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COMPOSERS OF CARNATIC CLASSICAL MUSIC 🙏

COMPOSERS OF CARNATIC CLASSICAL MUSIC

Here are some fascinating facts about our beloved most famous carnatic classical composers. 

 CARNATIC COMPOSERS

Thyagaraja swamy : (1767 - 1847 AD)

1. Tyagaraja was born in Tamil Nadu but composed Telugu songs

2.He composed his first song, Namo Namo Raghavayya, when he was 13 years old.

3. Out of the 24,000 compositions composed by him almost 700 are enthusiastically taught and practiced till today.

4. He was able to compose in 212 raga (Purandaradas, the father of Carnatic Music, was able to compose only in 25 ragas).

5. He invented 66 new ragas.

6. Sangati, a musical conception in which a set of deviations open out into a musical expression, was invented by him

7. A cavern on planet Mercury is named after him.

Tyagaraja  was one of the most important composers of Carnatic music. He is regarded as one of the "trinity" of Carnatic music composers, along with Muthuswami Dikshitar and Syama Sastri. He was a devotee of Rama.

Sri Tyagaraja, the most celebrated Carnatic Music saint was a great devotee of Lord Sri Rama. Tyagaraja lived to the full extent that God realization is best achieved through Nadopasana (music with devotion). His songs are filled with an intimate devotion to Rama, all through revealing his deep understanding of the tenets of the Vedas and Upanishads.

Sri Tyagaraja has composed about 24,000 songs in his long devoted life to Lord Rama, most of them written in his Mother tongue Telugu, but a few in Sanskrit, including the masterpiece "Jagadanandakaraka" composed of 108 names describing Lord Rama's attributes. But, his songs are well loved in Tamil Nadu, the seat of South Indian (Carnatic) Music scholarship and performance.

Purandara Das : (1484-1564)

He formulated the basic lessons of Carnatic music by structuring Swaravalis (graded exercises), Alankaras (exercises based on the Sapta talas), apart from composing Gitas. 

He introduced Mayamalavagowla as the first scale to be learnt by a beginner. However, the original tunes of his compositions are unavailable.

 He was the one of the most prolific composers of Carnatic music. Though he wanted to compose 5,00,000 songs in his lifetime, he could compose only 4,75,000. This has been referred to in one of his own compositions.

Popular Compositions: Jagadoddharana (Kapi), Jaya Jaya (Nata), Innudaya barade (Kalyanavasantam), Venkatachala nilayam (Sindhubhairavi), and so on.

Purandara Dāsa (1484–1564) was a Haridasa (a devotee - servant of Lord Hari (Vishnu)), great devotee of Lord krishna (an incarnation of Lord Vishnu) and a saint. 

He was a disciple of the celebrated Madhwa philosopher-saint Sri Vyasatirtha, and a contemporary of yet another great Haridasa, Kanakadasa. 

His Guru, Sri Vyasatirtha himself glorified Purandara Dasa in a song. Purandara Dasa was a composer, singer and one of the chief founding-proponents of the South Indian classical music.

 In honor of his significant and legendary contributions to Carnatic Music, he is widely referred to as the Pitamaha (lit, "father" or the "grandfather") of Carnatic Music. He is respected as an avatara (incarnation) of the great sage Narada (a celestial being who is also a singer).

By the way you know what? Narada learnt music from an owl :D

Bhadrachala Ramadasu :  (1620 – 1680)

Walking on the lines of being a very devout worshipper of Lord Rama, Kancherla Gopanna or Bhadradri Ramadasu lived in the 17^th century. 

He was born in a Telugu family and was a very well known poet who composed poems and songs in praise of Lord Rama.

He constructed a temple dedicated to Lord Rama in a place called Bhadrachalam in the Indian state of Andhra Pradesh. His strong will to re-build this temple, which was in ruins and neglected, made him misuse his position of tax collector in the court of Sultan Abdul Tana Shah.

