my religion’. These are no doubt great songs but there is much more to REM than these 2 songs.

• For example, when you fall in love with a beautiful woman (and there are many of those in India!), you could listen to ‘At my most beautiful‘ (Up)

• When you want to listen to a song about loving your family (and here in India we are a very family-oriented people), you could listen to ‘Sweetness Follows‘ (Automatic for the People)

• If you work in a call centre with nightshifts (and there are oh so many of those here!) then you could listen to ‘Daysleeper‘ (Up)

• If you want to kickstart your day and stop being sleepy (this applies to people outside India also!) then you could crank up ‘What’s the frequency, Kenneth?’ (Monster) or ‘Uberlin‘( Collapse into now)

• If you have unfortunately fallen unrequitedly in love with someone (and that just happens too much in India!) then you could listen to the soulful mournful ‘So.Central Rain‘ (Reckoning)

• When you are sick of the infrastructural problems and corruption (in India and have decided to cast your lot in India inspite of these problems) then hearing ‘Stand‘ (Green) can make you feel like you’re doing the right thing.

• When you are saturated of Bollywood songs selling love to you (And romantic love is so very complicated in India!) all the time then Michael Stipe’s obscure lyrics sung with pretty musical arrangements of Mike Mills and Peter Buck can rescue you. Try ‘Imitation of Life‘ (Reveal)

• If you want to make a dreamy serenade to the one you love (and in India we don’t serenade that much I guess!) then try ‘The Great beyond‘ (‘Man on the Moon’ soundtrack) or ‘You’re in the air‘ (Up)

• If you are studying for board exams, or your parents have forced you to study a subject you do not like (here in India kids commit suicide due to all this mess) then try ‘Walk Unafraid‘(Up) and if that doesn’t work then try ‘Everybody Hurts‘ (Automatic for the people). (It is the tried and tested life saving song for the human condition of hopelessness and might also work for the Indian human high school condition of board exams!)

• If you have successfully serenaded the girl or the guy you like, then the next logical REM step would be to sing ‘Be Mine‘ (New Adventures in Hi-Fi) (however, in India you might have to sing ‘Be Mine’ to the family of your girl/guy first) for you to get the permission to take her/him ‘Nightswimming‘ (Automatic for the people)

• If your relationship gets complicated then you will know that with love come ‘strange currencies‘ (Monster) (like caste, religion, gotra etc), then she might tell you that ‘She just wants to be‘ (Reveal) and then all you can do is sing ‘There she goes again‘ (Dead Letter Office) or sing ‘I’ll take the rain‘ (Reveal)

• And if there is no love to be had then you might as well become a cartographer and get caught in ‘Maps and Legends‘ (Fables of reconstruction) instead of getting caught (on stupid exploitative Indian shows) like ‘Emotional Atyachaar’.

• If you teach at a college or university in India where students are not paying attention then you could listen to (that happens everywhere in India!) ‘Sad Professor‘ (Up)

• And lastly if you support the Jan Lokpal Bill (to end corruption in India) then you could maybe sing the ironic and political song ‘It’s the end of the world as we know it (and I feel fine)’ (Document) and maybe even translate it into Hindi?!

And if you are finally a fan of REM’s music then imagine how awesome it would have been for them to play live in India! That would have been something!

However, I am not going to complain about them never playing in India. I am just glad that they made all this wonderful music and I got the chance to discover it and enjoy it.

And I am happy that all the 4 members of the band are alive and doing well and did not fall into the stardom trap of drugs, depression and suicide.

Thank you REM.

Love,

Shaival

The Young India

From the YouTube Channel of The Young India. Listen to this song here: (Hum Jung Na Hone Denge)

Seema Anil Sehgal sings her composition of ‘Hum Jung Na Hone Denge’ written by Atal Behari Vajpayee in her live concert titled ‘Lahoo Ka Rang Hai’.

The concert was performed across the country to promote peace and harmony between India and Pakistan.
The chorus includes Kartikey Sehgal, Parvati Sehgal, Anand Lalwani and another singer whose name I do not recollect currently.

The Young India

‘The Young India’ has a YouTube Account to upload songs and other original works of art. Every upload should find a mention on this website with a translation and other information (if available).

