The Sculptors of Film Songs (1): Sebastian D’Souza

29 January 2023

Guest article by Piyush M Pandya (originally in Gujarati) and Ashok M Vaishnav (English translation) as a tribute to Sebastian D’Souza on his 117 birth anniversary (29 January 1906 – 9 March 1998)

(If you remove the prelude, interlude and orchestral arrangements from ‘Aawara hun, ya gardish mein hun aasman ka tara hun’, or ‘Mera joota hai Japani’ or scores of our everlasting songs, a bare body would be left without adornments, embellishments and beauty. The songs would be hardly recognisabale.

The ‘arrangement’ of musical instruments adds beauty to the bare body of the song created by the music director. Yet the arrangers remained behind the curtain. They were rarely credited in the credit titles in fine print, and they virtually remained unknown to the music loving people, except some who were deeply involved in it.

There have been repeated requests by the readers to write on some famous Arrangers. I had to politely skirt the issue; I realised that one needed much more information than what was there in Greg Booth’s celebrated book, “Behind the Curtain: Making Music in Mumbai’s Film Studios”.

In this situation Piyush Pandya’s series in Gujarati on Web Gurjari  came as a godsend. Mr Pandya retired after teaching Microbiology in a local college for 39 years, and is now settled in Ahmedabad. He was deeply interested in the songs of 1940s through 1970s, and was drawn towards fine points of orchestration. He often wondered who played which instrument at a particular spot in a song. The Internet era has helped him in scouring for information, and assisted by knowledgeable friends like Har Mandir Singh ‘Hamraaz’, Harish Raghuvanshi, Biren Kothari and Chandrashekhar Vaidya, Piyushji has been able to write a series on the famous Arrangers of the Golden Era.

Ashok M Vashnav offered to translate these articles in English for publication on SOY, one a month. Ashokji is well known to SOY regulars. He retired as an engineer and now is a freelance management trainer based out of Ahmedabad.

Piyushji and Ashokji have decided to launch the series in the New Year with one of the greatest Arrangers, Sebastian D’Souza on his 117th birth anniversary (29 January 1906 – 9 March 1998). Being the first article in the series, it has a long introduction how our film music evolved from our ancient roots in other performance traditions; this would not be repeated in the remaining articles. With this I also welcome Piyushji on his debut in the new Year on SOY. Thanks a lot Piyushji and Ashokji for this wonderful New Year gift. – AK)

Introduction: Evolution of Film Music

A school of knowledgeable people believes that the music came into being when an infinitely dense singularity exploded with a Big Bang to bring our universe into existence. That explosion is our primal sound. The spread of that sound on a wave of radiation brought rhythm into existence. Thus, the two basic elements of music – the note (melody) and the beat (rhythm) – also can be believed to have come into existence simultaneously with the universe. The blowing of winds, explosions of volcanoes, the thunders of clouds and the strong winds of tornadoes that kept happening throughout the chain of events on the earth brought in them vast range of sounds. The waves of oceans, flowing waters of streams, winds blowing through the woods, the chime of rain drops falling on the leaves blended variety to the diversity of sound.

Then, at some stage of evolution, human beings started recreating this ‘music’ of the nature into the languages that human beings understood. The process has been evolving over millions of years of human evolution and shall continue as long as humans exist.

One of the paths that led to the development of a form is what we now know as film music. In the Indian context, along with the advent of ‘talkie’ films, in 1931, songs also came into being in the films. That indeed was the dawn of a new era. By 1935, the playback singing also came onto field. The film music gradually, but surely, came out of the shadow of theatre style music. New crop of music directors and singers entered the arena. Also came in the then modern recording technology as well.

In consonance with the rule of market economy – more the returns, more will be the competent players in the market – the virtuous cycle of pull for different forces of the film music started gaining momentum. As such, between the period of second half of  ‘40s to ’60s, many outstanding music directors, arrangers, musicians, sound recordists, lyricists and singers emerged on the stage. As they kept getting favourable circumstances, they boldly tried new experiments that showcased the breadth and depth of their creativity.

At this stage, we have to recognise that an average listener of any form of music hardly has inclination for the technicalities like raags or scale or rhythm. As such, it should be no surprise if they do not notice the subtleties of different music instruments or the variations in singing styles. For him, what pleases the ears or what can be easily hummed is good music. It was this effect that drew the average lay listener to the film music. Along with the actor enacting a song on the screen, he could now recognize the singer and perhaps the music director. Some discerning listeners also started giving recognition to the lyricist. It may not be overstatement to note that film music played a very strong, even if unconscious, role in cultivating some rudimentary appreciation of the music at the mass level.