 He was put in prison for twelve years for wrong doing and it is said that Lord Rama and his brother Lakshmana impersonating as Ramoji and Lakshmoji came to the rescue of Gopanna. They cleared all Gopanna’s debt and got him free.

Though Gopanna could not meet his Lord, he knew that his Lord had come to save him. The King, on the other hand was surprised as the debt paid by the strangers was in gold coins with Lord Rama’s seal.

Believing it to be a miracle he began sending gifts to the Bhadrachala Temple on every Ram Navami( Lord Rama’s birthday), a tradition that is today followed by the Hyderabad state.

At 60 years of age Kancherla Gopanna left for his heavenly abode and attained salvation, just as his Lord Rama had promised him in his dream. 

Devotion being the centre of his life, he tried to work for the good of the poor and always gave food to the needy and uttered Lord Rama’s name with a smile. 

We can only learn the importance of being devoted to something good and inspiring through his story and try to change the world around us.

He is one among the famous vaggeyakaras (a person who not only composes the lyrics but also sets them to music) in the Telugu language. 

He lived in the village of Nelakondapalli near Bhadrachalam, Telangana during the 16th century and is renowned for constructing a famous temple for Rama at Bhadrachalam. 

His devotional lyrics to Rama are famous in South Indian classical music as Ramadaasu Keertanalu. Even the doyen of South Indian classical music Saint Tyagaraja learned his musical compositions. He also wrote "Dasarathi Shatakamu" with a 'makuTamu' 'Daasarathee Karunaa payonidhee', a collection of nearly 108 poems dedicated to the son of Dasaratha .

Muthuswamy Deekshitar : (1775-1835)

Dikshitar compositions may be described as the products of a mood of contemplation and meditation (dhyana) and reflect the solemnity of the vast inner silence.

The compositions of Dikshitar, by and large, are vilamba kala krithis. This obviously gave him the scope to portray the raga bhava. He has also intelligently added in almost every song a passage in madhyamakala.

Sri. Muthuswamy Dikshitar shook off his mortal coils on the most auspicious day of Naraka Chathurdasi / Deepavali  day , amidst the singing of the krithi  on sacred Devi “Meenakshi me mudam dehi” in raga Gamakakriya (Poorvikalyani)  while rendering the line  “meenalochani paashamochani”even before completing 60 years.

Dikshitar was probably the most complete classical composer and one of the most versatile men world has ever seen. 

He was a man who had early and purposeful exposure to Carnatic, Western, Persian, Arabic and Hindustani styles of music. Dikshitar had proficiency in different languages like Sanskrit, Tamil, Telugu, Hindi, English and different branches of academics such as History, Mythology and Science, not to mention proficiency in numerous musical instruments. 

Further, he was a man, widely traveled and thus had plenty of oppurtunities to visit shrines and other places of interest which no doubt widened his perspective considerably.

Muthaiah Bhagavatar  / Harikesanallur Muthiah Bhagavathar (1877-1945)

Harikesanallur, a small village in the Tirunelveli district, shot into fame in the early part of the 20th century by her adopted son. 

The death of his father forced young Muthiah (born November 15, 1877) to shift his residence from Punalveli to Harikesanallur, a village he made famous by affixing its name to his own. 

Muthiah was sent to Tiruvaiyur by his uncle Lakshmana Suri to learn the sastras. 

But the atmosphere there was charged with the melodies of Carnatic music and soon Muthiah found himself at the residence of Guru Sambasiva Iyer of the sishya parampara of Tyagaraja.

Muthiah Bhagavatar composed almost 400 musical forms, the largest among the post-Trinity composers. Tana varnams, Pada varnams, Daru varnams (his has been the first to come down to us), Ragamaalikais, individual and group kritis (that include Navavarna, Navagraha, 108 songs each in praise of Siva and Chamundeswari apart from `stuti' kirtanas), patriotic songs, Tillanas, folk tunes and so on.

