It so happened not so long ago that I was standing in a queue to get my immigration clearance done at the international terminal of the Netaji Subhash Chandra Bose airport at Kolkata. The two gentlemen standing just in front of me were talking amongst themselves about “Impact Factor” of articles published in scientific journals. The older of the two, a professor in an engineering college, was elaborate in describing the role of IF to the younger gentleman, who also happened to be his student. The queue moved on, so did the gentlemen but I kept on thinking about the impact factor. It was not due to that I did not know about IF, but I kept on wondering about extrapolating the concept to plagiarism in music.
The impact factor, often abbreviated IF, is a measure reflecting the average number of citations to articles published in science and social science journals. It is frequently used as a proxy for the relative importance of a journal within its field, with journals with higher impact factors deemed to be more important than those with lower ones. The impact factor was devised by Eugene Garfield, the founder of the Institute for Scientific Information (ISI), now part of Thomson Reuters. In a given year, the impact factor of a journal is the average number of citations received per paper published in that journal during the two preceding years. For example, if a journal has an impact factor of 4 in 2009, then its papers published in 2007 and 2008 received 4 citations each on average.
A = the number of times articles published in 2007 and 2008 were cited by indexed journals during 2009 B = the total number of "citable items" published by that journal in 2007 and 2008.
("Citable items" are usually articles, reviews, proceedings, or notes; not editorials or Letters-to-the-Editor.)
2009 impact factor = A/B
It is to be noted that 2009 impact factors are actually published in 2010; they cannot be calculated until all of the 2009 publications have been processed by the indexing agency.
Now how can we extrapolate this concept to plagiarism in music? Let us term it as Music Impact Factor (MIF). The less the MIF, the more is the originality. The MIF, for obvious reasons cannot be calculated on a yearly basis but it can surely be calculated for a particular song or for a particular album as a lifetime factor. The factor can and should be updated on a constant basis and the previous year’s or the previous decade’s MIF can be calculated as a factor. The MIF can be conveniently subdivided into Forward MIF (FMIF) and Reverse MIF (RMIF). The FMIF will obviously be for the older song from which the new song is copied or is influenced and the factor will always be greater than 1 and the more is this number; the more number of newer songs has the older one influenced. The RMIF, on the other hand, will be calculated for the newer song and will depend on the number of older songs that have gone into the making of the new song. It will always be a fraction of 1 and the lesser the fraction; the more is the number of songs that have gone into the making of the new song. Let me propose, at this juncture, that a blatant lift would be assigned a score of 1, an influence would get a score of 0.75 and barely some notes in common would qualify for a score of 0.5 and just a coincidence will be let off with 0.25.
With this background, let us discuss today’s song and at the end we will try and calculate the MIF. It is to be noted that I shall be calculating the MIF for a song in this post only and shall not be repeating the calculation in any of my future posts as this is of purely academic and scientific interest. Those interested can perform the calculation on their own.
Recently I was watching a Hindi movie “Kites”. I was just about to pass it off as an insipid and uninteresting movie when I noticed something which needs mention. As the end credits of the film were rolling out, the music caught my attention; it sounded familiar.
Here is the tune. Does it sound familiar to you also?
If you hear the song with all your concentration you will come to know that this piece of music used in the prelude of the song “Kites” has a few notes in common from an old folk tune originating from the heights of Peruvian Andes known as El Condor Pasa. The popular folk tune is a bit faster, but Rajesh Roshan has modified the pace of the composition making it much slower and hard to decipher. Actually Rajesh Roshan's composition closely resembles the original notes of the Peruvian composer Daniel Alomia Robles. Robles's composition has its slow and fast portions and it is the notes of the slower part that has the resemblance. Here is that original composition with the sheet music.
Traditionally the tune is played on Peruvian flute and it has been performed and modified over these years by many musicians all over the world. The original composition consists of three parts: a Yaravi, a Parade or "fox" Inca and leaking Huayno, the three native rhythms of Peru. Now let us concentrate on the original El Condor Pasa before moving on to many versions of the song and the direct lifts and inspirations. As I told previously, El Cóndor Pasa (The Condor Goes by (or Flies by)) is a song from the zarzuela El Cóndor Pasa by the Peruvian composer Daniel Alomía Robles written in 1913 and based on traditional Andean folk tunes. The original words are in Quechua, the language of the Incas, and it was written by Julio Baodouin Y Paz. It is as follows.
