The Sculptors of Film Songs (1): Sebastian D’Souza

Guest article by Piyush M Pandya (originally in Gujarati) and Ashok M Vaishnav (English translation) as a tribute to Sebastian D’Souza on his 117 birth anniversary (29 January 1906 – 9 March 1998)

(If you remove the prelude, interlude and orchestral arrangements from ‘Aawara hun, ya gardish mein hun aasman ka tara hun’, or ‘Mera joota hai Japani’ or scores of our everlasting songs, a bare body would be left without adornments, embellishments and beauty. The songs would be hardly recognisabale.

The ‘arrangement’ of musical instruments adds beauty to the bare body of the song created by the music director. Yet the arrangers remained behind the curtain. They were rarely credited in the credit titles in fine print, and they virtually remained unknown to the music loving people, except some who were deeply involved in it.

There have been repeated requests by the readers to write on some famous Arrangers. I had to politely skirt the issue; I realised that one needed much more information than what was there in Greg Booth’s celebrated book, “Behind the Curtain: Making Music in Mumbai’s Film Studios”.

In this situation Piyush Pandya’s series in Gujarati on Web Gurjari  came as a godsend. Mr Pandya retired after teaching Microbiology in a local college for 39 years, and is now settled in Ahmedabad. He was deeply interested in the songs of 1940s through 1970s, and was drawn towards fine points of orchestration. He often wondered who played which instrument at a particular spot in a song. The Internet era has helped him in scouring for information, and assisted by knowledgeable friends like Har Mandir Singh ‘Hamraaz’, Harish Raghuvanshi, Biren Kothari and Chandrashekhar Vaidya, Piyushji has been able to write a series on the famous Arrangers of the Golden Era.

Ashok M Vashnav offered to translate these articles in English for publication on SOY, one a month. Ashokji is well known to SOY regulars. He retired as an engineer and now is a freelance management trainer based out of Ahmedabad.

Piyushji and Ashokji have decided to launch the series in the New Year with one of the greatest Arrangers, Sebastian D’Souza on his 117^th birth anniversary (29 January 1906 – 9 March 1998). Being the first article in the series, it has a long introduction how our film music evolved from our ancient roots in other performance traditions; this would not be repeated in the remaining articles. With this I also welcome Piyushji on his debut in the new Year on SOY. Thanks a lot Piyushji and Ashokji for this wonderful New Year gift. – AK)

Introduction: Evolution of Film Music

A school of knowledgeable people believes that the music came into being when an infinitely dense singularity exploded with a Big Bang to bring our universe into existence. That explosion is our primal sound. The spread of that sound on a wave of radiation brought rhythm into existence. Thus, the two basic elements of music – the note (melody) and the beat (rhythm) – also can be believed to have come into existence simultaneously with the universe. The blowing of winds, explosions of volcanoes, the thunders of clouds and the strong winds of tornadoes that kept happening throughout the chain of events on the earth brought in them vast range of sounds. The waves of oceans, flowing waters of streams, winds blowing through the woods, the chime of rain drops falling on the leaves blended variety to the diversity of sound.

Then, at some stage of evolution, human beings started recreating this ‘music’ of the nature into the languages that human beings understood. The process has been evolving over millions of years of human evolution and shall continue as long as humans exist.

One of the paths that led to the development of a form is what we now know as film music. In the Indian context, along with the advent of ‘talkie’ films, in 1931, songs also came into being in the films. That indeed was the dawn of a new era. By 1935, the playback singing also came onto field. The film music gradually, but surely, came out of the shadow of theatre style music. New crop of music directors and singers entered the arena. Also came in the then modern recording technology as well.

In consonance with the rule of market economy – more the returns, more will be the competent players in the market – the virtuous cycle of pull for different forces of the film music started gaining momentum. As such, between the period of second half of  ‘40s to ’60s, many outstanding music directors, arrangers, musicians, sound recordists, lyricists and singers emerged on the stage. As they kept getting favourable circumstances, they boldly tried new experiments that showcased the breadth and depth of their creativity.

