Carnatic music or Karnatak music is the classical music of South India, as opposed to the classical music of North India, called Hindustani music.
Lyrics in Carnatic music are largely devotional; most of the songs are addressed to the Hindu deities. There are a lot of songs emphasising love and other social issues.
As with all Indian classical music, the two main components of Carnatic music are raga, a melodic pattern and tala, a rhythmic pattern. (One might want to read these pages before proceeding.)
Carnatic music, whose foundations lie as far back as 2000BCE, began as a spiritual ritual of early Hinduism. It grew, along with Hindustani music, out of the Sama Veda tradition, until the Islamic invasions of North India in the late 12th and early 13th century. From the 13th century onwards, there was a divergence in the forms of Indian music — the northern style being influenced by Arabic music (yet there are both Hindu and Muslim songs in Hindustani music.)
Carnatic music is named after the Southern region of the Indian subcontinent named by western colonists as Carnatic. This name was used to refer to the region between the Eastern Ghats and the Coromandel Coast encompassing much of what is called today as South India. Thus the term carnatic music was used to denote South Indian music.
Sruti in Indian music is the rough equivalent of a tonic (or less precisely key) in Western music; it is the note from which all the others are derived. Traditionally, there are twenty-two srutis in Carnatic music, but over the years several of them have converged, so that now they are but the chromatic scale.
The solfege of Carnatic music is "sa-ri-ga-ma-pa-da-ni" (compare with the Hindustani sargam: sa-re-ga-ma-pa-dha-ni). These names are abbreviations of the longer names shadjam, rishabham, gandharam. madhyamam, panchamam, dhaivatam and nishadam. Unlike other music systems, each member of the solfege (called a swara) may have up to three variants. The exceptions are shadjam and panchamam (the tonic and the dominant in Western music), which have only one form, and madhyamam, which has only two forms (the subdominant). In one scale, or ragam, there is usually only one variant of each note present, except in "light" ragas, such as Behag, in which, for artistic effect, there may be two, one on the way up (in the arohanam) and another on the way down (in the avarohanam). A raga may have five, six or seven notes on the way up, and five, six or seven notes on the way down.
In Indian languages, most of whose alphabets are abugidas (q.v.), the solfege is written with the characters for Sa, Ri, Ga, Pa, Da and Ni. Beacause Carnatic music is very rarely performed by people from North India, the alphabets given here are primarily those of Dravidian, i.e., South Indian, languages.
In Carnatic music, the sampurna ragas (the ones that have seven notes in their scales) are classified into the melakarta system, which groups them according to the kinds of notes that they have. There are seventy-two melakarta ragas, thirty-six of whose subdominant is a perfect fourth from the tonic, thirty-six of whose subdominant is an augmented fourth from the tonic. The ragas are grouped into sets of six, called chakras ("wheels", though actually sectors in the conventional representation) grouped according to the supertonic and mediant scale degrees.
Ragas may be divided into two classes: janaka ragas ("parent ragas") and janya ragas ("child ragas"). Janaka raga is synonymous with melakarta (because the melakarta ragas each have seven notes in their scale, and use each note only once). Janya ragas are subclassified into various categories themselves.
In carnatic music, singers keep the beat by moving their hands in specified patterns. These patterns are called talas. All of the which are formed with three basic movements: lowering the palm of the hand onto the thigh, lowering a specified number of fingers in sequence (starting from the little finger), and turning the hand over. These basic movements are grouped into three kinds of units: the laghu (lowering the palm and then the fingers, notated as 1), the dhrtam (lowering the palm and turning it over, notated as 0), and the anudhrtam. Only these units are used.
There are seven kinds of talas which can be formed from the laghu, dhrtam, and anudhrtam:
Cittaswaras
- First
- Second
- Third
- et cetera
There are many more kinds of songs such as geethams and swarajatis, but for lack of room, they will not be explained here.
Special compositions
Some special sets of compositions deserve to be noted here, the Pancaratna Kirtanas of Tyagaraja and the Navagraha Kritis of Muttusvami Dikshitar.
The Pancaratna Kirtanas (lit. five gems), composed by Tyagaraja in Telugu, are a set of five compositions regarded as the masterpieces of the great composer. They deviate from conventional structure in that they all have between eight and twelve caranas. Sadincane O Manasa, the third of the compositions, deviates even more in that after the anupallavi, there is a short phrase after which the caranas are sung. Also, instead of repeating the pallavi after each caranam, the phrase between the anupallavi and the first caranam is sung.
