Album to preserve folk songs of Irular tribe

COIMBATORE: While members of the

Irular tribe

staying in settlements in and around the district have a rich collection of songs on their customs and collective memory, the musical pieces have not been recorded in their pristine form. This is set to change with tribal culture enthusiasts and Irular musicians planning to record the songs and release an

album

.

R Selvan, 35, of Alangandi Irular village in Karamadai, says he grew up hearing the songs. “These songs must have been in vogue for around two centuries. As there is no script for our language, we have been preserving our culture and memories through them,” he told TOI.

Irular songs are accompanied by wind instrument kogalu, percussion instruments porai and tavil, and cymbals known as jalra. The songs are always accompanied by the instruments and nothing is played solo.

At their real settings, the songs are also accompanied by dance. This proved to be a hassle during recording. “At the recording theatre, we had to record each instrument separately. But the musicians refused to perform solo. We had to convince them and train them before we could record,” said Selvan, who is a singer himself. This took them around three days to record a song.

Both men and women sing. Some songs are duets and some are solos with chorus. Thulasi of Senguttai village was the main singer.

Irular songs talk of customs such as marriage, emotions such as love and events such as honey gathering, and also yearning for the good old days, says R Lakshmanan, a writer, and collector of Irular songs, who facilitated the initiative. “There was an attempt to record Irular songs in Attapadi, but they recorded only the lyric and percussions. Kogalu is primal for Irular music. It is the kogalu player who sets the tune and leads other performers, including the singer. We have taken the trouble to include the instrument in the recording,” he said.

Kogalu players are becoming rare. Once there were 15 of them, but now only a couple of people, such as Andi of Senguttai, play it. They also have plans to train people in kogalu, says Lakshmanan. They have recorded more than 20 songs, of which 10 will be released as a CD, said Lakshmanan. “Irular musicians have named the album Emtu Nadu Male Nadu (My Country Hill Country). This is the beginning of an important song, which speaks about the glory of their old days. We are planning to release it in a month,” he said.


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