But, alas, a very critical link in the entire chain of a film song composition, that of music arrangers like Frank Fernand, Antonio Xavier Vaz (a.k.a. Chic Chocolate), Sebastian D’Souza, Anthony Gonsalves, and musicians ranging from ace accordionists Goody Seervai and Sumit Mitra to classical flautists Pannal Ghosh and Hariprasad Chaurasia and many other legendary instrumentalists still remained unrecognised in terms of their contribution to the film music. Even this list would be grossly incomplete if we do not mention the names of instrumentalists / arrangers like Dattaram, Basu-Manohari, Sonik-Omi, Babla, Uattam Sigh and the likes who ventured into the field of independent music direction but could not make a successful headway.

To buttress the point, a few examples will better serve the purpose:

  • Who has played that masterpiece of saxophone just after the line Bhool koi humse na ho jaaye in the famous song Roop tera mastana of Aaradhana (1969)?
  • Do you remember the sweet pieces of flute in Main piya teri tu maane ya na maane (Basant Bahar, 1956)? Who would have played such enchanting pieces?
  • Or, that harmonium piece in Kajara mohabbatwala from Kismat (1968)?
  • Have you noticed the pain of loneliness in Tu chhupi hai kahan (Navrang, 1958). being so effectively accentuated by the shehnai pitching in the music?

The role of music arranger was to shape the basic idea of the tune that the music director had composed for the lyrics penned by the lyricist into a full-fledged song. It is the arranger who selects the correct rhythm and corresponding appropriate percussion instrument as well as the other melody music of prelude or interludes or countermelody support and the corresponding instrument(s). Each piece will be designed in detail, which instrument will play exactly when, in what scale and what style, who will play what etc. These details were all codified by the arranger and meticulously explained to each instrumentalist. Then, there would be rehearsals to iron out the kinks in order to tune-in the different orchestra elements as one unit. Next, rehearsal would be held with the singer, usually prior to the recording sessions. And when all was set to a level of acceptable standard, the final recording would take place.

Without taking away the due credit to the music director for imagining such notes, the lyricist giving it a concrete body and the singer making it come alive, it is the arranger and the instrumentalist concerned who are the unsung cornerstones for that imagination to fructify into the reality of a glorious structure of art that we call a song.

With this prelude, we gear up to commence our present series of The Sculptors of Hindi Film Music, that would introduce us to some of the leading music arrangers and instrumentalists who played a great role in shaping the music of the golden era of the Hindi film music.

The Great Sculptors of Film Music (1): Sebastian D’Souza (29.1.1906-9.3.1998)

It is most apt to commence the series with Sebastian D’Souza, a successful Goan music arranger in Bollywood music industry, who is largely credited with changing the entire harmonic structure of the Hindi film song to create a delectable full body of sound behind the voice of the singer.

Sebastian D’Souza spent his childhood and adolescence in his native Goa. His natural passion and inborn knack for musical instruments was nourished in the tradition of Church music there. He easily went on to learn violin, cello and piano. While learning to play these instruments, he also learnt how to write notations. During this period he used to listen to the famous symphonies of well-known western composers very attentively.

Asides:

At the risk of a little digression, since we would be focusing more on orchestral arrangement of musical instruments in the present series, a word about the violin family of string instruments would be in order.

Quite easily recognised, ‘violin’ comes in four different sizes: The violin, which is the smallest, viola, cello, and the biggest, the double bass, sometimes called the contrabass. (Bass is pronounced “base,” as in “baseball.”) The smaller instruments, the violin and viola, make higher-pitched sounds, while the larger cello and double bass produce low rich sounds.

After partition in 1947, Sebastian D’Souza decided to settle in Bombay and pursue his career as a violinist in the film industry. He would go on to play violin for many stalwarts like Anil Biswas, Ghulam Haider, Sajjad Hussain, Vinod, Husnlal-Bhagatram etc. In 1948-49, when O P Nayyar got his first assignment to compose a solo for CH Atma  (Preetam aan milo), he assigned its music arrangement to Sebastian D’Souza. When O P Nayyar got his first film – Aasmaan (1952) – he again entrusted Sebastian D’Souza the responsibility of full-fledged music arrangement. O P Nayyar – Sebastian association prospered very well and continued till 1973. Their last film together was Pran Jaye Par Vachan Na Jaye.

Asides:
Incidentally, Chain se humko kabhi aapne jeene na diya, which ultimately won the Filmfare Award for Asha Bhosle as the Best Female Playback Singer of the year, was recorded just before Asha Bhosle-O P Nayyar parted ways.

For our present purpose, listen to the effect the soft instrumental notes, accompanying the song as counter melody, has in enhancing the pathos of the song!

In 1952, Sonny Castelino, a Shankar-Jaikishan team regular, introduced Sebastian to the SJ duo. Daag (1952) marked the beginning of another long association in the film industry. Sebastian went on to arrange music for all SJ films, till 1974, ending the run with Sanyasi; all the songs of the film were set to raag Bhairavi. As someone trained in western classical music, Sebastian faced the challenge of learning Indian classical raag structure, since both Shankar and Jaikishan were inclined that their songs be based on Indian Classical music.

