Tala System for Carnatic Music

Tala System for Carnatic Music

In the following :
a. The blue ANGAS are the major ANGAS (The Classical 108 talas)

b. The red ANGAS are the popular ANGAS (Sapta Suladi Talas)

c. In the literature the symbols are placed one above the other. Here for convenience, the symbols are grouped together in the paranthesis.

For the laghu a subscript indicates the jati (3,4,5,7,9). In the following it is omitted. All laghus are 4-jati unless indicated otherwise.

d. An alternate tala count is the "matra" which has a unit of 1 corresponding to the chaturasa-jati laghu.




Anga Symbol Aksharakala Mode of Counting Anudrutam U 1 1

beat Druta O 2 1 beat +

Visarijitam (wave of hand)
Druta-virama (OU) 3

Laghu (Chatursa-jati) 4 1 beat + 3 finger count

Laghu-virama (U) 5

Laghu-Laghudruta (O) 6

Laghu-druta-virama (OU) 7

Guru 8 8 A beat followed by circular movement of the right hand in the clockwise directions with closed

Guru-virama (8U) 9

Guru-druta (8O) 10

Guru-druta-virama (8OU) 11

Plutam (8) 12 1 beat + kryshya (waving right hand from right to left) to + 1 sarpini(waving the right hand from left to right) - 4 aksharakalas

Pluta-virana (8U) 13 Pluta-druta

Pluta-druta (8O) 14

Pluta-druta-virama (8OU) 15

Kakapadam + 16 1 beat + patakam(lifting the right hand) + kryshya + sarpini - each of 4 aksharakalas)


Based on the above : Sarabhandana tala - first ascribed to Syama Sastri - has 24 ANGAS and79 aksharakalas as follows : ( The construction below is only for clarity - theangas follow one another) 8 O O U (U) O O O U (O) (OU) (U) O U O U O (U) O (OU) (O) Simhanandana tala : It is the 37 th of the classical 108 talas. It isthe longest tala and does not use any sub-angas. Of the major six the anudrutamis omitted. Maha Vaidyanatha Iyer and Patnam Subramania Iyer are the primarycomposers in this tala. It has 18 angas and 128 aksharakalas as follows: 8 8 (8) 8 O O 8 8 (8) (8) 8 +

(Ref: Prof. P.Sambamurthy)

Swaras in Carnatic Music

Swaras in Carnatic Music

The Basic Swaras

There are seven basic notes in Carnatic music:
Shadjam (Sa),
Rishabam (Ri),
Gandharam (Ga),
Madhyamam (Ma),
Panchamam (Pa),
Dhaivatham (Da) and
Nishadam (Ni).
Sa is the basic note and the rest of the notes are successively higher to the basic Sa. This gives an ascending scale of seven notes. Once the seventh note or the higher Sa is reached, the notes begin to descend in frequency from Sa to Ni to Da and so on by the same interval.
These seven notes or swaras are not specific to Carnatic Music but are also common to Hindustani, Western, and other systems of music.
In Carnatic music and Hindustani music, we call the seven swaras as Sa, Ri, Ga, Ma, Pa, Da, and Ni and in Western Music, the same seven swaras or notes are called doh, ray, me, fa, soh, lah, te respectively.

Octave

Converting the Seven Swaras to twelve Swaras (or sixteen swaras)

What is an octave?

An octave is doubling the pitch of a swara by a factor of 2.
Take a look at a keyboard. You will notice the C key. In Carnatic music, the C key is called one kattai or a pitch of one. In a keyboard, the C key is followed by D, E, F, G, A, and B keys. The B key is again followed by another C key. That is, the range between a lower C to the next high is one octave. The range that begins from the next C until the next higher B is reached is Octave 2 and so on.
In Western Music, the interval between two keys or frequencies between two keys (.e.g. D and E) are of fixed intervals.
However, in Carnatic music, the intervals between two keys are not absolute intervals but relative intervals or nominal intervals.
In the keyboard, there are black keys in between the white keys that represent pitches (e.g. C, D, etc.) These black keys represent half piches or frequencies between two swaras or notes (e.g. between C and D). In a keyboard, there are five white keys in between the seven black keys that represent the primary notes. The twele notes are formed when we add the seven primary notes to the five half-notes or in-between frequency notes.
The twelve divisions are common both to Carnatic music and Western music.

