Ilayaraaja Is Writing A Symphony: I Will Finish It This Year, He Says

There was this myth that only a westerner can write a symphony. In 1993, Ilayaraaja broke that myth and wrote a symphony that was played by the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra. After decades, the Maestro has started writing another symphony. In an interview, he said that he has finished writing one movement for the symphony and he expects to get the other three movements done before this year ends.

When the topic of his first symphony and its positive reception among people came up, Ilayaraaja said, "The search and understanding of Symphonies have been slowly developing in society in recent decades. I have been waiting for this. The internet has helped them with that. I intend to write many symphonies in the coming times, not just for our audience, but for the global audience as well. While I'm composing film music by the side, I'm writing my new symphony whenever I get time. Once it's completed, I'm planning to get an accomplished Symphony Orchestra to perform the same. The first movement is done already. I will finish the other three movements by this year-end"

A Symphony is defined as a long piece of music written for a large orchestra. A Symphony can be broken down into four movements. Apparently, back in the day, Symphonies had only three movements, but later the structure evolved to have four movements. A movement is nothing but a part of the symphony. Between each pair of movements, there is a pause, and these movements are usually free-standing.

Ilayaraaja is expected to compose the music for the upcoming series Nilamellam Ratham in association with his son Yuvan Shankar Raja, and it's another thing his fans are excited about.