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Thursday, August 17, 2006



SEBASTIAN D’SOUZA

A MUSICAL LEGEND

Paying Tribute to a Music Genius on his Birth Centenary

by Dr Padmanabh K. Joshi




If you listen to a film song composed by maestros Shanker-Jaikishan, O. P. Nayyar or Salil Chowdhury, you also hear a tune being played along with the song in the background. This parallel tune is created with violin, cello, piano, Spanish guitar or an organ. This “parallel tune for a song” technique, known as a Counter-Melody, was introduced in SJ music a musician – a violinist from Goa – Mr. Sebastian D’Souza. Sebastian D’Souza was a pioneer in creating counter-melody in film songs. This technique became popular and from 1950 onwards Sebastian became a well-known and most wanted Music Arranger of many music directors of Hindi Film industry.



Sebastian was born on 29 January 1906 in Reis-Megos, Goa. He learnt to play the violin and piano in a local church school. While learning these instruments, he also learnt to write music notation. It was during this time that he listened to the famous symphonies of well-known composers of the western world, namely, Beethoven, Mozart, Schubert, Tchaikovsky, Haydon and Richard Wagner. Deeply interested in violin and piano, Sebastian continued his learning and went place to place like Allahabad, Mussorie and Delhi. At Delhi, in Hotel Astoria, he started his own band and people appreciated it. In 1942, he went to Lahore, and in Hotel Stiffels, he started his own band. This continued until 1947. After partition, he went to Bombay and started his career as a violinist in the film industry. He played for well-known music directors like Anil Biswas, Naushad, Vinod, Ghulam Haider, Husnalal-Bhagatram, S. D. Burman, Sajjad Hussain and Shanker-Jaikishan.

He started his career as a Music Arranger in 1948-49 with O. P. Nayyar when Nayyar recorded his first song “Preetam aan milo.....” sung by C. H. Atma and written by Mrs. Saroj Mohini Nayyar (O. P. Nayyar’s wife) . After three years, Nayyar signed his first film, Dalsukh Pancholi’s “Aasman”, as an independent music director. At that time he called Sebastian to work as his Arranger. Sebastian, thus, started his career as an arranger with O. P. Nayyar in 1952 which he continued till 1973. The last film for which he worked with O. P. Nayyar was ‘Pran Jaye Par Vachan Na Jaye’. Incidentally this was also the last film of singer Asha Bhosale with Nayyar. In 1952, Sebastian’s friend Sunny Castellino, who worked as an arranger for Shanker-Jaikishan, introduced Sebastian to the duo. So Sebastian started as Shanker-Jaikishan’s arranger from 1952 with Amiya Chakravarty’s Daag, and continued until 1975. Film Sanyasi was Sebastian’s last film with them. In film Daag as an arranger, Sebastian’s most successful innovative work was the creation of a memorable counter-melody for a song sung by both Talat Mehmood and Lata Mangeshker –‘Ai mere dil kahin aur chal.....’ According to Sebastian, in this song he used the accordion for creating counter-melody along with violin and mandolin. And the result was excellent. Sebastian used accordion for interlude music in a number of songs but its use as the main instrument for counter-melody was rare.

Using cellos and piano to support his counter-melodies of violin obbligato, he arranged a number of memorable songs. A few examples: Kya huva O muze kya huva (Jis Deshmen Ganga Bahti hai), Raat ke hum safar (An Evening in Paris), Aaja re aa jara aa (Love in Tokyo), Soja re soja & Bol re Kath Putli (Kathputli), Aaj kal men dhal gai (Beti Bete), Aaja aai bahar & Janevale Jara (Raj Kumar). These are a few examples of the songs in which one can experience the beauty of counter-melodies that Sebastian created with a unique combination of violins and cellos. Another of his specialties was using chorus with violin, cello & piano combinations. A few examples: Bol re Kath Putli (Kathputli), Aa ab Laut Chale (Jis Deshmen Ganga Bahti Hai), Dil ke Jharukhemen (Brahmachari) and the musical fountain sequence in film Around the World etc.