Another major work of Sebastian was with Salil Chowdhury. Salil Chowdhury is well known to recycle his Bengali songs into Hindi films. Here is one illustration wherein the value addition that a music arranger, fully entwined with style of the music director, can make:

1. Dhitang dhitang boleAawaz (1956) – Hemant Kumar, Lata Mangeshkar, an unknown singer and chorus, Lyrics Prem Dhawan, Music Salil Chowdhury | Bengali version – Singer Hemant Kumar, Music Salil Chowdhury

The creative use of counter melody, harmony and chorus in the music arrangement makes obvious difference between the two versions, composed by the same music director. The music arrangement of the Hindi version is by Sebastian D’Souza.

Before we take up some representative songs for a closer view, let us look at some typical songs that exemplify the benchmark Sebastian has set for the role of an ideal music arranger.

2. Bol ri kathputali boliKathputali (1957) – Lata Mangeshkar – Lyrics Shailendra, Music Shankar-Jaikishan

3. Mera naam chin chin chuHowrah Bridge (1958) – Geeta Dutt – Lyrics Qamar Jalalabadi,  Music OP Nayyar

4. Ye bansi kyun gayeParakh (1960) – Lata Mangeshkar – Lyrics Shailendra, Music Salil Chowdhury

5. Mohe la de chunariaya laalChaandi Ki Deewar (1964) – Geeta Dutt, Suman Kalyanpur – Lyrics Sahir Ludhiyanavi, Music N Datta

It can be easily identified that the first one is an SJ composition, second one an OPN composition, the third one a Salil Chowdhury composition, and the last one, a folk tune composition of another western music trained music director, N Datta. But what requires to be noted is the value Sebastian as an arranger has added, by intimately blending the musical score with the natural, unique, style of the respective music director. This was the role a music arranger was expected to play – addition of such richness he enshrines in the songs, while remaining totally incognito.

In 1974, when Sebastian D’Souza could no more identify himself with the new trends of song composition, he chose to go back to his native place and spent the rest of his life in teaching music to the children.

We will take up a few most representative songs he arranged for Shankar-Jaikishan, to showcase the versatility of Sebastian’s range of creativity and devotion as a music arranger.

Here are two very well-known YT clips that further demonstrate how effortlessly Sebastian has enlivened Shankar-Jaikishan’s vision of long preludes or highly experimental interludes and counters, which we all know as the signature identification of the music of SJ duo!

6. The magical violins of Shankar Jaikishan – Part I

7. The magical violins of Shankar Jaikishan – Part II

Raj Kapoor was also extremely fond of Sebastian’s work. He, SJ and Sebastian had such matching wavelength that they could compose off the complete background score of RK’s magnum opus Mera Naam Joker in one week flat.

Normally no words can ever do full justice to describe a piece of art. So, as we take up these illustrations, it would be better that we put on earphones and listen to the magic of SJ’s compositions and Sebastian’s immortal arrangements.

8. Aye mere dil kahin aur chalDaag (1952) – Talat Mahmood – fast and slow versions – Lyrics Shailendra, Music Shankar-Jaikishan

In the first slow-paced version, just listen to the soft strumming of guitar giving rhythmic support, with faint accompanying countermelody, giving an unfathomable depth to the song. In the fast-paced version, simply listen to all the variations that Sebastian has arranged for V Balsara to play on harmonium (which sounds almost like piano accordion). These pieces of countermelody remain the cherished peaks of Mount Everest for all the music arrangers to scale!

9. Ban ke panchhi gaye pyar ka taranaAnari (1956) – Lata Mangeshkar, chorus – Lyrics Hasrat Jaipuri, Music Shankar-Jaikishan

This song has some wonderfully imaginative uses of chorus and choir. After brief prelude (till 0.44) the song begins with fast rhythm of dholak. When the initial lines get repeated at 0.35, chorus seamlessly joins Lata Mangeshkar, with choir supporting as countermelody. Then @1.02, the choir fuses with interlude music, that not only gives the effect of the song filling up the vast open space but also clear idea of the mood that friends have reached in their cycle journey. The choir countermelody comes back with chorus @1.44 again that helps recreate the divine mood that friends have now been enjoying. At @1.55 when the line of the stanza ends, the opening line closes the stanza in a classical mode of music composition, again with soft choir countermelody. This experiment repeats @2.54. The song softly ends with chorus and choir support. Such minutely sculpted details, in an oft-used cycle-riding group of friends’ song, is one of the many unique facets of Sebastian’s finely carved music arrangement that became his hallmark.

