The Revolution in Music Brought About By Tyagaraja

We may at the juncture point out how Tyagaraja brought about a complete revolution in the way music was used and presented to the public. The Ragam, Tanam, Pallavi style adopted by earlier musicians centred almost entirely around displaying virtuoso skills. True, the Pallavi that came at the end proclaimed devotion to God; however, that devotion came somewhat like an add-on. By and large, a musical concert was an occasion for the display of tonal gymnastics.

This stress on sheer musical skills turned away many who found that this style was not suited for promoting their sense of devotion or Bhakti. Tyagaraja changed all that but turning the focus entirely on the song, which, invariably was soaked with devotion or Bhakti without sacrificing musical excellence.

With Tyagraja, many things converged. First there was Bhakti, which pervaded every word of the song. The song itself had a definite structure. There was the opening called Pallavi that gave the headlines so to speak of the contents of the song, after which came the Anupallavi which was like the sub-headlines.

Following these two came the Charanam which gave the details of the message. Tyagaraja took the song and mixed it with good music, that is he set it to one of the wonderful ragas available from the Melkartha scheme. As a scholar put it: Tyagaraja started with a good song in that beautiful language Telugu. He then packed it with Divine feelings and sweetened it further by adding Rama’s name. He topped it all off by setting the song to the most appropriate Ragam available, thereby bringing out the depth of the spiritual message and the musical richness of the composition.

In short, he had the winning combination – depth of devotion and the best of music.

Please listen to my recent uploads of songs: