Kutcheri
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Concert, or any musical
entertainment.
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Kutcheri
Dharma
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The duties and
obligations, rights and privileges of musicians performing in a
concert, its organisers and the audience. This entails everything from
dress, mode of address and welcome, to the seating arrangements on the
platform.
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Kakali
Nishada
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The
major seventh note. Called Shuddha
Nishada
in Hindustani music. In practice, in Carnatic music, the note is often
intoned slightly higher than the Suddha
Nishada
of Hindustani music, and the note is closer to the position of the Shadja.
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Kakapadam
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One
of the six Angas
among the musical time measures and has a total of 16 counts.
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Kaku
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A
Swara
technique that emphasizes the significant characteristic of a raga.
Parsvadeva’s Sangeeta
Samaya Sara describes six kinds of Kakus
– 1. Raga
Kaku
is the essential splendour of a raga; 2. Swara
Kaku is the embellishment of a Raga
through the quality and shading of its Mukhya
Swara through Gamakas
or mere vocal power; 3.Desa
Kaku is the introduction of folk and regional inflections into
the Raga,
giving it a novel and strange, yet rich form; 4. Anya
Raga Kaku is the contrasting quality achieved by introducing Graha
Bheda techniques or bhavas
of foreign ragas; 5. Kshetra
Kaku emphasises all the rules of the Raga
in various combinations; 6. Vadya
Kaku is the technique of bringing an instrumental quality into
the vocal expression of Ragas.
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Kala
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Pronounced
Kalaa, it means art.
Pronounced Kaala, it refers
to time.
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Kalahasti
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Temple-town
near the border of Tamilnadu and Andhra Pradesh. The name was used as
a Mudra
by the composer Veena Venkataswami Raju of Kalahasti, in his Tana
Varna composition Valachiyunna
in Pushpalatika.
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Kallinatha
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See
Chatura
Kallinatha.
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Kalpanaswara
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The
creative part of Carnatic music, where the performer sings patterns of
solfa notes (swaras) extempore, according to his imagination, but
within the boundaries of the Raga.
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Kalpita
melakarta
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The
name given to fifty-three out of the seventy-two Melas
described by Venkatmakhi. These were purely academic at the time, as
they had not been used in compositions until then. The other nineteen
were already popular when the classification was carried out.
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Kalpita
Sangita
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Composed
music, e.g. Kritis
and Varnams.
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Kampita
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See
Gamaka.
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Kanjira
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A
tambourine, used as a percussion instrument in concerts.
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Katapayadi
Sankhya
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An
ancient Indian system of mnemonics that is used to correlate numbers
with words. numbers of words. This was widely used in astrology,
musicology, and several other arts and sciences in India. Each letter
of the Sanskrit alphabet is associated with a number, as summed up in
four key phrases. Kadi
Nava – the nine letters, Ka,
Kha, Ga,
Gha, N(g)a,
Cha, Chha,
Ja and Jha,
are given values from 1 through 9. Similarly, Tadi
Nava – the letters beginning with ‘Ta’ and ending in
‘Dha’ are again given values 1 through 9. Padi
Panca – the five letters from ‘Pa’ to ‘Ma’ are given
values from 1 to 5. Yadi
Ashta
– the series of eight letters, Ya,
Ra, La,
Va, Sha,
Shha, Sa
and Ha have values from 1
through 8. The letters N(j)a
and Na represent zero. The
names of the 72 Melas
are based on this scheme, such that the first two syllables of the
name correspond to the Mela
number in a reverse fashion. This can be illustrated with an example.
Take the Mela Ramapriya. Ra
and Ma are the first two syllables. The serial number of ‘Ra’ is
two and that of ‘Ma’ is five, so that ra-ma encodes the number 25.
The digits in this number are to be reversed, to give the number 52.
This is the Melakarta
number of Ramapriya.
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Kathakalakshepam
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A
combined word, formed from Katha (story), Kala (time) and Kshepa
(spending). It is the art form of passing leisure time through
musicalized story-telling. Legends from the Puranas
are narrated through songs rendered in a dramatic fashion. The Ramayana,
the Mahabharata, and Bhagavatam
form the basis of the stories and anecdotes that are sung and recited
by performers. Tanjavur
Krishna Bhagavatar is described as the father of this art-form,
which requires its practitioners to be scholars, musicians and
dramatists simultaneously.
