Aesthetics and its importance in Carnatic Music

Definition The etymological meaning of the word aesthetics , has its origin from greek word which meant pertaining to things perceptible by senses . Things material as opposed to things immaterial or intangible. The term aesthetics comes from the greek (aisthetike) and was coined by the philosopher Alexander Gottlieb Baumgarten in 1735 to mean "the science of how things are known via the senses. The term aesthetics was used in German, shortly after Baumgarten introduced its Latin form (Aesthetica), but was not widely used in English until the beginning of the 19th century. However, much the same study was called studying the "standards of taste" or "judgments of taste" in English, following the vocabulary set by prior to the introduction of the term "aesthetics Aesthetics is the philosophy of beauty and arts. It is necessary to include beauty in aesthetics, although in the ancient times it was not considered essential feature of arts but now it is regarded as essential feature. Aesthetics is the branch of philosophy because it pays special attention to the subject meaning and truth of art and beauty. There are many features put together in the form of aesthetics sense. In Carnatic Music, nada, raga and tala plays a major part in contributing beauty. Nada : is musical sound. Na is prana and da is fire. Nada gives rise to shrutis and these shrutis inturn produce swaras whose combinations form ragas. Nadas can be divided into 2 branches Ahata and Anahata. Anahata is the sound heard without any conscious effort and the sound without aesthetic beauty does not appeal to the mind. Ahata nada is pleasing to the mind as it is produced with conscious effort. Nada is compared with Brahma and nadabrahma is eternal joy. Nadabrahma is prime cause of all life and through contemplation of nada, the embodiment of nada namely, Brahma, Vishnu and Maheshwara are worshipped. Nada gives rise to mandara, Madhya and tara sthayi thus giving the pleasing effect to the ears; hence, aesthetics beauty. 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.

Carnatic Music : starts from nada. Indian music traces its origin to Sama Veda. The Vedas are known as Shruti and music is subsidiary branch of Vedas. The original monotonic recitation is known as archika gayanam, 2 toned recitation is known as gathika gayanam, 3 tone is called samika gayanam. Further these are called Udatta, Anudatta and Svarita which further developed into sapta swaras. In vedic music, there was sama gana and sametara gana that is religious music and music for the masses, which lead to the development of marga and desi classification. Margi music was part of religious ritual, rigid, bound and practiced by few learned but the desi music were folk songs etc. were for the general masses. The sama veda has 3 features Stobha, Pratishta and Saptaka and among these Saptaka was most important and laid the foundation of world music as a whole. In this period only old names were discarded and instead Sa, Ri, Ga, Ma, Pa, Dha, Ni came into use and Shadjam (Sa) was kept as basis and others were relative. Ma is the 4th, Pa denoted the 5th from the tonic shadhja. 22 Srutis : ancient people discovered that universe moved with an order and rhythm conforming to the principles of numbers. This discovery lead to the birth of Indian musical scale. Musicial sound was studied from the point of view of its pitch. A fundamental note was chosen and from successive notes which blended and gave a pleasing effect and was harmonious was known as Samvaditva. The heptatonic scale of sama gana with its 22 monotones answered the most ecstatic demands of aesthetic arts. Sruti : one of the well known aphorism is sruti mata laya pita. Sruti is the finite tangible streak of musical sound heard by a very sensitive ear trained in melodic values. The Indian system of music is based on pure melody. This melodic system led to the discovery of ragas with their gamakas and other embellishments. Sruti is the fundamental keynote, occupies prime priority because it is sounded throughout the concert and it enhances aesthetic beauty of music. It is only on the basis of sruti that the melodic individuality of a raga is enjoyed and recognised. The continuing drone in a concert provides pleasing tonal background picture of the raga. The very sound of a tanpura reverberates peaceful energy taking the listener to a world of its own, which gives a totally spiritual experience. Swaras: This melodius sound starts with manodharma and culminates in a spiritual column. It undergoes refinement as it advances and composed and stacked in very delicate strands devoid of harshness irrespective of the distance from which it is heard. It has the capactity to touch the inner chords and produce moods and display emotions, independent of any external agencies. Raaga: A swara standing all alone cannot make the music and combination of swaras forms a raga. Ranjayathi iti raga is a known aphorism. That which is pleasing is Raaga. The melodic system in sruthi led to the discovery of raga , with the use of gamakas , keynotes, quarter tones , one third tones . The nadathma form is revealed in the sruthi in the background .. The main characteristic of the raga is to evoke emotions and change moods. Gamakas: That which lends the moods an characteristics to a raga is gamaka. The oscillations from one note to the other with continous effect produces a swinging effect. Gamakas are particularly popular in carnatic music . The gamakas, also define the use and rendering of the solfa in a raga, adding to the mood of briskness, thus also displaying navarasas.

