Ragam Tanam Pallavi - An Intro

Introduction: 

“Ragam taanam pallavi”, is a song in popular Telugu movie, Sankarabharanam(1980). One of my maternal uncle (మేనమామ) addressed, three of us siblings, as Ragam, Tanam, Pallavi in a letter to my mother. She often recollects fondly. For me, for a long time Ragam-Tanam-Pallavi was just that, a popular song.

Actually, Ragam-Tanam-Pallavi (RTP) is one of the “items” that is presented in a typical carnatic music concert. This note is for absolute beginners interested in carnatic music. This note has minimal technical descriptions/intricacies. Goal is to know and understand the outline.

RTP - Outline: 

RTP can be presented by vocal artist (vocalist) or an instrumental artist. The presenter/singer is often referred as the Presenter or Main artist. This main artist is usually accompanied by at least two accompanying artists, one melody (like violin or veena) and another percussion to keep the rhythm (like mridangam or ghatam). 

RTP item has three sections. Ragam/Raga (Non-Rhythmic), Thanam (Semi-Rhythmic) and Pallavi (Rhythmic).

1. Ragam - Non-Rhythmic (No mridangam or ghatam) There are several available Ragams and one is chosen. This section is also called “Alapana”. There are no “words”/”song” (Sahityam). The singer usually sings vowels “a..aa..aaa...aaaa” (Akaaram - Two meanings - “aa” sound and also means Shape). Some singers use other vowels (e, ai, o, om, mm) to beat the monotony. Some others use a mix of “tadari”, “na”, “hari” etc., The goal is to present the “shape” and “contours”. Shape or Contour of what? Shape and Contour of the Raga. How can sound have shape and contour? Those are properties of a visual object, aren’t they? Don’t worry, one can still enjoy an RTP even if one does not know the shapes and contours of a Ragam. Just know, that the presenter shows upper/middle/lower octaves. Usually, presenter often ventures into upper and lower octaves but returns to middle. If it helps visually, think in terms of a landscape with hills, plains and valleys. Hills denoting higher octave and valleys for lower octave. Basically, Artist is trying to paint a landscape with sound. By the way, Raga (రాగం) literally means color (రంగు). Go figure! Ragam presentation is not rehearsed and usually “visualized” on-the-fly (మనోధర్మం - manodharma - as one’s heart pleases) by the presenter. This can go on anywhere from 5-30min depending on the availability of time and ability of the artist. There is no mridangam for “Ragam” section of RTP.
2. Tanam - Semi Rhythmic (Optional mridangam or/and ghatam) Every things described about Ragam step applies here except that artist uses consonants. These consonants are also pretty much limited to aa-nam-ta aa-nam-da (అనంత ఆనంద - Infinite Bliss). Most of the rhythmic is brought out by the main performer. Very rarely, the percussionist joins in. Like Ragam, Taanam is also not rehearsed and presented extemporaneously (మనోధర్మం).
3. Pallavi - Rhythmic (includes mridangam or/and ghatam) Pallavi section has multiple subsections. Like Ragam and Tanam, Pallavi is also improvised and not rehearsed (మనోధర్మం). 
1. Pallavi - Rhythmic - Words (సాహిత్యం) Ragam and Taanam are without meaningful words. In Pallavi, The same landscape is painted with words, usually, just one sentence. Artists usually choose a clever set of words. Often words with increasing/decreasing number of letters with optional Ragam name embedded within are chosen.
2. Pallavi - Rhythmic - Notes (స్వరప్రస్తారం) Once the landscape is painted with words, artist reveals the underlying music notes (sa-ri-ga-ma-pa-da-ni) and their order with several permutations and combinations. After each stroke artist ends it with the words. 
3. Pallavi - Other ragas (రాగమాలిక) This is usually the final stage. Artist becomes little more creative and ventures into another Ragam (a different mood) and joins back to words. It is considered a skill that demands voice control to branch out into another Ragam and return to main mood. Sometimes, more than one external raga is chosen and referred as raga-malika (రాగమాలిక - garland of ragas).
4. A final flourish of notes and words, does the final touches.

Examples:

