Kerala Music and Drama Academy, Thrissurfolksong performance of Desathudi Folkgroup, Pattambi, Kerala, India
The music of
Songs formed a major part of early Malayalam literature, which traces its origin to the 9th century CE.[1] The significance of music in the culture of Kerala can be established just by the fact that in Malayalam language, musical poetry was developed long before prose
. With the development of music in the region, different branches were formed out of it.
History
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The earliest written record of Malayalam is the Edakal - 5 inscription (ca. 4th Century CE). The early literature of Malayalam comprised three types of composition:
Classical songs known as Naadan Paattu
Manipravalam of the Sanskrit tradition, which permitted a generous interspersing of Sanskrit with Tamil
The folk song rich in native elements
Malayalam poetry to the late 20th century CE It is very unuseful data. Varying degrees of the fusion of the three different strands. The oldest examples of Pattu and, are Ramacharitam and Vaishikatantram, both of the twelfth century. They help in defining the cultural heritage of Kerala
Classical music
Pothuval community, who are Ambalavasi (semi-Brahmin) castes engaged to do it as their hereditary profession. Some famous sopanam singers are Neralattu Rama Poduval, Janardhanan Nedungadi and Damodara Marar.[2]
style. This typically Kerala style of rendition takes its roots from the temple songs which used to be sung (continues even now at several temples) at the time when Kathakali was born. The foremost artist was Kalamandalam Krishnan Nair. Kalamandalam at Vallathol Nagar, near Shornur, Trissur in Kerala is an important training center for this art. Since Kathakali is essentially a temple art one of the greatest ever Kathakali singer, Hyderali, who was a Muslim, had to face stiff resistance which eventually was swept away by the immense force of popularity. But Hyderali softened the original Asura nature of the art. Kalamandalam Gangadharan, who remains the last exponent of the original tradition has almost retired from the scene.
Malayalam film music
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Keralites eagerly followed Tamil and Hindi film songs, and that habit has stayed with them till now. The history of Malayalam film songs begins with the 1948 film Nirmala which was produced by Artist P.J. Cherian who introduced play-back singing for the first time in the film. The film's music composer was P. S. Divakar, and the songs were sung by P. Leela, T. K. Govinda Rao, Vasudeva Kurup, C. K. Raghavan, Sarojini Menon and Vimala B. Varma, who is credited as the first playback singer of Malayalam cinema.[5]
The main trend in the early years was to use the tune of hit Hindi or Tamil songs in Malayalam songs. This trend changed in the early 1950s with the arrival of a number of poets and musicians to the Malayalam music scene. But by the mid of 1950s, Malayalam Film Music Industry started finding its own identity and this reformation was led by the music directors Brother Laxmanan,
and Bharanikkavu Sivakumar, numerous everlasting and super hit songs were delivered to the music lovers. The soft melodious music and high quality lyrics were the highlights of these songs.
Yesudas trio also made unforgettable songs like the earlier trio of Kamukara, Tirunainaarkurichy & Brother Laxmanan. Yesudas became equally popular with classical music audience and people who patronised film music.[7] He along with P. Jayachandran gave a major facelift to Malayalam playback singing in the 1960s and 1970s. K. S. Chithra, who debuted in 1979.By the mid-eighties, she became the most sought after female singer in South India
.
By Late 1970s, the trends in music started changing and more rhythm oriented songs with western touch came with the dominance of music directors like
Unnimenon and Sujatha Mohan were also active then. A notable aspect in the later years was the extensive of classical carnatic music in many film songs of the 1980s and 1990s, classical carnatic music was heavily used in films like Chithram (1988), His Highness Abdullah (1990), Bharatham (1991), Sargam (1992) and Sopanam (1993).[citation needed
]
At present, the major players in the scene are composers like
gazals and mappila pattu, and also music for authentic Muslim dance forms such as oppana and kol kali. The poetry forms a main part of this stream of music, which is primarily in Malayalam with the use of Arabic
words in between which is known as arabimalayalam. Mappila songs have a charm of their own as their tunes sound a mix of the ethos and culture of Kerala as well as West Asia. They deal with diverse themes such as religion, love, satire and heroism.