LAYA The very heart-beat of music is Laya. Rhythm in Carnatic music is accorded a very high status as is evident from the Sanskrit maxim, "Layah pita", meaning, Rhythm is the Father. We shall now explore the different facets of rhythm in Carnatic music. APPRECIATING LAYA Rhythm is omnipresent. There is rhythm in the movement of heavenly bodies just as in the life cycles of micro organisms. It is only natural that man is endowed with it. Whenever we listen to music, we look for the rhythmic movements in it and then find ourselves tapping our feet or clapping our hands or even dancing to it. But what exactly do we mean by rhythm? Rhythm can be defined as a process in which the nuclei of attention are separated by individual parts of time. Whenever we listen to music, we cannot but perceive rhythm. Rhythm gives stability and form to music. It can be described as the tangible gait of any musical movement. In Carnatic music, this is referred to as Laya. The common fallacy is that rhythm or laya is confined to percussion instruments and the rhythmic patterns produced therein. But laya is not limited to just that. It is present not only in melodic compositions, which usually have a rhythmic metre in an apparent manner but also in the creative aspects, sometimes conspicuously (like in Neraval or Kalpanaswara) and subtly at others (Raga alapana and Tanam). RHYTHMIC ASPECTS The rhythmic aspects in Carnatic music are arguably among the most developed and sophisticated across the world. The patterns range from the simple to the complex. The study of rhythmic aspects involves understanding the terms Tala and Laya. Tala and Laya Tala is often confused with Laya. Laya refers to the inherent rhythm in anything. Irrespective of whether it is demonstrated or not, it is always present. This can be better illustrated with an example. We know that the sun, the planets and other heavenly bodies are moving objects. Even as our earth rotates on its axis and revolves around the sun, these bodies have their own fixed movements and speeds. Even a microscopic disturbance in that speed may lead to disasters of huge proportions. So laya can be explained as the primordial orderliness of movements. Expression of laya in an organised fashion through fixed time cycles is known as Tala. Thus it serves as the structured rhythmic meter to measure musical time-intervals. Tala in Carnatic music is usually expressed physically by the musician through accented beats and unaccented finger counts or a wave of the hand. In other words, Tala is but a mere scale taken for the sake of convenience. THE TALA SYSTEM The soundness of a system, primarily mathematical in character, consists of its internal coherency, logical rigidity and numeric accuracy. The tala system in Carnatic music satisfies all these conditions and is not only perfect but also beautifully elastic.There are six parts (Angas - limbs) of a tala

Musical Prosody in carnatic music: In Carnatic music, the other important and unique feature is the prosody (lyrics), known as Sahitya. This is the very reason why there are so many composers and compositions in Carnatic music. The sahitya has always been the effective means to communicate man's moods. The greatness of Carnatic music is further heightened through masterly compositions by great composers covering a whole range of subjects from philosophy to romance in various languages. A musical composition presents a concrete picture of not only the raga but the emotions envisaged by the composer as well. If the composer also happens to be a good poet, there is a beautiful combination of music and high flown poetry. The claim of a musical composition to permanence lies primarily in its musical setting. This is the reason why compositions in diverse languages appeal to listeners. In every composition, the syllables of the sahitya should blend beautifully with the musical setting. We can hence conclude that Aethetics is at the helm in carnatic music and every feature in carnatic music has independent aesthetic value, leading to an art form that is celestial and devine and pure.