Rethinking the Viruttam in Karnatak Music

The Viruttam is a vocal improvisatory form in Karnatak music of South India. It explores verses of poetry using raga as the melodic medium and the natural poetic meter as its rhythmic framework. In this article, I draw on literature, primarily from native practitioner-scholars, and on my own experiences as an established Karnatak performer to reimagine Viruttam from a text-centric perspective. Adopting textual, raga, and practice-based analyses as my methods I reshape Andal’s Thiruppavai as Viruttams in a suite of Karnatak ragas. The study emphasizes the need for a textually responsive Viruttam style and calls for decolonizing global scholarship in Karnatak music by ensuring greater representation of native practitioner-scholar perspectives

Aesthetics · Art · Literature · Melody · Musical · Natural (archaeology) · Performing arts · Poetry · Representation (politics) · Scholarship · Style (visual arts) · Visual arts · Diverse Musicological Studies · History · Music History and Culture · Theater, Performance, and Music History