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Template:IndicText Carnatic music, known in south India as karṇāṭaka saṃgītam is one of the two styles of Indian classical music, the other being Hindustani music. It is one of the oldest classical music traditions, whose origins date back to about 2500 years.

Carnatic music is completely melodic, with improvised variations. The main emphasis is on vocal music; most compositions are written to be sung, and even when played on instruments, they are meant to be performed in a singing style (known as gāyaki). Like Hindustani music, Carnatic music rests on two two main elements: rāga, the modes or melodic formulæ, and tāḷa, the rhythmic cycles.

Carnatic music
Tanjavur-style tambura
Concepts
Śruti Svara Rāga Tāḷa Mēḷakarta Asaṃpūrṇa Mēḷakarta
Compositions
Gītaṃ Svarajati Varṇaṃ Kr̥ti Kīrtana Rāgaṃ Tānaṃ Pallavi Tillana
Instruments
Melody Sarasvati Vīṇā Veṇu Nādasvaraṃ Goṭṭuvādyaṃ (Citra Vīṇā) Violin Percussion Mr̥daṅgaṃ Ghaṭaṃ Morsing Kanjira Thavil Drone Tambura Shruti box
Composers Glossary
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Origins and history

Main articles: Sama Veda and Ancient Tamil music

The Sama Veda is said to have laid the foundation for Indian music, and consists mainily of hymns of Rigveda, set to musical tunes, and would be sung using three to seven musical notes during Vedic sacrifices, sometimes accompanied by an instrument. The Yajur-Veda, which mainly consists of sacrificial formulae, mentions the ] as an accompaniment to vocal recitations during the sacrifices.

Like all art forms in Indian culture, Carnatic Music is believed to have a divine origin, and music is venerated as an aspect of the supreme (nāda brāhmam). Ancient treatises describe the connection of the origin of swaras to the sounds of nature (as in animals and birds, the sound emanating from a bamboo reed as air passes through its hollows etc), and man’s keen sense of observation and perception that tried stimulating these sounds. In other words, man’s ability to distinguish between different sound frequencies, qualities, and timbre, are undoubtedly an important factor in the development of ancient Indian Classical Music.

The Yajnavalkya Smriti mentions “Veena vadhana tathvangna sruti, jathi, visartha talanjaaprayasena moksha margam niyachathi” ("The one who is well versed in veena, one who has the knowledge of srutis and one who is adept in tala, attains salvation without doubt.") Epics like the Ramayana and Mahabharatha, also have references to classical music. Bharata’s Natya Shastra mentions many musical concepts that continue to be relevant to Carnatic Music today.

Ancient Tamil works like Cilappatikaram, Tolkāppiyam and other Sangam literature works describe how a modal shift of tone (shifting the reference Shadja) from an existing scale can develop new scales.. Inscriptions dating back to the seventh century CE found in a cave at Kudimiyanmalai, Tamil Nadu, has an array of musical notation. The Tevarams from the eigth century CE contains more than twenty scales with Tamil names that are equivalent to the present system of Carnatic music. The rhythmic meters found in several sacred musical forms like Tevaram, Thiruppugazh, etc., resemble the talas that are in use today. These works also give Tamil names for the seven notes in the octave. The concept of Pann relates to the modern Raga in Ancient Tamil music. Due to this there is a belief that Tamil music has also influenced the development of Carnatic Music in its early years..

Both Carnatic and Hindustani music shared a common history. Hindustani Music started evolving as a separate genre from the 13th century onwards with increasing Persian influence in North India. Carnatic Music, which was based in South India, also had major developments post 13th century, which contributed to its divergence from Hindustani music. The pan-Indian bhakti movement also laid a substantial basis for carnatic music as far as the use of religious themes is concerned.

The word Carnatic came to represent the South Indian Classical Music as a separate system of music, after the musical treatise Sangita Ratnakara of Sharngadeva (1210-1247). A clear demarcation between Hindustani music and Carnatic music as two different forms of Indian classical music occured around the latter half of the 14th century. The earliest known reference to 'Carnatic' and 'Hindustani' styles of music is in Sangita Sudhakaram by Haripala Deva (1309-1312 CE). Classical Indian music flourished in the southern capital cities, particularly in Vijayanagara and Thanjavur. A number of musical treatises describing the concepts of Carnatic music were written. The present form of Carnatic music is based on historical developments that can be traced to the 15 - 16 centuries CE and thereafter.

Carnatic music saw renewed growth during Vijayanagar Empire by the Kannada Haridasa movement of Vyasaraja, Purandara Dasa, Kanakadasa and others. Purandara Dasa, laid out the fundamental tenets and framework for teaching carnatic music.. Venkatamakhin is credited with the classification of ragas in the Melakarta system. He wrote his most important work Chaturdandi Prakasika (c.1635 CE) in Sanskrit. Govindacharya expanded the Melakarta Scheme into the Sampoorna raga system, which is the system in common use today.