When someone asked if he could compose something that would appeal to Westerners, he composed the English notes (later popularised by Madurai Mani Iyer).

Swathi tirunal : (1813-1846)

Rama Varma , known to history as Maharaja Swati Tirunal, is one of the most accomplished and enlightened rulers of the illustrious royal house of Travancore. He was born on the 16th April 1813

Swati Tirunal distinguished himself as a musician and musical composer of a very high order. In fact, he takes his rank among the greatest figures of Karnatic music along with the famous 'Trinity', viz, Saint Tyagaraja(1767-1847), Muthuswami Dikshitar (1776-1835) and Syama Sastri (1762-1827).

Svāti Tirunāḷ‍ was deeply interested in music right from childhood. Besides being an able ruler, he was a patron of music and was a musician himself. Researchers say that Svāti Tirunāḷ‍ affixed his compositions with the mudra Padmanabha padumanabha, sarasijanaabha, ect and its synonyms. 

His education in music started with the first lessons from Karamana Subrahmania Bhagavathar and Karamana Padmanabha Bhagavathar. Later, he studied music from the then English scholar, Thanjavur Subba Rao as well.

 He continued to learn music by listening to accomplished musicians and practising himself. He encouraged both broad systems of Indian music, Hindustani and Carnatic music, though he was essentially a connoisseur of the Carnatic music tradition. 

He is credited with composing over 400 compositions in Carnatic and Hindustani music. Some of his favourite compositions were Padmanabha Pahi, Deva Deva, Devanke, Sarasijanabha and Sree Ramana Vibho. Svāti Tirunāḷ‍ was fluent in a number of languages including Malayalam, Sanskrit, Marathi, Telugu, Kannada, Hindi, Bengali, Tamil, Oriya and English.

 This was a period when music and art were thriving in many parts of south India.

Shyama Shastri : (1762-1827)

Some of Syama Sastri’s songs are very rich in rhythmic conception. Though he composed in talas like
Adi, Triputa, Roopaka, etc., he specialised in Misra Chapu, where he not only used the normal pattern (3+4), but also
the reverse (4+3), called the Viloma Chapu.

His use of different gatis like Tisra and Misra in his compositions show his
prowess in Laya.

There is an interesting incident, which is a testimony to his strength in Laya. He was once challenged by Bobbili
Kesavayya to sing a Pallavi in Simhanandana tala (the longest tala with 128 beats per cycle).

To everyone's amazement,
he not only sang it but also composed a new Pallavi in Sarabhanandana tala (79 beats per cycle).

Shyama Shastri is credited with about 300 songs, of which only about 60 - 70 are available today. He
composed a group of nine kritis known as Navaratnamalika (garland of nine gems) in praise of Goddess Meenakshi of Madurai temple.

He has composed three peerless Swarajatis, collectively known as the Ratnatrayam. He has also
composed a few Varnams, not to mention other compositions in rare ragas, like Chintamani (his own discovery), Kalagada etc.

His favourite raga seems to be Anandabhairavi, in which he has excelled himself.

Narayana thirtha : (1650-1745)

Musical Background: He was a very learned man who mastered music at a very early age. He was also well versed in Puranas, Bhagavatam and other Sanskrit works.

Contribution: Narayana Teertha was the author of an opera called Krishna Leela Tarangini. It deals with the life story of Krishna starting with his birth and ending with his marriage to Rukmini. 

The work is very interesting because of the various literary and musical forms he uses in it like songs, prose passages, Slokas (praises in verse), Dwipadis (couplets), etc. 

The lyrics are simple yet beautiful and effective. The Ashtapadis of Jayadeva were said to be his inspiration.

Signature: He used his own name, Narayana Teertha, as his mudra.

Language used: Sanskrit

Popular Compositions: Govardhana Giridhari (Hindolam / Darbarikanada), Sobhaname Sobhaname (Pantuvarali), Govindamiha (Bagesri), Puraya mama kamam (Bilahari), Kathaya Kathaya (Kalyani) etc.