At this stage, we have to recognise that an average listener of any form of music hardly has inclination for the technicalities like raags or scale or rhythm. As such, it should be no surprise if they do not notice the subtleties of different music instruments or the variations in singing styles. For him, what pleases the ears or what can be easily hummed is good music. It was this effect that drew the average lay listener to the film music. Along with the actor enacting a song on the screen, he could now recognize the singer and perhaps the music director. Some discerning listeners also started giving recognition to the lyricist. It may not be overstatement to note that film music played a very strong, even if unconscious, role in cultivating some rudimentary appreciation of the music at the mass level.

But, alas, a very critical link in the entire chain of a film song composition, that of music arrangers like Frank Fernand, Antonio Xavier Vaz (a.k.a. Chic Chocolate), Sebastian D’Souza, Anthony Gonsalves, and musicians ranging from ace accordionists Goody Seervai and Sumit Mitra to classical flautists Pannal Ghosh and Hariprasad Chaurasia and many other legendary instrumentalists still remained unrecognised in terms of their contribution to the film music. Even this list would be grossly incomplete if we do not mention the names of instrumentalists / arrangers like Dattaram, Basu-Manohari, Sonik-Omi, Babla, Uattam Sigh and the likes who ventured into the field of independent music direction but could not make a successful headway.

To buttress the point, a few examples will better serve the purpose:

• Who has played that masterpiece of saxophone just after the line Bhool koi humse na ho jaaye in the famous song Roop tera mastana of Aaradhana (1969)?
• Do you remember the sweet pieces of flute in Main piya teri tu maane ya na maane (Basant Bahar, 1956)? Who would have played such enchanting pieces?
• Or, that harmonium piece in Kajara mohabbatwala from Kismat (1968)?
• Have you noticed the pain of loneliness in Tu chhupi hai kahan (Navrang, 1958). being so effectively accentuated by the shehnai pitching in the music?

The role of music arranger was to shape the basic idea of the tune that the music director had composed for the lyrics penned by the lyricist into a full-fledged song. It is the arranger who selects the correct rhythm and corresponding appropriate percussion instrument as well as the other melody music of prelude or interludes or countermelody support and the corresponding instrument(s). Each piece will be designed in detail, which instrument will play exactly when, in what scale and what style, who will play what etc. These details were all codified by the arranger and meticulously explained to each instrumentalist. Then, there would be rehearsals to iron out the kinks in order to tune-in the different orchestra elements as one unit. Next, rehearsal would be held with the singer, usually prior to the recording sessions. And when all was set to a level of acceptable standard, the final recording would take place.

Without taking away the due credit to the music director for imagining such notes, the lyricist giving it a concrete body and the singer making it come alive, it is the arranger and the instrumentalist concerned who are the unsung cornerstones for that imagination to fructify into the reality of a glorious structure of art that we call a song.

With this prelude, we gear up to commence our present series of The Sculptors of Hindi Film Music, that would introduce us to some of the leading music arrangers and instrumentalists who played a great role in shaping the music of the golden era of the Hindi film music.

The Great Sculptors of Film Music (1): Sebastian D’Souza (29.1.1906-9.3.1998)

It is most apt to commence the series with Sebastian D’Souza, a successful Goan music arranger in Bollywood music industry, who is largely credited with changing the entire harmonic structure of the Hindi film song to create a delectable full body of sound behind the voice of the singer.

Sebastian D’Souza spent his childhood and adolescence in his native Goa. His natural passion and inborn knack for musical instruments was nourished in the tradition of Church music there. He easily went on to learn violin, cello and piano. While learning to play these instruments, he also learnt how to write notations. During this period he used to listen to the famous symphonies of well-known western composers very attentively.

Asides:

At the risk of a little digression, since we would be focusing more on orchestral arrangement of musical instruments in the present series, a word about the violin family of string instruments would be in order.

Quite easily recognised, ‘violin’ comes in four different sizes: The violin, which is the smallest, viola, cello, and the biggest, the double bass, sometimes called the contrabass. (Bass is pronounced “base,” as in “baseball.”) The smaller instruments, the violin and viola, make higher-pitched sounds, while the larger cello and double bass produce low rich sounds.

