Charukesi (pronounced chārukēśi) is a rāga in Carnatic music (musical scale of South Indian classical music). It is the 26th Melakarta rāgam in the 72 melakarta rāgam system of Carnatic music. It is called Tarangini in Muthuswami Dikshitar school of Carnatic music.
44-554: Charukesi is used in devotional music. Its mood is poignant and the raga is usually easily identified. It is the 2nd rāgam in the 5th chakra Bana . The mnemonic name is Bana-Sri . The mnemonic phrase is sa ri gu ma pa dha ni . Its ārohaṇa-avarohaṇa structure (ascending and descending scale) is as follows (see swaras in Carnatic music for details on below notation and terms): ( chathusruthi rishabham, anthara gandharam, shuddha madhyamam, shuddha dhaivatham, kaisiki nishadham ) It
88-425: A saptaka of Hindustani music but Carnatic music assumes 24 śruti . A svara is a selected pitch from 22 śruti s, using several of such svara s a musician constructs scales, melodies and raga s. In the presence of a drone-sound of perfectly tuned Tanpuras , an ideal svara sounds sweet and appealing to human ear but particularly some 10 śruti s of the saptaka sound out of pitch (besuraa) when compared to
132-739: A few. In the 2012 release of his devotional album on Lord Ayyappan Sabarimalai Va Charanam Solli Va , ace singer P. Unni Krishnan renders a song on Raga Charukesi, Uthirathil Udhithavane Sol, signifying the Lord's birth star UTHIRAM. This album was composed and released by Manachanallur Giridharan, a noted music director from Tamil Nadu. In western music, charukesi like structures are encountered in Franz Schubert 's famous Impromptu C Minor Allegro molto moderato and also in Russian Composer Mikhail Ippolitov-Ivanov 's 'Procession of
176-432: Is sa ri gi ma pa dhi nu . Its ārohaṇa-avarohaṇa structure (ascending and descending scale) is as follows (see swaras in Carnatic music for details on below notation and terms): The notes used in this scale are shadjam, chatushruti rishabham, sadharana gandharam, shuddha madhyamam, panchamam, chatushruti daivatam and kakali nishadham . It is a sampurna rāgam – a rāgam that has all seven swaras (notes). It
220-651: Is a sampoorna rāgam - a rāgam that has all seven swaras (notes). It is the shuddha madhyamam equivalent of Rishabhapriya , which is the 62nd melakarta . The structure is the equivalent of an Aeolian dominant scale , also known as the Mixolydian b-6 scale. There are only a few minor janya rāgams (derived scales) associated with Charukesi . See full list of janya rāgams associated with it. Many compositions exist amongst modern adaptations of Charukesi , especially in Indian movies, in film songs . Examples are
264-599: Is a traditional saint Tyagaraja Gowrimanohari Rendition used in film which sound similar to Patdeep (Hindustani) Songs composed in Patdeep (Hindustani) which is equivalent to Gourimanohari (Carnatic) Songs composed in Patdeep (Hindustani) which is equivalent to Gourimanohari (Carnatic) This section covers the theoretical and scientific aspect of this rāgam. Gourimanohari's notes when shifted using Graha bhedam , yields 3 other major melakarta rāgams, namely, Vachaspati , Natakapriya and Charukesi . Graha bhedam
308-613: Is considered to be the definition of this ragam as it explores various shades of expressions possible in Gaurimanohari using vocals, Sitar , Sarangi , Flute, singing bowls and various string instruments. (Ragam Dharmavati touches) (Ragam Dharmavathi touches in Charanam) (starting Male voice in Ragam Reethigowla) (Loosely based) Songs composed in Patdeep (Hindustani) which is equivalent to Gourimanohari (Carnatic) Below song
352-607: Is found in Chapter 28 of the text Nāṭya Śāstra , estimated to have been completed between 200 BCE to 200 CE. It names the unit of tonal measurement or audible unit the śruti , with verse 28.21 introducing the musical scale as follows: तत्र स्वराः – षड्जश्च ऋषभश्चैव गान्धारो मध्यमस्तथा । पञ्चमो धैवतश्चैव सप्तमोऽथ निषादवान् ॥२१॥ | नत्य शास्त्र | २८.२१ | tatra svarāḥ – ṣaḍjaśca ṛṣabhaścaiva gāndhāro madhyamastathā । pañcamo dhaivataścaiva saptamo'tha niṣādavān ॥21॥ Natya Shastra – 28.21 This text contains
