Kirtana: Traditional South Indian Devotional Songs

At the beginning of the nineteenth century South Indian composers were still influenced by traditional religious concepts such as: temple rituals, pilgrimage and personal devotion. Tyagaraja, Muttusvami Diksitar and Syama Sastri, the three prominent composers from the Tanjore district, used the kirtana, a congregational song in praise of a deity, as a standard musical form. The compositions select...