Classical Music

Overview:

Carnatic music, from South India, tends to be significantly more structured than Hindustani music. Examples of this are the logical classification of ragas into melakarthas, and the use of fixed compositions similar to Western classical music. Carnatic raga elaborations are generally much faster in tempo and shorter than their equivalents in Hindustani music.

The opening piece is called a varnam, and is a warm-up for the musicians. A devotion and a request for a blessing follows, then a series of interchanges between ragams (unmetered melody) and thaalams (the ornamentation, equivalent to the jor).

This is intermixed with hymns called krithis. The pallavi or theme from the raga then follows. Carnatic pieces also have notated lyrical poems that are reproduced as such, possibly with embellishments and treatments according to the performer's ideology; these pieces are called compositions.

Carnatic music is similar to Hindustani music in that it is improvised (see musical improvisation). Primary themes include worship, descriptions of temples, philosophy, and nayaka-nayaki (Sanskrit "hero & heroine") themes. Tyagaraja (1759 to 1847), Muthuswami Dikshitar (1776 to 1827) and Syama Sastri (1762 to 1827) are known as the Trinity of Carnatic music, while Purandara Dasa (1480 to 1564) is the father of Carnatic music.