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Society for Music Theory Variation and Process in South Indian Music: Some "Kritis" and Their "Sangatis" Author(s): Robert Morris Source: Music Theory Spectrum, Vol. 23, No. 1 (Spring, 2001), pp. 74-89 Published by: University of California Press on behalf of the Society for Music Theory Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/746059 Accessed: 14/10/2008 19:11 Your use of the JSTOR archive indicates your acceptance of JSTOR's Terms and Conditions of Use, available at http://www.jstor.org/page/info/about/policies/terms.jsp. JSTOR's Terms and Conditions of Use provides, in part, that unless you have obtained prior permission, you may not download an entire issue of a journal or multiple copies of articles, and you may use content in the JSTOR archive only for your personal, non-commercial use. Please contact the publisher regarding any further use of this work. Publisher contact information may be obtained at http://www.jstor.org/action/showPublisher?publisherCode=ucal. Each copy of any part of a JSTOR transmission must contain the same copyright notice that appears on the screen or printed page of such transmission. JSTOR is a not-for-profit organization founded in 1995 to build trusted digital archives for scholarship. We work with the scholarly community to preserve their work and the materials they rely upon, and to build a common research platform that promotes the discovery and use of these resources. For more information about JSTOR, please contact [email protected]. University of California Press and Society for Music Theory are collaborating with JSTOR to digitize, preserve and extend access to Music Theory Spectrum. http://www.jstor.org Variation and Process in South Indian Music: Some Kritis and their Sangatis Robert Morris While Caratic music, the classical music of South India,' has There are many different musical forms used in Carnatic com- its roots in the religions and cultures of the Indian subcontinent, it positions. The most prevalent are the varnam, kirtana, kriti, also has some surprising similarities with the common-practice art tillana, and javali.4 In this paper I focus on perhaps the most im- music of the West. For example, concerts of Camatic music feature portant of these, the kriti. I identify a number of melodic and performances of completely composed devotional songs, most rhythmic procedures that project long-range continuity and pro- created by great musicians of the past.2To be sure, these composi- mote a sense of autogenic process in two contrasting kritis, tions are interspersed with highly structured types and forms of "Karpagame"and "Mokshamugaladha."The musical analyses also improvisation, but there is a large concert repertoire of pieces that address issues of compositional identity and change in a tradition are performed essentially identically-within a variety of distinct where fixed performance and improvisation exist side by side. traditions and styles-from one concert to another.3Most of these Before I describe the basic musical concepts and practices of vocal compositions are not simple monodies, but, like their Carnatic music, I need to point to three features that make its Western counterparts, are complex and multifaceted composi- analysis difficult for Westerners. First, there is the problem of no- tions, often lasting eight to ten minutes. tation. Contraryto common knowledge, Indians do have an effec- tive notation for their music, but it demands intimate knowledge of and structuraldetail. It cannot be read 'Caratic music is to be distinguishedfrom North Indian, or Hindustani, performance practice by music. While both are based on the same melodic and rhythmicprinciples, their a musical outsider any more than a lead sheet, fake book, or jazz specific ragas, talas, and performancepractices are different.In addition,North arrangementcan be read by a musician versed only in the perfor- Indianmusic has been influencedby Islam and the musical culturesof Pakistan mance of Western classical music. A number of scholars and mu- and Persia. sicians, both Western and Indian, have transcribedCarnatic music 2This concert format is relatively recent, introduced by the renowned Carnaticcomposer/singer Ariyakudi Ramanuja Iyengar in the 1930s. 3North Indian music has a different performance practice and setting. constraints,sometimes with and sometimes without a rhythmicframework. A Ratherthan being mainly a recital of composed songs, a North Indian concert similar item on a Carnaticconcert is the ragam-tanam-pallavi,which would is comprisedof only a few but lengthy concert items, each involving improvi- occupy perhapsa thirdof the concert. sation on a single raga based on short phrases from old compositions often 4Tamiland Sanskritwords are renderedin transliterationaccording to Pan- only known to professionalmusicians. Much emphasis is placed on the artist's Indian conventions, without diacriticalmarks, and with pluralsformed by the ability to develop the characterof the raga successfully within improvisational additionof "s." Variation and Process in