Music Therapy

In Carnatic music, more than in any other, localized inflexions with average pitch lead to the perception of microtones. Some inflexions can function as pure ornamentations, espedially those in vogue today. Many people think of them as distinct sthanams and localized inflexions or “gamakams”. Musicologists often argue that pitch inflexions are inextricably coupled with similar multi-dimensional phenomena.

If one picks up a typical book on Carnatic music theory and starts reading, more often than not, he or she will encounter melodic graces, that do not have any direct connection with these microtones. Upon hearing actual music, ubiquitously and systematically, it would be quite strange without them to a seasoned listener. Technically inclined listeners might find that different musicians use different “sruthis” and assign different ratios/rationals/relative frequencies. Indeed, based on consonance relationships, string harmonics and string lengths, various people have derived a lot of numbers that have some underlying meanings or significance, which may escape the casual listener. The perception of microtonal intervals sometimes enables one to reconcile these issues.

Virtually, inflexions are a synonym for an audible sound preceding a “tryamb”. Connotations on this in ancient treatises are distinctly cognizable and served as a qualitative unit simultaneously. The acoustic cue is subjective and the idea of a distinctly conservative mathematical idealization with synthetic tones is relevant to renditions, and perceivable by most people. Without any hesitation we would lump harmonies and consonance under tonic and key modulations.

In explicitly endorsed representations, this should be used to characterize and categorize them and in chromatic consonance.

Contemporary Carnatic music can be traced to generally contain fewer melakartas and most have flaws in organization. While Thyagaraja used a later scheme devised by Govindacharya, he did not believe that melakartas must be of simple sampoorna arohanam but favored the idea of calling a raga as a melakarta. This leads to a system which is more elegant from a mathematical viewpoint. In this scheme, the arohanams arise out of systematic permutation of the seven swaras. It is a product of mathematical abstraction and it is of no consequence as far as the organization of the melakartas is concerned.