Guest Lecture on Carnatic Music

The sound of the Sarangi - the melodious Veena, Carnatic music by far be the most calming style of music there ever is .Our senior from high school enlightened us on Carnatic Music. The word ‘Carnatic’ means pleasing to the ear. The 7 notes of Carnatic are said to be originated from Shiva's Damroo.The father of the style, Sage Purandaradasa, made the first 4 'Pillari Geetham'. The trinity or the trimoorthy of the style are Tyagaraja, Muthuswami Dikshitar and Syama Sastri. There are some components. Pitch is called Shruti. Shruti is a central system and is the most important part or foundation for short. There is an exercise to obtain the perfect Shruti, Sa-Pa-Sa. The next component is Rhythm or Tala. The meaning of Tala is a sequence of beats made by hands. It has 2 sub-components, Laghu and Drutham. Laghu means beat and Drutham means turning of the hand. Then comes Ragas. Ragas with all 7 notes are called Sampoorna Ragas. Mohanam and Kalyani are 2 types of Ragas. There is something called the Navarasam. It consists of nine emotions which are: Peace, Love, Anger, Humor, Sorrow, Courage, Terror, Disgust and Surprise. Next comes the divine Harikambhoji. It is a Raga that lets you express your emotions. Next, we have a melodious Raga called Kalyani. It is mostly used in film songs. One of the famous Carnatic artists is M.S Subbulakshmi. We, on the behalf of whole grade 5, would like to thank our senior for taking time out from his busy schedule and doing this session.

Article written by: Vivaan Sundrani, Grade 5 Euclid

Manaswini Aradhyula,

Grade

5 Grace Hopper