10. Ajeeb daastan hai yehDil Apna Aur Preet Parai (1960) – Lata Mangeshkar, chorus – Lyrics Shailendra, Music Shankar-Jaikishan

This song based on Waltz rhythm has three interludes, each one being different than the other. The prelude opens with strings of guitar and the choir then joins in the main piece of orchestra, followed by easy strains of piano-accordion and guitar, ending with violin ensemble, signalling beginning of the opening lines @0.36. The choir then accompanies the singing as countermelody @0.39. The first interlude is a fine mix of saxophone and choir, with violin ensemble playing its due supportive role. The first stanza plays with a mix of guitar and choir as countermelody support. The second interlude, starting @ 2.26 is dominantly a guitar and choir composition. The countermelody support for the second stanza is by very soft saxophone strains with even more soft violin ensemble support to deepen the effect. The third interlude, from 3.40 to 3.58, is again a saxophone-choir orchestration arrangement but set to a totally different composition. The last stanza has guitar as the countermelody support. As an overall impact, the song keeps on playing in your mind the mixed mood of pathos with soothing tranquillity of the serene night, even after it has formally ended.

Shankar-Jaikishan’s dance songs had their own style of presentation.

11. Kar gaya re kar gaya mujh par jadooBasant Bahar (1956) – Lata Mangeshkar, Asha Bhosle – Lyrics Shailendra, Music Shankar-Jaikishan

Basant Bahar (1956) was the first major challenge the duo had boldly accepted to showcase their versatility. They had even succeeded in roping in no less a vocalist than Pt. Bhimsen Joshi for Ketaki gulab juhi with Manna Dey – a duet based on raag Basant and Bahar. However in a film like this, too, they had used as much creative liberty they could enjoy in the orchestration of this dance song.

A sad dance sequenceAmrapali (1966)

However, Amrapali (1966), being a pure history-theme based story of a classical dancer, the challenge was even more demanding. The script of the film gave space for depicting different intense moods of pure classical dance sequences. However, Sebastian D’Souza has deftly crafted an intricate play of Indian classical string instruments like the sitar and veena in sync with various classical percussion instruments.

12. Tadap ye din raat kiAmrapali (1966) – Lata Mangeshkar – Lyrics Shailendra, Music Shankar-Jaikishan

Weaving intricate multiple instrument-based large orchestra for highly emotional songs for such films is even more demanding. A highly committed and devoted music arranger like Sebastian D’Souza would not compromise a fraction of his own high standards even for such a less practiced field. A careful listening of the song manifests an unbearable pain of forced separation in the form of rapid rhythm-based mix of ensembles of veena and sitars, which softly calms down after the outburst by slow-paced surbahar strokes. Sebastian has used extremely soft violin support in the countermelody to impart depth to the song, but has studiedly used ensemble of sitar as the lead instrument of the orchestra.

13. Shankar-Jaikishan’s penchant for experimentation and inherent leaning towards Indian classical raags, and by now Sebastian D’Souza’s high confidence in his ability to do full justice to Indian classical music as much as western classical music, fructified in the form of an NFS Long Playing record, Raag Jazz Style (EMI,1968; ECSD-2377), in collaboration with the sitarist Ustad Rais Khan. SJ-Sebastian roped in such top-notch musicians, like bass – Eddie Travass; drums – Leslie Godinho; electric guitar –Anibal Castro, Dilip Naik; flute – Suman; piano – Lucilla Pacheco; saxophone – Manohari Singh; tabla –Ramakant; and trumpet – John Pereira for the project. The disc had three of SJ’s favourite raags – Jaijaiwanti, Shivranjini and Bhairavi – along with challenging raags like Todi, Bhairav, Malkauns, Kalavati, Tilak  Kamod, Miyan Malhar, Bairagi and Mishra Pilu. I have picked up Shivranjini here to showcase the high level of performance by the whole team, and intricate arrangement by Sebastian D’Souza.

One can keep recounting such nuances in each of music arrangements created by Sebastian. However, we will limit our exploration to one more song that fully depicts the width of Sebastian’s spectrum of creativity, passion, and commitment.

14. Zulmi sang aankh ladiMadhumati (1958) – Lata Mangeshkar, chorus – Lyrics Shailendra, Music Salil Chowdhury

This signature Salil Chowdhury composition opens with joyous mood of string and percussion instruments. The pure folk-effect chorus intensifies the mood. Sebastian has carefully crafted intricate pieces of flute ensemble in the arrangement, thereby making out the entire outcome as unmistakably a Salil Chowdhury composition. No wonder Dilip Kumar is shown mesmerised by the charm of the setting with vivacious Vyjayanthimala in the centre. So are we, too, with the magical environment the entire song sequence creates.

Apart from the breadth and depth of the virtuoso Sebastian’s talent, these illustrations also demonstrate the pain and effort that the composer, the lyricist, the singer, the arranger, the musicians and everyone associated with the song recording used to take for each song. In return apart from the relatively paltry monetary rewards, the only recognition that the music arranger would get is a small fine print mention in the credit titles of the film. However, in the hindsight, the ageless affection that these creations got has not abated even after passing through so many generations. That seems to be the most valuable reward for their selfless devotion.

