The Concept of Impact Factor in Music with reference to El Condor Pasa

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

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.

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.

Rebetika & Indian film music - Part III

In this post I continue from where I left you in the last post. During the 1950s and 1960s more than a 100 Indian films were imported into Greece and the music of these films cast an everlasting impression on poor and middle class Greeks. Songs from films like Aan, Mother India, Naagin, Lajwanti, Ujaala, Aurat etc. were adopted with Byzantine overtones and became instant hits in Greece. Quite a number of Greek singers specialized in singing Indoprepi songs, namely Stelios Kazantzidis, Manolis Aggelopoulos, Petros Anagnostakis, Vagelis Perpeniadis, Voula Palla, Marinella, Poly Panou etc. to name a few. The tunes of Naushad and Shankar Jaikishan were the ones which were mostly adopted by the Greek music directors.

1a.  Ulfat Ka Saaz Chhedo - Aurat (1953), Shankar Jaikishan / Lata Mangeshkar

1b. Afti I Nyxta Menei (1959)



This original song was sung by Stelios Kazantzidis and incidentally there was a film with the same name but the title track of the same name has a different tune and was composed by Stamatis Kraounakis.

2a. Sab Kuch Seekha Humne - Anari (1955), Shankar Jaikishan / Mukesh

2b. Gyrise Konta Mou (1962)
Two renditions; one from 1960s and the other as late as 2009. The first one is actually a portmanteau of the same song by two singers - V. Perpiniadis and A. Eteleseis. The second is recorded at Tassos Bougas's performance in Chicago.





3a. Yamma Yamma, Yamma - China Town (1962), Ravi / Asha Bhonsle

3b. Mou Lene Na Min Klaio (1963)



4a. Duniya Walon Se Dur, Ujaala (1959), Shankar Jaikishan / Mukesh; Lata Mangeshkar

4b. Oso Aksizeis Esy (1963). Two versions; the first one in from 1960s and the second one is a remixed version from 2009.





5a. Unchi Unchi Duniya Ki Deewarein - Naagin (1954), Hemant Kumar / Lata Mangeshkar

5b.Osi glyka exoune ta xeili



6a. Gao Taraane Man Ke - Aan (1952), Naushad / Shamshad Begum; Lata Mangeshkar; Mohd. Rafi & Chorus

6b. To Pikrameno Gramma (1960) - Two versions; old & the original song by Manolis Agglepoulos and a new one respectively.






7a. Tere Bina Aag Ye Chandni - Awaara (1951), Shankar Jaikishan / Lata Mangeshkar; Manna De

7b. Ston Ourano Kai Sti Gi (1960)



8a. Ghar Aaya Mera Pardesi - Awaara (1951), Shankar Jaikishan / Lata Mangeshkar

8b. Eisai I Zoi Mou (1959)



9a. Aa Jao Tarapte Hain Armaaan - Awaara (1951), Shankar Jaikishan / Lata Mangeshkar

This was one of the most popular Indoprepi songs and gave rise to many versions. Some of them are listed below.

9b. Irtha Pali Konta Sou (1959) - Marinella



Three renditions of Mantoupala (1959) one after another - Stelios Kazantizidis







10a. Saathi Haath Badhana - Naya Daur (1957), O P Nayyar / Mohd. Rafi, Asha Bhonsle

10b. Gyrise Pali Konta Mou (1962)



11a. Tumhare Hain Tumse Daya Maangte Hain - Boot Polish (1954), Shankar Jaikishan / Mohd. Rafi; Asha Bhonsle

11b. Makari Na Matho Pos Exeis Ploutisei (1962)



12a. Chanda Dhale Pankha Jhale - Pyaar Ki Pyaas (1961), Vasant Desai / Geeta Dutt

Incidentally the same song has also been sung by Lata Mangeshkar in the same film.



12b. Agapi Toso Omorfi (1964)



13a. Jo Tum Toh Royo Piya - Jhanak Jhanak Payal Baaje (1955), Vasant Desai / Lata Mangeshkar

13b. Agapi Muglekeaw



14a. Yeh Zindagi Ke Mele - Mela (1948), Naushad / Mohd. Rafi

14b. Paidi Mou Gurna Piso (1963)



15a. Aye Chaand Kal Jo Aana - Devta (1956), C. Ramchandra / Lata Mangeshkar

15b. Prin Mou Fygeis Glykia Mou (1956)



After this era of the heydays of Hindi film music in mainland Greece, there was a gradual decline in this trend due to Greece growing economically, modern western lifestyle and preferences including films and many other factors which are beyond the scope of discussion o this blog. Lately, beginning this century, there has been a revival of interest in Bollywood movies and Hindi film songs. Hindi film songs are being increasingly translated and dubbed in Greek. I leave you with one such song from the movie "Chalte Chalte" (the new one with Shahrukh Khan).

Keep visiting and keep posting your suggestions.