Carnatic Swaras and Western Notes -A Comparison

Carnatic Swara Name

Notes in the Western System

1
Sa or Shadja
C

2
Suddha Rishabha
D flat

3
Chatussruti Rishabha
D

4
Sadharana Gandhara
E flat

5
Antara Gandhara
E

6
Suddha Madhyama
F

7
Prati Madhyma
F sharp

8
Panchama or Pa
G

9
Suddha Daivata
A flat

10
Chatussruti Dhaivata
A

11
Kaisiki Nishadha
B flat

12
Kakali Nishadia
B

• Please note that the swaras Sa and Pa do not admit variations and are called fixed notes or achala swaras.

• The notes with Suddha in their names -- Suddha Rishabha and Suddha Madhyama - refer to the lowest pitch of the corresponding note - the Rishabha or Ri and Madhyama or Ma, respectively.

• These twelve swaras become sixteen swaras with the addition of four more swaras called Vivadi (or tainted) swaras. These additional swaras occupy the same nominal swarasthana or frequency position as some of the swaras from the group of twelve swaras. In other words, the sixteen swaras are formed basically by calling the same swara by two different names.. Depending on the a raga scale used, a swaram may be called by a different name (e.g. Shatsruti Rishaba is the new name given to Sadharana Gandhara; Suddha Gandhara is the new name given to Chatussruti Dhaivata; Shatsruthi Dhaivata is the new name for Kaisiki Nishada; and Suddha Nishada is the new name for Chatussruti Dhaivata).

