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Manodharma–Alapana
Right from vedic age, music has been omnipresent. While Rig/Yajur vedas are recited as hymns, Sama veda is sung. During Yagyas and yagas, a particular set of hymns must be presented by Samavedis in musical forms. Nadopasana is as special as Vedopasana.
The title of this post itself is self explanatory. Manodharma sangita , simply put, is the mind’s music. Letting music flow freely from mind within the limits of raga is manodharma sangita. Main difference between a seasoned artist and a budding artist is that the former, with his experience can freely sing manodharma also considering the interest of the audience. That’s why we would love to attend seasoned musician’s concert. My guru Shri T.S. Krishnamurthy(violinist) classifies people in the musical field into three:
( 1) The singer/instrumentalist – Who just learns and presents his skills on stage
(2) Musician – Who can sing/play according to the taste of audience
(3) Artist – Who is seasoned, make the concert go the way he/she wishes and turn the audience mood to his frequency
A successful concert will have a fine blend of Manodharma sangita and Kalpita Sangita (without manodharma e.g. Varnas, thillanas,etc). FOllowing are major components of mandharma sangita:
Raga Alapana: Alapa in sanskrit means to say or express something in detail and expand. Old treatises call it Alapti. Four factors that contribute to alapana are: 1.Varna-the urge to sing 2.Aaroha 3.Avaroha and 4.Sanchari. Knowledge of the raga lakshana and proficiency in right usage of gamakas are quintessential in manodharma. There are different types of gamakas . SHargyadeva lists 15gamakas, Ahobala describes 17. However currently 10 are in usage: 1.Aroha- notes in ascending order 2.Avaroha-notes in descending order 3.Dhalu-different notes reached keeping one note constant 4.Sphurita- repeating same note twice 5.Kampita- oscillation of a note in a given place 6.Aahata-pair of notes . First note of subsequent pair will be the last note of predecessor sung in the ascending order (e.g. SR-RG-GM) 7.Pratyahata- Aahata in descending order8. Tripuchcha – one note occuring thrice 9.Aandholita- mis of hrasva and dheerga swaras 10. Murchana- completion of an octave length from each note (simply, aroha and avaroha together).
Raga alapana is developed in stages. Following are major aspcts of a good alapana:
1.The opening should give the taste of raga in a nutshell. Puzzling the audience to guess the raga is not always welcomed.
2. Alapana should involve different speeds or sthayis .Should begin with adhara shadj, move on tomadhya sthayi , elaborate the raga bhava with required bruhas and gamakas, go upto thara sthayi and then gradually come down
3.Musician should exhibit his/her control over swara sthanas (clarity of notes)
4. Graha swaras are those with which a phrase can begin. Musician should be aware of graha swaras of the raga presented. E.g.Sahana has S,N,R as graha swaras.Note thefollowing phrases. Each phrase is separated by dotted lines -S,NR S,NDP…RGMP,M G,MR…NSRGMP,MDD…(Note beginning swaras of each phrase)
5.Nyasa swaras are those which can be expanded and worked around. It is the ending swra of a phrase. Shadja and Panchama (in applicable ragas) are by default elaborated. However a good musician will know the right nyasa swara to add beauty to alapana.
E.g. Sahana’s nyasa swaras are S,R,P,D
Sample phrases- DND…NDP… RGMP,MDD…DNSRR…NSRGMR…(Note the end swaras of every phrase)
6.Usage of required gamakas will bring out the raga’s mood.
A sweet end note would have all three octaves of raga expressed clearly with apt speed and tonal clarity.
How to read notations in Carnatic music
Often music notes confuse us with the punctuation marks, upper case and lower case letters. In this post I have tried to explain most commonly used punctuation marks and tala symbols.
Punctuation marks:
, A comma indicates the space of one akshara kala or note.
; A semi colon represents two akshara kalas or space for 2 notes
Upper case letters e.g. S indicates two akshara kalas .In this example, two shadjas. Some websites also use upper case to denote upper octave swara. Note the difference in shadjas in the example below.
e.g. s r g m p d n S
Lower case notes- Just one akshara kala or note
l A simple vertical line represents the end of an angha. Be it a laghu,dhruta or anudhruta
ll Double vertical parallel lines indicate the end of an avarta of tala
– A hyphen is mostly used in varnas just to indicate how the swaras need to be split within the tala. You can see this mostly in Ganamrudha varna bodhini. They indicate where to give pause within the boundary of the tala.
