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Carnatic music: an introduction

The basic concepts of Carnatic music are:

sruti (key or pitch),

raga (melody),

laya (rhythm), and

sahitya (compositions).

The basic concepts

The adage "sruti mata laya pita'' refers to sruti as the mother and laya as the father of Carnatic music; they are integral to the music.

There is no absolute rule for selecting the base sruti in a concert. It is selected by the main artiste, and remains constant for the whole duration of the concert. The selection of the base sruti depends on the range of the artiste's voice (in a vocal concert) or on the range of the instrument (in an instrumental concert). The accompanying artistes tune to this base sruti, in order to perform in unisonal harmony. The tampura (or, drone instrument) is also tuned to the base sruti and creates a meditative mood through its resonating and reverberating drone.

The raga is a form of melody and is the central concept in Indian classical music. The notes of a raga are transposed relative to the base sruti that is chosen for the concert. The semantics that describe a raga are highly intricate; even the slightest hint of a wrong note, or even a quarter note, may invoke the theme of a different raga altogether. In the composition "swara raga sudharasa", the composer, Tyagaraja writes, "To discern the homes of the seven notes in the midst of the chaotic uproar is liberation".

Rhythm, or laya, is an important facet of Carnatic music. The generic concept of laya may be expressed in terms of tala (the organization of beats according to predefined rules) and speed. Apart from the raga, the composer of a song also specifies its tala and its speed.

A composition in Carnatic music is a piece of measured music set in a particular raga and tala. Most compositions are generally made up of three distinctly identifiable sections: pallavi, anupallavi and charanam. A section called chittaswaram, which normally follows the anupallavi, can augment certain compositions. The chittaswaram section is a defined organisation of solfa syllables pre-set for a number of tala cycles and may be performed in multiple speeds. Each section of a composition leads the performer into structured sequences of progressively complex melodic and rhythmic variations, while providing ample scope for improvisation. The pallavi is repeated at the end of each of the other sections and is generally ornamented by a completion theme (or teermanam), performed by the percussionist. Each of the sections can begin at any point in the tala cycle (on or off the beat). A section can be sung any number of times with pre-set or sometimes, extempore variations of lines of prose.

Carnatic music is based centrally on a prodigious number of compositions, most of which may be attributed to Tyagaraja, Muthuswamy Dikshitar and Shyama Shastri, three prolific 18th century composers, collectively known as the 'Trinity' of Carnatic music.

In the Vedic period of Indian civilization, music was broadly divided into marga sangeetham (classical music) and desi sangeetham (folk music). It is believed that marga sangeetham was practiced by the deva-s (Gods) and sages (like sage Narada and Thumburu) as music that led one along the path (marga) of mukti (spiritual salvation).

It is no wonder then, that most compositions express intense religious sentiment. The music either evokes spiritualism through the musical content, or directly suggests it through its lyrics.

Compositions

Some of the major types of compositions are: varnam, kriti, keertana, and tillana.

A varnam is a composition that is performed at the commencement of a concert. It is an elaborate melody, replete with emotion. The lyrics of a varnam are comparatively simple and may relate to devotion or to divine love. A varnam could even be in praise of a patron. It requires great skill, technical capacity and creative faculty of a high order to compose varnam-s. Hence, there are very few composers of varnam-s. The constituent anga-s (parts) of a varnam are, in order, pallavi, anupallavi, mukthayiswaram, charanam and charanaswaram.

A composition that relies mainly on its musicality is a kriti and one that relies mainly on its poetic content is a keertana. A keertana is verbose and directly invokes the spiritual emotion using its prose.

A kriti is a highly refined form of composition. The elastic nature of this form, coupled with the fewness of rules, provide extended avenues for the composer's creative genius to be displayed. Kriti-s stand as examples of absolute music. They contain apt themes for developing improvisational routines. A pallavi, anupallavi and charanam are the minimum and essential anga-s of a kriti. A kriti pays a great deal of importance to raga bhava (the emotion evoked by the raga) and the raga lakshana (the characteristic grammar of the raga). It normally consists of very few words. Although the lyrics in a kriti may be free from doxological constructs, many composers shun secular, ethical, social, esoteric or didactic themes and resort to sacred and religious themes. Hence the immortalisation of great composers of the past as Saints. Examples are Saint Thyagaraja and Saint Purandara Dasa.

A tillana is a short and crisp form of music that is rendered at the close of a Carnatic music performance. It is used in dance and incorporates rhythmic syllables directly as text. In most tillana-s, the first two lines of the charanam contain lyrical text.

There are also other forms of compositions, like padam-s and javali-s. These types of compositions often include romantic or Byronic themes.

Other forms of compositions include: bhajan, devaranama, tirupugazh, tevaram, swarajati, viruttam and slokam.

The medium

The principal vector of almost all Carnatic music compositions is vocal expression, (or geeta), because of the ability of the voice to transmit music as well as prose. Vocal music often brings out the gamut of characteristics of a composition. Moreover, prosodic concepts such as rhymes, use of identical words or syllables, stamps and footprints such as raga names, names of deities and places (sthala), and composer's signature (mudra or ankita), can only be brought about and conveyed through vocal music. Hence a majority of solo Carnatic music artistes are singers.

