Ragam Thanam Pallavi
form of singing in Carnatic music
Ragam Tanam Pallavi (RTP) is a form of singing in Carnatic music which allows the musicians to improvise to a great extent. It is one of the most complete aspects of Indian classical music, demonstrating the entire gamut of talents and the depth of knowledge of the musician. It incorporates raga alapana, tanam, niraval, and kalpanaswara. In more elaborate ragam tanam pallavis, a tani avartanam may follow.
Ragam
"Ragam" in the context of "Ragam Tanam Pallavi" refers to raga alapana - the first component. In this form of pure melodic improvisation, the musician starts with a refrain to create the mood of raga and lays a foundation for composition to follow. Each Ragam tanam pallavi has at least one raga associated with it.
Tanam
Source:
Tanam is one of the most important forms of the improvisation, and is integral to the RTP. It is the second component of this composite form of improvisation. Originally developed for the veena, it consists of expanding the raga with syllables "a-nam-tam". The origin of this usage is not very clear.
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This entry incorporates text from “Ragam Thanam Pallavi” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.