Written by Avi Sriram, a grade 10 student.
Music brings a smile on everyone’s face. It brings people happiness and peace whether it is the soulful 70s, the youthful rock, and metal, or for some people even classical music.
Music is in fact a universal bond that brings even the most dissimilar people under the same roof.
Music is indeed vast, divided into a number of genres. One such genre is Carnatic music that is sung in most of South India and has given rise to stars such as Illayaraja, Muttuswami Dikshitar, MS Subbulakshmi, Tyagaraja and of course Purandara Dasa, the father of Carnatic music who is known everywhere in India today. In fact, in places like Chennai, there is also a ‘Tyagaraja Utsav’ often called ‘Tyagarja Aradhana’ which is the Ceremony of Adoration held every year on the anniversary of the demise of the saint and famous musical composer Tyagaraja.
Carnatic music comprises of notes called swaras namely – S R G M P D N and S which is the highest note of one octave and the beginning of the next octave. Octaves are simply defined as the interval between one pitch and the next which is double its frequency. This is exactly the same thing as Do Re Mi Fa So La Ti Do in the western style of music. One of the important features of Carnatic music is the pitch at which one sings which is determined by a tanpura- a common musical instrument. The tanpura has a variety of different pitches which suit a certain singer’s voice. The most basic lesson in Carnatic music is the learning of swaras in various speeds. Carnatic music consists of various different speeds- the first being the slowest and third being the fastest. A pattern of swaras in different speeds gives a melodious composition which is the very base to this music. Next, we move on to leaning geetams the most famous one being ‘ Lambodhara Lakhumikara’ which was a popular Ganesha song among our grandparents.
About few geetams later we move on to learning varnams in various new ragas that have a rather fun side to it consisting of lyrics as well as swaras.
Ragas are a melodic framework of certain swaras that are later used for singing alapanas in music. Ragas are divided into a number of categories. The ones containing all 7 notes in music such as Kalyani or Shankarabharana or even the beginning raga of music, Mayamalavagowla are known as Sampurna ragas while those having six notes such as Sriranjani are called Shadava ragas and the one having just five notes such as the very famous Mohannam or Hamsadhwani are called Audava ragas.
After a few varnams in various interesting ragas, we move on to kritis which are composed of songs in slightly more variation. These are extremely advanced and require a good amount of knowledge of a number of ragas that have been taught previously.
Along with the kritis, which makes you a slightly advanced singer, we start to make alapanas. Almost everyone has heard Carnatic songs of famous singers which have in the beginning, no lyrics but just a melody using the ‘aksharas’ or letters ‘AA’ , ‘RA’ or ‘NA’. These come under the category of creative singing and are often used to enhance a song as well as the quality of singing.
In addition, Carnatic Music also involves the junior, senior as well as proficiency levels of examinations which gradually increase in the level of difficulty as a singer progresses.
This thus completes our journey into the world of classical music. Hope you enjoyed this glimpse into the world of Carnatic music, something that gives me joy.
Written by Avi Sriram who is in grade 10 at the National Public School, Koramangala, Bangalore
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