396-406: Is one of the reasons why swara is considered a symbolic expression for the number seven. In another loose comparison to western music, saptank (as an octave or scale) may be interpreted as solfège , e.g. the notes of a scale as Do, Re, Mi, Fa, Sol, La, Ti (and Do). The word svara (Sanskrit: स्वर ) is derived from the root svr which means "to sound". To be precise, the svara is defined in
440-419: Is possible towards lower and higher pitches, thus ma is taken for granted as fixed in any tonal music ( madhyama avilopi , मध्यम अविलोपी). One- svara Vedic singing is called ārcika chanting, e.g. in chanting the following texts on one note: or the like. Two- svara Vedic singing is called gāthika chanting, e.g. in chanting the following text on two notes: The musical octave is said to have evolved from
484-403: Is referred to as "the music of spheres", and the sun is stated to be "humming the wheel of the world". According to Ananda Coomaraswamy , the roots " svar ", meaning "to shine" (whence " surya " or sun), and " svr ", meaning "to sound or resound" (whence " svara ", “musical note”) and also in some contexts "to shine", are all related in the ancient Indian imagination. The concept of a svara
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#1732876134444528-438: Is the shuddha madhyamam equivalent of Dharmavati , which is the 59th melakarta . It has a few minor janya rāgams (derived scales) associated with it. See List of janya rāgams to look up all rāgams associated with it. The following are a few popular compositions in this rāgam. 'Shades of Blue: A Musical Tribute to Venmurasu' sung by Kamal Haasan , Sriram Parthasarathy , Saindhavi composed by Rajan Somasundaram
572-409: Is the 23rd Melakarta rāgam in the 72 melakarta rāgam system of Carnatic music. The 23rd melakarta rāgam as per Muthuswami Dikshitar school of music is Gourivelāvaḻi . The Western equivalent is the melodic minor scale . The Hindustani music equivalent to this rāgam is Raag Patdeep . It is the 5th rāgam in the 4th chakra Veda . The mnemonic name is Veda-Ma . The mnemonic phrase
616-475: Is the basic svara from which all the other 6 svara s are produced. When we break the word Shadaj then we get, Shad- And -Ja. Shad is 6 and ja is 'giving birth' in Indian languages. So basically the translation is : The absolute frequencies for all svara s are variable, and are determined relative to the saptak or octave. E.g. given Sa 240 Hz, Re 270 Hz, Ga 288 Hz, Ma 320 Hz, Pa 360 Hz, Dha 405 Hz, and Ni 432 Hz, then
660-403: Is the practical concept of Indian music comprising seven + five= twelve most useful musical pitches. Sage Matanga made a very important statement in his Brihaddeshi some 1500 years ago that: i.e. Shadaj, Rishabh, Gandhar, ... (and their utterance) are not the real svaras but their pronunciation in the form of aa-kar, i-kaar, u-kaar ... are the real form of the svaras. It is said that Shadaj
704-448: The tívra Ma has a line on top which can be vertical or horizontal. (Or, if a note with the same name - Sa, for example - is an octave higher than the note represented by S, an apostrophe is placed to the right: S'. If it is an octave lower, the apostrophe is placed to the left: 'S. Apostrophes can be added as necessary to indicate the octave: for example, ``g would be the note komal Ga in the octave two octaves below that which begins on
748-472: The śruti concept in Indian music . Both the svara and the śruti are but the sounds of music. According to the music scholars of the distant past, the śruti is generally understood as a microtone besides veda and an ear. In the context of advanced music, a śruti is the smallest gradation of pitch that a human ear can detect and a singer or instrument can produce. There are 22 śruti or microtones in
792-416: The musical gamut and its tuning , categories of melodic models and the raga compositions. Perhaps the greats like Bharata, Sage Matanga and Shaarnga-deva did not know the secret of tuneful tones (up to acceptable level of normal human ear, on the basis of taanpuraa drone) for they do not mention use of drone sound for any of the musical purposes. Most of the practicing musicians knew very well that all
