Appreciating Carnatic Music

Carnatic music as raga music

This 71-lecture NPTEL course, taught by Prof. Lakshmi Sreeram of Ahmedabad University, presents Carnatic music as a tradition built on raga. It starts with the idea of music as a body of material and works towards detailed study of raga, swara and ornamentation.

Lecture themes

• Classical music as art music, and how melody and harmony differ.
• Understanding raga in three parts, including the relation between raga and swara.
• Gamaka, the ornamentation of notes, covered across two lectures.
• Swara and sruti in the Sanskrit textual tradition, and the role of the tambura.

The lectures are conceptual, so they reward careful listening and note-taking. Set alongside the Hindustani course by the same teacher, they allow a direct comparison of the two traditions.