Thursday, January 31, 2008

Raagam (contd...)

The following websites will help one to learn more about raagams:
Some links:
Carnatic Music (Kishore Balakrishnan)
Mohan Ayyar's Carnatic Corner (bios)
Compositions of Thyagaraja
Compositions of Swathi Thirunal
D.L. Sivakumar's Carnatic Composition Search & Audio
Carnatic Music Audio Archive (Shivkumar Kalyanaraman)
P. Venkataraman's Raga and Composition Collection
Vidyarthi: Music & Mythology (Ram Sriram)
Thiruppugazh Home Page (Balu Iyer)
Papanasam Sivan's Compositions (Kumar Mallikarjunan)
Raga List (Kumaran Santhanam)
Sruti Magazine
Ganamandir Trust
Vipanci Trust
I do not intend any sort of comprehensive link index. A special thank you to Tom McComb for these links.

Please listen to my songs at following link:

Sunday, January 27, 2008

Raagams

There are seventy two raagams and you will get full details from following website which is very informative and well rearched.

http://www.carnatic.com/carnatic/ragalist.htm

Saturday, January 26, 2008

TAALAM...(Contd...)

There are seven common taalams and they are -


Eka |
Roopaka 0 |
Triputa | 0 0
Mattya | 0 |
Jhampa | U 0
Dhruva | 0 | |
Ata | | 0 0

We will continue this topic in my next post.

I have uploaded Papanasam Sivan Kriti: Thunai Purindarul Tharuna Madhavaa - Suddha Hindolam in my audio website: http://www.acidplanet.com/artist.asp?songs=520018&T=8357.

Wednesday, January 23, 2008

BASICS OF TAALAM

The analogous term referring to the rhythm or beats of Carnatic music is taalam. It indicates the pacing of the music and the placement of syllables in the composition. It is vital to realize that the taalam system is essentially based on a cyclic pattern; in other words, the rhythm is always cyclic. In Carnatic music, the singer indicates the taalam using gestures. There are three basic hand movements used in keeping the rhythm - the downward beat with the palm facing down, called thattu, the wave (sometimes the downward beat with the palm facing up) called veechu and counts using one finger for each count staring with the little finger (sometimes using the thumb to indicate a finger or portions of a finger). These basic movements are combined into three groups, called Laghu, Dhrutham and Anudhrutham. A Laghu is one thattu followed by a specified number of counts to make up the requisite number of beats. A Dhrutham is one thattu followed by one veechu while an Anudhrutham is just one thattu. Each beat or unit of taalam is termed as an aksharam and thus, an Anudhrutham is one aksharam long, a Dhrutham is two aksharams long and the Laghu is of variable length. There are several other movements but these are rarely seen in practice. In my next post I will continue this topic.

Monday, January 21, 2008

PRINCIPLES OF CARNATIC MUSIC

There are seven Swaras in Carnatic Music, namely, Shadjam (Sa), Rishabam (Ri), Gandharam (Ga), Madhyamam (Ma), Panchamam (Pa), Dhaivatham (Da) and Nishadam (Ni). There is some theoretical basis for why there is an odd number (seven) of swara. For simplicity, let us fix the Sa at one kattai and place the remaining swaras at the successive white keys. This provides us with a scale or a raga (in this case, containing all the seven swaras). Ancient Vedic chants have but three swaras and somewhat later forms of music (Indian as well as other forms, e.g. Chinese) use five swaras - e.g. the Sa, Ri, Ga, Pa and Da of the scale we just created. Our present system is based on seven swaras, and perhaps, a few thousand years from now, the human race will advance to a point of discriminating scales of more swaras. The seven swaras are mythalogically associated with the sounds produced by certain animals and the names of the swaras are related to the names of these animals. The name Madhyamam appears to be related to the central or madhya location in the seven notes and Panchamam is most probably derived from the number five, denoting the position of the note.

Saturday, January 19, 2008

Carnatic Vs Hindustani music styles

We have two kinds of music styles in India Carnatic, mostly practiced by people of south Indian origin and Hindustai,mostly practiced by people of North India.

