‘Mad mod mood fugue’ is a piece from the album ‘How to Name It?’ by Maestro Ilayaraja.  

https://youtu.be/I6VvHdtIQHs?si=2mYPGwYG0EsdND51

How to Name It? is an instrumental Indian-Western fusion album released in 1986. This was  Ilayaraja's first fusion music album. The album has musical movements that are dedicated to South  Indian composer, Tyāgarāja and the Western baroque music composer, J. S. Bach. 

This album serves as a bridge between Indian Classical and Western Classical Music. This piece  is briefly analyzed here. The main melody is played as a solo violin. V. S. Narasimhan, a violinist  who is versatile in both carnatic and western music. He played the solo violin portions in this piece.  It is very challenging to play carnatic rāga-s without changing or diluting the flavour, with proper gamaka-s that too with a western tuned violin. 

The whole piece is in Caturaśra (Time Signature 4/4). It starts with a violin playing a pattern in  Tisra gati mēl kāla (Takiṭatakiṭa takiṭatakiṭa) also known as 4/4 triplet. The svara-s start with  (7:20 – 7:25) Śubhapantuvarāḷi phrases and lead to calanāṭa. From 7.25, the main piece in guitar goes in caturaśra and the overlapping violin goes in tisra. Then another violin is added in the  main part (s,,,,,nsr). From 7:40, the drums groove starts along with bass guitar slap.  

From 7:45, Melody in calanāṭa is played in a violin. The phrase starting with M,,G ,R,, till M,,,  G,,, R,,S ,,R, (8:34) leads to pentatonic scales or auḍava rāga-s. To overlap this melody, Maestro  has used Chinese Harmony with second violins (string section). The melody is back to calanāṭa  after exploring auḍava rāga-s. Application of three octaves (Tristhāyi sañcāra) is played by  the violin (10.05). Phrases like gmr, snsp show the rāga lakṣaṇa of calanāṭa and jōg.  

Phrases from 10.25, leads to Śubhapantuvarāḷi Rāga by applying Gṛhabhēda. After which, each phrase defines various rāga-s like Jōg, Tilaṅg, Gambhīra nāṭa which has the same svarasthāna of Calanāṭa (Name of the svara differs ie. Ṣaṭśruti Dhaivata as Kaiśiki  Niṣāda). The piece is back to calanāṭa after exploring various combinations of ideas. These ideas are applied in Manōdharma Saṅgīta as well. From 11.18, Calanāṭa is shown in its purest form. Sphurita gamaka-s are played on keyboard using synth – lead combination.  

After exploring Calanāṭa with different gamaka-s, the svara-s, G M P leads to Mōhana rāga through Gṛhabhēda (12.28) by treating Ṣaṭśruti Ṛṣabha of Calanāṭa as Ṣaḍja.

R,; ;; ;; ,pmp r;s ; of Calanāṭa gives the flavor of Mōhana as S,; ;; ;; ,grg s;d ;  

A phrase of Mōhanam rāga (13.03) r,g, p,d, g,p, d,R, S leads to Śubhapantuvarāḷi through gṛhabhēda where the Ṣaḍja of Mōhanam is treated as Kākalī Niṣāda of  Śubhapantuvarāḷi. Simple phrases of Śubhapantuvarāḷi haunts us after listening mōhana with santōśa bhāva. Just as the beginning, towards the end of this piece (13.32) the combination of Mōhanam and Śubhapantuvarāḷi is played in triplets – tisra gati mēl kāla which gives us the mood of happiness and sorrow. Svara-s were played  different patterns in Mōhanam and the svara-s as arpeggios (with respect to chords) complimenting Śubhapantuvarāḷi were played till 14.41. The composition explains that  the rāga-s play a vital role to express the feelings and gives us different flavors just like our lives, which has both happiness and sorrow as two sides of a coin. Ati tārasthāyi phrase gmgmgm of Śubhapantuvarāḷi will be treated as Ati tārasthāyi phrase pdpdpd of Calanāṭa and then comes original rāga of the piece (Calanāṭa). The piece ends with the refrain syncopated pattern (SndnS). 

The first challenge in this piece is to maintain the śruti of the violins as it is in western tuning. Positioning of fingers is very important to play higher octaves (Ati tāra sthāyi) and fast phrases. Bowing plays a vital role, and it is the most important because it is the only way to  show dynamics, accents like legato, staccato, tremelo, etc. As far as the composer is  concerned, he should know the phrases which can be played by the musicians easily without any interruptions. At the same it should not dilute the rāga bhāva. Knowing and carefully choosing the right dynamics, and the range of the instruments are also  challenging. Handling two different genres without diluting each other's identity is another challenge. Writing chords for these rāga-s is a little tricky as it must portray the bhāva of the rāga as well.  

As a listener, we don't find any of the above challenges because the composer and the  musicians hid those challenges with their versatility, composed and played it with ease. 

This piece can be used as practice material for musicians. One can try playing or singing in different octaves, patterns, dynamics, etc which are used in this piece. Composing a song or a piece, application of rāga-s, according to different situations, application of gṛhabhēda, gatibhēda, interpretation of different rāga-s, can be taken as inspiration from this piece.