One of the rare photographs of Sebastian D’Souza conducting a live public concert performance speaks volumes for the role of the music arranger in selecting different instruments, the right musician to play notes of some standards, right positioning of the instruments with respect to each other and the microphones, so as to yield a perfect harmony, whether in a studio recording or a live public performance.

We end our tribute to one such great artist, Sebastian D’Souza, by recalling his one of the most iconic compositions that has all the hues of his creativity.

15. Aa ab laut chaleinJis Desh Mein Ganga Bahti Hai (1960) – Mukesh, Lata Mageshkar, chorus – Lyrics Shailendra, Music Shankar-Jaikishan

Credits and Disclaimers 

  1. The song links have been embedded from the YouTube only for the listening pleasure of music lovers. This blog claims no copyright over these songs, which vests with the respective copyright holders.
  2. The photographs are taken form the internet, duly recognising the full copyrights for the same to the either original creator or the site where they were originally displayed.

{ 34 comments… read them below or add one }

1 S Joseph January 29, 2023 at 11:45 am

A wonderful writeup in tribute to a very important architect and key field of HFM songs. Am sure we would learn a lot from this series at SOY. The word ‘ SCULPTORS ‘ used in the title means that we should have recognised this family before all else in HFM . I have been hearing over the years , each of the songs in the selection here and that in itself speaks of the genius of this unsung Arranger. I shall read this writeup again.

I knew that we would someday be honouring this unsung section of HFM golden era at SOY. Sebastian D’Souza was , I heard from many , perhaps the greatest Arranger of them all. Arrangers should occupy the front seat in HFM . We must give credit to all who gave life to HFM.

In an HFM song …. preludes , interludes etc. on an average took 30 % of any song time . Apart from that we always hear some accompanying music even while the singer is performing. Arrangers had a huge role in giving life and creating an HFM song.

Am sure someone will come out with various statistics like … total number of songs arranged MD wise , genrewise , yearwise etc. and the list of songs arranged. Information about the type of instruments preferred , orchestra type and sizes etc.

With the coming of Chat GPT , AI etc. soon we would be able to understand much more about HFM .

2 KB January 30, 2023 at 1:39 pm

This is a rare and wonderful write up! The artists who have provided the necessary background have done a fantastic job to keep the tempo of the songs. The four examples stated also are extremely supportive to the theme! I wish to add a few more cases and one is the opening music for the song O shama mujhe phoonk de again by SJ team for the film Aashiq (1962) and the music by them for Jaan Pehchan ho from Gumnaam (1965) and the accordion played in the SJ songs such as Kahan jaa rahe they from Love Marriage (1959) . In fact the SJ team was an inspiration for the other composers . This was true with the case of OP Nayyar also. During the late fifties and the sixties which happened to be his peak period of performance almost every composer including the likes of Madan Mohan and Roshan have provided the same orchestra ! We can get many more examples on this such as Woh Chaand muskaya song scored by Madan Mohan from Aakhri Dao. So in summation this is to say the background orchestra providers have contributed enormously to the quality of the music provided by the composers especially in the fifties and the sixties.

3 Arunkumar Deshmukh January 30, 2023 at 8:40 pm

AK ji,
A nice post on a great Arranger. I appreciate the song selection also.
Here are some more pieces of information about Sebastian to fill the gaps.

Undoubtedly, Sebastian D’souza was one great Arranger in the Hindi film industry. He was born at village Reis-Magos in Bicholim taluka of Goa on 29-6-1906. In his youth he toured many cities like Delhi, Allahabad and Mussoorie as a member of different band groups. In Delhi, he started his band in Hotel Astoria and was popular.  In 1942 he went to Lahore and started his own band in Hotel Stiffels, till 1947, when he came to Bombay .
From 1952 he worked with O.P.Nayyar and from 1952 to 1975 he worked also with S-J. He occasionally worked with some other MDs like Salil Chaudhari, Anil Biswas, Vinod, Ghulam Haider, Husnlal-Bhagatram, S.D.Burman, Sajjad Hussain, Madan Mohan, Roshan, Dattaram, N.Datta, Iqbal Qureshi, Prem Dhawan, Shyamji Ghanshyamji, Sardar Malik, S. Mohinder, Kalyanji, Kanu Ghosh, and Nitin Mangesh.
He died on 9-3-1988 in Goa. He donated all his savings to Charity.

Did Sebastian ever give music to any film as MD ? Yes. There is a reference available, which says that Sound Recordist D.O.Bhansali confirmed that the MD SOORAJ for film Street singer-1966 was none other than a team of Dattaram, Sebastian and Enoch Daniels. ( from RMIM archive). This was their only film.
-AD

4 Ashok M Vaishnav January 30, 2023 at 10:43 pm

S Joseph #1

KB #2

Thank you so much for your generous appreciation of the post….

In an industry where even large studios and successful producers have not been able to preserve even the prints of the films, it would simply be a dream to expect so meticulous documentation of the details of all elements of film-making.

Arunkumar Deshmukh #3

Thank you so much for filling in these vital information about Sebastain D’Souza.

