Partway through many Carnatic compositions, the singer stops moving forward through the song, takes a single line, and improvises on it. Two techniques are common. Niraval keeps the words. Kalpanaswaras replace them with the names of the notes.
Niraval: one line, many settings
In niraval (also spelled neraval), the musician sings one line of the text again and again, finding new melodic and rhythmic shapes for it. No new words are added. The line also usually keeps its eduppu, the point in the tala cycle where it begins in the composition. The researcher Mahesh Radhakrishnan observes that the lines chosen tend to be those with heightened poetic language and meaning. A niraval often begins at a moderate pace and moves to a faster one, where the phrases fill with quick runs.
Kalpanaswaras: improvising in note names
Kalpanaswaras are sung to the sol-fa syllables sa, ri, ga, ma, pa, dha, ni. Instrumentalists play them as well, without the syllables. However far a passage travels, it must end by landing on the eduppu of the chosen line, so that the line returns again and again, like a refrain.
The ethnomusicologist Garrett Field describes a common course. The passages come first at a speed of about two notes per beat, then about four. Soloist and accompanist often trade turns that shrink from a full tala cycle to a half, a quarter and less. The section frequently closes with a korvai, a structured closing pattern, often ending with a phrase repeated three times, built to finish exactly at the eduppu.
Where they fall in a concert
Both techniques live inside a composition and come after the line has been sung as composed. When both are performed on the same line, the swaras often follow the niraval. Field calls kalpanaswaras a standard feature of any full concert. Niraval, Radhakrishnan notes, generally takes up a smaller share of the evening. In a main piece, the composition may also be preceded by an alapana, which explores the raga without words or tala. Niraval and kalpanaswaras, by contrast, stay within the song and its tala.
Telling them apart
Listen for language. If you can still hear the words of the song, it is niraval. If you hear the syllables sa, ri, ga, it is kalpanaswaras. In both, a passage ends when the familiar line returns on its beat.
For more ways to follow a performance, see Start Listening.
