A review of books in Carnatic Music
Ragas
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Sangitasiromani : A Medieval Handbook of Indian Music (Brill's Indological Library, Vol 5)
Indian Music by Leela Floyd
Indian Music and the West by Gerry Farrell
The ragas of South India : a catalogue of scalar material
Walter Kaufmann. -- Bloomington : Indiana University Press,
c1976.
Notes: This is a very large collection of ragas with some details of
each melody described in western notation. A good guide for those
familiar with western notation to get an introduction to Indian Ragas.
The book is, I think, out of print from IU Press but can be got from
Oxford and IBH.
Sangita Sampradaya Pradarshini
Subbarama Dikshitar
Review ??
Raganidhi:
A comparitive study of Hindusthani and Karnatic Ragas
author: B Subba Rao
Published by: The Music Academy, Madras.
It has side-by- side comparisons of the ragas of the two schools of
music whenever there exist parallels. Notes about subtleties of the ragas
is mentioned. And some phrases usages are sometimes given. This is
a very useful guide to listeners who would like to identify new ragas
by knowing differences with respect to already familiar ones.
It comes in four volumes.
Ragas of Carnatic Music.
Dr Bhagyelakshmi
Review:
(from Ravi Srinivasan rsriniva@us.oracle.com)
It lists most ragas, the history and background of the raga
(for the more important ones) as well as the arohana/avarohana & sanchara.
It also provides the title, tala and composer of several songs in that raga.
It contains an introduction and history section (like most books) and on
the whole, is readable and fairly accurate.
Compositions
Krithi mani malai
Sri RangaRamanuja Iyengar
Karnatic music book center...Royapettah Book center
Available in many places, a collection of 5 volumes dedicated to
compositions by the trinity, Swathi Thirunal etc. Has krithis with
notation. Unfortunately, available only in Thamizh. It is such a
huge work that I wonder how much the authors wrote every day!
Has very simple basic notation, with the help of which one can
learn the krithis by listening to tapes.
Theory:
Music of South India
Prof Sambamoorthy
A six volume series on music theory and practice. Has learning tools
like sight singing passages and treatises and guidlines on alapana,
neraval, swaras etc. It has elaborate treatment of raga and thala
classification schemes and some raga lakshanas. It also has
biographies of composers and some comparisons to western music.
In short, a bible of carnatic music.
Miscellaneous
...from Vijayasimha D N.
If you've contacts in Bangalore, there are books published by
Guru Guha Gana Nilaya (Muttur Shankara Murthy Ed.) which
are available through Vedanta Book House (Chamarajpet or
Malleswaram) and Aruna Musicals (Balepet). There are a
number of books published by Mysore University (mostly in
Kannada) which have compositions with notations.
Periodicals
Sruti
Address:contact Sundaram Sankaran 4318 Puller Dr. Kensington MD 20895
(301) 564-0425
Subscription ($ for n issues a year):
Comments on contents: A madras monthly on dance and music.
Layam
Address: The Chief Editor Sri KaraiKudi R Mani, 14, Layapriya,
Jeth Nagar, 1st Main Road, Madras 600028
Subscription: can be found by contacting the above address. The Cheif
Editor is very professional in terms of responding to letters and
sending the magazine promptly every two months.
Notes: The magazine is small, but is dense. Contains an article on
an instrument every issue, and features personalities who promote
music in india, industrialists, teachers etc. Contains some casette and
some concert reviews in india and abroad. It often contains a
composition with notation. A good periodical in terms of content.