As we soak in the Christmas festivities amidst the sound of jingling bells and carols, here is a dash of the C- Major scale from Carnatic music as well. Enjoy the lilting tunes of ‘ >Nottusvarams ’!
Nottusvarams are short musical compositions set to Shankarabharanam, the Carnatic equivalent of the C- major scale in Western music.
These compositions are based on Western melodic tunes and abound in plain notes and phrases, with limited use of gamakas or musical transitions. They are also known as jati svarams or swara sahityams.
Unlike regular kritis, they are typically just a collection of lines set to a specific tala or beat and not structured as a pallavi, anupallavi and charanam.
Muttuswami Dikshitar composed over thirty nottusvarams on a variety of Hindu deities, stemming from his exposure to tunes played by English bands during the period of the East India Company in Madras.
Tyagaraja also composed similar pieces like ‘ Varalila gana lola’ , ‘ Gata moha ’ and ‘ Sarasa netra ’ in the Shankarabharanam scale.
Given their structure involving a lot of plain notes and simple beats, Nottusvarams can be leveraged for beginner’s lessons.
The crowning glory of nottusvarams is that they represent a beautiful, seamless introduction of Sanskrit lyrics into western tunes, while retaining their purity and identity from a Carnatic music perspective.
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For a detailed list of Nottusvarams by Muthuswami Dikshitar >click here