836-595: The octave , or saptanka . More comprehensively, it is the ancient Indian concept of the complete dimension of musical pitch . At its most basic comparison to western music, a swara is, essentially, a "note" of a given scale. However, that is but a loose interpretation of the word, as a swara is identified as both a musical note and tone; a "tone" is a precise substitute for sur , relating to "tunefulness". Traditionally, Indian musicians have just seven swara s/notes with short names: sa, re, ga, ma, pa, dha, ni, which they collectively refer to as saptank or saptaka . This
880-402: The shadjam to the next note in the rāgam. For further details and an illustration, see Graha bhedam on Vachaspati . Swara#Svaras in Carnatic music Traditional Swara ( Sanskrit : स्वर ( swara ) is an Indian classical music term that connotes simultaneously a breath, a vowel , a note, the sound of a musical note corresponding to its name, and the successive steps of
924-642: The Carnatic system however, the beginner exercises are sung in the raga Mayamalavagowla , which corresponds to the Western Double harmonic scale . The reason for this being the symmetry of the scale, with the first half mirroring the second half, and the existence of all the important inrervals (half, whole and double note). This is something that is absent in the major scale, which only consists of half and whole notes. In any seven-tone mode (starting with S), R, G, D, and N can be natural ( shuddha , lit. 'pure') or flat ( komal , 'soft') but never sharp, and
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#1732876134444968-464: The M can be natural or sharp ( teevra ) but never flat, making twelve notes as in the Western chromatic scale . If a svara is not natural ( shuddha ), a line below a letter indicates that it is flat ( komal ) and an acute accent above indicates that it is sharp ( tīvra , 'intense'). Sa and Pa are immovable (once Sa is selected), forming a just perfect fifth . In some notation systems,
1012-897: The Sa after the Ni of 432 Hz has a frequency of 480 Hz i.e. double that of the lower octave Sa, and similarly all the other 6 svaras. Considering the Sa of the Madhya Saptak then frequencies of the other svaras will be, All the other svara s except Shadaj (Sa) and Pancham (Pa) can be komal or tivra svara s but Sa and Pa are always shuddha svara s. And hence svara s Sa and Pa are called achal svaras , since these svara s don't move from their original position. Svara s Ra, Ga, Ma, Dha, Ni are called chal svaras , since these svara s move from their original position. Talking about Shrutis of these Sapta Svaras, And these all Shrutis add up to 22 Shrutis in total. The svara differs slightly from
1056-562: The Sanskrit nirukta system as: The Kannada word svara and Tamil alphabet or letter suram do not represent a sound, but rather more generally the place of articulation (PoA) (பிறப்பிடம்), where one generates a sound, and the sounds made there can vary in pitch. The word is found in the Vedic literature, particularly the Samaveda , where it means accent and tone, or a musical note, depending on
1100-473: The Sardar' from his Orchestral Suite, Caucasian Sketches . (Mathaymavathi touches also) This section covers the theoretical and scientific aspect of this rāgam. Charukesi's notes when shifted using Graha bhedam , yields 3 other major melakarta rāgams, namely, Vachaspati , Natakapriya and Gourimanohari . Graha bhedam is the step taken in keeping the relative note frequencies same, while shifting
1144-415: The above-mentioned pairs DO create samvaad or consonances which Bharata did not recognize for unknown reasons. None of the musicologists give in writing the 'practical basis' or technique of ascertaining the ideal tonal gap between the note pairs like saa-re, re-ga, ga-ma, ma-pa, pa-dha, dha-ni, ni-saa* (taar saa) until Sangeet Paarijat of Ahobal (c. 1650). The svara studies in ancient Sanskrit texts include