Source: South Indian Music by Prof. P. Sambamurthy

Swaras and Swarasthanas

Swaras and Swarasthanas

There are seven swaras in Carnatic music, namely, Shadjam (Sa), Rishabam (Ri), Gandharam (Ga), Madhyamam (Ma), Panchamam (Pa), Dhaivatham (Da) and Nishadam (Ni). There is some theoretical basis for why there is an odd number (seven) of swaras and we will deal with this subsequently. For simplicity, let us fix the Sa at one kattai and place the remaining swaras at the successive white keys. This provides us with a scale or a raga (in this case, containing all the seven swaras). As mentioned previously, ancient Vedic chants have but three swaras and somewhat later forms of music (Indian as well as other forms, eg. Chinese) use five swaras - eg. the Sa, Ri, Ga, Pa and Da of the scale we just created. Our present system is based on seven swaras, and perhaps, a few thousand years from now, the human race will advance to a point of discriminating scales of more swaras (unlikely). The seven swaras are mythologically associated with the sounds produced by certain animals and the names of the swaras are related to the names of these animals. The name Madhyamam appears to be related to the central or madhya location in the seven notes and Panchamam is most probably derived from the number five, denoting the position of the note.
We observed earlier that doubling the pitch of a swara by a factor of two results in going up in pitch by one octave. Thus, doubling the pitch of Sa (say Sa1) results in another Sa (Sa2) which is one octave higher than our original Sa. A further doubling produces Sa3 which is one octave higher than Sa2 and two octaves above Sa1. Three times the original Sa produces the Pa located between Sa2 and Sa3. In other words, the pitch of the swara Pa is one and half times the pitch of the Sa below it (and three fourths the pitch of the Sa above it). Now we come to an important limitation of the keyboard - the way the octave is divided into the twelve swara sthanas. Since it is based on current western music norms, the division is done on a logarithmic basis (which is just a more technical way of saying that the pitch values of the successive swara sthanas form a geometric progression). An octave is a factor of two and there are twelve intervals in it. If we make all the intervals equal to a multiplicative factor x, then the pitch corresponding to any key will be x times the pitch of the key (white or black) immediately to the left of it. Extending the procedure we arrive at what the value of x should be. The thirteenth swara sthana results in an octave, or, stated mathematically, x12=2. Then, we have x to be the twelfth root of two or a factor of approximately 1.06. Using this logarthmic division procedure, Pa (the 8th swara sthana) corresponds not to a ratio of 1.5 but 1.498. Though the discrepancy is very small, a well trained ear (eg. professional musician) can pick out this difference.
Carnatic music is based not on logarithmic division but on rational division. An octave is based on the ratio 1:2; Pa is located through the ratio 2:3; similar definitions exist for all the twelve swara sthanas. A few centuries ago, Western classical music too was based on rational division (the resulting scale was called as the natural scale), but this has given way to the equally tempered (also called chromatic) scale produced by logarithmic division. The difference is subtle, but quite important. The rational division claim is supported by the fact that tuning of instruments (for example, in setting the frets of veena) is performed mostly by the ear and not by reference to standards. Further, the swara sthanas of Carnatic music define only nominal locations for the swaras. Depending on the raga in which the swara is used, it manifests a deviation from the nominal sthana. Actually, the deviation from the nominal sthana depends on the swara phrase in which the swara occurs; thus, a single swara in a given raga can appear at different deviations from its nominal sthana when occuring along with various other swaras of the same raga. In a general sense, this deviation is called gamaka. Gamaka can refer to a constant deviation from the nominal swara sthana or a time dependent deviation or the path taken in reaching the nominal swara etc. Truly, gamaka is the life blood of Carnatic music and the raga system. Ragas are defined more by the gamakas and the way in which certain swara phrases (chain of swaras) are used than by the mere presence or absence of certain swaras. Thus, playing the keys corresponding to the swara sthanas of a certain raga will not reproduce the true character of the raga but only provide a general idea of what it sounds like. This is the reason why purists object to the use of keyboard instruments in Carnatic music - the lack of gamaka, which leads to a mutilation of the raga swaroopa. The use of gamaka also implies that the method used for defining nominal swara sthanas (rational or logarithmic division) is not too critical as long the correct raga swaroopam can be accommodated.
In the past, Hindustani music also had complex gamaka schemes, but the acceptance of the Harmonium has caused their virtual disappearance and only a few of the gamakas remain in use. The result is that the current form of Hindustani music has lost some of its traditional character - perhaps forever. Carnatic music is one of the very few musical forms in the world that have not lost their traditional character due to the influence of western culture. On the contrary, Carnatic music has enhanced its traditional character by borrowing good things from other systems of music. The introduction of the violin is a very good example of a positive influence. The instrument and its playing techniques have been successfully adapted to fit in with the rest of the system. This adaptation is so complete that the present day listener can hardly imagine a concert without a violin accompanying the singer.
The seven basic swaras occupy various swara sthanas and produce a total of sixteen swaras that form the basis of the raga scheme. It should be emphasized that the swara sthanas are nominal and in actual usage, depending on the raga, the swara is not fixed at any one sthana but appears at various locations around a nominal swara sthana in different swara phrases. The Shadja and Panchama swaras are like the foundations upon which the rest of the melody is constructed. So, these occupy fixed sthanas. This is denoted by naming these swaras as Prakruthi swaras (all the other swaras are grouped under Vikruthi swaras). Further, these two swaras are usually employed without any gamakas. In order to identify the sthanas of the various swaras, let us number the twelve sthanas. The names of the swaras and the swara sthanas they occupy are given in the following table.
The numbering used above allows one to easily locate the swaras on fretted string instruments (veena, mandolin etc.). One simply counts up the frets till the desired swara is reached. For example, if a Sa is played on a particular fret, to get a Prati Madhyamam, one simply moves up 6 frets on the same string (moving six steps from 1 results in 7, the number denoting the Prati Madhyamam). The Ra-Ri-Ru notation exists chiefly for convenience and is not used very widely. In conformance with that practice, this document will point out when the notation is being used. In the absence of such an indication, Ra should be taken to imply not Suddha Rishabam but a generic Rishabam. The following keyboard diagrams show the locations of the swaras for one kattai and four and a half kattai reference pitch using the ra-ri-ru notation. A similar indication can be easily made up for fretted string instruments simply by using the swara sthana table and counting up the frets starting from Sa.
The use of sixteen swara names has led to some people describing an octave as being divided into more than twelve swara sthanas (as many as twenty two). But, as the table and keyboard diagrams show, there are only twelve sthanas and certain pairs of swaras occupy the same nominal swara sthana (eg. Chatusruthi Rishabam and Suddha Gandharam). In an earlier era (or for that matter, in contemporary Hindustani music), the duplicate name swaras were not used i.e. each swara sthanam was associated with one and only one swaram. The swaras of the octave then read (in Ra-Ri-Ru notation) Sa - Ra - Ri - Gi - Gu - Ma - Mi - Pa - Da - Di - Ni - Nu - Sa. The remaining swaras, Ru, Ga, Du and Na, were considered to be tainted ('Dhosham') and their use was to be avoided. These four swaras are called as Vivadi swaras and their use is now generally accepted. The occurrence of combinations of swaras gives rise to melodies which can then be classified on the basis of the swaras that are used. This leads to the scheme of ragas which is our next topic of discussion.

