Notations Carnatic music

a portrait of muthuswamy dikshitar – 1 of celebrated carnatic trinity.

notation not new concept in indian music. however, carnatic music continued transmitted orally centuries without being written down. disadvantage system if 1 wanted learn kriti composed, example, purandara dasa, involved difficult task of finding person purandara dasa s lineage of students.

written notation of carnatic music revived in late 17th century , 18th century, coincided rule of shahaji ii in tanjore. copies of shahaji s musical manuscripts still available @ saraswati mahal library in tanjore , give idea of music , form. contain snippets of solfege used when performing mentioned ragas.

melody

unlike classical western music, carnatic music notated exclusively in tonic sol-fa notation using either roman or indic script represent solfa names. past attempts use staff notation have failed. indian music makes use of hundreds of ragas, many more church modes in western music. becomes difficult write carnatic music using staff notation without use of many accidentals. furthermore, staff notation requires song played in key. notions of key , absolute pitch rooted in western music, whereas carnatic notation not specify key , prefers use scale degrees (relative pitch) denote notes. singer free choose actual pitch of tonic note. in more precise forms of carnatic notation, there symbols placed above notes indicating how notes should played or sung; however, informally practice not followed.

to show length of note, several devices used. if duration of note doubled, letter either capitalized (if using roman script) or lengthened diacritic (in indian languages). duration of three, letter capitalized (or diacriticized) , followed comma. length of four, letter capitalized (or diacriticized) , followed semicolon. in way duration can indicated using series of semicolons , commas.

however, simpler notation has evolved not use semicolons , capitalization, rather indicates extensions of notes using corresponding number of commas. thus, sā quadrupled in length denoted s,,, .

rhythm

the notation divided columns, depending on structure of tāḷaṃ. division between laghu , dhrutam indicated a।, called ḍaṇḍā, , division between 2 dhrutams or dhrutam , anudhrutam. end of cycle marked a॥, called double ḍaṇḍā, , looks caesura.