What are the kinds of compositions in Carnatic music? How do they compare with compositions in western music?
Just the same way we have a range of compositions in western classical music – arias, operas, piano preludes, string quartets, woodwind quintets, symphonies, symphonic poems, art songs, cantatas, etc, There are many kinds of compositions in Carnatic music – each having its own distinct form, structure and lyrical emphasis. Examples are Kritis, Varnams, Ragam-Tanam-Pallavis, swarajathis, gitams, padhams, javalis, thillanas, ashtapadis, slokas, viruttams etc. Unlike western classical music, the different kinds of compositions are NOT written (composed, rather, since they are not ‘written’ anyway) for different ‘instrumentation’. They are all eventually songs with libretto and music and are all usually self-contained when a singer sings them. Here are some more specific comparisons – Gitams – simple set of songs with varying level of difficulty for developing basic knowledge of ragas and talas – similar in idea to the simpler etudes, some Bach minuets etc with pieces which are used as exe