''Sandham: Symphony Meets Classical Tamil'' is a

studio album An album is a collection of audio recordings issued on compact disc (CD), Phonograph record, vinyl, audio tape, or another medium such as Digital distribution#Music, digital distribution. Albums of recorded sound were developed in the early ...

Tamil Tamil may refer to: * Tamils, an ethnic group native to India and some other parts of Asia **Sri Lankan Tamils, Tamil people native to Sri Lanka also called ilankai tamils **Tamil Malaysians, Tamil people native to Malaysia * Tamil language, nativ ...

by American Composer

Rajan Somasundaram Rajan Somasundaram, best known as Composer Rajan, is a composer, drummer, violinist and music producer based in Raleigh. He is known for making the first ever music album on Tamil Sangam period poetry in association with Durham Symphony and promi ...

that involved various international artists. It is based on

Sangam period The Sangam period or age (, ), particularly referring to the third Sangam period, is the period of the history of ancient Tamil Nadu, Kerala and parts of Sri Lanka (then known as Tamilakam) spanning from c. 6th century BCE to c. 3rd century CE. ...

ancient Tamil poetry and the first ever music album on Sangam poetry. ''

The Hindu ''The Hindu'' is an Indian English-language daily newspaper owned by The Hindu Group, headquartered in Chennai, Tamil Nadu. It began as a weekly in 1878 and became a daily in 1889. It is one of the Indian newspapers of record and the secon ...

'' music review called the album "A Major Event in the World of Music". As of 15 July 2020, the album got into Amazon's Top#10 best seller list under International Music category. The album consists of seven songs, a collection of outstanding ancient Tamil

Sangam literature The Sangam literature (Tamil: சங்க இலக்கியம், ''caṅka ilakkiyam'';) historically known as 'the poetry of the noble ones' (Tamil: சான்றோர் செய்யுள், ''Cāṉṟōr ceyyuḷ'') connotes ...

poetry with music composed by

and sung by leading singers

Bombay Jayashri "Bombay" Jayashri Ramnath is an Indian Carnatic vocalist, singer, and musician. She has sung in multiple languages including Tamil, Telugu, Kannada, Malayalam and Hindi movies. Born into a family of musicians, Jayashri represents the fourth ge ...

Saindhavi Saindhavi is a Carnatic music vocalist and an Indian film playback singer. She has been performing from the age of 12. Personal life Saindhavi married her schoolmate, composer G. V. Prakash Kumar, on 27 June 2013 in Chennai, India. They were ...

, Karthik,

Pragathi Guruprasad Pragathi Guruprasad is a Singaporean-American playback singer who has worked in Tamil language films. Brought up in Fremont, California, she finished as a runner-up in the third season of the reality-based singing competition ''Airtel Super ...

among others. The seven songs in the album are, Yathum Oore, written by

Kaniyan Pungundranar Kaniyan Poongunranar, also Poongundranar or Pungundranar (), was an influential Tamil philosopher from the Sangam age from around 6th century BCE. His name Kaniyan implies that he was an Kaala Kanithar (astronomer) (''kaala kanitham'' in Tamil l ...

having two versions (Symphony version and multi-genre version), Veral veli, written by Poet

Kapilar Kapilar or Kabilar (Tamil: கபிலர்) was the most prolific Tamil poet of the Sangam period (c. 3rd century BCE to 3rd century CE). He alone contributed some 206 poems, or a little less than 10% of the entire Sangam-era classical corpus ...

, Yayum Nyayum written by Sempulapeyaneerar, Nyayiru Kayathu, written by Poet Kayamanar, Mullai Oorntha written by poet Okkur Masathiar and Kalamsei kove written by an unknown Sangam period poet. North Carolina based Durham Symphony led by Maestro William Henry Curry played the composition. Recordings happened in multiple locations across the world including

Raleigh-Durham The Research Triangle, or simply The Triangle, are both common nicknames for a metropolitan area in the Piedmont region of North Carolina in the United States, anchored by the cities of Raleigh and Durham and the town of Chapel Hill, home to th ...

Los Angeles Los Angeles ( ; es, Los Ángeles, link=no , ), often referred to by its initials L.A., is the largest city in the state of California and the second most populous city in the United States after New York City, as well as one of the world' ...

Chennai Chennai (, ), formerly known as Madras ( the official name until 1996), is the capital city of Tamil Nadu, the southernmost Indian state. The largest city of the state in area and population, Chennai is located on the Coromandel Coast of th ...