I was always under the impression that SOORAJ was some sort of solo digression by Shankar. However even more surprising is the revelation that it was collaborative effort of Shankar’s three disciple-associates – Dattaram, Sebastian and Enoch Daniels.

5 Dr. Rajesh Deshpande January 30, 2023 at 11:05 pm

An excellent tribute to one of the finest arrangers in the field of HFM and also a much needed post highlighting the efforts of the arrangers who always remain unknown and unrecognized.

Sculptor is the perfect word to describe a music arranger.
An arranger brings to life the sketch or the note visualized by the music director.

I was generally aware of Sebastian D’Souza and his invaluable contribution in providing us songs with such wonderful and memorable orchestral arrangements.
But thanks to this informative post, I learnt more about his life journey.
Thanks to Arunji, for filling in the gaps.

Look forward to more posts on other unheard and unknown sculptors of HFM.

6 D P Rangan January 31, 2023 at 2:16 am

Ashokj
Truly a revelation in the field of film music composition. So far I related this as a triangle – music director, lyricist and singer. I presumed prelude and interludes are also composed by the music director. This post has indicated a fourth entity, perhaps the most critical element. I will now think this as a quadrilateral.
Your post is par excellence and the songs selected are superb and highly illustrative. Music arranger does add flesh and blood to the music skeleton.
If I am not wrong, the genius Sajjad Hussain was an exception. He had no assistants whatsoever and did everything himself including bolchi for tabla.

7 Anu Warrier January 31, 2023 at 2:41 am

Nicely detailed, Ashokji (with thanks to Mr Piyush Pandya for the original article). I skimmed through it and will return to read it at leisure.

Thanks for hosting this, AK. I have always felt that the musicians receive short shrift when we acknowledge the songs from the golden age. Glad to see it being rectified.

8 AK January 31, 2023 at 1:36 pm

Dear readers,
I am very happy at the effusive praise this article has generated. It gives me immense satisfaction that when finally a series on the arrangers appeared on SOY it was quite substantial.

Mr Joseph @1,
ChatGPT: This started abusing sensation when this series was already line up. But I am still curious to test its powers on this theme.

Arunji @3,
Thanks a lot for the additional detailed information. About his date of death, perhaps there is a typo – is it 9.3.1988 or 1998?

Anu @7,
Thanks a lot for your appreciation.

9 ARUNKUMAR DESHMUKH January 31, 2023 at 4:33 pm

AK ji and Ashok ji,

Indeed it is a Typo. He died in
1998 and not in 1988. Regret the error.
-AD

10 Ashok M Vaishnav February 1, 2023 at 4:45 pm

Dr. Rajesh Deshpande # 5

D P Rangan #6

Annu Warrier #7

While it is indeed a matter of great satisfaction that the first article in the series is getting so wide appreciation, I and, for that matter Mr. Piyush Pandya, remain fully conscious that what we have attempted to narrate is a mere limited view of a novice appreciation of film music. Hence, all future episodes will necessarily refrain from venturing into intricacies of science or music or appreciation of the depth of its art.

11 Sivanandam February 1, 2023 at 5:19 pm

Tons of thanks to AK Ji , Mr Piyush Pandya and Ashok Vaishnav ji for bringing out this excellent blog on arrangers-starting with the legendray Sebastian D’ Souza. The intricate preludes, interludes make the songs of those days immortal. Personally I like to , sorry for using a strange word , “dissect the song ” while listening…trying to catch the subtle background instruments, the rhythm patterns etc. Majority of the people I have come across , do not pay much attention to these and as rightly mentioned in this blog, just listen to the overall song .
I remember few years back our good old Doordarshan had made a program ” Gumnaam Hai Koi-The untold story of Music Arrangers”-Sansad TV ( suprisingly that is a channel for Lok & Rajya Sabha proceedings-how come they did this-no idea..but a welcome initiative!). That was the first time I learnt about so many arrangers like Sebastian, Enoch Daniels, Chic-Chocolate, Antony Gonzalves, Cawas Lord, Kersi Lord etc..

Coming back to this blog..superbly researched and written , with so many of my fav songs ! Since I was travelling, I am yet to listen to all these once again. Will do so leisurley.
Since I always consider myself to be in Kindergarten, especially in an august forum like SOY with so many learned experts, I would like to know one thing–as a general practice, does the music composer decide the melody of the interludes also and the arranger executes it or even that is decided by the arranger? The same arranger, for eg Sebastian , while working for SJ has a style , whereas for Salil Chowdhury it was completely different…Or is it a joint, mutual many iterations that the music composer and arranger discuss & finalize? Curious to know….

12 AK February 1, 2023 at 11:02 pm

Mr Sivanandam,
I am happy you enjoyed the article. Thanks a lot for your appreciation. Let me give my perspective as a lay person. I don’t think any worthwhile music director would completely leave prelude, interlude to the arranger. He would create the basic melody and go through the arrangement with the arranger. I will take the example of Naushad whose preludes, interludes had his imprint.

