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Motivation and Purpose Behind The Carnatic Music Archive Web Pages:Krithis , Varnams/Geethams , Manodharma: Alapana, Swarakalpana, Neraval, Ragam-Tanam-Pallavi (RTP), Viruttam
This web page is dedicated to all the great composers ofcarnatic music, inspired practioners, my wonderful gurus, my lovingparents and wife who have made this work possible. I hope that thiswork will motivate more knowledgeable practioners and rasikas to sharetheir knowledge on the web. A lot more needs to be done! This archivehas a mere 200+ songs, whereas there are at least 2000-5000 songs'well-known' and over 30-40,000 songs lesser known! Only then we willhave a true archive.
Dec 12, 2015 Lecture demonstration on Carnatic Music Easy Learning Methods of Akella Mallikarjuna Sharma Held on 30-Aug-2015, 1 PM At IIT Madras, DOMS 101 hall. Jointly hosted by Gaanapriya Foundation and IIT.
The Indian Classical Carnatic Music Krithi , Varnams/Geethams and Manodharma: Alapana/Swarakalpana/Neraval archive web pages represent a simple experiment in distanceeducation: by an amateur and hobbyist musician for fellow amateurs,music enthusiasts and any one with an interest in south indian classical music (i.e. carnaticmusic). This site is especially for those who would like tolearn carnatic music, but do not have convenient access to musicteachers (i.e. self-learners) or would like to complement their experience with a guru with an online resource.This site is also for music enthusiasts who would like to get more information about songs, explore its meanings andaesthetics as seen by a fellow amateur. Note the dangers of listeningto an amateur's version: I reserve the right to make mistakes and maylack the perspective of seasoned practitioners. I also have made some of my own recommendations on musical pedagogy etc which are derived from self-learning of vocal music. I have judged that this is a risk worth taking because the value of the archive faroutweighs this risk. At the same time I acknowledge that all errorsare mine, and as soon as I learn about errors (please alert me!), Iwill edit the files, and may add errata to the audio classes (lessons)also. My email is: shivkuma AT gmail DOT com
Over time, if you listen to a song in a concert and would like to explore it further or learn it, Ihope that this web page would be a helpful resource. If you wouldlike to listen to the 'class' (or lesson) versions to pick up the songs or toappreciate it better, please also download the notation/sahitya inWord/HTML so that you can follow along. Please note that this resource is a mere reference intended as acomplement and not a replacement for the rich attention, interactions andblessings of a real guru.
My focus has been to put some key aspects of thecompositions together in one place accessible online:
- a good version of the songs in popular, compact audio formats (real audio and MP3),
- the notation corresponding to the version sung,
- the corresponding sahitya,
- basic word-by-word meanings,
- in-depth online audio class (lesson) for several krithis,
- online audio classes (lessons) for varnams and geethams,The proceeds of these sales are reinvested in more online education initiatives.
Why is this useful? Say you want to learn a song, but do not havenotations or a reference version. Books like that of T.K. Govinda Raoor Ranga Ramanuja Iyengar provide excellent reference to sahitya,notations and summary meanings. But it is very hard to learn fromnotations, and those notations may not match up to a version by SemmangudiSrinivasa Iyer (for example) whom you may hear on a concert tape. Theaudio music classes (lessons), notations of these great artistes' versions andword-by-word meanings are a key step in filling this void. I wouldSTRONGLY recommend that you do listen to the originals of these artistes aswell! The manodharma web page is the initial start of an attempt to extend this concept to manodharma aspects like alapana, swarakalpana, neraval and tanam/pallavi.
![Carnatic music youtube Carnatic music youtube](/uploads/1/2/5/7/125794802/504348069.jpg)
Quick History: I began working on this web page because I myself was forgetful and could notremember sahityas, particular sangatis, meanings etc. Then putting upsongs became a good motivation for me to learn songs from the versions of greatmasters. It then has become a valuable reference for my music class students because I wastraveling and could not conduct regular classes. I have also used itto coordinate the Tyagaraaja Aradhana celebrations (pancharatna group)by cutting CDs with classes and notations of the Pancharatnas. I wasthen pleasantly surprised that it is useful to a wider audience aroundthe world. Thanks to their (YOUR!) valuable feedback , I haveadded several enhancements to the site: audio files in MP3(downloadable & playable on portable MP3-CD players ), online musicclasses (lessons). Please inform/email your friends and music enthusiasts about this online educational resource for carnatic music (and kindly ask them to do the same!) .You can tell them that Google/Yahoo/MSN keywords to get to this website are 'carnatic music class' or 'carnatic music audio class'.