Composers

Important musical treatises

These are books on Carnatic music considered authoritative and necessary for a serious study of Carnatic Music and its evolution. Most of them are in Sanskrit, and some are even dated before the Christian era.

Sangeetha Ratnakara - Sarngadeva
Sangeetha Sampradaya Pradarshini - Subbarama Dikshitar
Swaramela Kalanidhi - Ramamatya
Natya Shastra - Bharata Muni
Chaturdandi Prakasika - Venkatamakhin
Raga Vibodha - Somanatha
Sangeetha Makaranda - Narada
Sangeetha Sudha - Govinda Dikshitar
Raga Lakshana - Shahji
Sangraha Choodamani - Govindacharya
Sangeeta Swaraprastara Sagaramu - Nadamuni Pandithar
Sangita Sudhakara - Haripala Deva
Sangitasara - Vidyaranya

Nature of Carnatic music

Śruti

Main article: Śruti (music)

Śruti in Indian music is used in two different contexts. The first use of Śruti ( is the approximate equivalent of a tonic (or less precisely a key) in Western music; it is the note from which all the others are derived. The second use of the word Śruti is in the sense of graded pitches in an octave. Traditionally, there were twenty-two srutis in Carnatic music which are used in the context of specific ragas, but over the years several of them have converged.

Swara

Main article: Swara

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 shadja, rishabha, gandhara. madhyama, panchama, dhaivata and nishada. Unlike other music systems, every member of the solfege (called a swara) may three variants. The exceptions are shadja and panchama (the tonic and the dominant), which have only one form; and madhyama (the subdominant), which has two forms. A 7th century stone inscription in Kudumiyan Malai in Tamil Nadu shows vowel changes to solfege symbols with ra, ri, ru etc. to denote the higher quarter-tones. 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 ascending (in the arohanam) and another descending (in the avarohanam). A raga may have five, six or seven notes on the ascent, and five, six or seven notes on the descent.

Raga system

Main article: Raga

A raga in Carnatic music prescribes a set of rules for building a melody. It specifies rules for movements up (aahroham) and down (avarohanam), the scale, which notes should figure more and which notes should be used more sparingly, which notes may be sung with gamaka, phrases to be used, phrases to be avoided, and so on.

In Carnatic music, the sampoorna ragas (those with all seven notes in their scales) are classified into a system called the melakarta, which groups them according to the kinds of notes that they have. There are seventy two melakarta ragas, thirty six of whose madhyama (subdominant) is sadharana (perfect fourth from the tonic), the remaining thirty six of whose madhyama (subdominant) is prati (an augmented fourth from the tonic). The ragas are grouped into sets of six, called chakras ("wheels", though actually segments in the conventional representation) grouped according to the supertonic and mediant scale degrees. There is a system known as the 'Katapayadi sankhya to determine the names of Melakarta Ragas.

Ragas may be divided into two classes: janaka ragas (i.e melakarta or parent ragas) and janyaragas (descendant ragas of a particular janaka raga). Janya ragas are subclassified into various categories themselves.

Tala system

Main article: tala (music)

Tala is an aesthetic partitioning of time, usually in rhythmical patterns which have an artistic relation to the rhythmical structure of a composition. It is considered to be an integral part of a musical composition. Each composition of Carnatic music is set to a specific tala.

Carnatic music singers usually keep the beat by moving their hands up and down in specified patterns, and using their fingers simultaneously to keep time. Tala is formed with three basic parts (called angas) which are laghu, dhrtam, and anudhrtam, and the commonly used angas in Carnatic music. More complex talas may have other parts like plutam, guru and kaakapaadam.

There are seven basic tala groups which can be formed from the laghu, dhrtam, and anudhrtam:

Dhruva tala
Matya tala
Rupaka tala
Jhampa tala
Triputa tala
Ata tala
Eka tala

A laghu has five variants (called jathis) based on the counting pattern. Five jathis times seven tala groups gives thirty-five basic talas, although use of other angas results in a total of 108 talas.

Kriti

Main article: Kriti

Carnatic songs are varied in structure and style, but generally consist of three units:

Pallavi. This is the equivalent of a refrain in Western music. One or two lines.
Anupallavi. The second verse. Also two lines.
Charana. The final (and longest) verse that wraps up the song. The Charanam usually borrows patterns from the Anupallavi. There can be multiple charanas.

This kind of song is called a keerthana or a Kriti. There are other possible structure for a Kriti, which may in addition include swara passages named chiṭṭaswara. Chiṭṭaswara consists only of notes, and has no words. Still others, have a verse at the end of the charaṇa, called the madhyamakāla. It is sung immediately after the charaṇa, but at double speed.