While working with Shanker-Jaikishan, the first challenge that he faced was that both Shanker and Jaikishan preferred Indian Classical Raag based tunes. And to create counter-melodies, interlude music as well as background music, he had to learn the basics of Indian classical music during his busiest recording schedules. Sebastian found this very interesting and it helped him very much during his career as an arranger. If you listen to songs of SJ like Koi Matvala aaya...(Love in Tokyo), all the songs of film Basant Bahar, all the songs from film Amrapali and many classical raag based songs in which he created counter-melodies and interlude music, his mastery over both classical music as well as western music is well experienced. Combination of sitar & violin, cellos almost became an expertise of Sebastian’s counter-melody and interlude music. The last film that Sebastian worked on for Shanker-Jaikishan was Sanyasi, it was a challenge to Sebastian as all the songs as well as the background music of the film was based on Raag Bhairavi. And he succeeded remarkably. It was a record that an Arranger like Sebastian worked continuously for Shanker-Jaikishan for 23 years without break. Sebastian enjoyed very much working with SJ as he recalled it was a great teamwork – Shanker, Jaikishan, Shailendra, Hasrat, Sebastian & Dattaram. He remembered that as Shanker was a great song composer, Jaikishan was a rare background music composer. Sebastian, along with Jaikishan, Dattaram and Raj Kapoor completed the background music of Mera Naam Joker in 5 days......

Shanker-Jaikishan being lovers of Indian Classical Music, composed a LP record titled Raga Jazz Style in which they presented 11 Raga in Jazz style. Sebastian arranged the music and wrote the notations.

Sebastian also worked for great music directors like Salil Chowdhury, Vasant Desai, S. D. Burman, Madan Mohan, Roshan, Dattaram and N. Datta.
Sebastian expressed his gratitude to well-known music maestros like Robert Correa, Mike Machado - the Pianists, Albuquerque, Verga, Simplicio D’Souza, John Gonsalves - the Cellists, V. Balsara, Goody Seervai – the Accordionists, Duorado, Narvekar, Karnard – the solo Violinists and David – the Mandolin player.

He also recalled few music arrangers of his time like Johny Gomes, Castellino, Chic Chocolate, Ram Singh, Rizbert and Franky. I asked Sebastian, how individual music directors could maintain their originality as well as identity even when he worked for them as their Arranger? He answered that he never interfered with their original tune.

Sebastian’s remarkable contribution was his ability to combine Western orchestra with the Indian. His are the songs which we remember even today due to the richness of his musical arrangements and the variations in his melodies.
Sebastian was a complete musician. His music lovers will remember his music for years to come.
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17 Comments:

Blogger Unknown said...

Sebastian is really a wonderful Accordion player with beautiful composes in Howrah Bridge( Dekh ke teri Nazar...) and (Woh baat jispe ke dhadke jiya)in Hum sab chor hain and other songs from Aar Paar.. Kathputli etc. SJ and OP Nayyar and Naushad are the Best Music directors our country have ever got, specially OP Nayyar who started his career alone and made a lot many beautiful songs for the Film Industry.

.......Srikanth KV

7:11 AM  
Blogger gopal shroti, said...

During the heydays of Shankar Jaikishan i.e. 50s & 60s, the hindi film music achieved its ultimate height with SJ's continuous composing hit songs film after film in which Sebastian' contribution will be equally remembered. We as the young cinegoers and SJ fans were always eager to read the names of Sebastian & Dattaram as Assistant Music Directors in the films SJ handled. His mastery over Indian classical and western music can be well noticed as counter-melody and independent play of instruments in SJ films for continuous 23 long years. May his soul rest in peace.

9:57 AM  
Blogger Chandu said...

@Srikanth: Sebastian played violin, not accordion. That accordion was played by Goodi Seervai.- Chandu Kale

4:59 AM  
Blogger raviranade52@gmail.com said...

I am a fan of SJ and their compositions.In their music the interludes and counter melodies & placement of tunesin between the lines have amajor role,therefore I would like to know if it were independent creation of arranger or under guidance of music director SJ.Will any one throw light on this?
Ravi Ranade 7/4/2012

5:27 PM  
Blogger tansen 58 said...