Most of the songs on this page are sung by me, Shivkumar Kalyanaraman,conforming to the versions of the gurus and artistes whose names Ihave referenced. Some song audio versions are contributed by my good friendRam Kaushik . The inspiration for this work is due to my parents, Smt. Geetha andShri. K. Kalyanaraman. I learnt music through the generousattention of my gurus Peri Sriramamurthy (primary guru), T. Rukmini , M.N. Subramanyam and Shri. B.R.C. Iyengar. I have also learntseveral songs from tapes of great vidwans: Semmangudi Srinivasa Iyer, , MS Subbalakshmi , DK Pattammal , DK Jayaraman, Hyderabad Brothers , KV Narayanaswamy , Neyveli Santhanagopalan, Ravi Kiran, and my good friends who are tremendous vocalists: Ram Kaushik and CV Shankar . Itrust that you will find it faithful to the originals asreferenced. Special thanks to my close friends ( Ram Kaushik, CV Shankar), and Satish Rao, visitingartistes Chitravina Ravikiran , Violin M. Chandrasekaran ) from whom I learntbetter music appreciation and for their valuable feedback on thesite. I obtained notations of some songs from Shri Lakshman Ragde([email protected]) from whom you can purchase a book or CD-ROM of notations ofnon-trinity songs and from Rani who runs www.karnatik.com . Special thanks also to mywife Sharanya and music class students Anant Indrakanti, Chalam Kashyap, Sthanu,Rohini, Poornima and Kirthivasan for helping me write the notations. Thanks to Jayasri Akella and Ramesh Panchagnula forword-by-word meanings for many songs, and for Satish Rao for some ofthe vidwans' portraits. I welcome contributions, corrections, feedbackand ideas to help make this site more useful to a larger class ofmusic lovers.
If you have some good/solid/clear/rare versions of weighty krithis ofany composer, have a recording and would like to see them here, pleasecontact me at shivkuma AT gmail DOT com .
Why So Many File Formats?
I have used a variety of file formats so that this web page may beuseful to users with different download capabilities/web connectionsetc:
- Easy Web Access: Remember! The Google/Yahoo/MSN search keywords to get to this website are 'carnatic music class' or 'carnatic music audio class' .
- HTML: Notation : The HTML format notation is useful for a quick reference tothe notation, sahitya and word-by-word meanings of thesong. Formatting may not align perfectly though, and I would recommendyou the MSWord notation if you would like to print it for your records .
- MSWord: Notation : The Microsoft Word Format presentswell formatted version of the notation, sahitya and word-by-wordmeanings of the song. If you want to print a copy (eg: to learn/singit), i would suggest using this link for the song. The notations arealso according to the artistes referenced. If you get an original version ofthe artiste's rendition, i would strongly encourage to listen to thatas well as my adapted audio version, especially if you are learningthe song.
- RealAudio: Song and Music Class/Lesson : The real-audioversion is streamed directly from my web site. You can listen to themafter you download and install a Real Player or RealJukebox (free softwareplayer). Unfortunately, real audio files cannot be played on aCD-player or DVD-player or portable MP3 player (not yet atleast). Streaming can be choppy especially if you are in a differentpart of the world, and/or have a low-speed internet connection due tonetwork congestion. The rendition version of the file also usually hasan alaapana before the song. The file size is MUCH smaller than anequivalent MP3 file because it is encoded at 16-21 kbps whereas theMP3 file is encoded at 64 kbps (i.e. MP3 version will be 3-4 timeslarger). Music Class (Lesson) files are useful if you would like to explore thesong in greater depth, whether to learn it, or just to understanddetailed meanings and some aspects of aesthetics for better appreciation.
- Zipped RealAudio : This is a downloadableversion of real audio, slightly compressed (zipped) as well. You need todownload it (it will NOT be streamed), and unzip it using a freesoftware like WinZip to get a local real audio file on your computer. Then you canplay it with the Real Player or RealJukebox (free software player). I would strongly recommendthis mode if you would like to collect the songs on your computer and/oryou experience shoppy streaming performance from my web site. Thisfile also usually has an alaapana before the song and the overall filesize is probably the smallest. Music Class (Lesson) files are useful if youwould like to explore the song in greater depth, whether to learn it,or just to understand detailed meanings and some aspects ofaesthetics. If you plan to learn from these versions, I would stronglyrecommend you download the file, and also the notations and use themto follow along. I closely follow the notation in my audio classes (lessons).
- MP3 File : The MP3 file is adownloadable or streamable MPEG compressed audio file (Apple'sQuicktime or Windows Media Player both offer streaming options: iwould recommend the former because it has cool disk-bufferingcapabilities!). MP3 files can be played on the computer with a varietyof players including MusicMatchJukebox , Real Jukebox , Apple Quicktime or Windows Media Player . Many of the MP3 files on the web sites are stereo recorded(some are mono). All recordings are at FM quality (64 kbps), and canalso be played on any new CD/MP3-player or DVD/MP3-player or portable MP3 or MP3-CD player (also see amazon's electronics or ebay's electronics page ). Most of these are priced under$100 (DVD players are in the $50 range today. I hear that MP3 playersare available for car stereo as well (or you can get a tape adaptor toconnect your portable MP3 player to your car cassette player). The MP3 file format gives bestquality, and maximum flexibility, but is a larger size. Music Class (lesson)files are useful if you would like to explore the song in greaterdepth, whether to learn it, or just to understand detailed meaningsand some aspects of aesthetics. If you plan to learn from theseversions, I would strongly recommend you download the file, and alsothe notations and use them to follow along. I closely follow thenotation in my audio classes (lesson).
