Music of South India: Carnatic Music
Overview
Broadly speaking, the classical music of India can be divided into two overlapping areas: North India, referred to as Hindustani music and South India, referred to as Carnatic (Karnatak) music. The music demonstrated in this video is from the Carnatic tradition.
The term “classical music” is commonly associated with Western art music but is equally appropriate for Hindustani and Carnatic music. They have important similarities. Both Western and Indian classical music have substantive and explicit music theory and they both revere composers from the past whose compositions constitute much of the present-day repertoire. They both involve long periods of formal training, and place considerable value on technique as well as creativity. Both have a history of being performed in the context of ruling elites, although now public concerts are the typical venue. Finally, they are both valuable cultural symbols.
Of course, there are major differences between Western art music and Indian classical music in concept, instrumentation, pitch and rhythm resources, and creative processes as discussed below.
Carnatic performance contains three elements: melody, rhythm, and drone. Regardless of the number of performers, these three elements are almost always present. Melody, whether composed or improvised, is based on a raga, a modal system which includes patterns of pitch, usage and organization, and extra-musical references. Organization of rhythm is based on the tala (a system of pulses with cyclic patterns), reflected in varied percussion sounds and verbal articulations. Although raga is included in this video, the focus is on tala. A drone is a continuously played set of two pitches made up most often of the primary note of the raga, known as sa, and the note a perfect 5th above, although there are other combinations. The drone anchors the raga performance.
This video features Professor Trichy Sankaran on the two-headed barrel-shaped drum, the mrdangam, and a tambourine-like instrument, the kanjira. The mrdangam is a highly developed classical drum of South India, employing precise tuning, a variety of timbres, and is played using subtle hand and finger techniques. It is the most important percussion instrument in the Carnatic music ensemble, performing both accompaniment and solo roles. Throughout its long history, the mrdangam has been used in a variety of ensembles, gradually evolving from the accompaniment of theatre music to more elaborate styles of temple, dance and concert music. At present it is used most notably in Carnatic concerts and percussion ensembles, in bharata-nāṭyam (South Indian classical dance), and Bhajans (congregational devotional songs).
Musicians
Trichy Sankaran
Professor Trichy Sankaran is a world-renowned percussion virtuoso, Indian music scholar and composer, and the founding director of Indian music studies at York University in Toronto, Canada. A highly influential musician, teacher, scholar, and composer, he has made valuable contributions to many scholarly conferences across North America and has published two major books: one on theory and techniques of South Indian classical drumming, and the other on the Art of Konnakkol (Solkattu).
Trichy Sankaran has performed at major festivals in India, South-East Asia, Europe, Australia, and North America. In his six decades of concert experience in Carnatic music, he has accompanied all the top-rank artists of India. In addition, he has played with contemporary music ensembles, jazz groups, African music ensembles as well as his own group, Trichy Trio.
As a composer, Trichy Sankaran has to his credit several pieces for gamelan, jazz ensembles, traditional Western classical orchestra, and world music ensembles. He has received numerous honours and awards for his contributions to university teaching and artistic excellence.
In January 2012, Professor Sankaran received the most coveted honour of Sangita Kalanidhi from the prestigious Music Academy of Madras. He was the pioneer in starting the Thyagaraja Festival in Toronto, Canada in 1972.
Suba Sankaran
Three-time JUNO-nominated world/fusion vocalist, pianist, percussionist, teacher, composer, arranger, and choral director, Suba Sankaran has performed across North America, Europe, the UK, Asia, Australia and Africa with Autorickshaw, master drummer Trichy Sankaran (her father), FreePlay Duo and Retrocity (80s a cappella revue). Highlights include performing for Peter Gabriel, Nelson Mandela and Archbishop Desmond Tutu, and performing with Jane Siberry, Lorraine Segato, Bobby McFerrin, and the Swingles. She has composed and produced music for theatre, film, radio, and dance, and collaborated with Deepa Mehta, the CBC, and the Stratford Festival.