Improvisation
There are four main types of improvisation in Carnatic music:
Raga Alapana. This is usually performed before a song. It is, as you may expect, always sung in the ragam of the song. It is a slow improvisation with no rhythm, and is supposed to tune the listener's mind to the appropriate ragam by reminding him/her of the specific nuances, before the singer plunges into the song. Theoretically, this ought to be the easiest type of improvisation, since the rules are so few, but in fact, it takes much skill to sing a pleasing, comprehensive (in the sense of giving a "feel for the ragam") and, most importantly, original ragam.
Niraval This is usually performed by the more advanced concert artists and consists of singing one or two lines of a song repeatedly, but with improvised elaborations. (A similar thing used to be done in Baroque music).
(Kalpana)swaram The most elementary type of improvisation, usually taught before any other form of improvisation. It consists of singing a pattern of notes which finishes on the beat and the note just before the beat and the note on which the song starts.The swara pattern should adhere to the original raga's swara pattern, which is called as "arohana-avarohana"
Taanam. This form of improvisation was originally developed for the veena and consists of repeating the word anantham ("endless") in an improvised tune. The name thaanam comes from a false splitting of anantham repeated. When the word anantham is repeated, i.e., "anantham-anantham", the laws of sandhi dictate that the consonant at the end of the first word be dropped, hence "ananthaanantham" When the rule is applied to a long string of ananthams, you get "ananthaananthaananthaananthaa..." which got falsely split as "thaananthaananthaanan...", or "thaanamthaanamthaanam...".
(Ragam Thanam) Pallavi
Pallavi means: words (padam), rhythm (layam) and improvisation (viñasam)
This is a composite form of improvisation. It consists of Ragam, Thanam, then a line sung twice, and Niraval. After Niraval, the line is sung again, twice, then sung once at half the speed, then twice at regular speed, then four times at twice the speed.
Concerts
Instruments
Carnatic concerts are usually performed by a small ensemble of musicians, who usually (but not always) meet only on the stage. The group usually has a vocalist, a primary instrumentalist, and a percussionist, in that order of importance. Primary instruments are usually string instruments, such as the vi?a and violin, although wind instruments such the flute may also be used.
The importance given to the vocalist in performances is a reflection of Carnatic music's focus on the singer and its rooting in the poetry of the Sama Veda; any instrumental rendition is merely a transcription of the vocal line. However, in recent years, purely instrumental concerts have become popular.
Support
The Tambura, the most common kind of drone instrument, is traditionally used at concerts to remind the singer of the tonic, so that the singer may stay in tune throughout the performance. However, not only is the tambura unwieldy, it is also fragile, and is thus increasingly being replaced by the more compact sruti box (also known as the "electronic tambura"). There are even rumours that some artists have begun to use iPods for this purpose
In addition to the tambura, there is almost always a violin or a veena to provide support for the artist. Besides playing along with the main vocalist, the violinist or vina player also gets the chance to take part in the improvisation. All of the support instruments take turns while elaborating or while exhibiting creativity in sections like Niraval, Kalpana swaram and such.
Percussion
Percussion instruments, such as the mridangam, ghatam, kanjeera are used to help the singer in keeping the beat, but they may also improvise. The Morsing is also seen in some concerts and it accompanies the main percussion instrument and plays almost in a contrapuntal fashion along with the beats.
Content
Carnatic concerts, these days, last for typically no more than 3 hours. The artist may render about 10 to 15 songs. The richness and depth of artistry of the content may vary greatly based on the artist and to an extent based on what the audience request.
The stage
Prayer
Concerts almost always start with a song in praise of Ganapathi, the remover of obstacles. For this, songs such as vinayaka ninnuvina brocu?aku and gam ga?apate, among many, many others, are common. But it is not uncommon to find concerts that start with Varnams and then have a song on Ganapathi.
Varnam
Most artists decide to keep the Varnam in a sampoorna raga. A Varnam typically lasts for about 6 to 12 minutes. Since Varnams are performed during the initial part of the concert, some people try to keep the Varnam in a bright raga (can be roughly translated to Major scales) like Kalyani or Dheerasankarabharanam).
