Many Carnatic concerts follow a broadly familiar course. Musicians reorder its parts, stretch or shorten them, and sometimes leave them out, but the pattern can still help you tell where you are.
Where the pattern comes from
The modern concert order is usually credited to the vocalist Ariyakudi Ramanuja Iyengar (1890–1967). According to his disciple Alepey Venkatesan, earlier concerts gave long stretches to improvisation around relatively few compositions. From the 1920s, Ariyakudi shortened the improvised sections and fitted in more songs, with lighter pieces toward the end. Accounts differ on how his concerts reached their peak: some describe a ragam-tanam-pallavi late in the evening, others a main kriti followed by a percussion solo.
Opening and middle
A concert often opens with a varnam, a brisk composition that lets the ensemble settle, frequently followed by a song addressed to Ganesha. Then come kritis, compositions usually in three sections: pallavi, anupallavi and charanam. Some are sung as composed. Others are opened out. An alapana of the raga may come first. Within the song, the singer may take one line for niraval, varying its melody while keeping the words, and then improvise kalpanaswaras, passages sung to note names that return to that line.
The main piece and after
One composition usually receives the fullest treatment, and the tani avartanam, the percussion solo, often follows it (see Hearing a Tani Avartanam). Some musicians present a ragam-tanam-pallavi instead of, or as well as, a main kriti. What a Concert Program Can Tell You explains both. Afterwards the mood usually lightens with tukkadas, shorter pieces such as devotional songs and javalis. A padam may also come here. Many concerts close with a tillana or with a brief mangalam, a song of benediction.
When the map changes
The pattern bends often. T. M. Krishna, for instance, has sung a padam in the middle of a concert and presented an alapana with no composition following it. Other musicians make smaller changes, such as opening with something other than a varnam.
Two useful landmarks to listen for are the arrival of the main piece and the turn toward lighter songs.
For how this shape compares with Hindustani and dance programs, see How a Classical Concert Unfolds. For more ways in, see Start Listening.
Image: Raja Ravi Varma, Galaxy of Musicians, c. 1889. Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons.
