One way to a happy soul
A Carnatic Music Student’s look at the most in-depth form of music that exists in the world today.
In my humble opinion, Carnatic music, at its best, can produce in anyone, so many shades of feelings. So do other forms of music too, but the endless cornucopia of raagas that exist, have the power to make us emote, given the right circumstances and mind space. Obviously, someone who’s used to listening only to mainstream “Westernized” music, has to be able to clear their mind up a little, before even starting to grasp the magnitude of power that lies in Carnatic music.
Most of you reading this will not even have heard of Carnatic music until having read this post. And that’s alright, because we’re all here to learn, and you really ought to start learning about Carnatic music! For starters, just know for now, about what a raaga is, before reading the rest of this post -
A raga uses a series of five or more musical notes upon which a melody is constructed. However, the way the notes are approached and rendered in musical phrases and the mood they convey are more important in defining a raga than the notes themselves. In the Indian musical tradition, rāgas are associated with different times of the day, or with seasons.
So yeah, sometimes, they’ve got less than five musical notes too, but that’s not the point. Moving on…
When I was younger, and didn’t have a huge vocabulary of raagas, like I do now, I used to classify them under different emotions - happy raagas, sad raagas, peaceful ragas, funny raagas, psychedelic raagas, angry raagas, and so on. Now that I think about it, raagas can produce those emotions so very easily in people, if sung properly.
I’ve always maintained that Carnatic music, or even classical music in general, is best appreciated if the listener knows the intricate structures and rules involved, too; just like how people enjoy fine wines only after having savored many a wine beforehand, and having learnt quite a bit about how they’re made, how old they are, and things like that.
I am no expert in Carnatic music, mind you, but I can tell you how amazing it feels to open your voice up with a few vocal exercises, and then just delving into a soothing Raagaalaapana (singing the raga in the way in which you comprehend it, whilst still staying within the boundaries and framework of that raaga, and using the phrases that pertain to that raaga.) It frees up the mind, and although I am totally at sea when it comes to neurology, I can just feel mind-blocks getting thwarted, and the neurological highways in my brain becoming less cluttered.
Since I’ve established that raagas can alter your emotions, I can now say that I absolutely loathe singing (and/or listening to) a few raagas (like Hindola, Pantuvaraali, etc.) This is probably because I subconsciously don’t like feeling the emotions that these raagas produce in me. I also love singing/listening to a few raagas; they make me feel elated, happy, at peace with the world, alive, and just a little bit more human, every time I come across them (like Kalyaani, Begada, Mohana, Todi, Kharaharapriya, Naatakuranji, etc.)
Raagas are just one part of the whole world of Carnatic music. The compositions themselves play a really important part. Yes, most of them are about the composers’ thoughts and praises about Gods, but the dexterity required to adhere to the grammatical rules and the wit that they must have had, in being able to do so, is overwhelming. And it’s not like they sat and wrote these compositions for days at a stretch! Most of them were spontaneous compositions — these composers would compose and sing a new song, and if their disciples were around, they would listen and immediately notate it, this saving it for the future.
So, although I consider myself to be an “unbranded” theist now (and have been this way for quite a few years), I can sing these compositions as, sort of like a story-teller telling the composer’s story through my voice. You know, rather than thinking of it as if I’m playing the part of the composer, figuratively saying. It’s like I’m the narrator, and not the actor. I just hope I’m making at least some sense here.
Sri MSN Murthy on the Violin, Sri Ganapati Raman on the Mridangam and Sri Manjunath on the Ghatam
By now, if you have no clue about Carnatic music, almost everything you’ve read here so far, must feel like Greek and Latin. Or Sanskrit. (You know, it’s not like people go about saluting each other saying “Aham tvaam namaskaaromi.”, do you?) But just know this - if you enjoy listening to “normal” music, wherein you don’t have to have prerequisite knowledge about anything related to music to do so, and find classical music boring, all I can say is that you are missing out on a lot.
We, as humans, have developed over the past few millennia, into a pretty advanced species. We’ve developed technologies that have changed the way we live, on so many different levels. To come this far, and start taking steps backward, by dumbing ourselves down (“us” being all of us as a whole), is just shameful. It is unnecessary, and inane!
Yes, I enjoy listening to “non-classical” music too, depending on the scenario (like, at the gym, at a party, out with friends, or just when I’m “in that mood”), but it’s just an entirely different sensation, to plunge into the world of classical music. I wish people weren’t so stubborn as to not put in the effort to learn about Carnatic music, or any other form of classical music.
Sure, there is charm in effortless listening, but I can not stop stressing on how wonderful it is, to put in that effort, and reap the benefits of the vastness of knowledge and happiness, that is Carnatic music. To total new-comers, Carnatic music, with its vast array of raagas, instruments and rules, would seem intriguing and confusing at first, but to someone with a good ear, the charm of Carnatic melody and the tunes sound just as good as pop/rock/you-know-which-kind-I’m-talking-about music, if not better.
I started learning Carnatic music at the age of 6. It was alright in the beginning, and it got quite rough in the middle, but I thank my mom for not letting me quit, because after I’d passed that particularly troublesome hurdle, it’s been an amazing journey so far. Patience has literally been a virtue. And I can tell, that it’s only going to get better. Yes, I’ll have to work hard, and yes, I’ll have to make sacrifices, but that’s a very small price that I’ll be paying, for what I’ll be getting in return - a happy soul.