==================================== ## ## ## ## ## ## ## ## ## ## Ra Ru Mi Da Du ## Gi ## ## Ni __ __ __ __ __ Sa Ri Gu Ma Pa Di Nu Ga Na ____________________________Swaras for one kattai reference pitch
========================================================= ## ## ## ## ## ## ## ## ## ## ## ## ## ## ## ## ## ## ## Ri ## ## Di ## ## ## Sa Ga Gu Pa Na ## __ __ __ __ __ __ __ __ Ru Du Ra Gi Ma Mi Da Ni Nu ____________________________________________Swaras for four and half kattai reference pitch

Raganubhava: Melodic Aspects

Raganubhava

Indian music evolved on melodic lines and has reached points of tremendous sophistication, which are unsurpassed in the world even today. Melodic aspects are the main anchor points of Indian music but it is balanced with the rhythmic aspects in an admirable manner. Carnatic music believes in the maxim "Srutir mata, layah pita" (Melody is Mother, Rhythm is Father). The implication is that music is created only out of the union of the two. All the aspects of raga, melody and aesthetics have been dealt with here.

Carnatic music is a melody-based system. The stress is on successive combination of notes unlike some systems, where one comes across the concept of harmony. Harmony involves rendering more than one note at a time. The melodic aspects of Carnatic music are very easy to understand as they are very systematic in their development from the simple to sophisticated. Melody in the context of Carnatic music may be explained as, "The production of any musical tone or succession of such tones or semitones, with definite frequencies, within certain parameters, whether rendered independently or in conjunction with rhythm and / or lyrics".

Nada

In Carnatic music the term Nada has found a special place. It refers to sounds that are pleasing to the ears, as opposed to noise. Nada, according to ancient Vedic texts, Upanishad and Purana, is the easiest path to elevate oneself and attain salvation. This in turn, is the core of Hindu philosophy. Tyagaraja and such other great composers echo the same sentiments in many of their compositions like Nadasudharasam, Nadatanumanisam etc., besides prescribing the scientific production of musical sound (e.g., Sobhillu Saptaswara).
There is another school of thought that believes that music itself is divine and that the perfect synchronisation of the performer with the musical sound, Nada (the practice of which is called Nadopasana), is the real divine bliss.

Pitch

For sound to fall in the category of the musical, the vibrations have to be regular. Thus, evenly spaced vibrations whose frequency determines the 'highness' or 'lowness' of the sounds create musical tones. This factor is called Pitch. We come across people talking about 'high-pitched screams' or 'low-moaning sounds'. Similarly they can distinguish between high and low frequency notes when they hear music.
In Carnatic music, Pitch is of central concern. Every individual has a natural pitch, a level or range at which he can produce notes of best quality with ease. Generally, male voices are lower in pitch than female voices. The marked difference in voice quality among men, women and children is due to the size of the vocal chords, the kind of breathing and the physical make-up of the resonant cavities. Talking of tonal comfort, at the natural pitch level of an individual the vocal chords are in a relaxed and almost flaccid condition. In the case of instruments, the fundamental pitch is fixed based on the length, construction and timbre of the instrument.
The fundamental key to pitch selection is the basic tonic note, Sa, called the Adhara Shadja. Every other note is in relation to this note, unlike the Western classical system. This becomes the fixed pitch and is called the Sruti. Maintaining this fundamental pitch throughout is of utmost importance. This has been beautifully encapsulated in the Sanskrit maxim, "Srutir mata" which accords pitch the status of Mother.
When the frequency of any note is exactly doubled, a . In Carnatic music, a range of three octaves is generally used. They are called the Mandra, Madhya and Tara Sthayi, referring to the lower, middle and higher octaves respectively.
Many music systems have divided an octave into twelve parts or notes. The melodic interval between two successive notes is called a semitone and that between alternate notes is referred to as tone. One can imagine a semitone to be half a step and tone to be one whole step.