Yau kuntur llaqtay orgopy tiyaq
Maymantam gawamuhuakchianqui, kuntur kuntur
Apayllahuay llaqtanchikman, chay wasinchikman chiri orgupy,
Kutiytam munany kuntur kuntur.
Kuzco llaqtapyn plazachallampyn suyaykamullaway,
Machupicchupy Huaynapicchupy purikunanchiqpaq.
Transliterated into English it means:
Oh mighty Condor, owner of the skies,
take me home.
Up into the Andes, Oh mighty Condor,
I want to go back to my native place,
to be with my Inca brothers.
Thats what I miss the most, Oh mighty Condor.
Wait for me in the Cusco, in the main plaza,
so that we can take a walk in Machupicchu and Huaynapicchu.
The scene of this song and the zarzuela is set in a mine in the Peruvian Andes. It describes the exploitations of the workers while the condor flies as a symbol of freedom. Here is that original version of the song in Quechua by a Peruvian group called Wayna Picchu.
It was first brought into mainstream music by a group called Urubamba, formerly known as Los Incas. Here is El Condor Pasa by Los Incas
Traditionally the tune is played on Peruvian flute and it has been performed and modified over these years by many musicians all over the world. The original composition consists of three parts: a Yaravi, a Parade or "fox" Inca and leaking Huayno, the three native rhythms of Peru. Now let us concentrate on the original El Condor Pasa before moving on to many versions of the song and the direct lifts and inspirations. As I told previously, El Cóndor Pasa (The Condor Goes by (or Flies by)) is a song from the zarzuela El Cóndor Pasa by the Peruvian composer Daniel Alomía Robles written in 1913 and based on traditional Andean folk tunes. The original words are in Quechua, the language of the Incas, and it was written by Julio Baodouin Y Paz. It is as follows.
Yau kuntur llaqtay orgopy tiyaq
Maymantam gawamuhuakchianqui, kuntur kuntur
Apayllahuay llaqtanchikman, chay wasinchikman chiri orgupy,
Kutiytam munany kuntur kuntur.
Kuzco llaqtapyn plazachallampyn suyaykamullaway,
Machupicchupy Huaynapicchupy purikunanchiqpaq.
Transliterated into English it means:
Oh mighty Condor, owner of the skies,
take me home.
Up into the Andes, Oh mighty Condor,
I want to go back to my native place,
to be with my Inca brothers.
Thats what I miss the most, Oh mighty Condor.
Wait for me in the Cusco, in the main plaza,
so that we can take a walk in Machupicchu and Huaynapicchu.
The scene of this song and the zarzuela is set in a mine in the Peruvian Andes. It describes the exploitations of the workers while the condor flies as a symbol of freedom. Here is that original version of the song in Quechua by a Peruvian group called Wayna Picchu.
It was first brought into mainstream music by a group called Urubamba, formerly known as Los Incas. Here is El Condor Pasa by Los Incas
It is possibly the best-known Peruvian song worldwide due to a cover version by Simon & Garfunkel in 1970 on their Bridge Over Troubled Water album. This cover version is called El Condor Pasa (If I Could). Paul Simon heard a version called "Paso Del Condor" by Jorge Milchberg, who is head of the group Urubamba when the group was touring France. Simon became friendly with the group through this song, and ended up touring with them and producing their first American album. Paul Simon personalized the song by adding his own English lyrics. On the Simon & Garfunkel version, Robles, Milchberg and Simon are all listed as songwriters. Here is the world famous song by Simon and Garfunkel.
Later that year, Perry Como released a cover of Simon's English version on his album It's Impossible, while Julie Felix took advantage of Simon and Garfunkel's decision not to release their version as a UK single, and had a UK Top 20 hit with it. Here is that song by Julie Felix.
Simon & Garfunkel did release their version as a single in the U.S. and it reached number 18 on the Billboard Pop Singles chart in the fall of 1970.
Here is a selection of different artists both vocal and instrumental, performing El Condor Pasa. I have deliberately chosen these pieces to give you a feel of how the music sounds when it is sung in different languages and played on different musical instruments. The inspired portion from El Condor Pasa has been used in the Hindi film "Kites" when the end credits start rolling and has also been used as a background music during the movie when Hrithik and Barbara Mori enjoy their glasses of champagne sitting in front of the dancing fountain.
