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These pages are mainly about Carnatic music, because it is probably the least known of the broad streams of music I like. People would attribute the beginning of the evolution of modern Carnatic music to the 14th century. However, it settled into today's form only much later. It shares similarities with the somewhat better known Hindustani (quite a bit) and Jazz (some meters, improvization).
It has elements of compositions and improvization: broadly speaking, a typical Carnatic piece in a concert would comprise of an introduction (using music, more on that later), a pre-composed part, followed by improvisation.
For some people, Carnatic music today is a rich language of notes, complete with a grammar and exhaustive literature. For some the poetry of compositions is just as important. For some, it is its place in history or religion (or both) that matters. For some it is nostalgia. Some cannot stand it. You pick, hopefully after you know something about it.
I knew nothing about Carnatic till the talented Rajiv got me interested in it. He is fairly knowledgeable about it, having studied (vocal and flute) it for about 14 years, which includes a few concert performances.
Music, in general, is a stylized form of expression. It is therefore important to be acquainted, to some degree at least, with the technical and cultural aspects of music to get it. After all, we dont hear spoken language---we listen to it because there is a meaning associated with what is being said. Something similar is true of lot of music, including Carnatic---the point is not to hear it, but listen to it and the musical phrases therein will come alive. The difference from regular language is that the meaning you read into music is up to you---there is no right or wrong. That meaning could even depend on your background. But you will soon associate each raga with a bhava---loosely translated to emotion.
The modern format of teaching Carnatic music is attributed to Purandara Dasa (1480-1565) from Hampi (pics). However, the structure of Carnatic music as we know it today crystallized about a century later, in 1635(?) with the standardization of something called the Melakarta scheme by a musicologist in Tanjavur (map), Venkatamakhin. The final thrust to push the music to the form as we know it today came from three remarkable composers of exceptional creativity: Thyagaraja (1767-1847), Muthuswami Dikshitar (1776-1835) and Syama Shastri (1762-1827). Together, they are widely regarded as the having made probably the maximum contribution---even today you will find that almost every concert includes at least some composition from among these three.
Here is a sample of what the music sounds like on an electric guitar. This was recorded sometime back when I could not keep beat, so this piece has no beat either. The first 25 secs form the introduction in music, the rest is adapted from Tyagaraja's grand composition Saamajavaragamana. Please bear with the recording quality, but you can do the following to mask some of the recording glitches: (i) the recording volume is low, so please turn up the volume, and (ii) keep a very bass tone. Thanks!
For those in the know, the piece uses chatushruti daivata instead of the usual shuddha daivata. In a recent jugalbandi concert in San Diego, Chitravina Ravikiran mentioned that Tyagaraja also prefered the chatushruti daivata for this compostion. I believe the Brinda school teaches the chatushruti daivata version, which he performed with Akkarai Subbalakshmi. Next time you see him in a concert, try to get him to play this piece---it is really amazing. The raga is called vageha.
The piece above does not attempt to reproduce the vageha version of saamajavaragamana, rather it just replaces every shuddha daivata with chatushruti daivata. But hey, I never claimed to know carnatic in depth---I just enjoy it. Tremendously. That's all!
If you want to know what guitar I use, it is a Washburn WG 587 which you can get from Amazon. This guitar's structure is similar to a vina, it has 7 strings and 24 frets, with a deep sound and beautiful sustain as far as I am concerned.
Drop me a line at nsanthan'at'ucsd'dot'edu if you have comments, want to teach me, or anything else. Of course, replace 'at' and 'dot' by the symbols in the email address above.