Carnatic Music

 

It is now time to go to our stereo systems and listen to Carnatic music with an entirely new mindset. You can start off with classical based movie songs or play instrumental music. Can you see the names of talams and ragams on the CD jacket ? From the name can you figure out whether the ragam is a Melakarta ragam by looking up Table IV or a child ragam ? Do you know the keys used in the ragam ? More interestingly, do you have two songs in the same ragam ? If so, can you see the similarities ? Can you correctly identify your favorite melodic phrases which occur in a musical piece EACH TIME THEY OCCUR

Carnatic music - the hard core classical music, that is - is divided into two broad areas. The first one is the realm of pre-composed music and the second one is improvisation or creative music. In Indian terminology, the pre-existing compositions are called 'Kalpita' (literally meaning 'that which is taught') and the creative (improvisation) aspects are called 'Manodharma'. Every performing artiste learns both the aspects of classical music. He or she not only has a repertoire of several (sometimes hundreds) pieces of well known songs, but he or she also knows how to create music.

One easy way to improvise is to take an existing song and distort it ! Just look at the way the American national anthem is sung by various artistes in their own unique way ! But Carnatic music tradition has reasonably stringent guidelines on such 'liberties' and where to improvise.

In the first ('kalpita') part, the pre-existing compositions range from the very simple to the very complicated pieces. There are Bhajan type songs, dance songs, love songs and songs with a lot of vocal gimmicks. Students of music start with such pre-existing compositions, train their voice, assimilate the 'moods' of ragams, be comfortable with talams and finally the training wheels come off and they move into the territory of improvisation, where they start making their own melodies as well. Some really talented musicians have whopping careers as pure 'composers' whose songs are performed by other musicians. By and large, most of the famous Carnatic musicians have left their marks not only as performers but also as creators.

Most compositions in Carnatic music have three parts to their body. The first two lines of the song (sometimes just one) is called Pallavi. Like 'Raghupathy Raghava Raja Ram...' or 'Roop Tera Mastana' they occur over and over, especially after each stanza. Usually, the Pallavi is followed by two more lines (sometimes just one more). 'Eeshwar Allah Tere Naam..' in Raghupathy Raghava Raja Ram is an example. This portion is called Anu Pallavi. This is sung at the beginning for sure, but sometimes even during the end of the song, but not necessarily after each stanza. The stanzas of a song are called 'Charanam'.

Typically, the Pallavi is set in lower tetrachord and in the lower octave (this is not a strict rule) and Anu Pallavi goes to the upper keys and to the next octave as well. Notice this in the song 'Raghupathi Raghava.'. The Anu Pallavi, 'Eeshwar Allah ..' goes to higher frequencies.

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History of Carnatic Music

Like many things Indian, even Indian music has a colorful history, which can probably give us insights into some of its numerous traditions and grammatical structure. Indian classical music, as an institution, has evolved greatly over the years - it is still in the process of evolution, changing itself at every possible opportunity and adapting itself to popular sentiment and political climate. Let us take a quick look at the history of Indian music - of course, it will be a 'quick look' and you can look in any of the references quoted at the end of this primer for an in-depth study.

Remember that in ancient India, music played a significantly larger role in people's lives compared to these modern times. Our ancestors did not listen to music in their chariot-stereos the way we do these days. Greater percentage of the population (compared to these days) composed music, performed it and even did research on it. People dedicated themselves to music. Kings and queens patronized music and had a full court of accomplished musicians. As it has been said, "The Kings went to sleep and woke up to music...". There were music competitions held every once in a while, which pitted one learned musician against another, where the degree of difficulty was so high that most of the modern day musicians would not even qualify to enter. Although these music contests produced outstanding scholarship, they were also vehicles to heap shame and humiliation on the defeated rival - an aspect which is hard for me to understand. History is also full of legends and astonishing individual accomplishments. Very high standards were established. It took a musician several decades of intense studentship (typically in a Gurukulam) before he or she could be considered a concert performer. These days after one summer, kids are already on stage 'performing' music.

