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Pocket guide to Carnatic music - Intro

Introduction
Carnatic music or karnataka sangitam
is the classical music of south India—the area covering the four states of
Tamil Nadu, Andhra Pradesh, Karnataka and Kerala.
Traditional followers of Indian music believe that it is of divine origin. In
this, people who listen to north Indian or Hindustani and south Indian or
Carnatic classical music, are united. In particular, the Vedas, more
specifically the Sama Veda, are said to be the wellspring of what has evolved
through the millennia into Indian classical music.
In Tamil Nadu, ancient Tamil compositions such as the Tevaram or Tiruvachakam
have been sung for centuries by a community of temple musicians known as
Oduvars. The music they render is based on melodies called panns, which predate
raga music.
Carnatic music is essentially raga music—raga and tala music, to be more
precise—with a vast number of songs based on an austere structure of melodic
and rhythmic fundamentals. In short, every Carnatic music composition is
rendered in a particular raga and a definite tala or rhythm cycle.
A raga is a unique arrangement of the seven swaras or solfa notes—sa, ri, ga,
ma, pa, dha and ni, with the microtones in between. In practice, 12 such srutis
are identified—with two ri-s (rishabha), two ga-s (gandhara), two ma-s
(madhyama), two dha-s (dhaivata), and two ni-s (nishada).
In the melakarta scheme of ragas, 72 parent ragas are identified, and divided
into two sets of ragas, based on the two types of madhyama—suddha and
prati—with 36 suddha madhyama and 36 prati madhyama ragas.
All 72 parent ragas are complete ragas, with each raga containing all seven
notes in both ascent and descent. In other words, each melakarta raga will have
the scale sa-ri-ga-ma-pa-dha-ni-Sa in the ascent and Sa-ni-dha-pa-ma-ga-ri-sa.
The two subsets are further divided into 6 chakras each, consisting of 6 ragas
each. Each of the suddha madhyama and prati madhyama ragas is differentiated by
the positions of the other swaras, with only the shadja and panchama constant.
While the parent ragas are known as mela or janaka ragas, their offspring are
known as janya or offspring ragas. A large number of permutation-combinations
is possible, with such variations as 5 swaras in the ascent and 6/ 7 in the
descent or vice versa, 5 and 5, or 6 and 6, so on and so forth. Thousands of
ragas are the result.
A tala is a rhythmic cycle with a specific number of beats. Carnatic music uses
a comprehensive system of talas called the Suladi sapta tala system.
It has seven families of talas, each of which has five members, one each of
five types or varieties (jati or chapu), thus allowing 35 possible talas. In
practice, a small number of talas are regularly used.
Sophisticated, arithmetically intricate rules govern the elaboration of tala
patterns. Once the tempo of a song is decided, the musician can accelerate. The
vilambita is the slow pace, while madhyama is double that pace and the durita
four times the vilambita kala. The singer maintains the tala or tempo by
slapping his hand on his thigh, while instrumentalists may resort to tapping
their feet.
This is Carnatic music in a nutshell, though it is an oversimplification of a
complex, sophisticated system.
Posted by Sruti Magazine June 19, 2012
Labels: V Ramnarayan