Annamacharya : (1408-1503)

He is said to have written over 32,000 keerthanas in praise of Lord Venkateshwara. Out of these, about 12,000 are known now

he actually had the title of Andhra Pada Kavita Pitamaha, which means ‘The Godfather of Telugu Song-Writing’.

His music went missing for over 400 years and were found written on copper plates, in a hidden room opposite the Hundi in the Tirumala temple in the 19th Century.

He was one of the very few people to oppose the social stigma towards untouchable castes and he even wrote songs against the caste system; though he was a Brahmin himself.

In an era where women were not allowed to pursue anything, he encouraged his wife Timmakka to pursue writing and she wrote Subhadra Kalyanam. Timmakka is considered to be the first female Telugu poet.

Many of his early Keerthanas have a Shringara (romantic) theme and they talk about the romance between Lord Venkateshwara and his consort Alamelu.

While he wrote his Keerthanas on palm leaves, his son Tirumalacharya got them engraved on copper plates.

Of the 12,000 songs that he composed, 800 were set to tune by the legendary carnatic singer Dr. M Balamuralikrishna.

Mysore vasudevacharyulu : (1865-1961)

Vasudevachar was born in an orthodox Madhwa Brahmins family in Mysore and started learning music from Veena Padmanabhiah, the chief musician of the Mysore court. 

He also mastered Sanskrit and allied fields such as Kavya, Vyakarana, Nataka, Alankaram, Tarka, Itihasa, Purana having studied at the Maharaja Sanskrit college in Mysore while learning music privately.

He then went on to learn from the famous composer-musician Patnam Subramania Iyer 

Vasudevachar eventually became the chief court musician(Asthana Vidwan) at the Mysore court. 

He was known for his madhyama-kala tanam singing which he learnt from his Guru. Patnam Subramania Iyer often requested his sishya "Vasu" to help him with the sahitya (lyric) aspects of his compositions.

This aspect of his training undoubtedly helped Vasudevachar as a composer. He was adept in all the aspects of Carnatic music especially Raga Alapana,Thanam,Pallavi, Niraval, and Kalpana swaram.




Hope you enjoyed this article and willl be back soon with most famous "must know" hindustani classical composers..!!

See ya..!! Bye..!!

Highlights of MUSIC from 60000 BCE to 500 BCE

Around 60,000 years ago, humans made a cultural leap forward and began producing cave paintings and making jewelry. At the same time, they probably also started to make music

Various theories have been put forward about the origins of music and its evolutionary purpose. It may , for example, have initially evolved from early human’s imitation of animal cries, and even served the same purpose as the mating calls and displays of animals.

Modern researches have noted how close music is to speech, especially in the “tonal” languages of Africa and Asia, in which pitch is used to distinguish words, not just emotion or emphasis. It is thought that music and speech may have evolved together.

The first resource of music was undoubtedly the human voice. It is though that as soon as speech evolved, humans began augmenting with words with tonal pitch, as well as other vocal tricks such a clicks, whistles, and humming. The only accompaniment to the voice would have been rhythmic clapping and stamping.

CHARLES DARWIN

“Musical notes.. were first acquired... for the sake of charming the opposite sex.”

-          Charles Darwin, Naturalist, 1871

THE FIRST INSTRUMENTS

Humans found their first musical instruments in their natural environment, identifying objects – pieces of wood, stone, horn, or bone that would make a sound when blown or beaten.

35000 years ago, for example, stone age humans living in the "hohle fels" cave in what is now southern Germany made finger holes in a vulture’s wing bone to create a kind of flute.