Even in the early part of this century, people did not have the modern day 'high stress', 'no time for anything' lifestyle. Concerts lasted all night and people sat down and 'sustain-listened' to the same ragam performed for the sixth continuous hour. These days we get a few minute condensed pop versions of most Alapanai on CDs and tapes. Well, I am sounding like a bitter cynic, but it should be borne in mind that the ancient texts on music (and traditional Carnatic music in general) are way, way more complex than what I have elaborated. There is almost very little you or I can add to the Indian music theory.

There is something or the other mentioned about Indian music in a variety of Indian literature. Even in the Vedic times, elements of music were recognized. Mantras were chanted using selected notes. Initially, only a few notes were used, but eventually to relieve the monotony, more notes got added. Sama Veda, the most musical of the Vedas, is almost 'sung out' even these days. For most parts, the lower octave was employed (Mandra Stayi, remember ?) Music was considered divine and was kept in the selected social circles for most parts. The earliest ragam is speculated to be 'Sama ragam', which could be a derivative of the modern day Kharaharapriya. Theories and treatises began to be written - about how the primitive sound 'om' gave rise to the notes etc.

By the time the Epic period came around, the ancients were entrenched in the seven notes used in Indian music as building blocks, namely Sa, Ri, Ga, Ma, Pa, Dha and Ni. They were considered the 'Saptha Swarams' and explanations were abound regarding their deeper meaning. About the only thing that was not fixed was the exact 'frequency' or pitch (in the octave) which was used to produce each of these notes. Which 'keys' could be used to produce these seven notes ? The relationship between Sruti (frequency) and Swarams (notes) has been the focus of several theoretical works on music through the ages.

This is a monumental reference for the Bharata Natya and other dance forms, but contains several chapters on music as well. The date of this work is pegged somewhere between the second century BC to the second century AD. This is probably the first work which clearly elaborated the octave and divided it into 22 keys. The idea is a stunning scientific experiment performed using musical instrument (made of strings) which 'proved' that there could be only 22 basic frequencies that could be generated in an octave.

A word or two about this since you might hear these terms mentioned. What is the relationship between the various notes in a ragam ? How can we understand how the note 'Sa' is related to the note 'Ma' or 'dha' in that ragam ? This scheme defines a concept called the 'Vaadhi' or the primary note of a ragam or the sonant or the 'King'. And by the same token, a Samvaadhi or the 'Minister' or the second in line ('Concordant note'); 'Anuvaadhi' or the 'Servant' to give the 'proper shape' to the ragam ('Assonant') and finally the 'Dissonant' or the Vivaadhi, or the 'enemy'. It is questionable as to how useful such dissection is; but considerable volumes have been written about such things and several hundred ragams and their Vaadhi-Vivaadhi etc structure has been catalogued by several authors. You must remember that this theory is essentially to analyze the concept of a ragam and explain what gives its specific appeal.

The Golden Age of Carnatic music was perhaps the time when the Trinity of Carnatic composers Thyagaraja (1767-1847), Shyama Sastri (1763-1827) and Muthuswamy Dikshitar (1775-1835) made music. Interestingly, they were all contemporaries hailing from the same Thanjavur district, although it is not clear what kind of influence each had on the other. Their lifestyles, music, attitudes seem so different that it contributed to their musical styles being distinct from each other. Volumes and volumes have been written about them. So what you will find here are truly only the thumbnail sketches.

A more fascinating aspect of history of Carnatic music is to study its evolution, delineate the broad musical trends etc. For example, even the instruments used in music-making have changed over the years. Gone are the olden instruments which were mostly derivatives of Veena. In fact, Veena-making was a fine art and there were many, many types of Veenas serving various different purposes. The harp type instrument ('Yazh') and the ancient flutes have disappeared. Instead Western instruments such as Clarionet, Guitar, Saxaphone and Mandolin are increasingly being adapted to Carnatic music. Interestingly, not many newer Hindustani instruments (such as sitar, sarod and sarangi) are used in Carnatic music.

It is interesting to note that the violin was embraced very easily by the Carnatic music tradition whereas it is not so prominent even now in Hindustani music. Prior to violin, veena used to accompany vocalists. The present day vocal concert always has violin support, even though the violinist only plays in the shadow of the vocalist, with very few chances in the concert to show off his talents. This is quite intriguing to say the least. (Of course, the violinist can mask the vocalist sometimes and this can actually be a plus point if the vocalist has a trouble with his voice!)

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