HINDUSTANI CLASSICAL (HCM) AND CARNATIC MUSIC

HINDUSTANI CLASSICAL (HCM) AND CARNATIC MUSIC:

Carnatic Music is confined to the southern states viz: Karnataka, Kerala, Tamil Nadu and Andhra Pradesh.

The differences between the two are:

1. In HCM there is about, say, 90% freedom for the main artist to improvise. However, in Carnatic system it is the opposite. The lyrics are kriti(s) of great composers of yore, which are to be sung in a particular style only. The freedom is available only
in the aalap at the beginning before singing the kriti.

2. Though both systems have ragas with the same names, they are completely different with a different scale of notes. There are some ragas with similar scales but
different names like Malkauns and Hindolam.

3. The audible difference is the ‘shake’. If you hear a similar raga from both styles, the striking feature is that in Carnatic the strain of the note will be shaken as it is sung. If you listen to the music you will know what I am talking about.

4. HCM ragas stick to the time concept i.e. ‘aath prahar’. A twenty four hour day is divided into 8 prahar(s) of 3 hours each, staring from 4 am in the morning. Each prahar has different ragas. Eg:

Morning: Todi, Lalit….
Afternoon: Multani, Madhuvanti…..
Evening : Kalyan, Puriya Dhanashri..
Night: Shankara, Durga, Kedar, Malkauns….

There are fewer ragas for the morning and the afternoon prahars as compared to the evening to night ragas.

Carnatic does not follow the time concept system.

5. A Hindustani concert whether vocal or instrumental will end with a composition in the Raga Bhairavi. But a Carnatic music recital may even start with the raga
Bhairavi.

6. In HCM vocal, the tabla player merely accompanies the artist playing just the beat of the particular taala called ‘theka’. He is active occasionally during an approaching ‘sum’. The tabla player can show his skill only if allowed by the main artist.

In Carnatic however, the style of accompaniment is entirely different. Though any piece is set to a particular taal, the mridamgam player plays in sync with the singer. It is said that if you separate music track of the mridangam from any carnatic vocal music track and play it separately you can identify the kriti for which it was played!