Carnatic Classical

Carnatic music (also Karnatak) is the classical tradition of South India, practised across the southern states and not only in Karnataka. Each piece follows a raga, which governs melody, and a tala, a rhythmic cycle built from units called angas. Its northern counterpart is Hindustani classical music. The voice is the centre of the system: there is no separate instrumental repertoire, and Carnatic instrumentalists learn their music through singing. Singers ornament notes with gamaka, oscillations on a note and glides from one note to another, integral to how each raga is heard.

The main composed form is the kriti, a three-part song of pallavi (refrain), anupallavi and charanam, the main concert item since the early twentieth century. A typical concert pairs the singer with violin and mridangam. Composed pieces alternate with improvisation: alapana, an unmetred exposition of the raga; niraval, variations on one line of the song text; and kalpanasvaram, phrases improvised on the note names.

Purandara Dasa is called the pitamaha, or grandsire, of Carnatic music and is credited with its teaching curriculum. Kritis by the Trinity, Tyagaraja, Muthuswami Dikshitar and Syama Sastri, sit at the heart of the modern concert, and most song texts are in Telugu and Sanskrit.

Students start with svaravali (sarali) and janta exercises in raga Mayamalavagowla, then tala alankaras and simple songs called gitams. Varnams, which set out a raga's characteristic phrases, come next, then kritis.