PRIMITIVE XYLOPHONES

“idiophones” – instruments made from solid resonant materials that vibrate to produce sound – played a large role in prehistoric music. They include slit drums, made by hollowing out a split tree trunk, a primitive xylophone ; rattles made by filling gourds with seeds and stones ; scrapers such as a rough stick rasped against bones or shell; and plucked instruments such as the Jew’s harp, a simple string instrument held in the mouth.

Many types of drums were made by stretching animal skins over bowls, hollow gourds, or wooden frames.

Wind instruments were made from conch shells, hollow bones, bamboo, reeds, and part of trees, and were blown with the mouth or the nose.

Finger holes could be stopped or unstopped to vary the pitch, although these early instruments had no significant melodic potential.

SPIRITUAL ROLE

For primitive humans, music was an essential element in rituals and ceremonies that bound a society to its dead ancestors and its totemic animals or plants.

It was used as a means of communicating with the benign or malevolent spirits that controlled the fate of a society or individual.

SHAMAN

In many societies, the “shaman” was (and is) someone who acted as an intermediary between the spirit and the human worlds. An individual with special power to enter ecstatic states through trance, he performed rituals in which words, melody, gestures, and dance were inseparable, his voice accompanied by the beats of a drum.

The powers of the “shaman” might be called upon for healing or to summon rain.

MUSIC AS HISTORY

 In west Africa, the tradition of the “griot” singer and story teller has survived into the modern day. The “griot’s” tales preserved a detailed record of local events and celebrations such as births, wars and hunting expeditions, as well as a wider repository of legend. It was also the griot’s function to invent praise songs honoring the local ruler.

GRIOT SINGERS

NEW MATERIALS

The beginning of the “Bronze Age”, usually dated to around 5000 years ago, saw the use of copper and bronze(a copper alloy) to make implements ranging from weaponry and agricultural tools to musical instruments.

The latter include the curved “bronze horns” known as “lurs” that have been found in Denmark and northern Germany.

A LEAP FORWARD

The development of settled agricultural societies in different places led to an increase in population density and the founding of towns and cities.

Metal tools – bronze and then iron – began to replace stone.

MESOPOTAMIA

In Mesopotamia, the Indus valley, Egypt, and china, hierarchical states dominated by secular rulers and priests emerged. These societies developed various forms of writing.

MUSIC’s CRADLE

Over thousands of years, the worlds oldest civilizations, in Mesopotamia, Egypt, northern India, and china developed music traditions. Although the sound of their music has been lost, surviving artifacts show the vigor of music-making in these ancient societies.

Around 4,500 years ago, hundreds of musicians worked in the service of the priests and secular rulers of the Sumerian city-state of “Ur” , in southern Mesopotamia (Modern day Iraq).

A few beautifully made Sumerian lyres have survived into the present day – they are the oldest existing string instruments.

The Sumerians also played harps and lutes, plus varieties of wooden flutes and reed pipes.

Percussions included drums, tambourines, clappers and a kind of metal shaker known as “sistrum”

INDIAN TRADITION

The distinctive musical tradition of India must have had its origins in the Indus valley civilization that flourished from 2600 to 1900 BCE, but little is known about this period.

From around 1500 BCE, the sacred Hindu texts known as the VEDAS emerged. Some of these were recited, but others were chanted or sung.

King Ravana – a follower of the deity Shiva in the Hindu epic, The Ramayana – is credited with the invention of the “ravanatha” a bowed string instrument made out of a coconut shell and bamboo.

Another Indian instrument that had survived from antiquity is the “mrudangam”, a double sided drum, which in Hindu mythology , is said to have been played by the bull – god “Nandi”

A range of plucked stringed instruments, the “veena”, are believed to date back to the times of the Vedas.

Many of Indian instruments prominent in Indian classical music today, including the sitar and table, are of medieval origin.

BELLS,CHIMES AND SILENCE

China has a continuous musical tradition stretching back 3000 years. From the earliest times, its mix of instruments was distinctive, including the prominent role assigned to bells And chime stones – slabs of stone hung from wooden frame and struck with a padded mallet.

