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A significant turn for Ilaiyaraaja was his hiring as an assistant to the film [[music director]] G.K. Venkatesh. During this stint he learnt the practical methods of orchestration, and would hone his compositional ability through frequent experiment accomplished by persuading [[session musician|session musicians]] to play, during their break times, the scores that he wrote.<ref>Ramnarayanan, G. 1989. Matchless in quality and speed! The Hindu, May 26. Available from: http://www.raaja.com/Rv-Matchless-Gowri.pdf</ref> Ilaiyaraaja also worked as a session guitarist for other film music directors, such as [[Salil Chowdhury]].<ref>Gautam, S. 2004. 'Suhana safar' with Salilda. The Hindu, Tuesday, Nov 13. Available from: http://www.hinduonnet.com/thehindu/mp/2004/11/23/stories/2004112300580100.htm</ref> His involvement in the film industry would prove fruitful as his musical talent and acumen caught the attention of film industry figures. Ilaiyaraaja's break as a full-fledged music director came in [[1976]], when film producer Panchu Arunachalam decided to commission him to compose the songs and [[film score]] for a Tamil-language film called ''Annakkili'' ('The Dove'). This soundtrack, and the others that followed, earned the composer critical recognition for his fusion of Tamil folk poetry and music with popular Tamil film music.<ref>Greene, P.D. 2001. Authoring the Folk: the crafting of a rural popular music in south India. ''Journal of Intercultural Studies'' 22 (2): 161–172.</ref><ref>Sivanarayanan, A. 2004. Translating Tamil Dalit poetry. ''World Literature Today'' 78(2): 56-58.</ref> By the 1980s, Ilaiyaraaja was the leader of the film-music industry<ref>Greene, P.D. 1997. Film music: Southern area. Pp. 542-546 in B. Nettl, R.M. Stone, J. Porter and T. Rice. ''The Garland Encyclopedia of World Music. Volume V: South Asia - The Indian Subcontinent''. New York: Garland Pub. (p. 544)</ref> which he dominated almost solely for more than a decade and in which he continues to play a significant part.
Ilaiyaraaja's arrival into the music direction scene impacted the south Indian film industry on two general fronts. Firstly, it saw the centralisation of expressive control in the hands of a musical director brought to an unprecedented extent.<ref>Mohan, A. 1994. Ilaiyaraja: composer as phenomenon in Tamil film culture. M.A. thesis, Wesleyan University, pp. 106-107</ref><ref>Greene, P.D. 1997. Film music: Southern area. Pp. 542-546 in B. Nettl, R.M. Stone, J. Porter and T. Rice. ''The Garland Encyclopedia of World Music. Volume V: South Asia - The Indian Subcontinent''. New York: Garland Pub. (p. 544)</ref> The Indian filmmaker [[Mani Ratnam]] illustrates: "Ilayaraja (sic) would look at the [film] scene once, and immediately start giving notes to his assistants, as a bunch of musicians, hovering around him, would collect the notes for their instrument and go to their places. When the orchestra played out the notes, they would be perfect, not just in harmony but also in timing - the background score would commence exactly where it should and end at the exact place required... Ilayaraja will listen to you as you explain the scene, and what he intends to convey. Once the film rolls, Ilayaraja's gaze will be on the screen and a few seconds later, papers would go to the musicians giving them the score, and then there would be no further changes. A [film] director can be taken by surprise at the speed of events."<ref>Rangaraj, R. 2005. Mani Ratnam on Ilayaraja, Rehman. ChennaiOnline, March 9th. Available from: http://www.chennaionline.com/film/Events/2005/03maniratnam.asp</ref> Secondly, the expressive range of film music was greatly broadened by Ilaiyaraaja's methodological compositional approach and by his ability to draw from a diversity of musical styles.
Ilaiyaraaja's musical approach is marked by the use of a distinctive [[orchestration]] technique that is a synthesis of Western and Indian instruments and musical modes. He pioneered the use of electronic music technology that integrated [[synthesiser|synthesisers]], electric guitars and keyboards, rhythm boxes and [[MIDI]] with large orchestras.<ref>Greene, P.D. 1997. Film music: Southern area. Pp. 542-546 in B. Nettl, R.M. Stone, J. Porter and T. Rice. ''The Garland Encyclopedia of World Music. Volume V: South Asia - The Indian Subcontinent''. New York: Garland Pub. (p. 544)</ref> The popular appeal of Ilaiyaraaja's music can also be attributed to his flair for catchy melodies, and to his employment of subtle musical nuances in [[chord progression|chord progressions]], beats and [[timbre|timbres]].<ref>Subramanian, V. Undated. 9th chords in Rajaa's music. Available from: http://www.geocities.com/violinvicky/9thChords.html</ref><ref>Subramanian, V. Undated. The boss of bass. Available from: http://www.geocities.com/violinvicky/BossOfBass.html</ref><ref>Balaji, R.S. 2002. Lessons from Maestro Ilayaraja: A case study on Maestro Ilayaraja's style of music. Available from: http://www.geocities.com/lessonsfromraja/</ref> His songs, many of which demand considerable vocal virtuosity, have found expressive platform amongst some of India's respected vocalists and [[playback singer|playback singers]], such as [[K.J. Yesudas]], [[S.P. Balasubramaniam]], [[S. Janaki]] , [[P. Susheela]], [[K. S. Chitra]], [[Asha Bhosle]] and [[Lata Mangeshkar]].<ref> Raaja Online. 2005. Discography: Film database - List of singers. Available from: http://www.raaja.com/ric/index.html</ref> Occasionally, Ilaiyaraaja sings his own compositions. He is famed for his evocative background music for films.
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