FEATURES OF INDIAN MUSIC – HINDUSTANI AND KARNATAKA (CARNATIC) (Karnatak music)

Karnatak music

What is performed today as Karnatak music is derived most immediately from three outstanding composers of the eighteenth century, known collectively as the trinity: thyagaraja (1759 -1847); Svami Shastri (1773 – 1827) and Dikshitar (1775 – 1835). The trinity, although not themselves patronized by the courts, spent most of their lives within a few miles radius of tanjore, which became the focal point of musical patronage in the south after the fall of vijayanagar (1565). Thyagaraja is revered both as the supreme artist and a saint, and epitomizes the ideal of musicianship in the south. Most of his immediate disciples were not professional musicians but devotees and is only after the succeeding generation that professional musicians received thavagaraja’s compositions.

Karnataka performance practice tends to give greater emphasis to the actual composition than is the case for Hindustani music. The fixed and memorized composition along with its memorized variations are longer and constitute proportionately much more of a given performance than in the north.

Karnatak music include the major performance genres as well as some minor ones: the varnam as advanced etude – like composition of ten performed as the first item of a performance. The kriti, which is the classical compositional form most often associated with the eighteenth century trinity, is devotional in its musical form embodying extensive unmetered sections along with a new or borrowed compositional line characterized by rhythmic variation in the pallavi section. The regamtenam – pallaviis in principle the centerpiece of a Karnataka performance, although a kriti will often assume this role in actual practice.

Despite the series of contacts one can make between the two systems, they share analogous structural units, for example, the Karnataka alspana is in many respects. Equivalent to the Hindustani alap; both function as the expositional structure of a raga.

(I)                 Principal Indian ragas

Indian classical music consists of six principal Ragas and thirty Raginis. Music is adapted to the season of the year, hours of the day and mood of the performer. The Indian year is divided into six seasons and each season has its own Raga. The principal Ragas are Bhirav, Hindol, Megha, Sriraga, Deepak and Malkaus. According to Indian concept of Music, each Raga is a demigod, wedded to five Raginis. Thus there are six ragas and thirty Raginis. The day is divided into six parts, and each part is allotted to a particular Raga. Thus Bhairavi Raga is usually sung from 4 a.m. to 8 a.m., Hindol from 8 a.m., Hindol from 8 a.m., to 12 noon Megha from 12 noon to 4 p.m., Sriraga from 4 p.m. to 8 p.m.,  to 8 p.m., Deepak from 8 p.m. to 12 midnight and Malkaus from 12 Midnight to 4 a.m.

(II)               Indian Musical instruments.

The principal Indian musical instrument as may be divided into four classes: (I) stringed instruments, which have strings made of steel, copper of brass wires or silken cords. Such instruments are veena, sarod, sitar, tanpura, rabbad; (II) instruments played with bow, such as sarangi, dilruba, mayuri etc., (II) drum instruments which are played with bands on sticks, such as pakhawal, table, naggara, dholak etc., and (IV) wind or mouth instruments, which are played by blowing full or half breaths, such as, flutter, bin, surna etc.