The “SHENG” a for of mouth organ with bamboo pipes, and varieties of zither have remained central to Chinese music through its history

SHENG INSTRUMENT

The Chinese also developed a distinctive aesthetic, in particular exploiting the effect of sounds fading into silence.

The Chinese opera developed from the third century BCE, and from the period of the TANG dynasty(618 – 907 CE) a popular music scene flourished in Chinese cities

WRITTEN MUSIC

There is evidence of the use of musical notation in China from the 5^th century BCE.

A PHILOSOPHICAL VIEW

Ancient Greek philosophers, including Pythagoras, Plato and Aristotle, believed that studying music was central to gaining an understanding of the nature of the universe. For this reason, they gave music a prominent role in education.

Pythagoras of Samos, who lived from around 570 – 493 BCE, is generally believed to hve been the first Greek philosopher to develop a theory around music and its importance in the universe.

Pythagoras was intrigued by the higher and lower sounds that he heard produced by hammers of different sizes in a blacksmiths workshop.

Experimenting with a monochord – a stringed instrument – he studied the relation ship between the pitch of a note and the length of the string that produced it.

He then figured out numerical ratios between the notes and theorized  about how they affected the musical harmony.

HEAVENLY MUSIC

In Greek cosmology, the universe was believed to consist of a series of spheres with the earth at their center. There was a sphere for the moon, the sun, each of the planets, and for the fixed stars.

Pythagoras believer that there was a numerical relationship between this spheres that corresponded to musical harmony.

Their movements generated what he described as a “music of the spheres”

PYTHAGORAS - MUSIC OF THE SPHERES

He believed that this music was imperceptible to the human ear but that it was nevertheless a sign of the fundamental harmony of the universe.

EARLY  NOTATION

The oldest surviving written music is marked on a clay tablet found at Sumer, in Mesopotamia, and dates from around 2000BCE. The marks probably gave only  a rough idea of pitch.

Evidence of true musical notation – giving both the pitch an length of notes – comes from ancient Greece  inscribed stone fragments known as the “Delphic hymns”, they show melodies, written to be sung in Athens in 138 and 128 BCE.

DELPHIC HYMNS

The oldest composition to have survived is thought to be the Seikilos Epitaph, which has the words ad melody of a song. Carved on a tombstone found in turkey, near the ancient Greek city of Ephesus, it is likely to date from the 1^st century BCE

MYTH AND TRAGEDY

In Greek mythology, the lyre-player “Orpheus” was identified as the “father of songs”

It was said that no living thing could resist the spell of music , which could tame wild animals and even move stones.

The lyre was also the chosen instrument of the god of music, “Apollo”, who was in addition, the god of healing, poetry and the Sun.

GOD OF MUSIC - APOLLO

The lyre was regarded as the quintessential Greek instrument – at least by the elite. It existed in several forms, from the simple, two-stringed lyre through the “phorminx” (up to seven strings ) to the sophisticated seven-string “kithara” which was strummed with a plectrum.

LYRE INSTRUMENT

“Rhythm and Harmony find their way into the inner places of the soul” – Plato, “the Republic”

NEW MODES. 

In early medieval western Europe, a system of “modes” was adopted for religious chants. Although they used names of the ancient Greek scales, these :Gregorian modes” were musically completely different from their ancient Greek predecessors.

GREGORIAN CHANT

The nearest modern -day equivalent to the Greek-chorus might be the opera chorus or the church choir, which contributes musical interludes to the words of a service.

In ancient Rome, audiences enjoyed music at the theater, at banquets, in the arena during gladiatorial combat, and in the street. Music added dignity and solemnity to rituals and ceremonies, and musicians accompanied the roman legions to war.

ANCIENT ROME

Well these are the highlights of music from 60000 BCE to 500 BCE

Hope you like this article and ill be back with a super interesting article on “Music in  the middle ages” (500 – 1400)

See Ya...!!