On the trail of the crow pheasant call

THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: In the blink of an eye, when the crow pheasant of the signature film of the 16th IFFK soars through the ornamental puppets to the tree of the festival, the background music shifts from percussion to the music of the nature, the three-note call of the crow pheasant.This call of the crow pheasant that now floats across the cinema theatres in the city, we at Express found, has nothing to do with the traditional flute, which owes its origin to the human desire to mimic the songs of birds.On the trail of the pheasant call, we contacted the Fly Council, a Pink Floyd tribute band in the city, who had done the background score for the signature film.Jobin Joseph, guitarist of the band, asked us to come over to his father’s musical shop, from where he had discovered the instrument that gave out this melodious sound. As we went inside the shop displaying hundreds of musical instruments from all over the world, Jobin brought out a wooden block.As we stared at the approximately 20-inch block, Jobin picked it up and blew hard through a small tail-like portion and there was the divine melody - ‘kooh-koo-kooh.’"This is actually a reed pipe that my father found four-five months ago. This reed pipe was once upon a time a part of an old pipe organ,’’ said Jobin. "The minute Bijoy, who directed the signature film, told me about using the call of the ‘chakoram’ in the background score, this reed popped up in my mind. So we really didn’t have to look around hard to mimic this call,’’ said Jobin.The pipe organ produces sound by driving pressurised air through pipes selected via a keyboard. Organ pipes are divided into flue pipes and reed pipes according to their design and timbre. Flue pipes produce sound by forcing air through a fipple, whereas reed pipes produce sound via a beating reed, like that of a clarinet or saxophone."Each organ pipe produces a single pitch and the pipes are provided in sets called ranks, each of which has a common timbre and volume,’’ explained Jobin. Most organs have multiple ranks of pipes of differing timbre, pitch and loudness that the player can employ singly or in combination.The Fly Council had plans to incorporate the sound of a conch too in the background, but had too little time to put it all together. ‘’Besides, confining a piece of music to just 35 seconds is a pretty difficult task,’’ said Jobin.Jobin and Bijoy got to know each other from Fine Arts College, where Bijoy did his graduation in Fine Arts. Fly Council, at that time, used to do music shows at the College. The friendship that owes its genesis to the Fine Arts College is what blossomed into the sight and sound of the signature film.