- Originals (MP3) : Recently (Aug 2004), after a lot of requests, Ihave decided to experiment tentatively with putting up the originalversions of the songs. This authentic reference would help students orrasikas compare the 'class' or 'notation' content and gain a deeperappreciation of the songs. If I get requests from the artistes thatthey would not like to see their MP3's online, then they will beremoved.
- You can see the 'whats new' log for new additions to the web pages.
- Recording Online from This Web Page : I would recommendyou the software package TotalRecorder which can record audio as it is being streamed andplayed by real audio etc! The standard edition costs just about $12and can also handle choppy streaming (i.e. it will automaticallyexclude the choppiness!). You can then store the files as wav andconvert them to audio CDs etc. In principle since you can downloadeven the real audio files (zipped version) from my web site you should not need this,but it is useful to record from other web sources or convert to wavfiles or other formats etc.
Who Am I ? A Quick Biography.
My name is Shivkumar Kalyanaraman, and I am the author and singer inmost of the songs and classes (lessons) on this carnatic music archive webpage. I am actually a violinist by training. I began violin trainingin 1983 at the Secunderabad Music College under the guidance of Sri Peri Sreeramamurthy (my primary guru), a top violinist inHyderabad proficient in all the major styles of violin playing. Icompleted a certificate course in music and continued my musictraining with Smt T. Rukmini , a famous violinist in Madras during my studies at IIT Madras('89-'93 CS batch). I have also been mentored byvocalists (late) Shri M N Subramanium of the Semmangudi school andShri BRC Iyengaar of the Ariyakudi school. I continue my association and training from my teachers during visits to India. Ihave performed several concerts in USA, primarily as a violinaccompanist. I have accompanied visiting artistes like ChitraveenaRavikiran, Prof. T.V. Gopalakrishnan, Prof. T. R. Subramanium, P.N. Krishnamurthy and Ashok Ramani. More recently I have given a couple of vocal performances.
Professionally, I completed my B.Tech in Computer Science from IndianInstitute of Technology (IIT), Madras ('89-'93: 1993 graduating batch,Alakananda hostel). I had an All India Rank (AIR) #3 in IIT-JEE in1989. I have an M.S/Ph.D. in Computer Science from Ohio StateUniversity (Columbus, OH). I am currently employed as a Senior Manager, IBM Research - India, Bangalore. PreviouslyI was a full professorin the Electrical, Computer and Systems Engg department at RensselaerPolytechnic Institute.
Emailfeedback: shivkuma AT gmail DOT com
Frequent Users: A Request!
- Help spread the word : ... wherever you are in the world!
- Email your friends about these web pages. Especially since it has been moved.
- If you have a web site, kindly add a hyperlink to the webpage: http://www.shivkumar.org/music/index.html . This makes it easy for google searches, and will help people stumble onto the web site.
- Innovative Use Patterns: Please let me know in what interesting/innovative ways you use the web site: here are some collected ideas .
- Song Recordings: If you have a good version of a song (geetham, varnam, krithi etc) you would like to see a music class online, please email me an MP3 file, WWW URL or tape recording or tell me which commercial cassette I can find it on.
- Word-by-Word Meanings: If you are good at languages (Telugu, Tamil, Sanskrit etc), I have a large number of songs I would like to decipher word-by-word meanings for! I will acknowledge you in every song you help with!
Web Search Keywords to Access the Carnatic Music Archive
This site can be easily accessed from any major search engine. A number of search keywordscan get you to the site. This site will be one of the top few in the search results (not necessarily the first one). Some more common ones are: 'carnatic musicclass' , 'carnatic music audio class' , 'carnatic music archive' , 'carnatic music audio' , 'southindian music audio' , 'indian classical music audio' . My homepage can be reached through the keywords: 'shivkumar rpi' .
Please do inform/email your friends and music enthusiasts about this onlineeducational resource for carnatic music (and kindly ask them to do thesame!) . They could remember this website using thesekeywords. Also if you have a public web site, kindly add a hyperlinkto the webpage: ./index.html
Copyright note: Please note that copyright for this work is owned by me, ShivkumarKalyanaraman. However, I grant full permission to copy these works anddistribute them in an unrestricted manner , provided you do not useit for commercial gain, and acknowledge original authorship.