Coming back to Sebastian with SJ and Salil Chowdhury, I believe Sebastian would create the distinct style by emphasising certain instruments, for example if the piano accordion for SJ, the flute, mandolin or the sitar for Salil.

13 Ashok M Vaishnav February 2, 2023 at 3:32 pm

Sivanandam #11

I, too, am a kid in the field of the study of film music. But yes, in our young days, one could get to read a few things here or a few things these about the nuances of film music creation. That is how the interest in such matters always remained live.

It is that interest only which has originally given the concept of this series. However, what is really satisfying that all that Piyushbhai or I had selected out also meets the approval and liking of many others similar minded keen fans of HFM.

In so far as your feedback @#11 is concerned I wholeheartedly endorse what AKji has stated @#12.

14 S Joseph February 3, 2023 at 10:02 pm

Language of music is universal. Our National/Filmfare music awards given to the MDs are irrespective of the type of music , and we know that HFM is largely a blend of Western and Indian music. Common man also just enjoys what is pleasing , without thinking about obligato, counter melody , choir , rhythm , harmonics , raag or such other terms. Western music based on Harmonics has been blended with Indian classical music in a subtle manner and perhaps , western music is dominant in HFM songs . Could we say that a new field of blended music has emerged ? I have not heard of any university providing a MUSIC ARRANGERS course yet . Sebastian D’Souza familiarised with Indian music also and played many musical instruments . A great musician.

In HFM , the prelude and the usual 3 interludes in a song , may be set to different tunes / instruments which means the arranger was composing 4 different tunes as against the single tune for the main song by the MD . Have read that Sebastian D’Souza would sit down with a notebook and pencil and write down the notations for each instrument in the orchestra without the help of any musical instrument for trying/testing in this process . Extraordinary skills ! And imagine the number of such compositions in his career. A genius composer .

Next , he collected the musicians , choir , chorus etc. for the rehearsals . Thereafter, the rehearsals with the singer before calling in the MD for the final and then the recording. I learnt that the MDs gave a free hand to the arrangers. It is also said that the MDs had no knowledge about writing music notations . A great conductor too .

One has to listen to the songs carefully to appreciate the role of the arranger in finalising such songs .Today, I was repeatedly listening to the song ‘ Zulmi sang aankh…’ . Mesmerising. This is an HFM composition where there is no tabla in the rhythm section. I learn that there are arrangers for the rhythm section also.

Sebastian D’Souza arranger was a musician of multiple talents. If he had opportunities, could we have seen another Zubin Mehta / Composer ? Public was kept in the dark about the role of such great arrangers . Was it because western music concepts were not appreciated by the HFM authorities ?

I may be corrected as this is my understanding as a layman.

15 AK February 4, 2023 at 12:06 am

Mr S Joseph,
I would respond to your last comment. I don’t think the arrangers remaining in the background was due to some prejudice against western music. It was just that the music director was considered the ‘creator’ of the melody. There were superstar music directors who came into the limelight, and films were sold by their names. There are anecdotes of their assistants being the main creators of some of their famous songs, but the credit still went to the MD. Many assistants grew up into famous composers, and they became more well-known. C’est la vie.

16 Anita February 4, 2023 at 9:44 am

Ashok ji, Piyush ji and AKji ,
Thanks a lot for starting this series on music arrangers. There are so many people involved in making a song. I remember AKji commenting on my post on Zarine Sharma Daruwala saying that he was looking for information on music arrangers.
Hindi films and film music was a melting pot where talents from different backgrounds came together. Be it Kersi Lord or Mangesh Desai or even the visually impaired Master Sonik. Unfortunately, only a few of them got visibility.
Also, while some classical musicians believed that film music was infra dig, there were others who straddled both worlds successfully.

17 AK February 4, 2023 at 2:39 pm

Anita,
I am happy you enjoyed it. Writing a series on musicians and arrangers was always on mind. There was no convenient organised material on them. It needed patient scouring to get information. Piyushji and Ashokji’s offer came at the right time.

18 Dr Pradeep Kumar Shetty February 4, 2023 at 10:39 pm

Just yesterday, while doing some research on Ajith Varman, the composer, I came across the information that a chance encounter of Varman , who had migrated to Bombay from Calkatta looking for opportunities in Hindi films ( had worked with Salil Da earlier in Calcutta ), .. with Sebastian…got him the chance to be inducted into SJ orchestra as an instrumentalist, and, later into the LP camp, too.

Did I write a confusing sentence?!?
Sebastián introduced Varman to SJ.

19 AK February 5, 2023 at 10:21 am

Dr Shetty,
Thanks..Shows the positive side of the Bombay music world.

20 R Vasudevan February 5, 2023 at 7:38 pm

Very fine right up.
Music arrangers are rarely appreciated. In fact they are the backbone of a song from the orchestration point of view. This fine piece of writing is a great tribute to the services rendered by Arrangers like Sabestian D;souza and others.