Varnam

Main article: Varnam

A Varnam is a special item, often sung at the beginning of a concert, which highlights everything important about a raga; not just the scale, but also which notes to stress, how to approach a certain note, classical and characteristic phrases, etc. A varnam has a pallavi, an anupallavi, muktayi swaras (whose function is identical to that of the chitteswara in a kriti), a charana, and chitteswaras.

There are other kinds of songs such as geethams and swarajatis having their own peculiar composition structures, but are principally meant to serve as basic learning exercises.

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.

Kalpanaswaram 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 expanding the raga with syllables like tha, nam, thom, aa, nom, na, etc

Ragam Thanam Pallavi: This is a composite form of improvisation. It consists of Raga, Thana, then a line sung twice, and Niraval. After Niraval, the pallavi line is sung again, twice in normal speed, then sung once at half the speed, then twice at regular speed, then four times at twice the speed. Following this, kalpanaswarams are sung.

Concerts

File:Chennai.carnatic.concert.jpg

A concert during the annual Music Season.

Carnatic music concerts are usually performed by a small ensemble of musicians. The group usually has a vocalist, a primary instrumentalist, and a percussionist. Primary instruments are usually string instruments, such as the veena and the violin, although wind instruments such the flute may also be used. Although Carnatic music concerts have been traditionally vocal recitals, in recent years, purely instrumental concerts have become popular.

The vocalist is supported by many instruments. 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 maintains their pitch throughout the performance. Tambura is increasingly being replaced by the more compact śruti box. "electronic tamburas" are also being used.

The usual interacting and active accompaniments are the Violin and Mridangam. Ghatam, Kanjira, Morsing, Dholak etc are other possible percussion instruments that may be added in a concert as required. Besides playing along with the main vocalist, the violinist also gets the opportunity to take part in the improvisation. The violinist is expected to play and follow both the melody and the rhythmic aspects presented by the vocalist. The vocalist and the violinist take turns while elaborating or while exhibiting creativity in sections like Raga, Niraval and Kalpana swaram.

Percussion instruments, such as the mridangam, ghatam, kanjira 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.

Learning Carnatic music

Carnatic music is traditionally taught according to the system formulated by Purandara Dasa. This involves Swaravalis (graded exercises), Alankaras (exercises based on the seven talas) and Gitas or simple songs. The student then continues to learn Kritis. It typically takes several years of learning before a student is adept enough to perform at a concert.

The learning texts and exercises are more or less uniform across all the South Indian states. The learning structure is arranged in the increasing order of the complexity. The lessons start with the learning of the sarali varisai (solfege set to a particular raga).

Carnatic Music was traditionally taught in the gurukula system, where the student lived with and learnt the art from his guru (perceptor). From the late 20th century onwards, with changes in lifestyles and need for young music aspirants to simultaneously manouvre a parallel academic career, this system has found few takers.

Musicians often take great pride in letting people know about their guru parampara, or the hierarchy of disciples from some prominent ancient musician or composer, to which they belong. People whose disciple-hierarchies are often referred to are Tyagaraja, Muthuswami Dikshitar, Syama Sastri, Swathi Thirunal, Papanasam Sivan among others.

In modern times, it is often common for students to visit their gurus daily to learn music. Although new technology has made learning easier with the availability of quick-learn media such as learning exercises recorded on audio cassettes and CDs, these are discouraged by most gurus who emphasize that face-to-face learning is best for students.

Notations

Notation is not a new concept in Indian music. However, Carnatic music continued to be transmitted orally for centuries without being written down. The disadvantage with this system was that if one wanted to learn about a kīrtanam composed, for example, by Purandara Dasa, it involved the difficult task of finding a person from Purandara Dasa's lineage of students.

Written notation of Carnatic music was revived in the late 17th century and early 18th century, which coincided with rule of Shahaji II in Thanjavur. Copies of Shahaji's musical manuscripts are still available at the Saraswati Mahal Library in Thanjavur and they give us an idea of the music and its form. They contain snippets of solfege to be used when performing the mentioned ragas.

Melody

Unlike Western music, Carnatic music is notated almost exclusively in tonic solfa notation using either a Roman or Indic script to represent the solfa names. Past attempts to use the staff notation have mostly failed. Indian music makes use of hundreds of ragas, many more than the church modes in western music. It becomes difficult to write Carnatic music using the staff notation without the use of too many accidentals. Furthermore, the staff notation requires that the song be played in a certain key. The notions of key and absolute pitch are deeply rooted in western music, whereas the carnatic notation does not specify the key and prefers to use scale degrees (relative pitch) to denote notes. The singer is free to choose actual pitch of the tonic note. In the more precise forms of Carnatic notation, there are symbols placed above the notes indicating how the notes should be played or sung; however, informally this practice is not followed.

