Music in South India: The Karnatak Concert Tradition and Beyond Experiencing Music, Expressing Culture

by Viswanathan, T.; Allen, Matthew Harp

• ISBN13: 9780195145915
• ISBN10: 0195145917
• Format: Paperback w/CD
• Copyright: 2003-12-04
• Publisher: Oxford University Press

Summary

Music in South India is one of several case-study volumes that can be used along with Thinking Musically, the core book in the Global Music Series. Thinking Musically incorporates music from many diverse cultures and establishes the framework for exploring the practice of music around theworld. It sets the stage for an array of case-study volumes, each of which focuses on a single area of the world. Each case study uses the contemporary musical situation as a point of departure, covering historical information and traditions as they relate to the present. Visitwww.oup.com/us/globalmusic for a list of case studies in the Global Music Series. The website also includes instructional materials to accompany each study. Music in South India provides a vivid and focused introduction to the musical landscape of South India, discussing historical and contemporary performance, cultural history and geography, and the social organization of performance traditions. The book centers on Karnatak concert music, aunique performance practice that juxtaposes gorgeous musical compositions with many different types of improvisation. T. Viswanathan and Matthew Harp Allen first compare two types of song--bhajan, a structurally simple devotional genre, and kriti, the primary concert genre--and also analyze raga andtala, the basic elements underlying Karnatak music. They go on to examine the evolution of Karnatak music during the twentieth century, paying special attention to gender and caste and illuminating these issues through case studies and historical recordings (on the accompanying CD) of a small groupof enormously influential musicians. In the final chapter, the authors move beyond Karnatak music to address other aspects of South India's rich musical environment, such as its thriving popular music scene (based on cinema music); regional traditions ranging from the sacred to the secular, many ofwhich integrate elements from dance and drama; and contemporary composition. Featuring numerous listening activities, Music in South India is packaged with an 80-minute CD containing examples of the music discussed. The CD includes a full, uncut concert recording of a kriti performance, which shows how Karnatak musicians weave together composed and improvised elementsto create extended performances.

Author Biography

The late T. Viswanathan was Professor of Music at Wesleyan University. He was one of India's most noted and respected musicians, and received the NEA's National Heritage Fellowship Award in 1992 Matthew Harp Allen is Assistant Professor of Music and Director of the World Music Ensemble at Wheaton College (Massachusetts). A student of Karnatak vocal music with Viswanathan since 1983, he is also active as a guitarist and composer