Aspects of Carnatic music

Compositions

Carnatic music is taught and learned through compositions, which can be classified into one the forms: Geetham, Swarajati, Varnam, Taana Varnam, Pada Varnam, Padajati varnam, Keerthana, Kriti, Padam, Javali, Thillana, Virutham, etc. Each of these forms emphasize various aspects and encode musical expression at various levels. Although, learning music was a oral tradition, sophisticated notations have been developed by stalwarts of carnatic music, to preserve the details better. In contrast to the Hindustani Music of northern part of India, the carnatic music system developed around the compositions, which encode enormous amount of musical details, also providing scope for free improvization. Nearly every rendition of a carnatic music composition is different, and it has elements of the composers vision, as well as the musician's interpretation, which makes carnatic music very unique.

Śruti

Śruti commonly refers to musical pitch. It is the approximate equivalent of a tonic (or less precisely a key) in Western music; it is the note from which all the others are derived. It is also used in the sense of graded pitches in an octave. While there are an infinite number of sounds falling within a scale (or raga) in Carnatic music, the number that can be distinguished by auditory perception is twenty-two (although over the years, several of them have converged). In this sense, while shruti is determined by auditory perception, it is also an expression in the listener's mind.

Swara

Swara refers to a type of musical sound that is a single note, which defines a relative (higher or lower) position of a note, rather than a defined frequency. Swaras also refer to the solfege of Carnatic music, which consist of seven notes, "sa-ri-ga-ma-pa-da-ni" (compare with the Hindustani sargam: sa-re-ga-ma-pa-dha-ni or Western do-re-mi-fa-so-la-ti). These names are abbreviations of the longer names shadja, rishabha, gandhara. madhyama, panchama, dhaivata and nishada. Unlike other music systems, every member of the solfege (called a swara) has three variants. The exceptions are the drone notes, shadja and panchama (also known as the tonic and the dominant), which have only one form; and madhyama (the subdominant), which has two forms. A 7th century stone inscription in Kudumiyan Malai in Tamil Nadu shows vowel changes to solfege symbols with ra, ri, ru etc. to denote the higher quarter-tones. In one scale, or ragam, there is usually only one variant of each note present. The exceptions exist in "light" ragas, in which, for artistic effect, there may be two, one ascending (in the arohanam) and another descending (in the avarohanam).

RagaThe notes of Carnatic music are not usually fixed. In this sense they are much like the do re mi fa so la ti of western music. A performer tunes an instrument to the desired pitch (accompanists of course tune to the main performer's pitch) or sings at whatever pitch is most comfortable. This is called the kaTTai. Traditionally, the G above middle C is kaTTai 5, F is 4, A is 6, etc. Most Indian instruments do need tuning for each performance, according to the main artists' pitch - even percussion instruments are tuned.The notes used correspond to do re mi, but are called sa ri ga ma pa da ni. Sa is shadjamam, the basic note that exists in all scales. It is used as a drone note (played on a tambura), along with Pa, pancamam, its fifth. In concerts, you will hear sa pa Sa playing in octaves in the background to allow musicians to stay in tune. The other notes are rishabam (ri), gaandaaram (ga), madyamam (ma), daivatam (da), and nishaadam (ni). These notes are called swaras.While all scales have sa, not all have the other notes. Though sa ri ga ma pa da ni sa comprise the main vocalized notes of Carnatic music, the actual notes (relative frequencies) that they form number 12. There is only one sa (not counting octaves) and one pa, but there are 2 types of ma and 3 each of the other notes.As an example, let's take sa as middle C. Pa is then G. From here on out, the notes will be designated by first letter only. R1 is C#, R2 is D natural, R3 is D#. Ga is overlapping, so G1 is D, G2 is D#, and G3 is E. M1 is F, M2 is F#. Similarly, D1 is G#, D2 is A, D3 is Bb, N1 is A, N2 is Bb, and N3 is B. These twelve notes are used in combination to give various scales of ascending and descending order. Some scales (these are ragas) take seven notes in the ascending and seven in the descending, but others remove notes and still others vary the order of the notes. However, because G1=R2 (D), G2=R3 (D#), N1=D2 (A), and N2=D3 (Bb), these do not occur in the same scale successively. These combinations give 72 main ragas and innumerable other ragas from which compositions are composed. (For more information, see Intro to raga).