Sur le chemin des Andes - Marie Laforet (French)
El Condor - Placido Domingo (Spanish)
El Condor - Esther Ofarim (Hebrew)
Il Condor - Gigliola Cinquetti (Italian)
Apart from these there are three remixed versions of El Condor Pasa. The first one is by DJ Sami, which has different lyrics (just four words) and the second one is by Russian pop star Valeriy Leontiev with the same lyrics.The third version is a Polish version by Mano Erina and is called 'Nyu Chan Desu' and belongs to a genre called 'Disco Polo'. Many singers all over the world have sung 'If I Could' but I have included only those which are in languages other than English and those which are different in the arrangement & composition.
Here is the instrumental playlist.
Later that year, Perry Como released a cover of Simon's English version on his album It's Impossible, while Julie Felix took advantage of Simon and Garfunkel's decision not to release their version as a UK single, and had a UK Top 20 hit with it. Here is that song by Julie Felix.
Simon & Garfunkel did release their version as a single in the U.S. and it reached number 18 on the Billboard Pop Singles chart in the fall of 1970.
Here is a selection of different artists both vocal and instrumental, performing El Condor Pasa. I have deliberately chosen these pieces to give you a feel of how the music sounds when it is sung in different languages and played on different musical instruments. The inspired portion from El Condor Pasa has been used in the Hindi film "Kites" when the end credits start rolling and has also been used as a background music during the movie when Hrithik and Barbara Mori enjoy their glasses of champagne sitting in front of the dancing fountain.
Sur le chemin des Andes - Marie Laforet (French)
El Condor - Placido Domingo (Spanish)
El Condor - Esther Ofarim (Hebrew)
Il Condor - Gigliola Cinquetti (Italian)
Apart from these there are three remixed versions of El Condor Pasa. The first one is by DJ Sami, which has different lyrics (just four words) and the second one is by Russian pop star Valeriy Leontiev with the same lyrics.The third version is a Polish version by Mano Erina and is called 'Nyu Chan Desu' and belongs to a genre called 'Disco Polo'. Many singers all over the world have sung 'If I Could' but I have included only those which are in languages other than English and those which are different in the arrangement & composition.
Here is the instrumental playlist.
Music Playlist at MixPod.com
We now turn our attention towards film soundtracks and songs having the version by Simon and Garfunkel or inspired by this song.
First in this list is the film called "The Voyage of The Yes" (1973).
The next song is from the Hindi film Jaanam, 'Teri Chahat Ke Siwa'.
Another song from the Hindi movie Virasat, "Taarein Hain Baaarati". The prelude of the song is definitely inspired by 'El Condor' while the rest of the song has a different tune altogether. Both the Hindi songs are composed by Anu Malik.
There must be many more versions of El Condor prevalent in the world which I am unaware of and therefore I don't claim this list to be an exhaustive one. Having said that lets us now integrate some science into arts as we try and calculate the Music Impact Factor (MIF) of the original Zarzuela composition by Daniel Alomia Robles; to be precise the Forward Music Impact Factor (FMIF) . Readers please refer back to the initial part of this post for details regarding the calculation of the IF.
Robles's original Zarzuela composition inspired the original Quechua version thus getting a score of 1, the Quechua song inspired the composition by Urubamba - again scoring 1. Paul Simon put his English lyrics into the composition of Urubamba making it a worldwide hit thus earning another 1 point. The success of "If I Could" by Simon and Garfunkel led to a deluge of direct lifts and the French, Spanish, Italian and Hebrew songs came into being giving a score of 4 (1x4). The remixed versions by DJ Sami, Leontiev and Mano Erina earn a score of 0.75 each thus totaling 2.25. The soundtrack from the movie 'The Voyage of the Yes' qualifies for a score of 1. Anu Malik's composition from the Hindi movie 'Jaanam' gives a score of 0.5 (inspiration only) and that from the movie 'Virasat' gives a score o 0.5 (some notes common - prelude only). Rajesh Roshan's composition in the movie 'Kites' gives a score of 0.25 as I think it is just a coincidence. Thus the total combining all the scores in 11.50. Therefore the FMIF for the original Zarzuela composition by Daniel Alomia Robles till 2009 is 11.50. This calculation of MIF is just a proposal by me to scientifically document the impact of a particular composition or song on the world music scenario.
Keep visiting my blog and keep listening to music as music has so much to offer.
hii.. Nice Post
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