To show the length of a note, several devices are used. If the duration of note is to be doubled, the letter is either capitalized (if using Roman script) 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 simpler notation has evolved which does not use semicolons and capitalization, but rather indicates all extensions of notes using a corresponding number of commas. Thus, Sā quadrupled in length would be denoted as "S,,,".

Rhythm

The notation is divided into columns, depending on the structure of the tāḷaṃ. The division between a laghu and a dhṛtaṃ is indicated by a ।, called a ḍaṇḍā, and so is the division between two dhṛtaṃs or a dhṛtaṃ and an anudhṛtaṃ. The end of a cycle is marked by a ॥, called a double ḍaṇḍā, and looks like a caesura.

Modern artists

References

Age of Carnatic Music
http://www.carnatica.net/origin.htm
"Veena in Yajurveda".
http://www.hindu.com/seta/2005/01/13/stories/2005011300111500.htm
"Yajnavalkya on Music".
http://www.carnatica.net/origin.htm
Jayalakshmi, S. "Musical science in Cilappatikaram". The History of Tamil Music. Chennai: University of Madras. pp. 42–67.
http://www.carnatica.net/origin.htm
http://www.carnatica.net/origin.htm
Sāmbhamūrti, P. "Music of the Ancient Tamils". South Indian Music, Book VI. Chennai 600 014: The Indian Music Publishing House. p. 87.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: location (link)
Sundaram, V.P.K. Music in Ancient Tamil literature (in Tamil: Pazam Thamizilakkiyaththil icai iyal). Saiva Siddhanta Book publishers. pp. 272–334.
"The 7 swaras were called “Narambu” or by names, Kural, Tuttam, Kaikilai, Uzhai, Ili, Vilari and Taram. " Tamil music
Sāmbhamūrti, P. "Music of the Ancient Tamils". South Indian Music, Book VI. Chennai 600 014: The Indian Music Publishing House. pp. 91–92. "The pans of the Thevaram are historically old ragas (page 91); It is in the panns of the Tevaram that we first come across full-fledged bhashanga ragas" (page 91);"The pans of Tevaram are all jiva ragas"(page 92){{cite book}}: CS1 maint: location (link)
Sāmbhamūrti, P. "Music of the Ancient Tamils". South Indian Music, Book VI. Chennai 600 014: The Indian Music Publishing House. p. 87.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: location (link)
Sundaram, V.P.K. Music in Ancient Tamil literature (in Tamil: Pazam Thamizilakkiyaththil icai iyal). Saiva Siddhanta Book publishers. pp. 272–334.
Gosvāmi, O. The Story of Indian Music: Its Growth and Synthesis. Asia Publishing House. p. 195. The influence of these twelve divisions in the scale and music of Nayanmars and Alvars have gone a long way to determine the character of the present Carnatic music.
Sāmbhamūrti, P. "Music of the Ancient Tamils". South Indian Music, Book VI. Chennai 600 014: The Indian Music Publishing House. pp. 85–112.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: location (link)
"Split in HM and CM".
Subramaniam V., Carnatic Music Origin & Development -chembur.com
http://www.hinduonnet.com/2000/12/02/stories/0902070b.htm
Theory of Music , Vasanthamadhavi P.183
Galaxy of composers
S. Santhanlingam, Kudumiyan Malai, Tamil Nadu Government Archeology Department publication, 1981
MUSIC MUSINGS, The Hindu, Feb 03, 2005
The Hindu

External links

Carnatic Corner. This was the first comprehensive portal on Carnatic music. It has links to almost all the Carnatic sites in existence as well as a reference library and page of lists for ragas, compositions and lyrics.
Carnatica. An innovative portal on Carnatic music. It has a great deal of information.
ART INDIA Carnatic. This site is perhaps one of the oldest sites with information on Carnatic music and also other styles of Indian classical music and dance. It also carries information on 'Madras Music Season'.
Simple Introduction to South Indian Classical Music - Part 1Published by World Music Central
Simple Introduction to South Indian Classical Music - Part 2Published by World Music Central
Karnatik A great deal of information on Carnatic music and more.
Sangeetha Sampradaya Pradarshini A valuable and authoritative text on South Indian Musicology
DMOZ directory links on carnatic music

Bibliography

"Carnatic music". (15 ed.). 2005. {{cite encyclopedia}}: External link in |article= (help); Missing or empty |title= (help); Unknown parameter |ency= ignored (help)
Panchapakesa Iyer, A. S. (2003). Gānāmrutha Varna Mālikā. Gānāmrutha Prachuram.

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