Carnatic music, a different angle - Part 1

Carnatic music is  a  highly evolved art form with careful, diligent and scholarly contributions by many geniuses. By itself it is an equivalent of Hinduism, a way of life. It has a strong foundation and a wonderful structure. More importantly, it throws open infinite possibilities for manodharma, imagination and creativity.

There is a widely prevalent notion that Carnatic music is too structured and very elitist. I have heard so from many who did not have much idea what it is all about.

It is the lyrics that make one feel alienated from carnatic music and not the music itself. Can music ever be constrained within the realm of lyrics? What about instrumental music? 

Carnatic music has a significant percentage of contribution from the Trinity. Religious flavor, deriving from all the Bhakti movements of the past, runs high in its veins. Bhakti is not the only emotion that we feel all the times of the day. We all necessarily don't worship Rama the same way we worship Shiva. Also, majority  of songs are not in one's regional language. To top it all, each song comes with a set of Ragas and Talas. How can one enjoy this without knowing the details? Hence, carnatic music becomes alien.

Carnatic music is essentially a raga based music form with systematic learning methodologies. Its structure comes from the Ragas and the foundation comes from the systematic methods of learning. Systematic methods were laid out for imparting the structured music as a discipline to a student from a guru. We also need methods to train the listeners, don't we? That was missing.

How is the Raga structured?

Each raga is a strict combination of certain notes. There are  7 swaras - Sa Ri Ga Ma Pa Da Ni. Each of the swara has to be sung in a strictly certain octave. Sa and Pa do not have any variation while all the other 5 swaras have 3 places each (swara sthanam). To denote the sthanams or places of the swaras, let's use Ri1, Ri2, Ri3, Ga1, Ga2, Ga3, Ma1, Ma2, Da1, Da2, Da3, Ni1, Ni2, Ni3. We could refer as 1,2,3 but they have unique names like Suddha Gandharam, Sadharana Gandharam, Andhara Gandharam. That is technical, complicating for common man. The essence is that you cannot sing Ni in place of Ga, nor N1 and N2 can be interchanged and alike. A raga is a combination of particular swaras - meaning Sa, R2, Ga3, Ma1, Pa, Da2, Ni3 in the ascending and descending scale makes it only Sankarabharam, not Mohanam. If you change Ni3 to Ni2 in that scale and it becomes some other Raga.


Indian cinema music 

Indian cinema music also used to be based on classical system in its early stages. When the songs got popularized, so were the artists. By repeated listening in tea shops and street events, small chit chat discussions and newspaper articles, people improved their appreciation. Common man would not know what the swaras are in  Ragam Kalyani, but when Kalyani is sung, he could recognize it.   Later years saw M.S.V and Illayaraja in the south. There was also a change in cinema themes which made the music move away from classicism. Carnatic music appreciation started degenerating from then on. That's my small theory on what could have happened. 

 
For composing cinema songs,  the rigid raga structure and system need not be followed for an entire song. That is, Sankarabaram can get mixed with few other swaras as per where the hum goes. As long as it sounds good. But to perform a carnatic kutcheri,  Sankarabaram has to be sung as purely as it is. It requires knowledge and right practice.

Enjoy music

To enjoy any music, all you need is a heart to listen. If it makes you stop and nod your head,  you are enjoying it. You don't need to know more to just enjoy. But to understand what is being played or sung, you need to learn what the music form is.   Carnatic, jazz, symphony, reggae or celtic - it does not matter. You need to spend the time reading the basics.

Coming back to music and lyrics, what role does and should lyrics play?Lyrics can and should add beauty to the music but certainly not constrain it. It is in this context that Kudamaloor Janardhanan's interview made me stop and think of music as a whole and music in compartments. 

I find constrained by time to make a cogent essay on a topic that I started at some point and complete many months later. My ideas about the same topic had changed by then.