Rebetika & Indian film music - Part II

In my last post I gave a brief description about the origin of Rebetika, where and how it thrived and lastly the arrival of Laika and Indoprepi.
I shall be dedicating this post in bringing forward the inspired Greek Indoprepi songs. The Greek music company MBI published two CDs with 30 such Indoprepi songs in 1995 under the names "The Homecoming of Mantoupala" and "The Song of Nargis". Needless to state that Madhubala and Nargis were the two most famous actresses of Hindi cinema in 1950s and 1960s in Greece because the films they acted in and the songs they sang appealed to the Greek psyche, specially the poor and the downtrodden ones. The CDs were published with the original Hindi tracks and did not provide with the inspired Greek songs due to the widespread popularity of the Greek renditions. The Greek songs are difficult to pick from a wide collection of Rebetika, Laika and Indoprepi songs present on the internet. I could, ultimately, collect almost all of them based on the original Hindi numbers that were published, but there are many more Greek songs which have a very familiar tune with a feeling of Dejavu but I am unable to pinpoint them. I have tried to provide you with the original video of the Hindi film song wherever available followed by the audio of the Greek version. I don't have any intention of violating copyright laws by providing the videos in my blog. As you will notice that the Greek songs are almost always the simpler version of the original Hindi ones with a heavy influence of the Bouzouki, the most favored instrument of the Rebetika songs. Some of the songs are a direct lift as far as the tune is concerned and some have only a few notes in common.



1a. Dunia Mein Hum Aaye Hain- Mother India (1957), Naushad / Lata Mangeshkar

1b. Kardia Mou Kaimeni (1960). Two versions, the first one is the original and the second one is a recent recording thus reiterating the fact that the song is still popular in Greece.
This is the earlier version




And this is the new version



2a. Mujhe Kisise Pyar Ho Gaya - Barsaat (1949), Shankar Jaikishan / Lata Mangeshkar

2b. Ti Sou Ftaio Kai Me Tyrannas (1964)



3a. Awaara Hoon , Awaara (1951), Shankar Jaikishan / Mukesh

3b. Avara Mu - Original in Turkish, translated into Greek



4a. O Mere Lal Aaja - Mother India (1957), Naushad / Lata Mangeshkar

4b. Farmaki Kai Maxairi (1960)



5a. Kaun Kahe Unse Jake Ai Huzoor - Paapi (1953), S Mohinder / Lata Mangeshkar

5b. San pouli kynigimeno trigyrno (1967)




6a. Yeh Hawa Yeh Nadi Ka Kinara - Ghar Sansar (1958), Ravi / Asha Bhonsle, Manna De

6b. Perpato kai sfyrizo thlimmena (1963)



7a. Pyaar Hua Ikraar Hua - Shri 420 (1955), Shankar Jaikishan / Manna De, Lata Mangeshkar

7b. Kappio Treno (1960)



8a. Mera Joota Hai Japani - Shri 420 (1955), Shankar Jaikishan / Mukesh

8b. An Ton Agapas Paidi Mou (1964)



9a. Gham Ka Fasana Kisko Sunayen - Mela (1948), Naushad / Shamshad Begum

9b. Glukia Mou Agapi (1965)



10a. Mera Dil Ye Pukare Aaja - Naagin (1954), Hemant Kumar / Lata Mangeshkar

10b. Stis agapis mou to disko (1960)



11a. Man Dole Mera Tan Dole - Naagin (1954), Hemant Kumar / Lata Mangeshkar

11b. Poios Sou 'Pe Den S' Agapo (1962)




12a. Umangon Ko Sakhi Pee Ki Nagariya - Amar (1955), Naushad / Lata Mangeshkar

12b. Naifoula Se Stolizoune (1967)



13a. Chhor Babul Ka Ghar - Babul (1950), Naushad / Shamshad Begum.

13b. Unfortunately I could not find the corresponding Greek song. I shall definitely upload it whenever I am able to find the same. Meanwhile listen to another version of this song by Talat Mahmood and Mohd.Rafi.

14a. Ga Mere Man Ga - Lajwanti (1958), S D Burman / Asha Bhonsle

14b. Den Anthizoun Louloudia (1962)



15a. Jhoomta Mausam Mast Mahina - Ujaala (1959), Shankar Jaikishan / Manna De; Lata Mangeshkar

15b. Ligo Ligo Tha Me Synitheseis (1963)



15c. Incidentally there is another one in Serbian with the same tune known as Ostas Ovde.

More songs coming up in the next post. Till then take care.