I think that only fiew can pass the comment on this surprising and very rare issue upon to legend Sebastian ,indeed i have nothing to say,since expertise comments are available, however I would like to give Saloot to every one .

6:30 AM  
Blogger Unknown said...

Dear Dr Padmanabh K. Joshi,

I, as a composer, find your article fascinating. Sebastian's arrangement of YEH RAT BHEEGI BHEEGI Is probably the best arrangement I have heard from Hindi movies. Such evocation.
You wouldn't, by any chance, have seen a copy of it?
Thanks.

Naresh Sohal Jan21, 2014

7:01 AM  
Blogger Unknown said...

Sebastian saab's counter melody with violins in the song "Lakho taare aasman par...." and other songs of Hariyali air Raste is mind blowing...!!!

11:21 AM  
Blogger Unknown said...

Sebastian Sir's contribution to Hindi Film Music,especially with great music duo Shankar-Jaikishanji shall remain 'melodically'evergreen for ever!

10:11 PM  
Blogger shardarajan said...

I have seen a number of times Sebastian write music for S J songs.. Shankerji used to play the harmonium with his fingers flying in the keys making various pieces of wonderful music like waves coming one after the other in fast tempo & like thousands of pearls coming out of the sea &.spread all over . Sebastian used to write as fast , like in shorthand choosing piece after piece & play it immediately in his violin for Shankerji to ok them ...In so many of their songs all of the beautiful arrangements were suppressed during the mixing because at that time in Indian music the voice has to be given more volume than the music & there were no technical facilities in sound recordings at that time , like today

4:46 AM  
Blogger Rahulkumar said...

The excellent symphonies that he has created for film music can not be produced by any top arrangers in the world.rein orchestra in Albert hall failed to produce the same with lataji.

6:12 AM  
Blogger Rahulkumar said...

The excellent symphonies that he has created for film music can not be produced by any top arrangers in the world.rein orchestra in Albert hall failed to produce the same with lataji.

6:13 AM  
Blogger Unknown said...

All hariyali aur raasta songs n specially dil ki giraha khol do.....my fav ones.

8:14 PM  
Blogger Unknown said...

All hariyali aur raasta songs n specially dil ki giraha khol do.....my fav ones.

8:15 PM  
Blogger Dr. Raj Senani said...

With all due regards to the the writer and also all due regards to the work and contribution of Sebastian D'souza in Shankar-Jaikishan songs, I have never seen a bigger distortion/imagination of facts and misplaced credits than those featuring in this article. After the concerned people are all dead, can one claim anything about anybody and also get away with this? As a matter of fact, SJ had using counter-melody in their music even in Barsat (listen Chhod gaye balam') and Awara (listen `Aa jao tadapte hain arman') much before the arrival of Sebastian in SJ group (Sebastian came to SJ from `Daag' onwards). So, SJ were the originators of counter-melody in their music NOT Sebastian!

11:43 PM  
Blogger Unknown said...

Counter-melody (CM) is not playing violin with the song as someone has posted. CM is a sequence of notes, perceived as a melody, written to be played simultaneously with a more prominent lead melody: a secondary melody played in counterpoint with the primary melody. A counter-melody performs a subordinate role, and is typically heard in a texture consisting of a melody plus accompaniment. The master of CM is the greatest composer ever Burman Dada. Please listen to his songs in old films Do Bhai etc. A striking example is Aradhana song Kora kagaz where you can hear one antara music on which blending melody is superimposed.

6:26 AM  
Blogger Jitendra Desai said...

Good explanation.Can you pl give more examples in Hindi film songs of fifties? Or sixties

10:59 AM  
Blogger Unknown said...

Hi.
Somebody above has commented that technical facilities weren't available in those days to capture every sound played in a song whether vocal or instrumental.
I feel always surprised to realise how could RD Burman record his songs so chisel cut and crystal cut in the same era. This means he had excellent command over recording techniques which perhaps other composers did not have. Am not at all comparing any composer with each other. Just a thought. Every composer from golden era of Bollywood has contributed a priceless treasure. Namaskar to all of them and their teams.

5:43 AM  

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