Raga system

Raga in Carnatic music prescribes a set of rules for building a melody - very similar to the Western concept of mode. It specifies rules for movements up (aarohanam) and down (avarohanam), the scale of which notes should figure more and which notes should be used more sparingly, which notes may be sung with gamaka, which phrases should be used, phrases should be avoided, and so on.
In Carnatic music, the sampoorna ragas (those with all seven notes in their scales) are classified into a system called the melakarta, which groups them according to the kinds of notes that they have. There are seventy-two melakarta ragas, thirty six of whose madhyama (subdominant) is sadharana (perfect fourth from the tonic), the remaining thirty-six of whose madhyama (subdominant) is prati (an augmented fourth from the tonic). The ragas are grouped into sets of six, called chakras ("wheels", though actually segments in the conventional representation) grouped according to the supertonic and mediant scale degrees. There is a system known as the 'Katapayadi sankhya to determine the names of Melakarta Ragas.
Ragas may be divided into two classes: janaka ragas (i.e melakarta or parent ragas) and janyaragas (descendant ragas of a particular janaka raga). Janya ragas are subclassified into various categories themselves.
There are potentially hundreds and thousands of ragas, with over 5000 that have been used.

Tala system

Tala refers to the beat set for a particular composition (a measure of time). Talas have cycles of a defined number of beats and rarely change within a song. They have specific components, which in combinations can give rise to the variety to exist (over 108), allowing different compositions to have different rhythms.

Carnatic music singers usually keep the beat by moving their hands up and down in specified patterns, and using their fingers simultaneously to keep time. Tala is formed with three basic parts (called angas) which are laghu, dhrtam, and anudhrtam, though complex talas may have other parts like plutam, guru and kaakapaadam. There are seven basic tala groups which can be formed from the laghu, dhrtam, and anudhrtam:
Dhruva tala Matya tala Rupaka tala Jhampa tala Triputa tala Ata tala Eka tala A laghu has five variants (called jaathis) based on the counting pattern. Five jaathis times seven tala groups gives thirty-five basic talas, although use of other angas results in a total of 108 talas.

Kriti

Carnatic songs (kritis) are varied in structure and style, but generally consist of three units:
Pallavi. This is the equivalent of a refrain in Western music. One or two lines. Anupallavi. The second verse. Also two lines. Charana. The final (and longest) verse that wraps up the song. The Charanam usually borrows patterns from the Anupallavi. There can be multiple charanas. This kind of song is called a keerthana or a Kriti. There are other possible structure for a Kriti, which may in addition include swara passages named chittaswara. Chittaswara consists only of notes, and has no words. Still others, have a verse at the end of the charana, called the madhyamakāla. It is sung immediately after the charana, but at double speed.

Varnam

This is a special item which highlights everything important about a raga; not just the scale, but also which notes to stress, how to approach a certain note, classical and characteristic phrases, etc. Though there are a few different types of varnams, in essence, they all have a pallavi, an anupallavi, muktayi swaras, a charana, and chittaswaras. They are sung in multiple speeds, and are very good for practice. In concerts, varnams are often sung at the beginning as they are fast and grab the audience's attention.
There are other kinds of songs such as geethams and swarajatis having their own peculiar composition structures, but are principally meant to serve as basic learning exercises.

Improvisation

Raga Alapana

This is the exposition of the ragam of the song that will be performed. A performer will explore the ragam first by singing lower octaves then moving up to higher ones and touching various aspects of the ragam while giving a hint of the song to be performed. It is a slow improvisation with no rhythm.
Theoretically, this ought to be the easiest type of improvisation, since the rules are so few, but in fact, it takes much skill to sing a pleasing, comprehensive (in the sense of giving a "feel for the ragam") and, most importantly, original ragam.

Niraval

This is usually performed by the more advanced concert artists and consists of singing one or two lines of a song repeatedly, but with improvised elaborations.

Kalpanaswaram

The most elementary type of improvisation, usually taught before any other form of improvisation. It consists of singing a pattern of notes which finishes on the beat and the note just before the beat and the note on which the song starts. The swara pattern should adhere to the original raga's swara pattern, which is called as aarohanam-avarohanam

Thanam

This form of improvisation was originally developed for the veena and consists of expanding the raga with syllables like tha, nam, thom, aa, nom, na, etc

Ragam Thanam Pallavi

This is a composite form of improvisation. As the name suggests, it consists of Raga Alapana, Thanam, and a pallavi line. The pallavi line is sung twice, and Niraval follows. After Niraval, the pallavi line is sung again, twice in normal speed, then sung once at half the speed, then twice at regular speed, then four times at twice the speed. Kalpanaswarams follow.