Rebetika & Indian film music - Part I

Rebetiko (plural Rebetika) and occasionally transliterated as Rembetiko is a form of Greek music which came into existence in the post World War II Greece. It is the other name of Greek Blues music. It was a movement which has lately seen a revival. BBC made a documentary on Rebetika which was narrated by Anthony Quinn. The full documentary has been divided into ten smaller parts for easier viewing. Before I carry on with the topic of the role of Indian (Hindi) film music in the movement let us watch this documentary. It traces the entire history of Rebetika, but sadly does not mention a bit about the Indian influence. It is true that the Indian influence was not there to start with, it only became evident in the late 1950s, 1960s and early 1970s. Aptly enough Rebetika was sub-categorized into Laiko, Indoiftika or Indoprepi and the Greek songs with Indian influence were grouped into this new category. This documentary will allow me to speak less because it has every details about Rebetika. I have made a playlist of all the ten parts. Here are they one after another.



But how does Hindi film music fit into this? How does Greek Blues relate to Naushad? To understand this we have to travel back in time, back to the 2nd and 3rd decade the 20th century in relation to modern Greek history. The place is Thessaloniki, the capital city of Macedonia and the period is World War I (1914-19), which brought to Thessaloniki the multinational Army of the Orient, in which the British participated. With this army came a lot of Indians serving the army as soldiers and as auxiliary staff (havildar, naik, lance naik, sepoy, rifleman and driver, dhobi, bhisti, jamadar, laskar). Carried away by the force of the Allies to stop the Germans and Bulgarians, about 520 mainly poor and illiterate Indians ended their lives in Thessaloniki. One wonders if they knew in which part of the world they were when they died. And it is doubtful that many knew why they or their regiments were fighting and for which ideals they died. It is possible that this is period when the first seeds of Indian (Hindi) music were sown in the soil of modern day Greece. A detail description about the Indian cemetery can be found here. 
The actual crop was sown much later, in the 1950s to be precise. Rebetika, the popular music of the Greek working class, the downtrodden and the underworld was already into existence. Dr. Helen Abadzi has been a forerunner in researching on this topic and I quote from her writings below. "The economic condition of Greece was bleak in the early 1950s. Since its liberation from Turkey in 1827, the country had been a poor agricultural nation with high levels of illiteracy, limited life expectancy, and a low status for women. World War II and a subsequent civil war with communist insurgents had destroyed the countryside and killed many inhabitants. An atmosphere of depression and mourning prevailed as people tried to rebuild their lives. One
survival tactic was migration to larger cities (such as Athens) and emigration to countries like Germany, which needed cheap labor. Uneducated orphans and people caring for widowed relatives were forced to leave their homes and become bricklayers or housemaids, living in unhealthy and oppressive circumstances. It was in that climate of desperation that Hindi movies made an indelible impression".
"The years 1945-65 were a golden period in Indian cinema. Though made with limited means, many of the films produced then became timeless masterpieces. Most were dramatic love stories set in a background of tangled family relations, poverty, exploitation, and misery. In a format that became characteristic of Hindi cinema, many songs and dances were included. Frequently during the movies, actors sang, pondering on problems and situations like a protagonist and a responding chorus in a Greek drama.. Many of the songs, composed by the greatest Indian musicians for the films, have become timeless tunes that every Indian knows.
The plots of the movies resonated with the wounded Greek psyche. Suffering women, street children who had to drop out of school, jealous sisters-in-law, vengeful mothers-in-law, interdependencies, betrayals, and frequent unhappy ends resonated with the difficult choices of poorly educated Greek people subsisting in large cities. In particular, the characters appealed to poor women. The maidservants and factory workers saw themselves depicted on the movie screen, hoping for deliverance. Maybe the rich young man would marry the poor beautiful girl who worked at his house. Maybe lost relatives would appear to take care of the abandoned street child who sang so beautifully".

Suffering in the movies was combined with spectacle. There were scenes of palaces, beautiful houses, jungles, elephants, spectacular countrysides, and medieval-period costumes. Though often depicted as poor and unhappy, the Indian actresses were gracefully modest, with bright clothes and much jewelry. They enabled the audiences to see people like themselves improving their conditions, but also to be transported to a reverie far from reality. Thus, India managed to package and export its main problem, poverty, with its main attraction, exoticism. And Greece at that time was a willing buyer. At least 111 movies are known to have been imported in 1954-1968. They were most popular in 1958-1962, when at least one out of the 35 movie theaters of Thessaloniki played one or two Hindi movies in per week. The films were always subtitled in Greek. Their one-word symbolic titles were changed to indicate tragedy: mothers losing children, social upheaval, and other emotional topics. Thus, “Ghar Sansaar”  became “Tears of a Mother”. “Mother India” became “Land Drenched in Sweat”, and “Mela” became “Love Drenched in Tears”. The advertisements contained text that accentuated the dramatic aspects of the movies and declared that the newest import was better than other earlier arrivals. These movies were considered working-class fare. They had much less appeal for the middle class, which looked westward for entertainment, wanted more humor, and was not plagued by the social dilemmas of the poor and the limited solutions available to the heroines. Nevertheless, the Hindi masterpieces were seen by many and it seemed then Hindi movies are there to stay in Greece.
In the next part I shall be dealing with these movies and how these popular Hindi tunes were integrated into Greek popular music.