After partition in 1947, Sebastian D’Souza decided to settle in Bombay and pursue his career as a violinist in the film industry. He would go on to play violin for many stalwarts like Anil Biswas, Ghulam Haider, Sajjad Hussain, Vinod, Husnlal-Bhagatram etc. In 1948-49, when O P Nayyar got his first assignment to compose a solo for CH Atma  (Preetam aan milo), he assigned its music arrangement to Sebastian D’Souza. When O P Nayyar got his first film – Aasmaan (1952) – he again entrusted Sebastian D’Souza the responsibility of full-fledged music arrangement. O P Nayyar – Sebastian association prospered very well and continued till 1973. Their last film together was Pran Jaye Par Vachan Na Jaye.

Asides:
Incidentally, Chain se humko kabhi aapne jeene na diya, which ultimately won the Filmfare Award for Asha Bhosle as the Best Female Playback Singer of the year, was recorded just before Asha Bhosle-O P Nayyar parted ways.

For our present purpose, listen to the effect the soft instrumental notes, accompanying the song as counter melody, has in enhancing the pathos of the song!

In 1952, Sonny Castelino, a Shankar-Jaikishan team regular, introduced Sebastian to the SJ duo. Daag (1952) marked the beginning of another long association in the film industry. Sebastian went on to arrange music for all SJ films, till 1974, ending the run with Sanyasi; all the songs of the film were set to raag Bhairavi. As someone trained in western classical music, Sebastian faced the challenge of learning Indian classical raag structure, since both Shankar and Jaikishan were inclined that their songs be based on Indian Classical music.

Another major work of Sebastian was with Salil Chowdhury. Salil Chowdhury is well known to recycle his Bengali songs into Hindi films. Here is one illustration wherein the value addition that a music arranger, fully entwined with style of the music director, can make:

1. Dhitang dhitang bole – Aawaz (1956) – Hemant Kumar, Lata Mangeshkar, an unknown singer and chorus, Lyrics Prem Dhawan, Music Salil Chowdhury | Bengali version – Singer Hemant Kumar, Music Salil Chowdhury

The creative use of counter melody, harmony and chorus in the music arrangement makes obvious difference between the two versions, composed by the same music director. The music arrangement of the Hindi version is by Sebastian D’Souza.

Before we take up some representative songs for a closer view, let us look at some typical songs that exemplify the benchmark Sebastian has set for the role of an ideal music arranger.

2. Bol ri kathputali boli – Kathputali (1957) – Lata Mangeshkar – Lyrics Shailendra, Music Shankar-Jaikishan

3. Mera naam chin chin chu – Howrah Bridge (1958) – Geeta Dutt – Lyrics Qamar Jalalabadi,  Music OP Nayyar

4. Ye bansi kyun gaye – Parakh (1960) – Lata Mangeshkar – Lyrics Shailendra, Music Salil Chowdhury

5. Mohe la de chunariaya laal – Chaandi Ki Deewar (1964) – Geeta Dutt, Suman Kalyanpur – Lyrics Sahir Ludhiyanavi, Music N Datta

It can be easily identified that the first one is an SJ composition, second one an OPN composition, the third one a Salil Chowdhury composition, and the last one, a folk tune composition of another western music trained music director, N Datta. But what requires to be noted is the value Sebastian as an arranger has added, by intimately blending the musical score with the natural, unique, style of the respective music director. This was the role a music arranger was expected to play – addition of such richness he enshrines in the songs, while remaining totally incognito.

In 1974, when Sebastian D’Souza could no more identify himself with the new trends of song composition, he chose to go back to his native place and spent the rest of his life in teaching music to the children.

We will take up a few most representative songs he arranged for Shankar-Jaikishan, to showcase the versatility of Sebastian’s range of creativity and devotion as a music arranger.

Here are two very well-known YT clips that further demonstrate how effortlessly Sebastian has enlivened Shankar-Jaikishan’s vision of long preludes or highly experimental interludes and counters, which we all know as the signature identification of the music of SJ duo!