Knanaya Folk Songs
Palm Leaf Relics of Knanaya Folk Songs
The
St. Thomas Christians, maintain folk songs that are ancient in origins and were first written down in the year 1910 by the Knanaya scholar P.U Luke in his text Puratana Pattukal or Ancient Songs. The origins of the songs themselves are unknown but were collected by Luke from Knanaya families who kept palm leaf relics which contained the text of these songs. The songs were written in Old Malayalam but contain diction from Sanskrit, Syriac, and Tamil indicating their antiquity. Analytically, these ancient songs contain folklore about the faith, customs and practices of the community, narratives of historical events (such as the mission of St. Thomas the Apostle and the immigration of the Knanaya to India), biblical stories, songs of churches, and the lives of saints. The songs are poetic in nature and are considered treasures in Kerala's cultural heritage.[8]
Scholars have also found that the songs of the Knanaya are of a similar composure, linguistics, and characteristic to that of the Cochin Jews and that some songs even have almost the same lyrics with the exception of a few words or stanzas.
Ottamthullal Songs
Main article:
Ottamthullal
Ottamthullal songs are meant for the performance of the artform called Ottamthullal. The Ottamthullal artist has to sing and dance to his music. Unlike in the case of Kathakali, the language is not heavy sanskritized Malayalam and the lyrics are set to rhythms that range from simple to rare and complicated.ottamthullal was usually played in temples.
Malayalam Pop music
Pop music in Kerala, developed in the later half of the 1990s with the entry of East Coast Vijayan and his music company East Coast Audios. East Coast Vijayan can be regarded as the pioneer of non-film pop album songs in Kerala. Being a poet himself, Vijayan penned down the first non-film music album in Malayalam Ninakkai, which was released in 1998.[9] The music was given by Balabhaskar and the song "Ninakkay Thozhi Punarjanikkam" sung by Biju Narayanan became a big hit. In 1999, Vijayan came up with his second album in 'Ninakkai' series named Aadhyamai, composed by Balabhaskar and penned by Vijayan himself. The song "Iniyarkkum Arodum" sung by K. J. Yesudas became another hit. In 2001, East Coast came up with Ormakkai which is widely regarded as the biggest hit in the history of Malayalam Pop Music. The song "Ormakkai Iniyoru Snehageetham" from the album, composed by M. Jayachandran, penned down by Vijayan and sung by K. J. Yesudas and K. S. Chithra is widely regarded as an all-time classic hit.
Meanwhile, Pop albums had caught up the imagination of college campuses and more talents started to come up with music albums. One of such early albums that had become a rage with the youth of that time was Valentine's Day. The song "Niranja Mizhiyum" from the album composed by Isaac Thomas Kottukappally and penned down by
Gireesh Puthanchery had become a big hit in college campuses. Audio companies other than East Coast started to come up with Music Albums. Front runners among them were Johny Sagarika, Satyam Audios, Magnum audios and Octave audios. As a result, Pop music culture grew in Kerala. In 2006, Satyam audios came up with superhit album Chempakame
which saw the rise of a new singing sensation Franco and a talented composer Shyam Dharman. The songs "Sundariye Vaa" and "Chembakame" were record breaking hits. The Same year Shaan rahman with Siju Sivan and Deepu Skaria formed a new band named 'DESINOISE' which launched the album 'Revolution'. The songs "Aasha nirashaa" and "Oo NIlaave" of the album was noted widely for its music and the variety in picturization. In 2008, Johny Sagarika came up with the album Mohamand the song "Kudajadriyil" sung by Swarnalatha and composed by Mansoor Ahmed became a big hit. Meanwhile, Malayali pop saw a new trend that was the rise of boy bands.
One of the first notable boy band was Confusion of
Sony Music Entertainment entered Malayalam music industry with the album Yuvvh launching musicians Saachin and Sreejith.[13][14] The album's first song Nenjodu Cherthu crossed 150,000 views on YouTube within 3 days of its release, making it the first major Malayalam viral hit without negative publicity.[15]
The last two decades witnessed a true and revolutionary comeback. Through Thaikudam Bridge and Praseetha, this movement based on folk traditions is reaching a visible form. The folk revival movement started seriously by Kavalam Narayana Panicker was practically developed by Kalabhavan Mani but the real support from teenagers came up quite lately.
of Kerala are closely connected to the serpent worship. One group among these people consider the snake gods as their presiding deity and perform certain sacrifices and sing songs. This is called Pulluvan Pattu. This is performed in the houses of the lower castes as well as those of the higher castes, in addition to serpent temples.
The song conducted by the pulluvar in serpent temples and snake groves is called Sarppapaattu, Naagam Paattu, Sarpam Thullal, Sarppolsavam, Paambum Thullal or Paambum Kalam. The main aspects of this are Kalamezhuthu (Drawing of Kalam, a ritual art by itself), song and dance.
Temple Music
In Kerala, several forms of music have grown associated with festivals and ceremonies of temples. There are
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