Can someone please tell me ten distinct charcteristics of a varnam...answer needed with the next few hours

THANKS

-- Preeth (preethi615@hotmail.com), October 17, 2003

Answers

I can give you some of the characteristics. 1: It is not preceded by an alapana 2: It is always sung at the beginning of a concert 3: It is supposed to be an item that prepares the artist for the rest of the concert (warms up the throat) 4: It has a muktayi svara 5: It has several ettugada svaras 6: The ettugada svaras progressively increase in length 7: Has a pallavi, anupallavi and caraNa 8: It is designed to bring out the rAga bhAva and svarUpa 9: varNa is the only composition wherein the pallavi is not repeated after the caraNa and the svaras are sung. 10: It contains the visESa sancArAs as well as the apUrva prayOgAs that the raga admits of.

-- Lakshman (luzchurch@hotmail.com), October 17, 2003.