What is the mapping between western notes and Carnatic notes? Especially how can western notes like c1#, c3# be mapped to the corresponding Carnatic notes.

-- Raaj Kumar Venkateswaran (raaj_venkateswaran@infy.com), October 18, 2002

Answers

Carnatic notes are a sliding scale, closer to the concept of mode than of Western scale. For example, the raga shankarabharanam corresponds to the major scale. ANY major scale! The key is determined by the performer, not by the composer.

HOWEVER, if you fix a "base note" or "key" - you can attribute the following (assuming you start from C, but you could start with any note, of course):

sa - C sudda rishabam - C# catushruti rishabam - D sadharana gandharam - Eb antara gandharam - F sudda madhyamam - F# prati madhyamam - G sudda dhaivatam - Ab catushruti dhaivatam - A kaisiki nishadam - Bb kakali nishadam - B

There is no designation for octave, but notations sometimes use s to indicate the middle octave, S or s with a dot above it to denote a higher octave (and 2 dots for the next higher), s with a dot below to denote the lower octave (2 dots for the next lower). Thus if you "fix":

c1 - s .

c2 - s

c3 - S

etc...

Hope this helps clarify. Contact me if you need further info.

http://www.karnatik.com

-- rani (promise@geocities.com), March 10, 2003.