6. The magical violins of Shankar Jaikishan – Part I

7. The magical violins of Shankar Jaikishan – Part II

Raj Kapoor was also extremely fond of Sebastian’s work. He, SJ and Sebastian had such matching wavelength that they could compose off the complete background score of RK’s magnum opus Mera Naam Joker in one week flat.

Normally no words can ever do full justice to describe a piece of art. So, as we take up these illustrations, it would be better that we put on earphones and listen to the magic of SJ’s compositions and Sebastian’s immortal arrangements.

8. Aye mere dil kahin aur chal – Daag (1952) – Talat Mahmood – fast and slow versions – Lyrics Shailendra, Music Shankar-Jaikishan

In the first slow-paced version, just listen to the soft strumming of guitar giving rhythmic support, with faint accompanying countermelody, giving an unfathomable depth to the song. In the fast-paced version, simply listen to all the variations that Sebastian has arranged for V Balsara to play on harmonium (which sounds almost like piano accordion). These pieces of countermelody remain the cherished peaks of Mount Everest for all the music arrangers to scale!

9. Ban ke panchhi gaye pyar ka tarana – Anari (1956) – Lata Mangeshkar, chorus – Lyrics Hasrat Jaipuri, Music Shankar-Jaikishan

This song has some wonderfully imaginative uses of chorus and choir. After brief prelude (till 0.44) the song begins with fast rhythm of dholak. When the initial lines get repeated at 0.35, chorus seamlessly joins Lata Mangeshkar, with choir supporting as countermelody. Then @1.02, the choir fuses with interlude music, that not only gives the effect of the song filling up the vast open space but also clear idea of the mood that friends have reached in their cycle journey. The choir countermelody comes back with chorus @1.44 again that helps recreate the divine mood that friends have now been enjoying. At @1.55 when the line of the stanza ends, the opening line closes the stanza in a classical mode of music composition, again with soft choir countermelody. This experiment repeats @2.54. The song softly ends with chorus and choir support. Such minutely sculpted details, in an oft-used cycle-riding group of friends’ song, is one of the many unique facets of Sebastian’s finely carved music arrangement that became his hallmark.

10. Ajeeb daastan hai yeh – Dil Apna Aur Preet Parai (1960) – Lata Mangeshkar, chorus – Lyrics Shailendra, Music Shankar-Jaikishan

This song based on Waltz rhythm has three interludes, each one being different than the other. The prelude opens with strings of guitar and the choir then joins in the main piece of orchestra, followed by easy strains of piano-accordion and guitar, ending with violin ensemble, signalling beginning of the opening lines @0.36. The choir then accompanies the singing as countermelody @0.39. The first interlude is a fine mix of saxophone and choir, with violin ensemble playing its due supportive role. The first stanza plays with a mix of guitar and choir as countermelody support. The second interlude, starting @ 2.26 is dominantly a guitar and choir composition. The countermelody support for the second stanza is by very soft saxophone strains with even more soft violin ensemble support to deepen the effect. The third interlude, from 3.40 to 3.58, is again a saxophone-choir orchestration arrangement but set to a totally different composition. The last stanza has guitar as the countermelody support. As an overall impact, the song keeps on playing in your mind the mixed mood of pathos with soothing tranquillity of the serene night, even after it has formally ended.

Shankar-Jaikishan’s dance songs had their own style of presentation.

11. Kar gaya re kar gaya mujh par jadoo – Basant Bahar (1956) – Lata Mangeshkar, Asha Bhosle – Lyrics Shailendra, Music Shankar-Jaikishan

Basant Bahar (1956) was the first major challenge the duo had boldly accepted to showcase their versatility. They had even succeeded in roping in no less a vocalist than Pt. Bhimsen Joshi for Ketaki gulab juhi with Manna Dey – a duet based on raag Basant and Bahar. However in a film like this, too, they had used as much creative liberty they could enjoy in the orchestration of this dance song.

A sad dance sequence – Amrapali (1966)

However, Amrapali (1966), being a pure history-theme based story of a classical dancer, the challenge was even more demanding. The script of the film gave space for depicting different intense moods of pure classical dance sequences. However, Sebastian D’Souza has deftly crafted an intricate play of Indian classical string instruments like the sitar and veena in sync with various classical percussion instruments.

