Chennai as a home for Music (Dec 21, 1999)
There are also many private music schools in Chennai, where Western Classical music is taught.

Chennai as a home for Music – IV (Dec 14, 1999)
The music organisations, the sabhas have become the major sponsors replacing individuals

Chennai as a home for Music – III (Dec 7, 1999)
The first music school for girls was founded in Chennai in the year 1888.

Chennai as a home for Music – II (Nov 30, 1999)
They also trained the students to sing Carnatic music and raised more awareness for musical learning in Chennai.

Chennai as the Home for Music .(Nov 23, 1999)
Chennai city was founded in 1640, and it became the center for musical activities – Western and South Indian Music from the 1780s and North Indian music from the 1880s.

Unity in Diversity in Religious Music - II (Nov 12, 1999)
There are seven similarities between Gregorian Chant and Vedic Chant !At the end of the Vedic chant and Gregorian chant, the concept of peace is inculcated through the text Shanti mantra (OM Shanti) and AMEN. Both Greogorian chant and Vedic chant are moods creating a spiritual atmosphere.

Unity in Diversity in Religious Music (Nov 9, 1999)
Chant,the generic designation for a body of traditional religious music is purely melodic character of the music, or in other words, the absence of harmony/counterpoint.A study of the similarities of Gregorian chant and Vedic chant in their performance, musical style, structure and purpose reveal that the Concept of Music being Divine is universal and the origin of Western and Indian Classical music lies in their Religious Music.

Homage to the Great Composer - Sri Muthuswami Dikshitar - II (Nov 2, 1999)
Interestingly,the Talas Tisra Ekam (three units) and Chaturasra Ekam (four units) are set for these forty compositions which are the ¾ and 4/4 timings of the Western Music.Though Muthuswami Dikshitar has composed forty compositions of "Nottuswara sahithya", the notation is available only for thirty-six compositions.

Homage to the Great Composer - Sri Muthuswami Dikshitar (Oct 29, 1999)
"Nottuswara Sahithyas" of Sri Muthuswami Dikshitar are set with the English Tunes and the text is in the form of a poem in Sanskrit or in Telugu.He has brought the Stotra literature and mantra-tantra concepts of Hindu worship in the Song form Krithi with scintillating music.

Bhagavata Mela Nataka (Oct 12, 1999)
Bhagavata Mela Nataka came into popularity when the devotional movement started in South India during the Seventeenth century for the worship of Lord Krishna.The Pallu is the earliest Tamil folk theatrical composition while the Kuravanji is also a folk theatre dealing with the life of the Kuravas or the Gipsy community and Therukoothu is a famous provincial traditional theatre of Tamil Nadu.

Chakyar Koothu, Kudiyattam, Krishnattam and Kathakali of Kerala (Oct 05, 1999)
The similarity between Kathakali of Kerala and  Yakshagana of Karnataka is the face of the actor is painted blue for the divine characters, rose for royal personages and black for evil characters.

Noutanki of Uttar Pradesh (Sep 25, 1999)
Lalit is the most popular traditional theatre in Maharashtra from the medieval period.The simple surroundings and the paraphernalia of the Bhavai resembles that of a Burmese drama.Khyal of Rajasthan has more than 400 years of tradition.

Traditional Theatres of India – A Bird’s Eyeview. (Sep 17, 1999)
The traditional theatres of India are the Indian operas that are a special kind of theatre with music, dance interspersed with prose passages.The Ankiyanat of Assam, the Yatra on Yatra of Bengal, the Noutanki, of Uttar Pradesh, Lalit and Tamasha of Maharashtra, the Bhavai of Gujarat and the Khyal of Rajasthan are the traditional provincial theatres of North India

Rabindranath Tagore’s Contribution to performing Arts-II, (Aug 19, 1999)
Tagore devised new Talas such as Jhampak having five beats (3+2) which is borrowed from the south Indian Music (Khanda Chapu), Shashti(2+4), Rupakra (3+2+3),Navatal (3+2+2+2+) and Ekadasi(2+2+2+4) and Navapanchar(2+4+4+4+4) beats.

Rabindranath Tagore’s Contribution to performing Arts-I (Aug 12, 1999)
"In music, the feeling distilled in sounds becomes itself an independent object. It assumes a tune – form which is definite, but a meaning which is undefinable and yet which grips our mind with a sense of absolute Truth."  -  Tagore

Ramayana Theatre in India & South-East Asia III
The Ramayana theatre is a theatre of stylisation and conventions, which are in many forms, strictly codified. Stylised make-up and costumes, codified gait and movements, recitative chant like delivery of stylisation

Ramayana Theatre in India & South-East Asia II
There is a very strong Indian influence in the Ramayana Theatres of Indonesia

Ramayana theatre in India & South East Asia
While the Ramayana theatre is an integral part of the colourful and multiform traditional theatre of Asia, it is distinguished by many technical features.

Harikesanallur Muthaiah Bhagavatar
Harikesanallur Muthaiah Bhagavatar is an outstanding music composer of the 20^th century.Bhagavatar had also composed Varnams, Ragamalikas, tillanas and the solfa form called Notes, besides his keertanas.

Women and Music in India-II
It can be said that one of the areas where there is positive changes after Independence is women’s role in music profession as teachers / artists / musicologists and composers.

Women and Music in India-I
Indian women are associated with music from the period of Vedas where one finds the reference in Rig Veda that the musical instrument Veena was played as an accompaniment by women when men recited the Rig Veda.

Ethnomusicology and Methodology
New methodological tools are used to analyse the music and its cultural setting which include aspects of cybernetics, information theory, semeiotics and structuralism.

Defining Ethnomusicology
Ethnomusicology is to a great extent concerned with music transmitted by unwritten tradition.

Understanding Ethnomusicology Ethnomusicology is a branch of Musicology developed after World War II in Western countries to study non-western music which exist with oral traditions and especially with the tribal and village communities of the non-western countries.

Dr. Durga was awarded the Ph.D. Degree for her thesis on ‘OPERA IN SOUTH INDIA" by the University of Madras, India, and her thesis has been published by D.K. Publishers, New Delhi, India. She has also been awarded a Ph.D from a University in U.S.A

Dr. Durga - Each Tuesday, Chennai Online readers are in for a rare treat in the field of Ethnomusicology by the expert, Dr.S.A.K.Durga. She is an internationally well-known Ethnomusicologist, who is the founder Director of the Centre for Ethnomusicology in Chennai, India.