Sebastian D'Souza (1906-1998) was a successful

Goa Goa () is a state on the southwestern coast of India within the Konkan region, geographically separated from the Deccan highlands by the Western Ghats. It is located between the Indian states of Maharashtra to the north and Karnataka to the ...

music arranger In music, an arrangement is a musical adaptation of an existing composition. Differences from the original composition may include reharmonization, melodic paraphrasing, orchestration, or formal development. Arranging differs from orchestr ...

in the

Bollywood Hindi cinema, popularly known as Bollywood and formerly as Bombay cinema, refers to the film industry based in Mumbai, engaged in production of motion pictures in Hindi language. The popular term Bollywood, is a portmanteau of "Bombay" (fo ...

music industry, considered to be the master of fusing Indian music with European classical music concepts of harmony, cadence and obbligato. He is largely responsible for changing the entire harmonic structure of the Hindi film song to create an extremely listenable full body of sound behind the voice of the singer. Sebastian was very competent in creating

counter-melody In music, a counter-melody (often countermelody) is a sequence of notes, perceived as a melody, written to be played simultaneously with a more prominent lead melody. In other words, it is a secondary melody played in counterpoint with the prima ...

which became popular from 1950 onwards and Sebastian became a well-known and the most wanted Music Arranger of many music directors of Hindi Film industry. Since 1951 till 1975, he was a permanent Assistant to

Shankar–Jaikishan Shankar–Jaikishan (also known as S-J), were an Indian composer duo of the Hindi film industry, working together from 1949 to 1971. They are widely considered to be one of the greatest ever music composers of the Hindi film industry. After Jaiki ...

along with Datta Ram.

Bollywood career

He started his career as a Music Arranger in 1948–49 with O. P. Nayyar. Sebastian's role got noticed during the making of Raj Kapoor's Aawara (1951). Providing violin obbligato at the background, preparing counter melodies for the bass cello, use of choir techniques in employing voices in Indian chorus singing, sparing but significant use of sonorous church organ, refining cordial harmonies suitable for Indian composers could be noted as features of Sebastian's contribution to the Hindi film music

Arrangement discography

References

External links

* * http://www.dnaindia.com/lifestyle/salon-mera-naam-chin-chin-choo-1043062 * https://qz.com/407489/a-story-of-love-longing-and-jazz-in-1960s-bombay/ * http://www.frontline.in/static/html/fl2621/stories/20091023262107200.htm {{DEFAULTSORT:D'Souza, Sebastian 1906 births 1996 deaths Indian music arrangers Musicians from Goa 20th-century Indian musicians