Style Guide: Scoring Beautiful Music
Don’t know which software to use to start writing carnatic notations? read How-To:-Typeset-Carnatic-Music first.
- Avartham/bar need not have fixed length.
- No need to space notes according to exact durations/lengths. Flexible spacing improves readability and phrasing.
Carnatic music compositions are written/printed as a grid of fixed number of notes followed by a space. Consider this line, a Chitta-Swaram from Varnam Taruni in Kamboji Ragam, Adi Thalam
In a varnam, four aksharams make up a beat. So, traditionally, the entire line is typeset as four-note blocks. This clarifies the thalam, but fails to give the sense of phrasing. This line has Kamboji Ragam’s characteristic phrases like p,dsrg but they are not quite apparent in such grid like writing.
Writing/Typesetting the same line like this –
might clarify the phrasing, and make the line meaningful. Or, perhaps this. Another interpretation -
snp,dsrg is the phrase. Notice the other phrases too.
The same line may allow multiple interpretations. Two musicians may see different phrases in the same line. Both are ok as long as they make a musical sense, and any such interpretation is much better than the traditional fixed-grid style writing.
When the lyrics are involved, both lyrics and the musical phrase should be considered while scoring the line. The objective is to make the line musically meaningful and the lyrics easy to understand and synchronise.
A Varnam has a very few syllables matched to a very active line of music, with many notes, and syllables last for varying lengths. Notes should be typeset first, and the lyrics added later. Minor corrections should be made then, to clarify the balance between text and music, to facilitate correct performance.
- multiple phrases matched for one syllable: Simple. Show the phrases clearly.
-
Lyric falling in the middle of a musical phrase, (or simply not at the beginning): Show phrasing clearly. Show where the syllable falls very clearly. Make some minor adjustments in spacing the notes, if necessary, without obstructing the phrasing. (ex: s rm r mp m pd p d r s – lyrics at the bold notes – si ta ra ma na. Kalaharana, Suddha saveri)
*TODO: example from varnams in Sankarabaranam & Hamsadwani *
In a Kriti, Sahityam demands a little more importance. The Score should show the
- Musical phrases – ex. srg rgm gmp …
- Sahityam Syllables aligned properly with the phrases.
- Sahityam Words whenever possible. Try to group and space the sahityam line to show the words as clearly as possible, rather than as a continueous stream of syllables.
TODO: Examples from Kritis &/ Varnams
Multiple Scores for the same song
No One-Score-Do-for-All.
- a Condensed score for reference. Economical use of space.
- Student’s Study score. Large gaps between lines and around the page for writing down annotations, performance notes etc. (The scores in this repository so far belong to this category. This explains the excessive white spaces)
- Lyrics-Prominent score with smaller fonts for notation. Lyrics aligned first and notes added later. notes/phrasing adjusted to facilitate very easy reading of lyrics.
- Notation-Prominent score, the reverse of above.
Standard Music Notation Practice,
Repository of common music-notation mistakes (and other resources)
http://icking-music-archive.org/lists/sottisier/sottisier.html