Carnātic Music - A Two-Minute Primer
Carnātic music is a classical art form of incredible depth and beauty. Like many classical art forms, it requires an investment of effort to build understanding and appreciation. Because of its depth, one can easily spend decades continuing to discover new layers to deepen their understanding and appreciation, with the entire journey providing immense enjoyment.
So what is Carnātic music made up of? From its Wikipedia entry:
the basic elements of śruti (the relative musical pitch), svaram (the musical sound of a single note), rāgam (the mode or melodic formulæ), and tālam (the rhythmic cycles) form the foundation of improvisation and composition in [Carnātic music].
A bulk of the articles in this series are focused on learning to identify rāgams, as this is both arguably the most fundamental skill, and a very enjoyable one for a rasikā. However, we will visit all the elements above.