Don't come near Carnatic music?

Come December, Carnatic music becomes the rock star, as it were, in these parts.Chennai Carnatic Music season has no parallel anywhere else in the world, and this may be down to the fact that Chennai is here and not anywhere else.

Forget about all the rasikas who specailly arrive from US, book hotels for a month and spend their time only in sabhas.

For an ordinary person, carnatic music is a commodity-How much does it cost per kilo.Don't think, being in Madras everyone loves carnatic music.

It’s obvious that many people don’t venture anywhere near Carnatic music due to the misgiving that their knowledge to appreciate its finer points is inadequate.

Some of terms that you encounter below may sound too technical to some of you. Some of it may not make much sense to you. But don’t let that worry you. Because the whole purpose of the article is just that.

What do Carnatic concerts mean for a lay man?

Alapana

This is the freelance prelude to the actual song wherein the singer attempts to demonstrate it in a manner as if he were dumb or at least laid low by a sudden paralysis to the face —- that is basically incapable of articulating even a single word normally.

For the uninitiated, an alapana may seem a strange cross between a child’s incoherent blabber and a drunk’s indecipherable remarks. During the alapana section, a singer employs, mostly, either of the vowels ‘a’ or ‘e’ or the consonants tha, ra, and na .This is a process of clinically oriented stretching, chopping, mincing and mixing and we do not know what he wants to express.

Many lay fans may also wonder why the vidwan doesn’t come out straight and begin attempting the lyrics of the number. But this is just not on, because the whole idea of the alapana section is to musically plot the barebones-contours of the ragam and thereby smother even the elementary chance of the listener figuring out what that ragam is by at least the song. Guessing the song and ragam (and mostly getting it wrong) is technically one of the highlights of any Carnatic concert.

Krithi

Every song in a concert is a krithi ( meaning done) and they are so called because it’s in the tradition of Carnatic music to make things complicated for everyone and it is once for all 'done'

One of the complaints laid against Carnatic music is that it’s filled with songs whose language is not understandable to both the performer and the listener. But top musicians have provided a fitting answer to such misplaced criticism by vocalizing in a manner that all the remnants of any identifiable language in the lyrics are butchered beyond recognition.

Ragam

This provides the song with all its unique personality traits, which the performers go ahead and suffocate and strangle out with their own unique personality traits. The rule of the game is simple: No two performers shall thresh out the same ragam in an identifiably similar vein. This has been laid down with the explicit intent of keeping the audience awake, and in a state of suspended animation, also classically defined as utter confusion.

In a typical concert, it is not uncommon to go through sustained periods wherein no one in the audience has a clue as to what ragam is being attempted at that moment.

Sometimes the difference between two ragams can be so nuanced, that the variation becomes apparent only when the performer announces the name of the raga removing all the suspense. But the comments from the audience continue for a few more minutes.

Talam

The special beauty of rhythms in Carnatic music is that you can pretty much manage a concert without it. For most of a typical concert, the accompanists are seen to just sit around the main performer, not unlike the yawning slip fielders in a cricket match,

Many singers go about banging their thigh in a simulation of the thalam pattern, but in their ferocious enthusiasm they more or less drown out the accompanying percussionists.

Many rasikas in the first row simply nod their heads and waive their hands in the most imperfect manner to confuse even the perfect performer.

Niraval

We now move into one of the finer aspects of Carnatic music, and begin to contemplate a situation wherein the musician, for some inexplicable reason, is struck with a single phrase or motif of the song and is unable to move beyond that.

If in the alapana part, the performer loses the skill of articulation, then during the niraval session, he seems to suffer a short-term memory loss, absolutely incapable of recollecting the rest of the words that make up the song. To hide the desperation and embarrassment, he or she then attempts the same line in different riffs, lulling the listeners into believing that it’s all an organic part of the concert.

There seems to be some technical wizardry involved in this, but, all the same, niraval is simply exalting art to a new level of incomprehension and indecipherability.

Swarams

Swaram rendition, clustering in patterned profusion the seven syllables that are deemed to make up all music, is an important aspect of Carnatic singing based on the belief that alapana and niraval alone are not enough to confound the listeners.

The lattice of swarams for each ragam is unique and special, and is usually delivered at breakneck speeds so that they all fall on the ears of the listeners in a mangled heap of incoherent syllables.

Thani Avarthanam

In a typical auditorium concert, this is the period when the main performer closes the swaram part and the accompanying artistes, take over..The auditorium almost looks empty, with most of the audience making their proud presence in the canteen.This is most welcome by the canteen manager.The longer, the Thani, better the harvest for the canteen..

With nobody around, the percussionists belt it out on their hapless instruments, feeling so low, thereby creating a misleading picture that it is a solo act (thani avarthanam). This is period of highest emotion during the concert.

Tukkada

These are sung in the closing moments of a concert. But this can be enjoyed even by the least knowledgeable. We see some rasikas entering the hall only then.Many used to name tukada as 'thool pakoda' ,the most cherished item in the canteen.

I heard such a rasika talking about'ragam-thanam and pal vali

( Written in lighter vein. Artists, real rasikas and performers kindly excuse)

Jayasala 42

Don't come near Carnatic music?