1188-723: The all-time greatest songs is in Charukesi: 'Akale akale neelaakaasam' (from the movie 'Midumidukki', 1968). This was composed by Baburaj and sung by Yesudas and S. Janaki. There are claims that this raga is actually a very rare janya raga of Charukesi, Ushaabharanam (s g m d p m d n s / s n d p m g r g m r s). There are other great Charukesi compositions in Malayalam Films like Krishna Kripa Saagaram from Sargam sung by Yesudas and Chitra. Yaathrayai from Aayiram Para by Yesudas, Pooja Bimbam Mizhi from Harikrishnans by Yesudas and Chitra and Swapnam Thejichal from Rakshasa Raajavau by Yesudas to mention
1232-530: The context. The discussion there focusses on three accent pitch or levels: svarita (sounded, circumflex normal), udatta (high, raised) and anudatta (low, not raised). However, scholars question whether the singing of hymns and chants were always limited to three tones during the Vedic era. In the general sense svara means tone, and applies to chanting and singing. The basic svaras of Vedic chanting are udatta , anudatta and svarita . Vedic music has madhyama or ma as principal note so that tonal movement
1276-414: The distinction is made with capital and lowercase letters. When abbreviating these tones, the form of the note which is relatively lower in pitch always uses a lowercase letter, while the form which is higher in pitch uses an uppercase letter. So komal Re/Ri uses the letter r and shuddha Re/Ri, the letter R, but shuddha Ma uses m because it has a raised form - teevra Ma - which uses
1320-531: The elaborate and elongated chants of the Samaveda , based on these basic svaras. Siksha is the subject that deals with phonetics and pronunciation. Naradiya Siksha elaborates the nature of svaras, both Vedic chants and the octave. The word also appears in the Upanishads . For example, it appears in Jaiminiya Upanishad Brahmana section 111.33, where the cyclic rise and setting of sun and world,
1364-546: The first svara that is "sa" , and the fifth svara that is "pa" , are considered anchors ( achal svara s) that are unalterable, while the remaining have flavours ( komal and tivra svara s) that differs between the two major systems. North Indian Hindustani music has fixed names of a relative pitches, but South Indian Carnatic music keeps on making interchanges of the names of pitches in case of ri-ga and dha-ni whenever required. Swaras appear in successive steps in an octave . More comprehensively, svara-graam (scale)
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1408-430: The fundamentals of heptatonic scales or melakarta raga s and thaat s in Carnatic and Hindustani classical music. The seven svaras are śaḍja (षड्ज), r̥ṣabha (ऋषभ), gāndhāra (गान्धार), madhyama (मध्यम), pañcama (पञ्चम), dhaivata (धैवत) and niṣāda (निषाद). The svara s of the sargam are often learnt in abbreviated form: sā, ri ( Carnatic ) or re ( Hindustani ), ga, ma, pa, dha, ni . Of these,
1452-521: The letter M. Sa and Pa are always abbreviated as S and P, respectively, since they cannot be altered. The svara s in Carnatic music are slightly different in the twelve-note system. Each svara is either prakr̥ti (invariant) or vikr̥ti (variable). Ṣaḍjam and Pañcamam are prakr̥ti svara s, whilst R̥ṣabham , Gāndhāram , Mādhyamam , Dhaivatam and Niṣādam are vikr̥ti svara s. Ma has two variants, and each of Ri, Ga, Dha and Ni has three variants. The mnemonic syllables for each vikṛti svara use
1496-460: The modern names: [Here are the] swara s - Shadaj, Rishabha, Gandhara, Madhyama, Panchama, Dhaivata, [and seventh] Nishada. These seven svaras are shared by both major raga systems of Indian classical music , that is the North Indian (Hindustani) and South Indian (Carnatic). Sapta svara , also called sapta swara or sapta sur , refers to the seven distinct notes of the octave or
1540-844: The movie Deewana , Aye Kash Kavi Aisa Hota from the movie Mohra , are in Charukesi. Another composition in this raaga is the song Bombe Aatavaiyya from the Rajkumar starrer Kannada movie Shruthi Seridaaga . Arguably the best rendition of Charukesi in a Hindi movie is Baiyya Na Dharo sung by Lata Mangeshkar and composed by Madan Mohan from the movie Dastak . Charukesi is also popular in Hindustani music . Bhavgeet He Surano Chandra Vha composed by Pandit Jitendra Abhisheki and ghazal Main Hosh Mein Tha performed by Mehdi Hassan are other well known examples of Charukesi. In Malayalam , one of