We start with one of our outright favourites. “If the stars wander from their path—is heaven Yours or mine?” (Link to the song)

Ghazal: Agar Kaj Rau Hain Anjum (If the stars wander from their path)

Poet: Allama Iqbal

Composer-Singer: Seema Sehgal

Album: Sitaron Se Aage Jahan Aur Bhi Hain (Beyond the stars there are
other worlds of light)

Producer: MonkMusic (Sqn Ldr Anil Sehgal)

Link to the song

Poem Translation

• If the stars wander from their path—is heaven Yours or mine?
  Should I care how the world goes? Is the world then Yours or mine?
• If all eternity be void of passion’s storms, whose fault?
  God! that eternity should be so barren — Yours or mine?
• How could an Angel dare, in time’s first dawning, to rebel?
  Should I know that? Whose confidant was Satan– Yours or mine?
• And Man, that thing of dust, that star whose shining lights your world—
  To whose loss will it be if his race sickens: Yours or mine?

(Translated by V G Kiernen)

Shaival Thakkar and
Kartikey Sehgal

In the aftermath of the Haiti earthquake, ‘Everybody Hurts’, a popular song by the alternative rock music group R.E.M. was used in a fund raising concert for the victims’ families.

In this video, music aficionado Shaival Thakkar talks about the charm of R.E.M. and his love for alternative music. This video also suffices as an introduction to alternative rock music. If you like meaningful lyrics and ‘soft’ music—relatively softer than the strains of hard rock music—then you may like alternative rock music. 

Watch the Video Here

Kartikey Sehgal

She lit the Diya. It lit her. (Anooradha Patel)

Two short songs sung on Diwali day by Seema Anil Sehgal during the pooja hosted by Anooradha Patel and Kanwaljit Singh. Listen here.

First Song.

a. Namo Namo Durge Sukh karani,
Namo Namo Ambe Dukh harani.
b. Nirakar hai jyoti tumhari,
Teen lok pheli ujayari.

Translated as: (source)

a. Salutations and Salutations to Durga, the giver of pleasure,
Salutations and salutations to the remover of Sorrow.
b. Your radiance is unparalleled,
And you shed light on the three worlds.

Second Song.

a. Jai Ganesh Bolo,
Bolo,
Jai Dev Bolo…
Paap Hriday Ke Dholo.

b. Bhakti Bhaav se Jo Bhi Aaye
Uske Dukkh Nivare,
Sab Devon main Ek Dev Hain
Rama Chandra Hamare,
Rama Chandra Hamare.

Translated as:

a. Say Jai Ganesh,
Say Jai ___ (insert deity name)
And wash the sins of the heart. (As we remember Lord Ganesh or any other deity, leave behind your sins and be honest now as you take the name of the deity)

b. Whoever comes with devotion   
He frees them from sorrows,
One deity among all the deities,
That’s our Rama Chandra,
That’s our Rama Chandra. (Among the many deities we have is one Mr. Rama Chandra who frees us from our sorrows when we remember him, i.e., the example (qualities)of his life.)

Kartikey Sehgal

[The author visits a pandal during the Durga puja festival and appreciates the effort to make it an artistic event. Certain unconfirmed names have not been mentioned]

Festival is the celebration of culture. You don’t have to be an anthropologist to partake the songs, dances and Gods during the ongoing Durga Puja.

In the last three days, I have listened to Bengali music and listened to Rabindranath Tagore’s idea of music and literature. I have listened to proud references to Bengali filmmakers Ritwik Ghatak and Satyajit ray. All of this in a simple pandal where the decorations are more symbolic than exaggerated; where the richness of clothes matters less than the will to appreciate art; where actor and singer Shekhar Sen‘s style of greeting takes you right into the festivities:

“Hello Kartikey. We have been praying to you. Only we Bengalis pray to you out here. Nobody else does”

The reference is to Lord Kartikey (Kartikeya) who occupies a place among the worshipped Gods.

The crowd was distracted during the performances, children wailed and some ladies discussed shopping. But this didn’t deter Shweta Sen, the event organiser, from reading out a self written commentary on Rabindra Sangeet and singing some Bengali songs. Shekhar Sen mellifluously sang a Bengali bhajan and a children song after explaining its meaning in Hindi.