Keerthanams
In the middle are a variety of compositions, generally contrasting in emotion. Sometimes, a ragam is sung before each of these compositions, and kalpanaswaram is sung after. Usually there are several keerthanams composed by the trinity and others sung during this phase.
Thani
Almost always all Carnatic concerts nowadays have only one Thani Avarthanam. This is kept almost towards the end of the concert. The Thani Avarthanam begins after the violinist and the vocalist (or the main performer in case of an instrumental concert) have completed their kalpana swaras or niraval and usually the vocalist nods at the percussionist to start his Thani. In case there are two or more percussion instruments, each of the percussionists start by playing a lengthy piece of beats called an Avarthanam. The length of the Avarthanam goes on reducing in a mathematical proportion as the percussionists take turn. Towards the end of the Thani Avarthanam they start playing together and the song ends with the main performer singing the line that was used for Kalpana / Niraval.
Ragam Tanam Pallavi
Some experienced artists may do a Ragam Tanam Pallavi instead of a Keerthanam as the main piece of the Concert. Nevertheless, a Ragam Tanam Pallavi exposition will also comprise of a Thani.
Tukkada
After a heavy dose of musically complex keerthanas the artists perform short, light and usually fast numbers. The recent trend has been that some of these are based on Hindustani Ragas. tillanas and Javalis are sung during this phase. There would roughly be around 3 to 5 tukkadas.
Mangalam
Almost always the very last song of a Concert is set to a raga like Sourashtram or Madhyamavathi (a happy sounding raga). The mangalam usually is 'continued' without a pause after the end of the penultimate song. Most artists thank the audience by means of a song specifically meant to thank the audience for their support.
The Audience
The typical audience in the average South Indian Carnatic concert is in the 50+ age group with the exception of some young students of music and some journalists who have come to write reviews about the concert. But the majority of the audience have a very decent understanding of Carnatic Music and will probably be able to help you with if you had doubts. It is not uncommon to find some of them noting down the name, tala and raga of the song being sung. It is important to note that only a very few artists tell out the name, tala and raga of the song they are performing. Those popular amongst the masses usually tell out the raga and the tala of the song. When not told, it is up to the listener to identify the raga and tala.
It is also easy to see the audience tapping out the tala in sync with the artist's performance. It would be frowned at by the people sitting next to you to be seen tapping the wrong tala and some artists might even interrupt the entire concert or even get angry!. For the same reason most sabhas want to play it safe by reserving the first two or three rows of seats in the auditorium to only VIPs.
As and when the artist exhibits creativity, the audience acknowledge it by clapping their hands. With experienced artists, towards the middle of the concert, requests start flowing in. The artist usually plays the request and it helps in exhibiting the artist's broad knowledge of the several thousand kritis that are in existence. However it is generally a norm for the rasika to meet the artist before hand if the rasika wishes a complex kriti (like one of the Pancharatna Kritis) or a Ragam Tanam Pallavi to be done.
It is amusing to find that some of the crowd also start leaving when the Thani has begun.
The teaching of Carnatic music
Traditionally, a student of Carnatic music goes to the house of the teacher for lessons. Both student and teacher sit cross-legged on the floor (usually on a mat). The teacher either starts playing the tambura or turns on the sruti box. The student sings an elongated "Sa...Pa...Sa (upper octave)...Pa...Sa..." and the class begins. Mayamalava Gowla is traditionally the first raga taught to the student.
With the advance of telecommunications, new ways of teaching Carnatic music have arisen. It is not uncommon now for a student to receive lessons by telephone or even webcam.
The use and disuse of notation
History of notation in Carnatic music
Contrary to what many people think, notation is not a new concept in Indian music. In fact, even the Vedas, although orally transmitted, were written with notation. However, the idea of notation in Carnatic music was not well-received, and it continued to be transmitted orally for centuries. The disadvantage with this system was that if one wanted to learn a kirtanam composed, for example, by Purandara Dasa, it was necessary to find Purandara Dasa's student's student's student's...student's student, if such a person still existed!
Written notation of Carnatic music was revived in the late 17th century and early 18th century, which coincided with rule of Shahaji II in Tanjore. Copies of Shahaji's musical manuscripts are still available at the Saraswati Mahal Library in Tanjore and they give us an idea of the music and its form. They contain snippets of solfage to be used when performing the mentioned ragas.