12. Tadap ye din raat ki – Amrapali (1966) – Lata Mangeshkar – Lyrics Shailendra, Music Shankar-Jaikishan

Weaving intricate multiple instrument-based large orchestra for highly emotional songs for such films is even more demanding. A highly committed and devoted music arranger like Sebastian D’Souza would not compromise a fraction of his own high standards even for such a less practiced field. A careful listening of the song manifests an unbearable pain of forced separation in the form of rapid rhythm-based mix of ensembles of veena and sitars, which softly calms down after the outburst by slow-paced surbahar strokes. Sebastian has used extremely soft violin support in the countermelody to impart depth to the song, but has studiedly used ensemble of sitar as the lead instrument of the orchestra.

13. Shankar-Jaikishan’s penchant for experimentation and inherent leaning towards Indian classical raags, and by now Sebastian D’Souza’s high confidence in his ability to do full justice to Indian classical music as much as western classical music, fructified in the form of an NFS Long Playing record, Raag Jazz Style (EMI,1968; ECSD-2377), in collaboration with the sitarist Ustad Rais Khan. SJ-Sebastian roped in such top-notch musicians, like bass – Eddie Travass; drums – Leslie Godinho; electric guitar –Anibal Castro, Dilip Naik; flute – Suman; piano – Lucilla Pacheco; saxophone – Manohari Singh; tabla –Ramakant; and trumpet – John Pereira for the project. The disc had three of SJ’s favourite raags – Jaijaiwanti, Shivranjini and Bhairavi – along with challenging raags like Todi, Bhairav, Malkauns, Kalavati, Tilak  Kamod, Miyan Malhar, Bairagi and Mishra Pilu. I have picked up Shivranjini here to showcase the high level of performance by the whole team, and intricate arrangement by Sebastian D’Souza.

One can keep recounting such nuances in each of music arrangements created by Sebastian. However, we will limit our exploration to one more song that fully depicts the width of Sebastian’s spectrum of creativity, passion, and commitment.

14. Zulmi sang aankh ladi – Madhumati (1958) – Lata Mangeshkar, chorus – Lyrics Shailendra, Music Salil Chowdhury

This signature Salil Chowdhury composition opens with joyous mood of string and percussion instruments. The pure folk-effect chorus intensifies the mood. Sebastian has carefully crafted intricate pieces of flute ensemble in the arrangement, thereby making out the entire outcome as unmistakably a Salil Chowdhury composition. No wonder Dilip Kumar is shown mesmerised by the charm of the setting with vivacious Vyjayanthimala in the centre. So are we, too, with the magical environment the entire song sequence creates.

Apart from the breadth and depth of the virtuoso Sebastian’s talent, these illustrations also demonstrate the pain and effort that the composer, the lyricist, the singer, the arranger, the musicians and everyone associated with the song recording used to take for each song. In return apart from the relatively paltry monetary rewards, the only recognition that the music arranger would get is a small fine print mention in the credit titles of the film. However, in the hindsight, the ageless affection that these creations got has not abated even after passing through so many generations. That seems to be the most valuable reward for their selfless devotion.

One of the rare photographs of Sebastian D’Souza conducting a live public concert performance speaks volumes for the role of the music arranger in selecting different instruments, the right musician to play notes of some standards, right positioning of the instruments with respect to each other and the microphones, so as to yield a perfect harmony, whether in a studio recording or a live public performance.

We end our tribute to one such great artist, Sebastian D’Souza, by recalling his one of the most iconic compositions that has all the hues of his creativity.

15. Aa ab laut chalein – Jis Desh Mein Ganga Bahti Hai (1960) – Mukesh, Lata Mageshkar, chorus – Lyrics Shailendra, Music Shankar-Jaikishan

Credits and Disclaimers 

1. The song links have been embedded from the YouTube only for the listening pleasure of music lovers. This blog claims no copyright over these songs, which vests with the respective copyright holders.
2. The photographs are taken form the internet, duly recognising the full copyrights for the same to the either original creator or the site where they were originally displayed.