Kyiv Kyiv, also spelled Kiev, is the capital and most populous city of Ukraine. It is in north-central Ukraine along the Dnieper, Dnieper River. As of 1 January 2021, its population was 2,962,180, making Kyiv the List of European cities by populat ...

Ukraine Ukraine ( uk, Україна, Ukraïna, ) is a country in Eastern Europe. It is the second-largest European country after Russia, which it borders to the east and northeast. Ukraine covers approximately . Prior to the ongoing Russian inv ...

Jerusalem Jerusalem (; he, יְרוּשָׁלַיִם ; ar, القُدس ) (combining the Biblical and common usage Arabic names); grc, Ἱερουσαλήμ/Ἰεροσόλυμα, Hierousalḗm/Hierosóluma; hy, Երուսաղեմ, Erusałēm. i ...

Beijing } Beijing ( ; ; ), alternatively romanized as Peking ( ), is the capital of the People's Republic of China. It is the center of power and development of the country. Beijing is the world's most populous national capital city, with over 21 ...

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London London is the capital and largest city of England and the United Kingdom, with a population of just under 9 million. It stands on the River Thames in south-east England at the head of a estuary down to the North Sea, and has been a majo ...

and

Mumbai Mumbai (, ; also known as Bombay — the official name until 1995) is the capital city of the Indian state of Maharashtra and the ''de facto'' financial centre of India. According to the United Nations, as of 2018, Mumbai is the second- ...

. One of the songs from the album, "Yathum Oore Anthem", was declared the theme song of 10th

World Tamil Conference The World Tamil Conference ( ta, உலகத் தமிழ் மாநாடு) is a series of occasional conferences to discuss the social growth of the Tamil language. Each conference is attended by thousands of Tamil enthusiasts around t ...

. Composer Rajan mentioned that Yathum Oore being one of the oldest poem that talks about equality, unity and global citizenship, he composed the song to include 14 genres of musical styles including Indian classical, Western classical,

rock Rock most often refers to: * Rock (geology), a naturally occurring solid aggregate of minerals or mineraloids * Rock music, a genre of popular music Rock or Rocks may also refer to: Places United Kingdom * Rock, Caerphilly, a location in Wales ...

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, pop, calypso, Chinese and Japanese, reggae,

rap Rapping (also rhyming, spitting, emceeing or MCing) is a musical form of vocal delivery that incorporates "rhyme, rhythmic speech, and street vernacular". It is performed or chanted, usually over a backing beat or musical accompaniment. The ...

, Middle Eastern, East Asian and Cuban.

Background

Poet, Philologist

A. K. Ramanujan Attipate Krishnaswami Ramanujan (16 March 1929 – 13 July 1993) was an Indian poet and scholar of Indian literature and Linguistics. Ramanujan was also a professor of Linguistics at University of Chicago. Ramanujan was a poet, scholar, ...

wrote that Tamil Sangam poetry is considered as a poetic achievement of Indian civilization. Written between 600BC-200AD, these poems are appreciated for their poetic value, vision, metaphors and technique. Though these poems are widely discussed in the academia as well as in popular media, there is no known musical form for Sangam poems. Composer Rajan mentioned that when he read a book titled ''Sanga Chithirangal'' by writer

Jeyamohan Bahuleyan Jeyamohan (born 22 April 1962) is an Indian Tamil and Malayalam language writer and literary critic from Nagercoil in the Indian state of Tamil Nadu. His best-known and most critically acclaimed work is ''Vishnupuram'', a fantasy ...

, he fell in love with those poems and tried to find any known musical forms. When he found that there were no albums or singles on any of the sangam poems, he tried to compose the first ever album on sangam poetry. About his unique style of music, he mentioned that he tried to bring in the best of three worlds- the melody of Indian classical music, Orchestration of western classical music and rhythms of tribal/ folk music.

Track listing

Album credits

– Composer * William Henry Curry – Conductor/ Arranger *

– Singer * Karthik – Singer *

– Singer *

– Singer * Priyanka – Singer * Durham Symphony – Orchestra *

– Poet *

– Poet * Sempulapeyaneerar – Poet * Okkur Masathiyar – Poet * Kayamanar – Poet * Steven Raets- Mixing & Mastering

References

{{Authority control 2020 albums Tamil music Carnatic music