Music in South India: The Karnatak Concert Tradition and Beyond

Description

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 the world. 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. Visit www.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, a unique 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 and tala, 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 group of 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 of which 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 elements to create extended performances.

Table of Contents

Forward
Preface
CD Track List
1. Song in South India
Bhajan (Devotional Song)
Songs and Singing
Meaning of the Text: Devotion, Love, and Praise
Celebrating Tyagaraja in the United States and in South India
Languages of the Region
Kriti
Evolution of Kriti
Text and Context--a Continuum of Performance from Devotion to Virtuosity
Music, Language, and Politics
The Tamil Music Movement
Muttuttandavar (Seventeenth Century)
The Text of "I Trusted You/Unnai Nambinen" (CD track 3)
The Musical Setting of "I Trusted You/Unnai Nambinen" (CD track 3)
The Group's Progress Through the Kriti
The Ensemble
The Instruments: Violin (Chordophone); Mridarigam (Membranophone); Tambura (Chordophone) and Its Sruti, Drone, Function
Summary
2. Key Concepts in Karnatak Music
Tala: Meter and Rhythm in Karnatak Music
The Five "Families" of Rhythm and Drummers' Thinking
Hand Gestures and Vocalized Syllable Sequences for Commonly Used Td=alas
Tala Exercises in Three Speeds
Raga: Melody in Karnatak Music
Scale
Note (Svara) and Solfege Syllable Names: Kiravd=ani and Kapi Ragas: Raga as a "Vast Ocean"
Ornamentation (Gamaka)
Phrase (Sañcara or Prayoga): Phrases in Kiravani and Kapi Ragas
Functional Notes--Svaras Holding Particular Functions
Integrated Melodic-Rhythmic Training
Summary
3. The Karnatak Concert Today
Presentation and Discussion of the "Main Piece" of a Concert
The Setting
Tuning Up
Beginning: Kriti as an Orally Transmitted Composed Case of a Performance
Brief Guide to the Performance
Composition and Improvisation: Fixity and Fluidity
Kiravani Raga Alapana: Aesthetics and Dynamics of Accompaniment
Kriti: The Core Component: The Pallavi; The Anupallavi and Pallavi reprise; The Caranam and Pallavi Reprise
Niraval
Svara Kalpana: Different Ways to Improvise: A Comparison of Niraval and Svara Kalpana
Tani Avarttanam--Drum Solo
Summary
4. Contextualizing South Indian Performance, Socially and Historically
Women and Music: The Devadasi and Her Community
Women's Public Performance Circa 1900
Loss and Recovery of a Woman's Work
"Now We Women Have a Platform to Commence Singing"--Bangalore Nagarathnammal and the Tyagaraja Festival
Bangalore Nagarathnammal as a Performer: Sringara Bhakti: Being in Love with God; Listening through the Static: The Rise of Audio Recording
Men and Music: From Temple and Court to Public and State Patronage
Men's Performance in Precolonial South India
The Hereditary Male Temple Service Musician
The "Emperor of Nagasvaram": T.N. Rajarattinam Pillai: "The Audience Would Not Be Satisfied If He Did Not Play This Raga"; Alapana in Todi Raga
A New World of Performance: Concert Halls, Media, and Audiences in the Urban Environment
The Development of Radio
The Recording Industry: Commodification and Resistance
"The Effect of the Performance Should Be Such As to Keep the Listeners Spell-Bound:" Men Scripting and Singing Women's Inner Feelings
A Hereditary Music Family
A Dual Musical Enculturation and Education
"I Am Going to Snub These Male Chauvinists"
Music and Gender Today
Summary: An Ancient and Modern Tradition of Musical-Social Behavior
5. Regional and Modern Traditions: Contemporary Music Making in South India and Beyond
Music in Kerala
Idakka, a Pressure Drum from Kerala
Kathakali Dance Drama: Character Types, Costume, and Makeup; Changes in the Twentieth Century
The Kathakali Music Ensemble
Kathakali Songs: Slokam and Padam
Performance of Padam from Nala Caritam
Music of the Cinema in South India
The "Company Drama" and the Silent Cinema
Early Sound Films: The "Mythological"
The "Social"
The Playback Singer
The Cinema and Karnatak Music: A Parting of Ways
"When I Say Come/Ba Ennalu"
Cross-Cultural Composition and Collaboration
"Can There Be Release/Moksamu Galada?"
Tatva, a Regional Performance Tradition in Karnataka State
The Deccan Plateau: Meeting of North and South India
The Kannada Tatva Composer Sharif Saheb
Hindu-Muslim Relations in Karnataka State
Katha Performers of the Kinnari Jogi Community
"Why Do You Worry/Yake Cinti?"
A Circle Completed
Summary
Glossary
Resources
Index