Competent Carnatic music singers do not merely project their voices. Singing Carnatic music is said to be an experience that involves the artiste's entire being. This philosophy is embodied in one of the principle lines of Tyagaraja's kriti "sobillu saptaswara''. The composer writes:

nabhi hrith khanta rasana na sadhu layandhu

Tyagaraja says: "It is not merely the voice, but the entire being, the heart, the vocal chords, the tongue and the nose that shine in all the seven notes of the octave. Let us worship the confluence of all of these through music..."

It is possibly because of the special place accorded to vocal music that most instruments used in Carnatic music attempt to mimic the voice.

The violin

In Carnatic music, the singer sits cross-legged on the podium. A violinist, who sits beside the singer, normally provides constant accompaniment throughout a concert. The violin is placed firmly between foot and chest of the performer. This enables rapid hand movements that are necessary for the innumerable slides, oscillations, grace notes and other types of note-ornamentations that are so intrinsic to (and typical of) Carnatic music. Although identical to the Western violin, and although it was imported into Indian classical music (possibly in the late 18th century), the adaptation of this instrument to the culture is so complete and total that many Indians naturally assume that the instrument is indigenous!

The veena

The veena is one of the most ancient string instruments of India. Its origin can be traced back to the ancient yazh, a stringed instrument, similar to the Grecian harp. Bharata, in his Natya Shastra, explains the theory of the 22 sruti-s in an octave with the help of two experimental veena-s.

The veena then went through several innovations and modifications. In its current form, the instrument can be attributed to Raghunath Nayak (circa 17th century) of Tanjavur in Tamil Nadu.

The veena is 1.5m long and is made from jackwood. It has a large, round body with a thick, wide neck, the end of which is carved into the head of a dragon. A small resonator is attached to the underside of the neck. The veena has 24 metal frets embedded in hardened bees-wax, mixed with charcoal powder.

Melody is produced on four metal strings that run above the frets. These are stretched over a wide bridge that sits on the body of the veena. Three other strings run alongside the neck of the instrument. These are used for maintaining time and for playing the drone. The performer, who sits cross-legged on the stage, rests the small resonator on the left lap. The fingers of the left hand are used to press, pull and glide on the frets, while the fingers of the right hand are used to pluck and twang the strings.

The veena is a complete instrument and provides the basic components: sruti, laya and sahitya. Its main attraction is the mellow tonal quality which is capable of evoking a meditative atmosphere.

The Chitra Vina (Gottuvadhyam)

The gottuvadhyam, more correctly called the chitra vina these days, is a twenty-one stringed, fretless, long-necked lute. Unlike the traditional sitar or the (Saraswati) veena, the chitra vina is fretless. The fretless nature of the instrument makes it the closest instrument to vocal standards. Writing in the Indian music quarterly, Shanmukha ("The Emergence of the Gottuvadhyam as a Concert Instrument", Vol XVII, No. 4, October 1991, pp 9-11) Chitravina Ravikiran argues, "Scientifically and logically the Gottuvadhyam is the earliest form of the veena and arguably the earliest stringed instrument of Indian music."

The chitra vina has a hollow stem made of resonant wood, about thirty-two inches long and four inches wide. It has a flat top and is set on two round chambers; the main sound chamber is made out of wood and a secondary resonator is made of a gourd. Like the (Saraswati) veena, the chitra vina is carved from jackwood and has an imposing dragon headpiece at one end. It contains six melody strings and three secondary strings for maintaining drone. There are twelve strings that run parallel to and below the melody strings and resonate in 'sympathy' with the main strings. Like the (Saraswati) veena, there are three tala (or, rhythm) strings that are flicked with the little finger of the right hand on the primary beats. Plectra (or meetu) on the right index and middle fingers are used to pluck the six main melody strings. A cylindrical block, made out of ebony, teflon or wood, is used to glide and stop along the strings. Despite its metal strings, it is a soft-toned instrument, which, in the hands of a master, can express all the nuances of Carnatic vocal music. Ravikiran asserts, "A fretless instrument has got much more scope than a fretted instrument. It is much easier to produce a lot of nuances and finer microtones on this type of instrument".

It is possible that, in an indirect manner, due to its fretless nature, the chitra vina inspired the Hawaiians to play the guitar with a 'slide', which then later influenced Blues singers in the Mississippi Delta.

The mrdangam

The mrdangam is used to provide rhythmic accompaniment. The name mrdangam originated from the Sanskrit phrase mrit-anga meaning 'clay body'. It is a two-headed, barrel-shaped drum. The bodies of original versions were made out of burnt clay. Later versions were carved out of single pieces of jackwood. Multiple layers of hide, strapped to tension by leather runners that run around the body cover the two heads. The outer layer of the hide on the right head is cut in a perfect circle to expose an inner layer, on which a black crust is formed. This produces the tonic note, which is used to tune the mrdangam to the appropriate pitch.

