The Grammar of Carnatic Music

Download or read book The Grammar of Carnatic Music written by K.G. Vijayakrishnan and published by Walter de Gruyter. This book was released on 2008-09-25 with total page 359 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This book argues that Carnatic music as it is practiced today can be traced to the musical practices of early/mid eighteenth century. Earlier varieties or 'incarnations' of Indian music elaborately described in many musical treatises are only of historical relevance today as the music described is quite different from current practices. It is argued that earlier varieties may not have survived because they failed to meet the three crucial requirements for a language-like organism to survive i.e., a robust community of practitioners/listeners which the author calls the Carnatic Music Fraternity, a sizeable body of musical texts and a felt communicative need. In fact, the central thesis of the book is that Carnatic music, like language, survived and evolved from early/mid eighteenth century when these three requirements were met for the first time in the history of Indian music. The volume includes a foreword by Paul Kiparsky.