Talam and rhythm

Rhythm in carnatic music changes for each composition. Songs are set to a specific taaLam, or beat. Each taaLam comes in cycles of a number of beats, called an aavartanam. For example, one of the most common taaLam is called aadi. In aadi taaLam, 8 beats (commonly 4 swaras to each beat) make one cycle. Thus, up to 32 swaras may comprise one cycle, lengthened and shortened to accomodate the taaLam. TaaLam is kept by beating the right hand gently against the right thigh while seated with your legs crossed ("Indian style"). For aadi taaLam, first beat the palm of the hand (1), then tap the fingers pinky (2), ring finger (3), middle finger(4). Then beat palm (5), turn the hand over and beat the back of the hand (6), palm (7), back (8). This is one cycle. This cycle will repeat throughout the song. Although often the number of swaras per beat will change during a carnatic song, the actual beat changes within a song VERY rarely, and even then, it is a fixed change, not a slowing down or speeding up of the beat itself.

The concert and compositions

Compositions are composed in a fixed raga. This means that they do not deviate from the notes in the raga. In carnatic, there are no "accidentals" or variations in rhythm (there are exceptions but rarely). Each composition is set with specific notes and beats, but performers vary widely in their presentation. Improvisation occurs in the MELODY of the composition as well as in using the notes to expound the beauty of the raga.
As you enter the hall, you will notice the main performer(s) sitting in the middle. The musical sound you hear first is the drone (tambura) playing sa, pa, Sa. Accompanists like violin and veena sit to the main performer's left (your right), and percussion instruments are usually to your left. All performers sit on the stage without chairs or stools.
A concert (called a kuTcEri) will usually begin with a piece called a varnam. This piece is composed with an emphasis on swaras of the raga. It is lively and fast to get the audience's attention. Varnams also have words, the saahityam.
After the varnam, compositions are performed called kritis or keertanams. Most often, these compositions are religious in nature. These stick to one raga, although a few have sections composed of different ragas (a raagamaalika).
Many performers first begin main compositions with a section called raagam. In this, they use aakaaram (essentially, using the vowels aa, ri, na, ta, etc. instead of swaras or words) to slowly elaborate the notes and flow of the raga. This begins slowly and then becomes more intense and finally establishes a complicated exposition of the raga that shows the performer's skill. All of this is done without any rhythmic accompaniment. Then the melodic accompaniment (violin or veena), expounds the raga. Experienced listeners can identify many ragas after they hear just a few notes.
With the raga established, the song begins, sung usually only with the saahityam. In this, the accompaniment (usually violin, sometimes veena) performs along with the main performer and the percussion (mridangam, and sometimes ghaTam and ganjeera). A song usually contains 3 parts: pallavi, anupallavi, and caraNam. The pallavi is analogous to a chorus. After the anupallavi, the pallavi is again sung, and again after the caraNam as well. Each phrase is repeated with variations.
Next the performer begins swaram. In this section, swaras are sung separately (as sa ri ga, etc.) to the beat. The performer must improvise a string of swaras in any octave according to the rules of the raga and return to beginning of the cycle of beats smoothly, joining the swaras with a phrase selected from the saahityam. The violin performs these alternately with the main performer. In very long strings of swara, the performers must calculate their notes accurately to ensure that they stick to the raga, have no awkward pauses and lapses in the beat of the song, and create a complex pattern of notes that an experienced audience can follow.

The main composition of any concert will have a section at this time for the percussion to perform separately (the tani aavartanam). The mridangam performer alone will perform complex patterns of rhythm and display his or her skill, and if other percussion performers are present on stage, they too will perform, and the percussion instruments engage in a beautiful rhythmic dialog until the main performer picks up the melody once again.

The composition ends with the performing of the main portion of the song. Following the main composition, the performer will play or sing other songs with or without raga and then perform lighter songs that are more catchy and popular. Hindustani pieces are often performed, as well as short westernized songs and other popular pieces. Some performers also take requests at this time.
Every concert that is the last of the day ends with a mangaLam, a thankful prayer and conclusion to the musical event.