Terminology
An understanding of the following terms would be helpful before proceeding with the Video Content.
- Mrdangam
- Tala
- Raga
- Solkattu
- Konnakkol
- Mora
- Korvai
- Kanjira
- Carnatic
- Adi Tala
- Laya
- Avartam
Video Content
Master mrdangam artist Trichy Sankaran and his daughter Suba demonstrate and discuss the properties of the mrdangam and the playing techniques used to create the diverse sounds that this instrument is capable of. Trichy Sankaran also demonstrates how these sounds can be articulated through vocables. They discuss and demonstrate tala, its theory, how one “keeps” the tala, some of the different types of talas, and their relationship to performance practices on the mrdangam. They explain and provide examples of improvisational techniques as well as discuss various kinds of compositions. Trichy Sankaran also explores and demonstrates another Carnatic percussion instrument, the kanjira. Finally, they address the relation between the performance practices of tala, mrdangam, traditional dance styles, and singing.
Transcript: Music of South India
Video Time Cues
- 0:08 Self-introductions
- 1:00 The mrdangam, its construction, tuning
- 6:30 Demonstration: different drum strokes/sounds
- 8:23 Spoken syllables for each drum stroke. Solkattu
- 10:46 Drum strokes and their sounds
- 12:40 The art of spoken syllables: konnakkol
- 13:25 Solkattu and corresponding drum strokes
- 15:21 Explanation and demonstration of keeping tala
- 17:25 Performance, tala, raga, improvisation & solkattu
- 19:12 Doubling rhythmic density in solkattu
- 20:47 Doubling rhythmic density on mrdangam
- 21:43 Rhythmic cadence. Mora
- 25:53 Drum strokes to tala
- 28:00 Lower sounding drumhead
- 29:45 Lower sounding drumhead and tala
- 30:20 Talas other than Adi tala
- 30:40 Misra Chapu tala
- 31:39 Different talas
- 34:32 Demonstration of longer, rarer tala
- 35:26 Premeditated rhythmic patterns. Korvai
- 37:55 The shape of rhythmic patterns
- 41:05 Kanjira description and demonstration
- 44:33 Kanjira and pitch
- 45:20 Hand strokes on kanjira
- 47:00 Rhythm instruments used in concert
- 47:54 Korvai on kanjira
- 49:09 Pre-meditated patterns vs. improvisation
- 51:50 Rhythm and dancers
- 52:00 Rhythm and singing
- 1:00:49 Performance of bharata-nāṭyam piece
- 1:06:00 Improvisation and composition. Singer and mrdangam
- 1:08:11 Musical form
- 1:12:17 Learning tala
Suggested Activities and Assessments
Terms
Create a limited-access wiki of the terms and their definitions listed in the Terminology section above. Students can work individually to create their own “wiki” as text files, or in teams (e.g., through a course website). Students research the meanings, and if relevant, the history of these terms.
Participation
- Keeping tala
Ask students to keep tala during any one of Trichy Sankaran’s demonstrations. Some of these will be easier because Suba is also keeping tala; but for some, she isn’t. This is harder than it looks. Do this for more than one tala. - Quiz: Game show
Name the tala
Demonstrate various hand motions for the talas discussed in the video. Students identify what tala these belong to, or if, indeed, they represent any tala from the video. - Debate
Are improvisation and composition all that different?
Improvisation has been called composition in the moment. How are improvisation and composition alike? How are they different? Depending on the size of the class, create two teams of 2 to 4 students. One team argues that improvisation and composition are different, the other, that they are basically the same with minor differences. Students can use the content of the video in their arguments as well as academic literature on the subject.
Research
Students are asked to research the differences between Hindustani and Carnatic tala. Part of this assignment is assessed on the kinds of sources used. Each student writes a short paper (say 400 words) on this topic which is posted online at the course website. Each student is then asked to review the research posting of a fellow student, pointing out its strengths and how it can be improved. Students are assessed on both their own posting and the peer review.