The left head provides the bass and has two layers of hide. The top layer is cut in a perfect circle with a large diameter, to expose the inner layer. White paste (made out of semolina) is continuously applied during the concert to maintain the tonal quality of the left head. The mrdangam has a remarkably crisp, well-defined sound.

It is played with dextrous movements of the whole hand, wrists and fingers.

The tampura

The tampura is a long-necked instrument with a gourd--shaped bowl and four strings stretched over a slightly curved bridge. The four strings are plucked continuously to provide a prolonged and resonant drone of the octave and fifth, to which the musicians constantly refer throughout the concert.

Improvisation

Carnatic music provides ample opportunity for improvisation. Improvisation may be melodic, rhythmic or melo-rhythmic. Some of the forms of improvisation are: alapana, neraval, swarakalpana, and taniavarthanam. The above aspects, or a selection of them, may be performed for some or all of the compositions in a repertoire, depending on the choice of the performers.

Alapana is the a non-metric or non-rhythmic expository prelude of a raga that precedes a composition. Neraval is an expanded improvisation of a phrase from the song that is reiterated, using the allowable notes in the raga and is extemporarily set within the framework of the tala. Swarakalpana involves the use of the basic solfa syllables that constitute the raga of a composition. These syllables are permuted in rhythmic patterns, and culminate at the theme line chosen for exposition, at a specific instance in the tala cycle. These passages provide the basis for plenary expansion of a given theme in an open-ended framework.

The accompanying artistes try to spontaneously match the improvisations and mirror the imagination of the main artiste by directly-echoing solfa patterns, or by producing octave harmonical responses. This often involves rapid exchanges and is analogical to a spontaneous, enriching and imaginative solfa-based conversation between the artistes. The musical dialogue climaxes through a systematic shortening of the theme line within the tala cycle. This culminates in a combined extempore exposition of a complex mathematical solfa-structure.

Once during the concert, the percussionist performs a short solo called taniavarthanam; a detailed thesis into the various rhythmic constructs of the particular tala that is chosen. When more than one percussionists are involved, a reverberating interlude of exchanges occur, with a progressive shortening of the theme. This often culminates in a glamorous integration of rhythmic ideas. The taniavarthanam ends in a note of delightful charm, and is followed by the co-ordinated resumption of music on the theme line.

Throughout the concert, the percussionist draws from an enormous repertoire of complex rhythmic patterns to constantly improvise. The percussionist continuously attempts to anticipate the soloists' ideas to dynamically link them with elaborately conceived, yet, utterly spontaneous personal rhythmic ideas.

Ragam-Tanam-Pallavi

Before the term pallavi came to be associated with the first segment of kriti-s, it was normally used to specify a Ragam-Tanam-Pallavi.

In ancient musical performances (often held in the musical courts of Kings), a single ragam-tanam-pallavi rendition (termed pallavi, in short) would be sung for many hours. Towards the middle of this century, the RTP (as it is commonly known) content of a concert often gave way to a composition-loaded repertoire. The practice of performing a mandatory RTP is being revived in recent years through the concerted efforts of art organisations, musicians and the general listening public.

An RTP comprises three principal movements, namely, ragam, tanam and pallavi.

The first movement is similar to the rhythmless and non-metric raga alapana that precedes a normal composition. In this expository prelude, the performer elucidates and interprets the moods, features and facets of the particular raga, by exploring spontaneously, various permutations and sequences of notes that are allowed by the grammar that defines the raga.

The tanam that follows the ragam is another form of raga elaboration that is lively and captivating, due to its rhythmic movements. A uniform tempo is maintained throughout the tanam, although changes to it introduce variety. The tanam uses three basic syllables: Aa, Nam and Tan. These are permuted diversely within the framework of the raga. These syllables make up the word Ananta, which refers to the infinite nature of raga-s and tala-s.

In the context of an RTP, the term pallavi refers to extensive improvisation of a line of text set to a chosen raga and tala. The literal meaning of pallavi is: 'sprout'; an image associated with rasa (sap, juice, flavour, essence or vital). One apocryphal etymology breaks the word pallavi into three syllables that constitute the rasa-s of a composition: padam (or, text), layam (or, rhythm) and vinyasam (or, display).

The text of a pallavi in an RTP could either be secular or religious, amorous or humorous. Often, the pallavi consists of only one line of text that is normally set to a complex tala.

A neraval, which is an expanded reiteration of the text of the pallavi, is first performed. The performers compose, on the spot, the text of the pallavi, using the allowable notes of the raga and extemporarily set it within the framework of the tala.

Following the neraval, a variation of speeds is brought about through anuloma and pratiloma. In anuloma the speed of singing the words is halved or quartered within the original time cycle. In pratiloma, the speed of singing the words is doubled or quadrupled within the original time cycle.

Conclusion

The different forms of improvisation add different facets to Carnatic music and, thereby, provide variety. The ability to improvise varies from performer to performer. Moreover, each of these forms of improvisation evoke different moods. Again, the ability to evoke, characterize and exploit these different moods vary from performer to performer and form an integral part of the exhaustive and demanding training that is required. All of the above make Carnatic music a highly refined, demanding, complex and, most importantly, an exciting art form.