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Subject: [agathiyar] Music and origins of Carnatic music
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>From the ForumHub (forumhub.com) History forum:

kiru ( @ sybase.com) wrote:

Here is an excerpt from a CD liner notes from a grammy award winning recording engineer, Kavichandran Alexander, of Waterlily Acoustics (www.waterlilyacoustics.com). He is also an eminent musicologist with a penchant for a pure analog 'acoustic' recordings.

--------------------- BEGIN EXCERPT -------------
Origin
------
Though born of cosmologico-musical concepts conceived by the Dravidians, Carnatic music in its present form is a 'Sanskritized' version of the original. Derived as they both are from the Dravidian music system once prevalent in the entier subcontinent, Carnatic and Hindustani music different from one another in that the latter incorporates influences from Arabia, Turkey, Iran and Afganistan brought into the subcontinents north western regions with the Islamic thrust.

About Carnatic music
---------------------
The carnatic repertoire consists primarily of a body of art songs, religions in nature, composed by the stalwarts, thiAgarAja, muthusAmi dIkshitar, siyAma shAstri and purandaradAsa.

A melody based modal system, it today draws its melodic structures from a pool of seventy two parent scale types (borrowed from the 103 ancient Dravidian modes known in Tamil as paN), each having seven notes in the ascent and descent of the scaler progression. New modes or rAgams are created thru alteration and omission of notes in the ascent and/or descent of a chosen parent scale type. The system utilizes both melodic and rhythmic improvisation and the use of fine ornamentation such as microtonal embellishment. A complex system of rhythmic cycles known as tAlam compliments and completes this system of art music.

Origin of specific rAgam
-----------------------
It is symbolic that the melodic progressions of the two original compositions in this recording parallel the pentatonic Carnatic rAgam, madhyamAvathi[Sa(A) Ri(B) Ma(D) Pa(E) Ni(G)]. This rAgam, rooted in the tamil paN, Centurutti, is derived from the twenty-eighth heptatonic parent scale Harikambodhi which in turn corresponds to the Tamil pan 'kurinci'. The intervals between the notes of madhyamAvathi/Centurutti are perfect fourths, thus the ensuing melody derived from this mode has a resolving character that is soothing to the human ear.

----------------------- END EXCERPT ------------

Chandra (@ viking.delta-air.com) adds:

It is good to hear the fact of dravidian orign of carnatic music restated by a refreshingly different source.

One factual correction that Alexander needs to make: About harikambodhi corresponding to the Tamil paN "kurinjchi". Though it was mistakenlu thought to be owing to certain erros made by pioneers such as Vipulanandhad adigal of yAzhppANam, Dr.V.P.K. Sundharam have shown rigorously that it maps to the Tamil paN "mullai". The confusion was that the name "pAlai yAzh" in classical texts was mistakenly mapped to the terrain "pAlai".

Also another note: Alexander has neglected to mention Arunagirinathar and the Tamil trinity including Marimuththap pillai who have composed more carnatic music songs than the other trinity mentioned by Alexander; this of course not including the much vaster thEvAram and thiruvAcakam which is 100 times or bigger than the telugu/Skt composiitons.

Again not including the potentially oldest available carnatic krithis [songs explciitly set to a specific melody and notated as such] in India: paripAtal songs of the cangkam era.!

I have memorized the 4 th one and half-way thorugh the 14th. They are really sweet just to recite in one's own simple-minded melody. You can feel that the composiiton was intended as a krithi by the choice of words and the overall cadence.

Let us change this sad state of affairs where we have to keep pointing this out every time "carnatic" is mentioned.


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