South Indian Music 75 into Western music notation, but our notation is not suitably struc- There are thousands of ragas, but only about one hundred are tured to convey essential features of Indian music.5 ubiquitous. A given composition or improvisation is usually based A second problem is the ubiquity of melodic ornamentation, on only one raga; however, a sequence of different ragas, called a much of which involves continuous modulation of pitch; straight raga-malica, is permitted in certain musical genres.6 tones without ornamentationare, in fact, deviations from the norm. As mentioned above, talas are cycles of beats (aksharas) that Indeed, while the term svara is correctly translated as "scale de- are continuously repeated. They provide a rhythmic framework gree," it also denotes ornamentation. In this way a svara might be for composition and improvisation. As with ragas, a given concert better defined as a precise but fluid melodic shape performed on item will use only one tala throughout.7Each tala cycle (avarta) and in precise vicinities of fixed, finely tuned scale degrees. is divided into subdivisions called angas.8 The most common A third difficulty for the Western analyst is the rhythm of talas are: Adi of 8 beats; Rupakam of 6; Mishra Chapu of 7; and Carnatic music, which is based on additive cycles of beats called Khanda Chapu of 5. talas. The music coordinated by the beat-structure of a tala need A kriti is a three-section, vocal composition that sets a text in not project the tala in any way; in fact, the music can employ all Sanskrit or a South Indian language, usually Telugu, Tamil, or kinds of deviations and syncopations that become sensible only Kannada. The text often alludes to Hindu myths and religious lore against an internalized grid of tala beats. Despite these problems, and exhibits much wordplay and wit. Quite a few kritis are devo- a novice can learn to appreciate Carnatic music if issues of tional, asking for succor and spiritual support from a personal notation, ornamentation, and rhythm are specifically addressed in god. The kriti was developed into its present form by the com- analytic discourse. poser Tyagaraja in the early nineteenth century, who introduced Indian music is based on sophisticated rules and practices, but into the kriti extensive melodic/rhythmic variations called sanga- none of these pertain to what Westerners would define as harmony tis. Before Tyagaraja, kritis were for the most part usually com- or counterpoint. These rules and practices are codified into two posed of only a few phrases, which would be repeated with slight structural concepts: raga (melody) and tala (rhythm). Ragas are variation; but with his use of sangatis, the kriti was expanded into partially ordered sets of pitch-classes, each with its own set of lak- a long, dynamic composition, often containing a climax replete shanas, or structural features. Ragas occupy a place somewhere with intricate motivic development. I should point out that some between a tune and a scale. Raga lakshanas specify a raga's reper- sangatis in many kritis performed today were not only created by toire of pitches (which can vary from four to twelve), its ascend- the kriti's composer, but were added by more recent musicians in ing and descending melodic patterns, characteristic motives and the composer's lineage, who usually attribute their additions to phrases (called sancharis), beginning, cadential, and stressed the original composer. Furthermore,master musicians may intro- (jiva) pitches, melodic ornamentation, and the like. Because many duce improvised sangatis in performance that range from slight ragas are associated with a time of day or season, social function, any one or more of nine basic affects (rasas), and, in some cases, 6Forlists of South Indianragas with theirproperties and features,see Bhag- particular gods and goddesses, a raga can set an emotional mood yalakshmy1990, SubbaRao 1996, and Kaufmann1976. My descriptionsof the and Saramatiare drawn from as well as become a complete and identifiable musical world. ragasMadhyamavati primarily Bhagyalakshmy. 7However,there are performancegenres that are not coordinatedby talas, such as alapana and tanam. Fortranscriptions of Carnaticmusic in Westernnotation, see Catlin 1980, 8Forinstance, the three angas of the seven-beat tala Misra Chapu are of 3 Kumarand Stackhouse1987, Powers 1958, Wade 1988, and Visvanathan1974. beats, 2 beats, and 2 beats. 76 Music Theory Spectrum variations on the sangatis already in the composition to novel "Karpagame," the first of the two kritis I will discuss, was variations that may be remembered and retained in future perfor- composed by the twentieth-century composer Papanasam Sivan." mances. In this way, some kritis have come to have multiple ver- Example 1 provides basic information about "Karpagame."The sions, not all of which are accepted by every Camatic lineage. composition is set in the raga Madhyamavati, a pentatonic raga. The three sections of a kriti are called pallavi, anupallavi, and The tonic is notated as C,12 and the most important cadential charanam.