We listened to paeans to Vitthal in the form of a Marathi song by a classically based singer, which was followed by two film songs by the winner of a music contest.

Today, I saw a classical dance, which was described as classical fusion by an admirer.

The ongoing program may not be exhaustive in terms of content or popular in terms of audience but it is an effort towards imparting meaning to a festival through good art. This is important considering that entertainment programs in the bigger pandals are highlighted mostly by remixed film songs and loud music.

I may visit the pandal in the remaining few days as well.

The pandal hosts artistic performances daily.

Santa Singh

Many people in India listen to his ‘inspired’ songs at least once a day. Here is a definition of an inspired song.

Definition:

An inspired song is a song that sounds exactly like another song. However, it is not a copied song because the composer only got inspired by it and any similarity between both songs is incidental.

Usage:

Listener: Oh God! Your song has the same music, beats and rhythm of an old song.

Composer: Yes, but I was only inspired by it.

Most of us listen to songs only to pass time and the green ‘vadiyan’ (valley, nature) and red ‘gulab’ (rose) don’t inspire us; we are happy with the fast, fast beats and the loud drum sticks beating ferociously on those poor drums.

But music matters to me. I want to appreciate the musician’s originality and tell the people that the song sent me to a dreamy world.

However, I felt like an idiot (despite being one) after learning that Pritam chacha* is the world’s best ripper, better than Nero Express. He seems so frustrated and unsure of his music that he copies tunes from different parts of the globe (Like France, Korea, China etc…).

He claims that he doesn’t copy the songs and simply uses them as sources. Read this:

“I’ve never denied the sources for my songs. So why should I deny it now? But the fact is, I had never heard Anggun’s song when I composed the song in Jab We Met. I don’t know the song myself. My friend who’s a keyboard player had the groove programmed. I liked the groove and I composed my tune on it. I composed the song in front of so many people. I can guarantee the melody isn’t anyone’s but my own. I must admit the groove is similar to the one in my song. But that’s it. And too to is totally unintentional. Not a note in the rest of my song sounds like Anggun’s tune. And if anyone can prove I’ve copied her song I’m ready to stop composing songs forever. (source: 1 and 2)

I think I know about the ‘so many people’ mentioned by Pritam.

1.    Nepali Watchman:

Pritam: Kaisa laga gaana? (how is the song?)

Watchman: Bahooot ashsha shaabji (Veryyyy gooood shir)

Pritam: You have not heard it before?

Watchman: No shaabji (No shir)

Pritam: Therefore it is original.

2.    Maali (Gardener)

Wah Sir. Kya gaana likhen he aap. Aisa gaana toh humre dada pardaada bhi nahi jaanat hain.

(Wah Sir. What a song you have said. A song like this was unknown to even my grandfather and great grandfather)

Pritam: Therefore it is original.

Pritam’s ‘height of coincidence’ is hard to believe since there are at least 40 more songs that this musician has ‘accidentally’ composed.

Now hear this. A singer from Taiwan called Lee Hom-Wang (imagine his mother saying beta** Wang, don’t bang) is suing Tips Films for plagiarising the song ‘Deep in the Bamboo Grove’ (Chu Lin Sheu Chu) into ‘Zara Zara touch me, touch me, touch me’ (a bad song if you ask me).

Perhaps Pritam chacha heard this song and asked his friends and relatives to gather around him. He then reproduced the song in Hindi and asked everyone if they had ever heard it. Everyone agreed that such music was unknown to them. Pritam then claimed that he had composed the song then and there.

And therefore it is original.

Most Indian music lovers don’t fret much over plagiarised music and most foreigners don’t spend even ten cents over Hindi film music. However, it is important that someone stops this man from minting money and winning awards for ‘original music’.

Just have a look at these sites to know how many songs he has copied (and counting)

1

and

2

Perhaps Wang will bang Pritam, win the case and extract money out of Pritam and Tips. This should serve as a good lesson to these fellas.

Pritam is hurting music fans, people like Wang and most of all, Anu Malik who might sue him for plagiarising his plagiarising ideas.

*chacha: Uncle

**beta: son