Carnatic music

Carnatic music (known as कर्णाटक सङ्गीत in Sanskrit, ಕರ್ನಾಟಕ ಸಂಗೀತ in Kannada, കര്‍‌ണാടക സംഗീതം in Malayalam, கருநாடக இசை in Tamil, కర్నాటక సంగీతం in Telugu) is the form of Indian classical music that had its origins in South India.

Carnatic music is of a melodic form and is typically a monophonic song with improvised variations. This is one of the world's oldest and richest musical traditions. It is primarily a vocal form of music; most compositions are written to be sung, and even when played on instruments, they are meant to be performed in a singing style. Almost all songs are devotional in nature, being addressed to one of the many Hindu deities.

As with all Indian classical music, the two main components of Carnatic music are , a scale or mode, and , a rhythmic pattern. There are 72 basic scales within the octave, known as s, and 108 possible rhythmic patterns known as the s.

History

Carnatic music developed gradually from the ancient musical traditions of South India, upon which Samavedic learning had an important influence. The Yajur-Veda, which mainly consists of sacrificial formulæ, mentions the as an accompaniment to vocal recitations during the sacrifices. The chants evolved into two main notes with two accents forming the first concept of the tetrachord (four notes). Three more notes were added to the original tetrachord resulting in the first full scale of seven notes. There is also a long tradition of music in ancient Tamil literature which had the system of s, a precursor to the system. From the thirteenth century Carnatic music began to evolve into its current form. Unlike Hindustani music, Carnatic music was not influenced by the Islamic invasions of North India, rather it assimilated the centuries old traditions of Tamil music.

Great composers

Purandara Dasa

One of the earliest and prominent composers in South India was Purandara Dasa (1480 - 1564), who was a wandering singer. Purandara Dasa mentions in one of his compositions that he composed around 475,000 songs.Galaxy of composers Most of these songs, written in Kannada, have been lost. Purandara Dasa's compositions were a source of inspiration to the later composers such as Tyagaraja. Purandara Dasa defined the basic lessons of Carnatic music by structuring Swaravalis (graded exercises), Alankaras (exercises based on the seven talas) and coposed several Gitas or simple songs for novice students. He introduced the Raga Mayamalavagowla as the first scale to be learnt by a beginner. However, the original tunes of his compositions are currently unavailable. Owing to his contribution to Carnatic Music he is referred to as the father of Carnatic Music or Karnataka Sangeethada Pitamaha.

Muthu Thandavar (1525-1625), Arunachala Kavi (1712-1779) and Marimuttha Pillai (1717-1787) are referred to as Adi Trinity or Tamil Trinity.Carnatica.net

Śruti 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 śrutis in Carnatic music, but over the years several of them have converged, so that now they are but the chromatic scale.

Solfege

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 have many variants, now upto three values. The exceptions are shadja and panchama (the tonic and the dominant in Western music), which have only one form, and madhyama, 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 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.

In Indian languages, most of whose alphabets are abugidas, the solfege is written with the characters for Sa, Ri, Ga, Pa, Da and Ni. Because Carnatic music is very rarely performed by people from North India, the alphabets given here are primarily those of Dravidian (South Indian), languages.

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