Underlines: Underlines indicate that the swaras should be sung together and faster within a particular beat
Wavy lines: These are rarely used to indicate that the notes should have gamakas
Dots: A dot below a swara indicates a lower note and a dot above the swara indicates higher note. “s” without the dot denotes the adhara shadja or base shadja of our shruti. “s” with a dot above shows upper shadja. “p” with a dot below is the lower p below the adhara shadja.
Tala marks:
X : An mark indicates a beat
: A tick indicates flipping of palm
Numbers: Numbers 1, 2, 3 are used to indicate finger counts
1.A simple example of Adi tala. Each beat/finger count has 4 swaras. Adamodigalade is the lyric by Thyagaraja.
X 1 2 3 X X
P ; D- P ; M G R | G- gr S – R G , – m P M ||
A da mo – di Gala de Ra- – may yya Maa – ta
2.An example of deshadi tala:
; ; ; G P , g ; R | S ; ; sn P – ns R S ||
– – – Ra ghunaa – ya ka ! – Nee – Paa- – da
Given below is another example with the tala notation ( could’n make a clear image).This is a Dikshidar kriti in Rupaka Tala. Each beat counts 4 swaras. Please note this example covers most of what I mentioned above.
Suladi Talas & Chapu Talas
Suladi talas: There are 7 Talas – dhruva, matya, rupaka, triputa, jhampa, ata and eka tala and 5 jaathis as explained in my previous post. Applying 5 jaathis to 7 talas will give totally 35 talas in the following manner. They are called suladi talas.
Tisra jaathi Dhruva Tala
Tisra jaathi matya tala
Tisra jaathi triputa tala…..etc
Then,
Chaturashra jaathi Dhruva tala
Chaturashra jaathi Matya tala,….etc
Same applies for rest of jaathis viz. Kanda, Mishra and Sankeerna.
1
Tisra Jaathi Dhruva
2
Tisra Jaathi Matya
3
Tisra Jaathi Rupaka
4
Tisra Jaathi Triputa
5
Tisra Jaathi Jhampa
6
Tisra Jaathi Ata
7
Tisra Jaathi Eka
8
Chaturashra Jaathi Dhruva
9
Chaturashra Jaathi Matya
10
Chaturashra Jaathi Rupaka
11
Chaturashra Jaathi Triputa
12
Chaturashra Jaathi Jhampa
13
Chaturashra Jaathi Ata
14
Chaturashra Jaathi Eka
15
Kanda Jaathi Dhruva
16
Kanda Jaathi Matya
17
Kanda Jaathi Rupaka
18
Kanda Jaathi Triputa
19
Kanda Jaathi Jhampa
20
Kanda Jaathi Ata
21
Kanda Jaathi Eka
22
Mishra Jaathi Dhruva
23
Mishra Jaathi Matya
24
Mishra Jaathi Rupaka
25
Mishra Jaathi Triputa
26
Mishra Jaathi Jhampa
27
Mishra Jaathi Ata
28
Mishra Jaathi Eka
29
Sankeerna Jaathi Dhruva
30
Sankeerna Jaathi Matya
31
Sankeerna Jaathi Rupaka
32
Sankeerna Jaathi Triputa
33
Sankeerna Jaathi Jhampa
34
Sankeerna Jaathi Ata
35
Sankeerna Jaathi Eka
Sri Purandaradasa has composed alankaras, Swaravalis,Gitas,etc in these talas.
Following table charts out symbols of Tala anghas and the 7 talas with their respective formats.
Tala Angha
Symbol
Description
Laghu
I
One beat and finger counts
Dhrutam
O
One beat and flipping palm
Anudrutam
U
One beat
Tala
Format
1 Dhruva
IOII
2 Matya
IOI
3 Rupaka
OI
4 Triputa
IOO
5 Jhampa
IUO
6 Ata
IIOO
7 Eka
I
As discussed earlier, laghu is based on jaati. A Kanda (5count) jaathi eka tala will have 1 beat and 4 finger counts as Eka tala just has Laghu (refer table above) Tisra jaathi Rupaka Tala will have 1 beat and flip followed by a beat and 2 finger counts .
