Manodharma
(1). Manodharma is a form of contemporary South Indian classical Carnatic music. It is created on the spot during performance, staying within the limits of musical grammar codified in raga and/or tala.
(2). Each Carnatic music festival consists of one or several pieces of music that display the skill and intelligence of the singer in the form of Manodharma Sangeetham.
Types Of Manodharma
(1). On the basis of mindset, personal styles are developed. Manodharma has many aspects and artists develop specific styles based on their musical values, interpretation and understanding.
(2).There is ample scope for Manodharma while rendering ragas alapana, tanam, nerval, pallavi, swaram and kritis.
(3). There are five improvisational forms that come under the practice of Manodharma in Carnatic music. they include:
- Alapana: A free flowing exploration of the melody using specific syllables. A performer does not need to worry about tala and tala chakra while indulging in alapana.
- Tanam: A free-flowing exploration that blends the melody with the duet taal (although there is no specific taal cycle)
- Kalpana Swara: Using swaras (or solfeggio notes) the performer improvises note combinations on the spot, varies the tempo of phrases, and must do so with strict adherence to a beat cycle.
- Neraval: The perfumer concentrates on a line of his choice with lyrical depth and performs the line in various ways. This form of improvisation can be done by paying special attention to the way the words behave and the rhythmic beats must stay within the cycle.
- Pallavi, Viruttam, and Shloka: The artist uses poetic lines and improvises on them like an alpana, without any rhythmic structure.
Famous Musician
(1). A musician’s ability and finesse is often judged by his ability to bring out the excellence of a raga.
(2).G. N. Many composers in the recent past like Balasubramaniam, Madurai Mani Iyer, Rajaratnam Pillai, Karukurichi Arunachalam excelled in their application of Manodharma bringing out many melodious combinations of melodies while confining themselves to the boundaries of the respective raga. Embellish the raga with your ability to generate melodic usage.