Both the styles are monophonic, follow a melodic line and employ a drone (tanpura) with the help of one or two notes against the melody. Both the styles use definite scales to define a raga but the Carnatic Style employs Shrutis or semitones to create a Raga and thus have many more Ragas than the Hindustani style. Carnatic ragas differ from Hindustani ragas. The names of ragas are also different. However, there are some ragas which have the same scale as Hindustani ragas but have different names; such as Hindolam and Malkauns, Shankarabharanam and Bilawal. There is a third category of ragas like Hamsadhwani, Charukeshi, Kalavati etc. which are essentially Carnatic Ragas. They share the same name, the same scale (same set of notes) but can be rendered in the two distinctively different Carnatic and Hindustani styles. Unlike Hindustani music, Carnatic music does not adhere to Time or Samay concepts and instead of Thaats, Carnatic music follows the Melakarta concept. Thaat is a system by which different sets of complete scale of seven notes, in ascending order, are formulated to categorize the maximum number of ragas under it. Thaat or Mela is known as the Parental scale. There are ten Thaats under which most of the Hindustani ragas can be catagorised. These Thaats have the names of ragas and they are Bilawal, Khamaj, Poorvi, Kafi, Bhairavi, Kalyan, Bhairav, Marwa, Asavari and Todi.

I have uploaded two more songs in my Acidplanet website as under:

bhO sambo Siva Sambo SvayambhO - Dayananda Saraswati composition
Vellai Thaamarai - Subramaniya Bharatiyar composition


http://web.splashcast.net/players/?p=VWSV8386MC

Thursday, January 17, 2008

ORIGIN OF THE NAME CARNATIC

They are several versions to this.

1. Karunaadu meant central country, as well as black (people) country. The name 'karu naad agam' got anglicized to 'Carnatic' state. In Tamil, the word karunaadagam is still used. The British renamed the territory as Madras. The music of karunaadagam was called as karunaadaga isai.
2. The name Carnatic music refers to the traditional music of a region called Carnatic. All books on recent Indian history note that before British rule, the kingdoms in South India were: Travancore - most of today's Kerala, Mysore - the southern part of today's Karnataka excluding the west coast, and Carnatic- most of South India. (almost the same as Madras State of the 1950s i.e. all of today's Tamil Nadu, southern Andhra and some neighboring areas). When the Carnatic kingdom came under British control, they renamed it Madras Presidency. They also renamed the town of Chennai patnam as Madras City...

There are several studies on this topic but there is no conclusive evidence to support any of these stories.

I have uploaded in acidplanet website Ramabhadra Ra Ra Shri Ramachandra Ra Ra - Raagam Anandabairavi for your listening.

Tuesday, January 15, 2008

What motivates singers

If balanced lifestyle and undisturbed emotions are father, support and encouragement by the fans and friends are mother. I have today uploaded in my webpage www.acidplanet.com two more songs as under:

Sakala Graha Bala Neene - Purandara Dasa Kriti - Ataana Raagam
Neeraja Dala Nayana - M Sadashivan kriti - Mond

I hope you will enjoy. Thanks.

Sunday, January 13, 2008

Bhajans

Today I participated in a Bhajan whose participants were from Tamil Nadu, Kerala, Telugu Desam, Himalchal, U.P, Karnataka and Punjab and I felt good about this because this group is India. I sung a few bhajans such as:

Ganesa Saranam
Guru Dhayi
Jai Jai Ram Krishna Hare

If you like to listen to some of other songs, please visit
http://www.acidplanet.com/artist.asp?songs=520018&T=9608

Saturday, January 12, 2008

What is in a song

Song brings the best in a person. Song brings healthy emotion and healthy physique. Song brings friends and admirers. Above all song helps to reflect the singers mood.

I have uploaded two more songs in my website http://www.acidplanet.com/artist.asp?songs=520018&T=6671.

Kandan Karunai Puriyum Vadivel
Tulasi Dalamulache

Thanks for listening

Tuesday, January 8, 2008

Bhajans and Karnatic music

My belief is that Karnatic musics are part of Bhajans and many of our famous singers have participated in Bhajans. So I have started records some of my bhajans in the website http://www.acidplanet.com/artist.asp?songs=520018&T=2066. Thanks for your listening to those

Tuesday, January 1, 2008

Lyrics for songs

It is very important that we have lyrics for the songs along with raagam, taalam and authors name. We should also learn the meaning of the song. It helps in our understanding of the song and we feel deeply involved in the song.