Remembering the Musical Trinity of Carnatic Music
Everyone in the field of Indian Music knows about the musical Trinity of Shyama Shastry, Thyagaraja and Muttuswamy Dikshitar and their immense contribution to the Carnatic style of music. Having started my baby steps into the musical world by studying music with a BA Honors course I am getting to know more about these great saints and composers, their lives and their works.
What stood out about these composers, for me with an Engineering and IT background ,was their in-depth knowledge of the various sciences and mathematics skills which they got by studying the Vedas, Upanishads, Bhagavatham and other scriptures. The rhythm in Carnatic music is one of the most complex forms among all the musical genres and is highly mathematical. These composers mastered it and have sung complex rhythms in their works which ran into 100s and 1000s compositions each with a unique style, rhythm and melody.
The greatness of Indian age old scriptures can be in seen in their compositions, for example the various planetary systems are described by Diksithar in his Navagraha kritis. It is documented that Dikshitar brought rains to a small village which was drought ridden by singing “‘Salilam Varshaya Varshaya’ (let the rain pour down) in Raga Amrutavarshini. Saint Thyagaraja documented the entire details of Rama and his greatness in his songs. These songs showed that the people in Rama’s era had access to advance scientific knowledge and skills. Shyama Shastry was an expert in rhythms and composed complex rhythmic patterns in Misra Chapu tala.
Their command over Sanskrit , Telugu , Tamil and Malayalam were indepth and vast as they could create unique compositions every single time. The use of various grammar rules was so good that it makes it tough for the current singers to make sure it is pronounced with the correct tone, pitch and pauses, else it changes the meaning of the verse completely.
It made me think that the current generation of singers and composers will need to learn Sanskrit language in-depth. They need to also make an attempt to understand the scriptures in more detail if they are to get anywhere close to these great composers.
I think this thought is true for composing in any language for that matter. The knowledge of the culture and history of a place or a country is to be known in great depth if one has to compose a great song.
It would be great to get your views and thoughts.
