Satyajit Ray’s signature scores! A tribute to the auteur

Be it scripting and sketching his characters, designing costume or directing and composing background scores, Satyajit Ray was a master of all. However, not many knew about his musical side. On World Music Day, let’s celebrate the musical genius in Ray.

Satyajit Ray’s music was not just highly appreciated but also set new trends. In his earlier film works like the ‘Apu’ Trilogy, ‘Devi,’ ‘Jalsaghar’ and ‘Paras Pathar,’ Ray had the opportunity to work with legends such as Ravi Shankar, Vilayat Khan and Ali Akbar Khan. Influenced by some earlier experiments of the famous Chetan Anand and K.A. Abbas, Ray delivered wonders with each of the music maestros. The concept of background scores in films was redefined with terrific musical knowledge and restraint that always had the necessary impact.

He formed a great combination with Ravi Shankar. It’s safe to say Satyajit Ray discovered his musical soul while working with the sitar maestro. Ravi Shankar on several occasions had said that Ray was the greatest director he had worked with. We all know how mind-blowing is the scores for ‘Pather Panchali,’ ‘Aparajito,’ ‘Apur Sansar’ and ‘Paras Pathar’. Not many people know, Ray even penned a script of a documentary on Ravi Shankar. Unfortunately, he couldn’t complete shooting it.

Vilayat Khan created some out of the world background tunes for ‘Jalsaghar,’ creating an essence of the decaying Bengali zamindari era. However, there are some bitter memories as well. Vilayat Khan didn’t see eye to eye with Satyajit Ray on certain matters. He had even claimed Ray didn’t allow him to score independently. Ray’s working experience with Ali Akbar Khan in ‘Devi’ was also a worse one. Though ‘Devi’ gave us an unforgettable score, Ali Akbar Khan wasn’t satisfied working with the Auteur. He even accused Ray of excessive interference and even had doubts over Ray’s knowledge of Indian classical music.

Interestingly, the utmost gentleman that he was, Satyajit Ray never bore any grudge against these music icons nor commented about the incidents. Instead, he made his mind to compose music for his films. He realised though these maestros were unmatchable musicians, they couldn’t understand what he exactly wanted in his films.

And then came ‘Teen Kanya,’ based on three of Tagore’s short stories. It witnessed the birth of Satyajit Ray, the music director. Starting with ‘Teen Kanya’ every Ray film would come with a theme music which would often underline the central plot of his film and would also express the elite motive deep inside the complex structure of his film. This can also be seen in the Feluda film ‘Sonar Kella’ which gives a theme music revolving around the central subject.

Since then, he decided not to rely on any other composer. Ray started mastering western notations. Till his immortal allegory, ‘Goopy Gayen Bagha Bayen,’ Ray had composed all of his scores following the occidental musical notes. Then he found out the musicians in Bengal were not actually accustomed to western notations. So, it took them time to convert the notations to Indian, particularly Bengali ones. So, he learnt and also started composing in Bengali notations. And the rest is history!

‘Aranyer Din Ratri,’ ‘Pratidwandi,’ ‘Seemabaddha,’ ‘Jana Aranya’ and all his later film works witnessed Satyajit Ray, the composer, at his best. During the initial stage he used to compose the tunes on piano. For the background scores, Ray generally used violins, cellos, double bass guitars and not the Indian bamboo flute. He also had a great love for several Indian percussions and superbly used the timpani, a western drum, on some occasions.

In ‘Goopy Gayen Bagha Bayen’ and ‘Hirak Rajar Deshe,’ Satyajit Ray decided to work with singer Anup Ghosal for the immortal songs like ‘Dekho Re Nayan Mele,’ ‘Ek Je Chilo Raja’ and ‘Mora Dujanae Rajar Jamai.’ He also used the Carnatic style of music and instruments in these Bengali cult classics.

Kishore Kumar’s rendition of the Tagore song ‘Ami Chini Go Chini Tomare’ in ‘Charulata’ was flawless without the support of any musical instruments. Interestingly Ray even lent his baritone singing a few lines in his last directional ‘Agantuk’.

Legendary composer Maurice Jarre once called Satyajit Ray’s music haunting and soul stirring at the same time. It’s no wonder Ray’s music creates harmonious ripples even today.