Table of Contents

Foreword	xv
Preface	xvii
CD Track List	xxiii
1. Song in South India	1	(33)
Bhájan (Devotional Song)	1	(14)
Songs and Singing	4	(3)
Meaning of the Text: Devotion, Love, and Praise	7	(2)
Celebrating Tyagarája in the United States and in South India	9	(3)
Languages of the Region	12	(3)
Kriti	15	(18)
Evolution of Kriti	15	(1)
Text and Context-a Continuum of Performance from Devotion to Virtuosity	15	(4)
Music, Language, and Politics	19	(1)
The Tamil Music Movement	19	(2)
Muttuttandavar (Seventeenth Century)	21	(2)
The Text of "I Trusted You/Urinal Nambinén" (CD track 3)	23	(1)
The Musical Setting of "I Trusted You/Unnai Nambinén" (CD track 3)	24	(2)
The Group's Progress Through the Kriti	26	(3)
The Ensemble	29	(1)
The Instruments	29	(5)
Violin (Chordophone)	29	(2)
Mridangam (Membranophone)	31	(1)
Tambura (Chordophone) and Its Sruti, Drone, Function	32	(1)
Summary	33	(1)
2. Key Concepts in Karnãtak Music	34	(22)
Tala: Meter and Rhythm in Karnãtak Music	34	(8)
The Five "Families" of Rhythm and Drummers' Thinking	35	(1)
Hand Gestures and Vocalized Syllable Sequences for Commonly Used Tãlas	36	(2)
Tala Exercises in Three Speeds	38	(4)
Raga: Melody in Karnãtak Music	42	(9)
Scale	42	(1)
Note (Svara) and Solfege Syllable Names	43	(1)
Kiravani and Kapi Rãgas: Raga as a "Vast Ocean"	44	(3)
Ornamentation (Gamaka)	47	(1)
Phrase (Sañcãra or Prayóga)	48	(1)
Phrases in Kiravãni and Kapi Ragas	49	(2)
Functional Notes-Svaras Holding Particular Functions	51	(1)
Integrated Melodic-Rhythmic Training	51	(4)
Summary	55	(1)
3. The Karnãtak Concert Today	56	(14)
Presentation and Discussion of the "Main Piece" of a Concert	56	(4)
The Setting	56	(3)
Tuning Up	59	(1)
Beginning	59	(1)
Kriti as an Orally Transmitted Composed Case of a Performance	60	(1)
Brief Guide to the Performance	60	(9)
Composition and Improvisation; Fixity and Fluidity	60	(1)
Kiravãni Raga Ãlãpana	61	(2)
Aesthetics and Dynamics of Accompaniment	61	(2)
Kriti: The Core Component	63	(2)
The Pallavi	65	(1)
The Anupallavi and Pallavi reprise	65	(1)
The Caranam and Pallavi Reprise	65	(1)
Niraval	65	(1)
Svara Kalpana	66	(2)
Different Ways to Improvise: A Comparison of Niraval and Svara Kalpana	66	(2)
Tani Ãvarttanam-Drum Solo	68	(1)
Summary	69	(1)
4. Contextualizing South Indian Performance, Socially and Historically	70	(33)
Women and Music: The Dévadãsi and Her Community	70	(10)
Women's Public Performance Circa 1900	72	(2)
Loss and Recovery of a Woman's Work	74	(1)
"Now We Women Have a Platform to Commence Singing"-Bangalore Nagarathnammal and the Tyagarája Festival	75	(1)
Bangalore Nagarathnammal as a Performer	76	(4)
Sringãra Bhakti: Being in Love with God	76	(3)
Listening through the Static: The Rise of Audio Recording	79	(1)
Men and Music: From Temple and Court to Public and State Patronage	80	(6)
Men's Performance in Precolonial South India	81	(1)
The Hereditary Male Temple Service Musician	81	(2)
The "Emperor of Nãgasvaram": T.N. Rájarattinam Pillai	83	(3)
"The Audience Would Not Be Satisfied If He Did Not Play This Raga"	84	(1)
Alãpana in Todi Raga	85	(1)
A New World of Performance: Concert Halls, Media, and Audiences in the Urban Environment	86	(9)
The Development of Radio	87	(1)
The Recording Industry: Commodification and Resistance	88	(1)
"The Effect of the Performance Should Be Such As to Keep the Listeners Spell-Bound"	88	(7)
Men Scripting and Singing Women's Inner Feelings	91	(4)
A Hereditary Music Family	95	(6)
A Dual Musical Enculturation and Education	96	(2)
"I Am Going to Snub These Male Chauvinists"	98	(2)
Music and Gender Today	100	(1)
Summary: An Ancient and Modern Tradition of Musical-Social Behavior	101	(2)
5. Regional and Modern Traditions: Contemporary Music Making in South India and Beyond	103	(26)
Music in Kérala	103	(9)
Idakka, a Pressure Drum from Kerala	104	(1)
Kathakali Dance Drama	105	(3)
Character Types, Costume, and Makeup	106	(2)
Changes in the Twentieth Century	108	(1)
The Kathakali Music Ensemble	108	(1)
Kathakali Songs: Slókam and Padam	109	(1)
Performance of Padam from Nala Caritam	110	(2)
Music of the Cinema in South India	112	(4)
The "Company Drama" and the Silent Cinema	112	(1)
Early Sound Films: The "Mythological"	113	(1)
The "Social"	113	(1)
The Playback Singer	114	(1)
The Cinema and Karnatak Music: A Parting of Ways	114	(1)
"When I Say Come/Ba Ennalu"	115	(1)
Cross-Cultural Composition and Collaboration 116
"Can There Be Release/Mõksamu Galada?"	116	(4)
Tatva, a Regional Performance Tradition in Karnataka State	120	(8)
The Deccan Plateau: Meeting of North and South India	120	(1)
The Kannalla Tatva Composer Sharif Saheb	121	(1)
Hindu Muslim Relations in Karnãtaka State	121	(1)
Kathã Performers of the Kinnari Jõgi Community	122	(2)
"Why Do You Worry/Yãke Cinti?"	124	(3)
A Circle Completed	127	(1)
Summary	128	(1)
Glossary	129	(6)
Resources	135	(8)
Index	143