Simple Introduction to South Indian Classical Music - Part 1

Sunday, June 11 2006 @ 08:04 PM EDT

Author: Suresh Sri

South Indian classical music is known as Carnaatic music (we'll be using this term henceforth in this article). This article describes the basics of the music, tells us what to listen for, and provides links to a few starter albums.

Part 2 of this article expands on the concepts and briefly describes the structure and mechanics of the music system and includes a list of links to resources for more information.

There are several books and articles already available about South Indian classical music. Most of them get technical very quickly, drowning the reader in Sanskrit terms. This article makes an attempt to stay with the gestalt, getting into details only when necessary.

Needless to say, all external content referenced in this article are owned by the appropriate entity and their access and usage governed by appropriate copyright laws.

Conventions

Phonetic: when referring to Sanskrit/Tamil words, the letters 'a' and 'aa' are used to indicate the short and long 'a' sounds respectively (as in 'sun' and 'sawn'), and the letters 'i' and 'ee' represent the short and long 'i' sounds (as in 'sin' and 'seen'). Similarly for other vowel sounds. Also, the consonant 'th' indicates a soft sound as in 'thin', and 'dh' represents a slightly thicker sound, as in 'this'.

When a new technical term is introduced for the first time, it's shown in bold (with its Sanskrit/Tamil equivalent in italics in parentheses, just for reference).

What is Carnaatic Music?

Carnaatic music is one of the two dominant genres of Indian classical music (the other one being 'Hindustani music' (pronounced Hindhusthaani), popularized by Ravi Shankar, Zakir Hussain, et al).

Carnaatic music is melody-based and not symphony-based. That is, songs are composed as multiple tracks for multiple instruments to play together, but for a single artist (vocal or instrumental) to showcase the melody, rhythm, and mood of the song as envisioned by its composer, and to provide a venue for the artist to improvise and demonstrate his or her mastery. To be sure, the main artists are typically accompanied by other (string and/or percussion) instruments, but there are no special tracks composed for the accompaniments.

Indian classic music has been around now for a couple of millenniums or even longer. Until about the 12th century CE, all of India used a single system of classical music. Subsequently, most of North India came under the rule of Muslim rulers of Turkish and Afghan descent (until about 1700 CE, when the British dudes took over). These rulers brought in their own Persian-influenced music, poetry, and other arts to India. This resulted in the classical music in North India being heavily influenced by these. South India, for the most part, was on the outskirts and thus was able to maintain the original style, but did assimilate a fair amount of South Indian folk music. At around the 14th century, the northern and southern genres were different enough to be labeled Hindustani and Carnaatic music, respectively.

Today, Carnaatic music is still mainly dominant in the four southern states of India - Andhra Pradesh (pron: Aandhra Pradesh), Karnataka (pron: Karnaatakaa), Kerala (pron: Kayralaa), and Tamil Nadu (pron: Tamil Naadu) - and anywhere else in the world where lots of South Indians hang out. The city of Chennai in Tamil Nadu (location) hosts a Carnaatic music festival every year from mid-December to mid-January. Other regions around the world with a high density of South Indians also usually have similar festivals.

As with any system that's been evolving for a couple of millennium, the rules in Carnaatic music can be pretty complex, with every rule having several exceptions, and exceptions having their own exceptions. In this article, we'll blissfully ignore the complexity and stick to basic stuff, just enough to understand and appreciate the music.

There are two main concepts in Carnaatic music: melody (raagam) and rhythm cycle (thaalam). Melodies and rhythm cycles have names that uniquely identify them. In addition to having a name, certain melodies can also be referred to by their numbers (as in "melody number 25"). More about this in part 2.

Both of those concepts are present in other genres of classical music as well. The main difference might be that they are more formalized in Carnaatic music (classified, catalogued, given a name, etc.).

A melody is made up of two parts: the specific musical notes (svaram) that are allowed in the melody (in every octave). This means that any song set in this melody can use only these notes. Secondly, the movement rules (sanchaaram) of a melody specify which notes should always be sung together and how one is allowed to move from note to note when singing/playing this melody. The movements could be linear, with/without undulations or micro-tones (gamakam), and could be different while ascending (going from a lower note to a higher note) and descending. It is the movement rules that give the melody its unique emotion or personality (bhaavam). It is not rare for two melodies to share the same set of notes but sound completely different because of different movement rules.

Melodies are grouped into major (or parent) melodies (janaka raagam) and minor (or children) melodies (janya raagam). A major melody is constructed by selecting a certain number of notes in an octave based on certain rules. A minor melody is constructed by selecting a subset of notes of a major melody; the major melody is then known as the parent of this child melody. Thankfully, there is only one level of hierarchy - a child melody cannot have its own children melodies.

There are exactly seventy two major melodies but several thousand minor melodies. In part 2, we'll see what makes a melody major or minor.

(Listening note: the mood and melodiousness of a melody is not determined by whether it is major or minor. In other words, a melody doesn't sound better or worse simply because it is a major or a minor melody.)

Melodies, like baby names and wine varieties, go in and out of fashion. And like wines, some melodies may instantly appeal to one and some need getting used to.