1. RTP in Brindavana Saranga by Sri. TV Sankaranarayanan
1. 0:09 - Ragam - Vocalist starts with “naaa....na..na” and presents the contour. Violin follows closely to keep company.
2. 2:09 - Ragam - Violin solo responds with his version of the contour
3. 3:57 - Ragam - Vocalist continues after a small applause from audience.
4. 4:52 - Taanam - Vocalist launches into Taanam with “aa..naam..taa”
5. 5:21 - Taanam - Violin solo responds with his version of Taanam
6. 5:48 - Taanam - Vocalist continues Taanam, a touch brisker
7. 7:12 - Taanam - Violin solo responds with his version of Taanam
8. 7:47 - Taanam - Vocalist continues Taanam and ends at 9:17. [Mridangam signals he is ready for Pallavi and is ready, in tune, with a small tap.]
9. 9:23 - Pallavi - Vocalist launches Pallavi section “Sriranga Hariranga Panduranga Brindavanasaranga” (శ్రీరంగ, హరిరంగ, పాండురంగ, బృందావనసారంగ) - Notice how 4 words have increasing number of aksharas (syllables). He presents variations by stopping, elaborating, stressing, vibrating, speeding at different akshara each time. Violin repeats each variation. Mridangam is keeping the beat.
10. 14:15 - Pallavi - Vocalist presents underlying notes and their variation ending in pallavi. Violin repeats each variation. Mridangam is keeping the beat. The notes gets progressively brisker, upping the tempo. Around 17:01 because of the tempo the notes become the Ragam and blend beautifully back and forth. A long volley of notes follow. Violin repeats ending at 18:43.
11. 18:44 - Pallavi - Vocalist ventures into another Raga with a small Alapana, notes follow at 21:09. Around 22:57 he comes back to the original Raga and blends it in.
12. 23:09 - Pallavi - Violin accepts the challenge and repeats his own venture into the secondary Raga and blends it back into original pallavi around 24:45.
13. 24:56 - Final flourish in original raga
2. RTP Revati by Sri. Mangalampalli Balamurali Krishna
1. 0:00 - Ragam - Starts with “a..aa..aaa.” and in-between with “hmmmm..”, “hari...”, “tadari...”, “naaaa..”. Around 3:05 take a small break and announces the name of the Ragam as Revati. 
2. 4:42 - Ragam - Vocalist holds a prolonged note till 5:13 to display mastery followed by small applause by audience. Ragam continues.
3. 6:54 - Ragam - Vocalist presents a series of phrases often entering into upper octave.
4. 7:38 - Ragam - Vocalist slides to lower octave easily from upper octave. Mastery of three octaves and ability to slide from one to another and even jump from one another is a speciality of Sri. Mangalampalli.
5. 7:50 - Ragam - From the depths of lower octave previously, he slowly shoots to the top of upper octave hitting a higher note with each phrase.
6. 10:44 - Taanam - Vocalist blends into Taanam with no obvious pause after Ragam
7. 12:21 - Taanam - Violinist finally gets a chance to do a small solo to show his prowess.
8. 12:57 - Taanam - Vocalist resumes Taanam with Mridangam joining in. This is not done too often. Sri. Mangalampalli converts a semi-rhythmic into rhythmic Taanam beautifully. At 14:33 violinist presents his version of rhythmic taanam.
9. 15:16 - Taanam - Vocalist resumes Taanam focusing on the meditative nature of Revati and ends at 19:04 with applause from audience.
10. 19:10 - Pallavi - Words -Vocalist launches pallavi section with “Maheswari kaavuma uma ma matangi marakatangi” (మహేశ్వరీ - కావుమా - ఉమా - మా - మాతంగి - మరకతాంగి). There is occasional back and forth between artists here and I will let the readers figure it out.
11. 26:56 - Pallavi - Notes - Vocalist revelas the underlying notes and blends with the words for each phrase. He would like us to focus on “ma”, sa-ri-ma of notes and uma of words.
12. 29:14 - Pallavi - Ragamalika - Vocalist ventures into Raga Charukesi. 31:35 violinist responds.
13. 32:44 - Pallavi - Ragamalika - Vocalist ventures into Raga Sahana. 34:44 violinist responds.
14. 35:57 - Pallavi - Ragamalika - Vocalist ventures into Raga Sindhubhairavi. 38:18violinist responds.
15. 39:43 - Pallavi - Final flourish in Revati
3. Movie - Sruthilayalu A short RTP is presented within 4min. Only a single phrase for Ragam, A single phrase for Tanam and Single phrase for Pallavi - Words, Single Phrase for Pallavi - Notes, Single Phrase for Pallavi - Ragamalika are presented. For Pallavi - Words, the opening line of a popular composition, samaja varagamana(సామజవరగమన), is used.

Resources: 

If you are brave enough to reach here, there are lot of resources on Youtube. A 40 part lecture on carnatic music by TM Krishna.[Note: I did not listen though.] Need more videos? Search Youtube by “lec dem <keyword>” (lecture demonstration raga/RTP/carnatic).

Conclusion: 

If 3 primary colors Red, Green, Blue can give so much visual variation, imagine the variety of Ragams with 7 different notes (12 if you consider flat and sharp notes separately). Of course, a subset of Ragams are more popular because there are a lot of compositions done in them.

RTP is a creative journey from abstract to semi-rhythmic to rhythmic. It is how the artist reveals an approach of discovering and unraveling the mystery of sound. It ends with the artist laying out the underlying notes in front of us. Artist also establishes and reminds us that there are different ragas (paths) to reach this kind of revelation. It needs practice and control (Nada Yoga - నాద యోగ) to reveal an unknown truth of sound (నాదబ్రహ్మం - naada brahmam). It has to be experienced.

By the way, the song from the movie, Sankarabharanam, is praising the Raga-Tanam-Pallavi item of a carnatic concert. Hope you will enjoy the real RTPs or at the least give it a try.