21 Ashok M Vaishnav February 6, 2023 at 4:29 pm

S Joseph #14
Your so right about the great amount of work these arrangers did without much of what can be called as formal training. They learnt their trade as they kept practicing the art. Of course, some of the first generation had benefit of working in bands, where they perhaps got their basic initiation

Anita # 16

Thank you so much for your generous appreciation.

Dr. Pradeep Kumar Shetty )#18

Your revelation of Ajit Varman is so very interesting.

R Vasudevan # 20

Thank you so much for your appreciation.

22 Ashok Kumar Tyagi February 6, 2023 at 6:26 pm

AK ji,
Thanks for a very absorbing post. We are grateful to Mr Piyush Pandya and Mr Ashok Vaishnav for collaborating and starting this series on the famous music arrangers. It must have been a challenging task to do research work on this subject.

Sebastian D’souza was an arranger of highest class. The songs linked up in this post bring out the huge talent of Sebastian and also illustrate the great teamwork of the celebrated duo of Shankar Jaikishan and top-class instrumentalists gathered by them in their team.
Thanks.

23 Mehfil Mein Meri February 6, 2023 at 8:40 pm

A great post. Thank you so much for highlighting Sebastian desouza. A post on arrangers was highly needed.
🙂

24 S Joseph February 6, 2023 at 9:12 pm

‘ Ajeeb daastan hai…’ from DAAPP (1960) , MD …SJ with arranger Sebastian D’Souza, at #10 of this post and ‘ My lips are sealed… ‘ , by Jim Reeves (1956) are set to the same tune . Listen to the two to appreciate the arranger’s work .

link for ‘ My lips are sealed ‘…..

https://youtu.be/04Kyik7Qwho

25 AK February 6, 2023 at 10:21 pm

Dr Shetty @18,
Is he the same Ajit Verman who gave music to the film Saaransh (1984)?

26 AK February 6, 2023 at 10:25 pm

Tyagiji @22,
Thanks a lot for your appreciation. I am happy that this significant series on arrangers is appearing on SOY.

27 Ashok M Vaishnav February 8, 2023 at 3:56 pm

Ashok Kumar Tyagi # 22
Mehfil Mein Meri #23

Greatly appreciate your so generous appreciation.

S Joseph # 24

Thank you for bringing up the Jim Reeves song.

That goes on show that most of the music directors of golden era period who adapted either western or even popular folk tunes added so much creative form to the original song that the Hindi version so seamlessly blended in the Hindi Film milieu.

28 S Joseph February 9, 2023 at 2:31 pm

A video from YouTube by RAJYA SABHA TV, that I believe could add to the general information on arrangers and HFM . These videos not only show how much effort and skills were involved , but though too late , a tribute to those unsung pillars of HFM . Apart from other things , the size of the orchestra itself could make one wonder. Common man just enjoyed the music without knowing how much went into it . I am sure a lot of such valuable information would be available on the YouTube.

My view is that these musicians and arrangers were simple souls , not aggressive entrepreneurs .

https://youtu.be/AO5ZH67LQ-4

29 S Joseph February 9, 2023 at 2:35 pm

The second video made available on YouTube by RAJYA SABHA TV about HFM , also is enlightening and a tribute to the musicians and arrangers of those days.

https://youtu.be/D12iE3E0O5o

30 AK February 10, 2023 at 1:18 am

Mr Joseph,
Irfan of Rajya Sabha TV (now Sansad TV), is one of the best TV hosts. He has done a series called Guftgoo with filmi personalities and other celebrities, and now the anonymous talents.

The two-part series gives a broad brush view of Goa musicians (Part 1) and Parsi musicians (Part 2). There may have been many outside these ethnic categories. I find he has done some long episode on a particular arranger or musician. Overall, an admirable approach.

Thanks for sharing.

31 S Joseph February 10, 2023 at 12:12 pm

Something to add …. Dr Padmanabh Joshi , said to be interviewing Sebastian D’Souza (from the YouTube)

https://youtu.be/njnj4IP9ob8

32 Ashok M Vaishnav February 13, 2023 at 3:42 pm

S Joseph # 28, 29, 31

AK # 30

What was spread across stray articles or books in English and regional languages in pre-internet period, is partly available on net . To which painstaking blog posts and YT posts have added a good deal of valuable information.

The present series is indebted to such sources.

33 AMIT HEMANT MEHTA March 28, 2023 at 7:21 pm

Song No 5-Mohe ls de chunariya laal is from Chandi ki Deewar_1964 and NOT from Chaar Deewari_1961. MD of Chaar Deewari is Salil Chaudhari.

Please make correction.

Thank You.

Amit Mehta

34 AK March 28, 2023 at 9:45 pm

Amit,
Welcome to SOY and thanks a lot for pointing out the error. I have since corrected it.

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