Karnatik Music - Karnataka Shastreeya Sangeeta

The origin of Carnatic music , or the South Indian classical music can be traced back to the age of vedas . Bharata's Natya Sastra , from around the 5th century A.D. , and Saranga Deva's Sangita Ratnakara , from the 13th century A.D. , are considered the earliest recorded treatises on the theory and performance of Indian music . The history of Carnatic music is incomplete without the contributions of the saints Sri Purandharadasaru ( 15th century A.D.) , Sri Thyagarajar , Sri Shyama Sastri ( all of 18th century A.D.) , and left an enduring legacy of compositions. This tradition has a rich heritage and is perfectly attuned with Indian culture and religion. Carnatic music is based on a 22 scale note contrary to the 12 note scale that is used in the western classical music. But in all its practical aspects, not more than 16 notes are used. A unique blend of these notes , or swara as they are called , evolves separate raga. The features and the constraints of a raga will be clearly defined in the arrangement of the notes in its arohanam ( ascending notes ) and avarohanam ( descending notes ). Thus , in Carnatic music , the raga connotes a mood or a route in which the music is supposed to travel. . Different combinations of the notes gives rise to different raga . Thus , there are thousands of unique raga in the literature though very few of them are being performed currently . gamaka and brigha are the two important features of the raga. The former refers to the frequency modulation about a particular note and the latter refers to the speed with which one performs a set of notes . The gamaka and the brigha adds to the beauty of the piece that is performed . Western music is mostly based on flat notes whereas , here , the notes are performed with modulations . The brigha could be an eight , sixteenth or so on . Another important aspect of the Carnatic music is the thalam . The thalam refers to the rhythm of the music that is performed . There are more than hundreds of thalam , but again , very few are in practice . The most popular thalam have 3 , 4 , 5 , 7 or 8 beats .

The Melakarta Ragams

The Melakarta Ragams are the 72 basic Janaka (parent) ragams for all of the infinite others in Carnatic Music. All of these ragams are saptaswaras, that is that they have all seven notes - Sa, Re, Ga, Ma, Pa, Da, Ne, and Sa. The system is divided into two sets of 36 ragams - one set with the first Ma and the second Ma. This is very similar to the Western concept of scales and the circle of flats.

Sapta Talas

This system of talams is the rythmic basis for Carnatic music. It is based on 7 core talas whcih use only 3 of the 6 possible components of an Indian talam - Anudrutam, Drutam, Laghu, Guru, Plutam, and Kakapadam. The Seven Talams are Dhruva, Matya, Rupaka, Jhampa, Triputa, Ata, and Eka Talams. Using these sapta talas all of the 150 Carnatic talams can be derived.