1584-658: The note S (that is, two octaves below g).) In other words, the basic rule is that the number of dots or apostrophes above or below the svara symbol means the number of times dots or apostrophes, respectively, above or below the corresponding svara in madhya saptak (middle octave). The basic mode of reference in the Hindustani system is that which is equivalent to the Western Ionian mode or major scale (called Bilaval thaat in Hindustani music, Sankarabharanam in Carnatic ). In
1628-546: The preceding svara, re or dha shall have an interval of 3 shrutis measured from the pitch of the preceding svara and ga or ni shall have an interval of 2 shrutis measured from the pitch of the preceding svara respectively. The following quote explains it all: Bharata also makes some unscientific and unacceptable observations ignoring practically proven truths like samvaad (samvaada/ संवाद) or consonance of ma-ni, re-dha, re-pa and ga-ni as each of these svara pairs do not have equal number of shrutis to establish samvaad. In reality,
1672-401: The seven successive svara s of a saptak . The sapta svara can be collectively referred to as the sargam (which is an acronym of the consonants of the first four svara s). Sargam is the Indian equivalent to solfège , a technique for the teaching of sight-singing . As in Western moveable-Do solfège, the svara Sa is the tonic of a piece or scale. The seven svara s of the saptak are
1716-423: The songs Ammamma kelladi thozhi from Karuppu panam by M.S.Viswanathan Dhaandiya Aattam from the movie Kadhalar Dhinam , Vasanta mullai poalae from the movie Sarangadara , Edho Edho Ondru from the movie Enakku Iruvathu, Unakku Padhinettu , 'Aadal Kalaye' from Sri Raghavendra and Udaya Udaya from another Udhaya . In Hindi movies Ahista Ahista from the movie Swades , Teri Umeed Tera Intezar from
1760-401: The svara pairs saa-ma and saa-pa are samvaadi svaras (consonant pair) and are located at the interval of 9 and 13 shruti respectively. Similarly, svara pairs re-dha and ga-ni are samvaadi svara too. Without giving any example of 'a standard measure' or 'equal interval' between two successive shrutis, Bharata declared that saa, ma or pa shall have an interval of 4 shrutis measured from the pitch of
1804-460: The tuneful tones of seven notes could be discovered with the help of the theory of samvaad, in which saa-saa* (*means upper octave), saa-ma and saa-pa play the most crucial role. As per the widely used Bhatkhande Svara Lipi (Bhakthande's Swar Notation script), a dot above a letter (svara symbol) indicates that the note is sung one saptak (octave) higher, and a dot below indicates one saptak lower. Komal notes are indicated by an underscore, and
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1848-455: The two svaras each at pitch positions 4, 10 and 11. Through svara , Īśvara [God] is realized. — A proverb among Indian musicians Translator: Guy Beck So each svara is said to be sourced from the sound produced by an animal or a bird. Gourimanohari Gourimanohari or Gaurimanohari is a ragam in Carnatic music (musical scale of South Indian classical music). It
1892-507: The very drone. A tuneful and pleasing tone of the svara is located at a fixed interval but there is no fixed interval defined for two consecutive śruti s anywhere that can safely and scientifically be used throughout with respect to a perfect drone sound. The ancient Sanskrit text Natya Shastra by Bharata identifies and discusses twenty two shruti and seven shuddha and two vikrita svara . The Natya Shastra mentions that in Shadaj graama,
1936-483: The vowels "a", "i" and "u" successively from lowest to highest. For example, r̥ṣabham has the three ascending variants "ra", "ri" and "ru", being respectively 1, 2 and 3 semitones above the tonic note, ṣaḍjam . As you can see above, Catuśruti Ṛṣabham and Śuddha Gāndhāram share the same pitch (3rd key/position). Hence if C is chosen as Ṣaḍjam , D would be both Catuśruti R̥ṣabham and Śuddha Gāndhāram . Hence they will not occur in same rāgam together. Similarly for
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