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Key Concepts in Carnatic Music
Instruments of Indian Music
A Carnatic Concert
Carnatic Grab Bag
Carnatic
History & Culture
100
This common tala has 8 beats.
What is Adi Tala?
100
This stringed instrument is used to play the drone in Carnatic music performance.
What is the tambura?
100
This is the position on stage where the melodic soloist sits during a Carnatic performance.
What is the center?
100
In addition to colors, animals, deities, and seasons, ragas are associated with these nine (or possibly ten) "flavors" or emotions.
What are rasas?
100
These four sacred books of prayers, incantations, and rituals, have been chanted in India since they were brought by the Aryans between 1700 and 500 B.C.E.
What are the Vedas?
200
This is a basic "parent" or "mother" scale on which a raga is based.
What is a melakarta?
200
This percussion instrument, made of a clay pot, is often used in Carnatic music performances.
What is a ghatam?
200
In a Carnatic concert, this improvisatory melodic section precedes the kriti and features strong, energetic, irregular rhythms.
What is the tanam?
200
Carnatic music has historically been played by these elite, high-class members of Indian society.
What are Brahmins?
200
This ancient Indian physical and mental discipline is now practiced around the world.
What is yoga?
300
These 7 syllables make up the melodic solfege of the melakarta scales.
What are sa ri ga ma pa da ni?
300
This is the name for the Classical North Indian bamboo flute.
What is bansuri?
300
This section follows the performance of a kriti, and features improvisations of the "imagined notes" of the raga.
What is kalpana svaras?
300
These are the classes or families of Carnatic rhythm, of which there are five.
What are jati?
300
This caste of women dedicated to service in temples have also been among the most celebrated in music and dance traditions.
Who are the Devadasi?
400
This popular raga resembles a Western major scale with flattened second and sixth scale degrees.
What is Mayamalavagowla?
400
This traditional classical Indian woodwind is a loud double-reed instrument, usually played in pairs, and associated with temple worship, religious processions, weddings, and auspicious occasions of all kinds.
What is a nagasvaram?
400
This section of a kriti is the "sprouting" section, where the song and tala cycle begin and the drum enters.
What is the pallavi?
400
There are many music and dance festivals held in South India every year, put on by these cultural clubs that pay for the festival activities.
What are sabhas?
400
This is the year that India established its independence from Britain.
What is 1947?
500
These two scale degrees are constantly played by the drone in Carnatic music.
What are the tonic (sa) and fifth (pa)?
500
This instrument was played by Tanjore K Murugaboopathi in the Sounds of the Ancient Concert.
What is the mridangam?
500
This familiar classical Western musical form has a recurring leading theme, and closely resembles the form of a kriti.
What is a rondo?
500
The period of British Colonial rule in India also saw the Golden Age of Carnatic music, during which these three composers of kriti came to define the genre in a way we could compare to the impact that Haydn, Mozart, and Beethoven had on the Western Classical tradition.
Who are Tyagaraja, Muthuswami Dikshitar, & Syama Sastri?
500
Like Latin in the Western World, this ancient Indian language was the basis for many important religious and philosophical works, as well as for the composition of kriti for thousands of years.
What is Sanskrit?