Form of modern notation
Melody
Unlike Western music, Carnatic music is notated almost exclusively in solfage, although numerous attempts have been made to transcribe it into staff notation. In the more precise forms of Carnatic notation, there are symbols placed above the notes showing how the notes should be sung; however, informally this practice is not followed.
To show the length of a note, several devices are used. If the note is to be sung for twice the ordinary length, the letter is either capitalized (in English) or lengthened by a diacritic (in Indian languages). For a duration of three, the letter is capitalized (or diacriticized) and followed by a comma. For a length of four, the letter is capitalized (or diacriticized) and then followed by a semicolon. In this way any duration can be indicated using a series of semicolons and commas.
However, a new, lazier method has come about which does not bother with semicolons and capitalization, but rather indicates all extensions of notes using a corresponding number of commas. Thus, Sa extended to a length of four wold be denoted as "S,,,".
Some Artists
One of the earliest and prominent composers in South India was the saint, and wandering devine singer of yore Purandara Dasa (1480-1564). Purandara Dasa is believed to have composed 475,000 songs in Kannada and Sanskrit and was a source of inspiration to the later composers like Tyagaraja. He also invented the tala system of Carnatic music.
Modern singers
Mangalampalli Balamurali Krishna and DK Pattammal are some of the art's greatest living (albeit aging) performers. Semmangudi Srinivasa Iyer, a doyen of Carnatic music, who had taught three generations of acclaimed musicians, and who was often acclaimed as the second Pitamaha (Great Father) of Carnatic music, passed away on October 31, 2003. M.S. Subbulakshmi, who enthralled audiences across language barriers, is usually credited with popularizing the Carnatic tradition outside South India. She passed away on December 11, 2004. Legendary singer belonging to the Dhanammal school of music T. Brinda was known for her gamaka laden interpretations of core carnatic ragams and also her vast repertoire. She was awarded the Sangeetha Kalanidhi in 1976.
The pre-Independence era had doyens like Ariyakudi Ramanuja Iyengar and Maharajapuram Viswanatha Iyer. Chembai Vaidyanatha Bhagavathar, G.N.Balasubramaniam were quite popular post-Independence alongside the named veterans in the field. Another great singer who made his own mark with soulful rendering was M D Ramanathan.
Contemporary vocalists include Madurai T.N.Seshagopalan, T.V.Sankaranarayanan, Sudha Ragunathan, Sanjay Subrahmanyan, T.M.Krishna, S.Sowmya, K.N.Shashikiran, Priya sisters (Haripriya and Shanmukhapriya), Gayathri Girish, Aruna Sairam, Ranjani & Gayatri, R. Vedavalli and Bombay Jayashree. (For a full list, see this page. Large festivals of Carnatic music always include performances by such people.
To date, there is only one Westerner who became a Carnatic musician of some popularity. His name is Jon B Higgins ("Higgins bhagavatar").
The great composers
Thyagaraja (1759 -1847), Muthuswami Dikshitar (1776-1827) and Syama Sastri (1762-1827) are regarded as the trinity of carnatic music. Other prominent composers include Oottukkadu Venkata Kavi, whose exact lifespan is not known, Swathi Thirunal, Mysore Sadashiva Rao, Patnam Subramania Iyer, Poochi Srinivasa Iyengar and Papanasam Sivan, to name a few.
Modern instrumentalists
U. Srinivas plays the electric mandolin. Kadri Gopalnath plays the alto saxophone. N Ravikiran plays the chitravina, also known as the gottuvadhyam, an ancient instrument with twenty-one strings. Exponents of the Veena include Jayanthi Kumaresh and Gayathri. Well known flute exponents include Ramani, Shashank and K.S.Gopalakrishnan.
Some of the most influential exponents of Carnatic music on the violin are T. N. Krishnan, Lalgudi Jayaraman and M.S.Gopalakrishnan. Others such as Kunnakudi Vaidyanathan and L. Subramaniam have pioneered the adaptation of the instrument beyond the classical idiom.
Some leading mridangamists are Trichy Sankaran, Guru Kaaraikkudi Mani, T K Murthy, Umayalpuram Sivaraman, Vellore Ramabadhran, Palghat Raghu, and Guruvayur Dorai.