A rhythm cycle (thaalam) is a set of beats (aksharam) arranged in groups. (Example: 4+2+2 is an eight beat rhythm cycle with three groups.)

There are thirty five primary rhythm cycles: seven rhythm cycle types with five flavors (jaathi) in each type. Part 2 describes this in more detail. Amongst the thirty five, only some are commenly used in practice. Here they are, with their names in parentheses in italics:

• 4 - as in 1234 (eka)
• 2+3 - as in 12123 (khanda chaapu), sometimes played as 4+6 (1122112233).
• 2+4 - as in 121234 (roopaka).
• 3+2+2 - as in 1231212 (thriputa).
  
• 3+2+2 - as in 1231212 (misra chaapu), sometimes played as 6+4+4 (11223311221122).
  
• 4+2+2 - as in 12341212 (aadhi); this is the most common rhythm cycle.
  
• 7+2+1 - as in 1234567121 (jhampa).
• 5+5+2+2 - as in 12345123451212 (ata).

(Listening note: the non 8-count rhythm cycles may feel a bit abstract at first, but pretty soon one gets the hang of any rhythm cycle.)

A composer could choose more than one melody for a song (for example, each stanza could be in a different melody). Such a composition is called a multi-melody song (raaga-maalikaa - garland of raagams).

• String instruments - violin, veena (a longish bulky lute-like instrument played by placing it across the lap), gottuvaadhyam or chithraveena (fret-less veena, played using a slider).
• Wind instruments - flute, naagasvaram, shehnai (trumpet-like instruments), clarinet, saxophone.
  
• Others - jalatharangam (a set of cups filled with water and tapped with a stick to produce different notes).
  
• Percussion instruments - mridangam (double-sided drum), ghatam (a pot - played by striking on its surface with fingers and knuckles, varying the pitch by moving its mouth against one's stomach), ganjira (a piece of hide stretched over a wooden or metal rim; held in one hand and stuck with the fingers of the other hand), morsing (jew's harp; produces a twangy strumming sound), thavil (a double-sided drum, larger than mridangam), used usually to accompany naagasvaram, clarinet, shehnai.
  

• Melody exploration (aalaapanai) - exploring the various movements in the melody (without any lyrics).
  
• Rhythmic melody exploration (thaanam) - once again, just singing the melody without any lyrics but in a bit more rhythmical manner, though not necessarily set to any specific rhythm cycle. Sometimes a percussion instrument is used.

• Header (pallavi). The first stanza of the song.
  
• Sub-header (anupallavi). The middle stanzas of the song.
  
• Footer (charanam). The last stanza of the song.
  
• Filler (niraval) - the artist takes a line of the sub-header or footer and elaborates on it at different speeds, accentuating different movements of the melody. The filler could occur before or after the footer.

• Notes (svaram) - the notes of the melody (sa ri ga ma etc., described in detail in part 2) are sung at different speeds, with the main and accompanying artists taking turns.
• Percussion solo (thani aavardhanam) - this is the opportunity for the percussionist to demonstrate the complex patterns of the rhythm. If there are multiple percussionists, they take turns.

• Melody exploration (aalaapanai) - singing just the melody (without any lyrics); exploring the various movements in the melody.
  
• Rhythmic melody exploration (thaanam) - once again, just singing the melody without any lyrics. Sounds a bit more rhythmic, though not set to any specific rhythm cycle. Sometimes a percussion instrument is used.
  
• A line of lyrics (pallavi) repeated with improvisations to explore the melody's personality.
  
• Filler (niraval) - Elaboration of the above line, at different speeds accentuating different movements of the melody.
• Notes (svaram) - the notes of the melody, sung at different speeds.
• Percussion solo (thani aavardhanam).

Annamaachaarya (1408-1503 CE) and Purandara Daasa (1480-1565 CE) were among the earliest composers of the modern era. The former's compositions were in the Telugu language and the latter composed in the Kannada and Sanskrit languages (language map of India)

Venaktamakhi (full name: Venkateswara Deekshitha; period: around 1630) introduced the classification of existing melodies into major and minor ones. This 72 major melody system was finalized by others sometime in the 18th century.

Among the various composers of Carnaatic music, three stand out and are referred to as the 'trinity' of Carnaatic music: Shyaamaa Saastri (1762-1827 CE), Thyaagaraaja (1767-1847 CE), Muthuswaamy Deekshitar (1776-1835 CE). Like a lot of people in India, these composers were multi-lingual and their compositions were in the Sanskrit, Telugu, Kannada, and Tamil languages (sometimes a single song containing multiple languages).

More recent composers include Gopaala Krishna Bhaarathi, Oothukkaadu Venkatasubramanya Aiyer, Paapanaasam Sivan, King Swaathi Thirunal (a real king of a part of the Kerala state).

During the British rule of India, a few Carnaatic musicians learnt to play the violin as part of their stints in Western style orchestras, and the instrument slowly worked its way into the Carnaatic system to become both the most common accompaniment to a vocalist and also a main instrument in its own right. Clarinet and saxophone were more recent additions to Carnaatic music instruments, probably sometime in the middle of the 20th century.

[Photos: L. Subramanian, S. Sowmya and Shashank].

World Music Central
http://worldmusiccentral.org/article.php/2006052911335276