Tyaga‘raja’ of Carnatic Music – An Article by K.N.Shashikiran
13 Friday Jan 2012
Sri Tyagaraja Swami
K.N.Shashikiran, founder of Carnatica writes for Deccan Chronicle about Saint Tyagaraja’s eminence and originality as a composer of music. In this article, he delves into Sri Tyagaraja Swami’s great contribution to the growth of Carnatic music as well as other important characteristics of his personality. Read the excerpt below or the full article here.
“To iconise Tyagaraja merely as a saint-composer is to belittle his musical stature. Tyagaraja had philosophical and spiritual values. He was a very modern composer, a revolutionary of his times.
His compositions are ideally paced for people at all levels. If one tries singing any of his moderately paced compositions with a metronome, one can observe it follows the pulse rate of a human being!
He has composed many kritis in madhyama kala (standard middle tempo) which can be approximated to 72-80 beats per cycle. For a normal, healthy person, compositions like Manasa Etulorthune, Lavanya Rama, Kalaharana are suited rhythmically. For the stressed, he has composed songs in a faster tempo, averaging 120 or 125 beats per cycle.”
K.N.Shashikiran