Laghu is further broken down and denoted as X for the beat and 1, 2, 3 …for the finger count based on jaathi. Dhrutam is again denoted as X for the beat and a tick mark for flipping of palm. Example : Chaturashra jaathi rupaka tala is denoted as :
|
X V (Read V as tick symbol) |
X 1 2 3 |
|
S R |
S R G M |
1. Thisra Chaapu Tala – It is 3 (1+2) – Tha Ki Ta – 1 ½ AksharasKalas. It is actually 3 kriyas.
2. Chathusra Chaapu Tala – Ratio is 2:2 (2+2)- Tha Ka Dhi Mi.
3. Kanda Chaapu Tala – Ratio is 2:3 ( 2+3) – Tha Ka Tha Ki Ta – 2 ½ AksharaKalas. It is actually 5 Kriyas
4. Misra Chaapu Tala – Ratio is 3:2:2 (3+4) – Tha Ki Ta Tha Ka dhi Mi – 3 ½ AksharaKalas. It is actually 7 Kriyas.
5. Sankeerna Chaapu Tala – Ratio is 2:2:2:3 (4+5) – Tha Ka Dhi Mi Tha Ka Tha Ki Ta – 4 ½ AksharaKalas. It is actually 9 Kriyas.
The Aksharakalas mentioned for each chaapu tala is for common understanding and usage. Technically, it is denoted in number of kriyas. Mishra Chapu and Khanda chapu are the most famous chapu talas in usage currently. Shyama Shastri uses a special chapu called Viloma Chapu which is just the reverse of Mishra Chapu i.e. 4+3 count Tha Ka Dhi Mi Tha Ki Ta is the jathi.
Note: Chatusra Chaapu Tala is obsolete in Carnatic Music Applications and this tala is used in Bajans for the purpose of showing the beats with sound similar to clapping the hands.
Reference: www.mridangams.com, Theory of Music by Vidushi Vasantamadhavi
There are 72 mela talas corresponding to each melakarta raga.There are also 108 classical talas.Very little information is available about them. They have been mentioned in Sangeetha Chandrika.Longest known tala is Simhanandana tala with 128 counts. Maha Vaidyanadha Iyer is said to be an adept in this tala and had used this tala in his Kalyani RTP. His contemporary Pattanam Subramanya Iyer also used to sing Pallavis in this tala.
Tala
Tala is the measure of time in music. It sets the time limit within which a particular note is to be rendered. Basic exercises in Carnatic music are done in different speeds to get a grip over tala.
Taalangas: There are six components/anghas to tala.
1.Anudhruta : Just a tap on lap (1 beat)
2.Dhruta: A tap followed by flipping the palm
3.Laghu: 1 beat and counting fingers. Laghu is based on the jaati of tala.The following are the 5 jaatis:
|
S.No |
Jaathi |
No .of counts |
Jathi |
|
1 |
Trisra |
3 |
Ta ki ta |
|
2 |
Chaturashra |
4 |
Ta ka dhi mi |
|
3 |
Khanda |
5 |
Ta ka Ta Ki ta |
|
4 |
Mishra |
7 |
Ta kit a Ta ka dhi mi |
|
5 |
Sankeerna |
9 |
Ta ka dhi mi Ta ka Ta Ki Ta |
Depending on the jaati, laghu is fixed and fingers are counted. E.g. Tisra jaati has 3 counts.So laghu has 1 beat followed by 2 finger counts. Chaturashra jaati has 4 counts.Laghu will have 1 beat and 3 finger counts.
4.Guru : Two lengths of chaturashra laghu, 8 aksharas or notes
5.Pluta: Three times chaturashra laghu/ 12 aksharas
6.Kakapada: Four times chaturashra laghu/16 aksharas
Graha: Graha describes the relationship between music and tala. Not always tala and song start together. When both music and tala start together, it is Sama Graha and vice versa is Vishama Graha. In Vishama graha, if tala starts after a few notes of music, it is Ateeta Graha.E.g. First two ettugade swaras of Famous Bhairavi ata tala varna “Viribhoni”.