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Khayal
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A
word of Persian origin, meaning ‘imagination’. It is believed to
have developed out of the Qawwal
style of singing and through the period of Amir Khusro became an
important part of the Hindustani music tradition. The arrival of the
khayal slowly displaced the old Dhrupad
style of singing and effected a revolutionary change in the Hindustani
music tradition. The structure of the Khayal
requires a high order of improvisational skill in the musician at
several levels and layers of the Raga.
The range and scope of improvisation also covers the whole range of
human experience, from the poetic and mystic to the frontiers of quick
arithmetic calculation and intellectual exploration.
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Koot-taan
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A
complicated and extensive set of notes in complex figures in a Taan.
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Kovur
Pancharatna
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A
set of five Kritis,
composed by thy great composer Tyagaraja, in praise of the deity,
Sundareswara, in the shrine at Kovur near Madras. These are ‘Sambho
Mahadeva’ in raga Pantuvarali, ‘Ee vasudha nivanti’ in Sahana
raga, ‘Kori Sevimparare ‘in Karaharapriya, ‘Nammi Vacchina’ in
Kalyani and ‘Sundira Varuni’ in Shankarabharanam.
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Krama
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Order,
regularity. Krama
Sampoorna
means an orderly Arohana
and Avarohana
without zig-zag patterns and tortuous variations. Shadava
Krama indicates a six-note regular scale, and Audava
Krama
refers to the regularity of the five-note scale.
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Krishna
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The
most well-known God of Hinduism, asociated in music with the Venu
or Murali,
the divine flute. Hence, he is also called by the name Muralidhara.
The pure music ascribed to Lord Krishna is believed to be the essence
of Indian music. Composers and musicians have used this figure of
Krishna with his flute from the dawn of Indian memory. Krishna appears
as the inspiration behind Jayadeva’s Ashtapadis
in the Gita
Govinda,
the songs of Meera, the Bhajans
in Brij, and in numerous Thumris
and Khayals.
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Krishna
Leela Tarangini
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The
longest Sanskrit opera, composed by Narayana Tirtha. It contains 112
cantos. Its origin is in the Bhagavata Purana’s tenth chapter, which
begins with the birth of Krishna and ends with the marriage to Rukmini.
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Kriti
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Literally,
composition/work. One of the most highly evolved forms of musical
composition in the Carnatic music system. Every composer in the
Carnatic School has attempted to compose Kritis
and contributed richly to this form of music. Therefore, Kritis
form the bulk of musical compositions in Carnatic music today. Unlike
the Khayal
in Hindustani music, the Kriti
is a fully composed piece of music, complete in its architecture and
motion. Its value lies not only in its musical content, but also in
the lyrical content, the Sahitya. An allied form of composition, the Kirtana,
lays much greater stress on the Sahitya
than the Kriti.
There are three movements – the Pallavi,
the Anupallavi
and the Charanam.
In many such compositions, there are multiple Charanams.
The Kritis
are ornamented with several technical devices, such as Chitta
Swaras,
Madhyamakala
Sahitya,
Swarakshara
Sangatis,
Solkattu
Swaras,
Swara
Sahitya
and so on.
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Kriya
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A
mode of counting time. There are two main kinds of Kriyas,
e.g. the Nis-shabda
Kriya,
which is silent or unvoiced, and the Sa-shabda
Kriya,
which is voiced by means of a beat.
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Kshana
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The
smallest division of time that can be conceived in a Kala,
or between two beats.
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Kudimiyamalai
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An
inscription on a rock face in Pudukottai, giving much information
about music. It belongs to the seventh century, and was inscribed by
Mahendra Varman, a Pallava king. Except for the incomplete
inscriptions available from Titumayam and Pudukottai, the inscription
at Kudumiyamalai is unique in all of India. This inscription belongs
to the period before Hindustani and Carnatic music took slightly
different paths and therefore can be said to belong to both the
traditions. It gives brief Sancharas
of seven ragas – the Madhyama
Grama, the Shadava,
the Sadharita, the Panchama,
the Kaisika madhyama and
the Kaisiki Nishada.
The Sancharas
are given in four note steps of Taans,
in what is known as the Chatushprahara
Swaragama
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Kural
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Tamil
word, meaning voice. The name of the tone that is equivalent to Shadja,
in ancient Tamil music.
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Kusa
and Lava
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Sons
of Rama, known as great singers and balladeers. They sang the Ramayana
and enthralled the court of their father King Ramachandra of Ayodhya.
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