If music starts after the tala begins, it is Anagata Graha . There are many such kritis to quote. One is the famous Brova Barama in Bahudari which starts after 3 akshara kalas of Adi tala.
Kale: This is applicable to any tala. Quarter of chaturashra laghu is 1 aksharakaala. If 1 aksharakaala has one note it is eka kale. If it has two notes, it is dwikale and with four notes, it is chatushkale.
Eka Kale: S R G M
Dwikale: SR GM PD NS
Chatushkale: SRGM PDNS SNDP MGRS
Same applies to any tala.
Laya: The time element between counts is called Laya. It is very important to maintain the laya or uniformity in speed while putting Tala. If the speed is very high, it is called drutalaya. Medium speed is madhya laya and slow speed is vilamba laya. Each song has a tempo of itself based on what it tries to communicate. E.g. Singing pleading songs of SHyama Sastri in Drutalaya will spoil the beauty of composition and does not serve its purpose. Likewise singing a Thillana (dance based compositions) in vilamba kala will test the patience of audience 
Yati: The method in which the swara (notes) -sahitya (lyrics) parts are arranged in a frameowrk is called Yati. There are 6 types of Yati:
1.Samayati: Swara or sahitya will follow one after the pother like ants. Alternatively knows as Pipeelika (ants). e.g. Famous Pancharatna “Endaromahanubhavulu” of Thyagaraja:
Swara: PMMP RRGR NSRG RRSN
Corresponding Sahitya: Hariguna Manimaya Saramula Galamuna
2.Gopuchchayati: The swara-sahitya in descending order resembling cow’s tail.
E.g Muthuswamy Dikshitar kriti Thyagaraja Yoga Vaibhavam in Ananda Bhairavi raga
Thyagaraja yoga vaibhavam
Agaraja Yoga vaibhavam
Rajayoga vaibhavam
YogaVaibhavam
Vaibhavam
Bhavam
Vam
3.Srotovahayati: Opposite of Gopuchchayati. Follows the pattern of a river. Starts as a small stream and flowsat length to expand its boundaries and have number of tributaries.In the same Thyagaraja Yoga Vaibhavam kriti mentioned above, dikshitar also brings srotovahayati.
Shamprakasham
Swaroopa Prakasham
Tatvaswaroopa Prakasham
Sakala Tatvaswaroopa Prakasham
Shaktyadi Sakala Tatvaswaroopa Prakasham
Shiva Shaktyadi Sakala Tatvaswaroopa Prakasham
4.Damaruyati: A combination of Gopuchchayati and Srotovahayati. An example of swara in Damaruyati:
SRGPDS
RGPDS
GPDS
PDS
DS
S
SD
SDP
SDPG
SDPGR
SDPGRS
5. Mridanga Yati: Reverse of Damaruyati.
S
SD
SDP
SDPG
SDPGR
SDPGRS
SRGPDS
RGPDS
GPDS
PDS
DS
S
6.Vishamayati: The swaras/sahitya do not follow any pattern.
Compressing your blog post content
The “More-Tag”
Being a pretty new entrant t blogging arena, I have been looking for a feature that can condense the blog entry. My blog posts are pretty long as you can see. Was glad to find out that WordPress itself offers a very easy way out – The “more-tag”. With this feature you can make a portion of your post appear on the main page and rest can be expanded by clicking a button. There is also an option called “Excerpts” where you can display a gist of your blog entry. Found the more-tag very useful and wanted to share it with fellow bloggers.
How to use:
1) Go to Posts -> Add New in your dashboard to create a new blog entry (this does not work with Pages).
You can find the More Tag button in the first row of the visual editor toolbar or by pressing Alt+Shift+T:
2) Begin writing your post. When you decide that you want to cut it off, insert the More tag to split the post (mark where the excerpt officially ends). You will see the More Tag as such in the visual editor:
3) Finish writing your post.
4) Publish the post and view the front page of your blog. You should see your post effectively split using the More Tag. Note that the more tag is not displayed in post previews, since previews display posts in entirety, but the more tag will appear once the post has been published.
Click on the link, and you will be taken to the post in its full form.
Source: http://en.support.wordpress.com/splitting-content/more-tag/
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