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CARNATIC

Carnatic music, Karnāṭaka saṃgīta or Karnāṭaka saṅgītam is a system of music commonly associated with the southern part of the Indian subcontinent, with its area roughly confined to four modern states of India: Andhra Pradesh, Karnataka, Kerala, and Tamil Nadu. It is one of two main subgenres of Indian classical music that evolved from ancient Hindu traditions, the other subgenre being Hindustani music, which emerged as a distinct form because of Persian and Islamic influences in northern India. The main emphasis in Carnatic music is on vocal music; most compositions are written to be sung, and even when played on instruments, they are meant to be performed in gāyaki (singing) style.

Although there are stylistic differences, the basic elements of śruti (the relative musical pitch), swara (the musical sound of a single note), rāga (the mode or melodic formulæ), and tala (the rhythmic cycles) form the foundation of improvisation and composition in both Carnatic and Hindustani music. Although improvisation plays an important role, Carnatic music is mainly sung through compositions, especially the kriti (or kirtanam) – a form developed between the 14th and 20th centuries by composers such as Purandara Dasa and the Trinity of Carnatic music. Carnatic music is also usually taught and learned through compositions.
Carnatic music is usually performed by a small ensemble of musicians, consisting of a principal performer (usually a vocalist), a melodic accompaniment (usually a violin), a rhythm accompaniment (usually a mridangam), and a tambura, which acts as a drone throughout the performance. Other typical instruments used in performances may include the ghatam, kanjira, morsing, venu flute, veena, and chitraveena. The most outstanding performances, and the greatest concentration of Carnatic musicians, are to be found in the city of Chennai.[1] Various festivals are held throughout India and abroad which mainly consist of Carnatic music performances, such as the Madras Music Season, which has been considered to be one of the world's largest cultural events.[2][3]

MAGICAL REALISM

Magical realism, magic realism, or marvelous realism is literature, painting, and film that, while encompassing a range of subtly different concepts, share in common an acceptance of magic in the rational world. It is also sometimes called fabulism, in reference to the conventions of fables, myths, and allegory. Of the four terms, Magical realism is the most commonly used and refers to literature in particular[1]:1–5 that portrays magical or unreal elements as a natural part in an otherwise realistic or mundane environment.
The terms are broadly descriptive rather than critically rigorous. Matthew Strecher defines magic realism as "what happens when a highly detailed, realistic setting is invaded by something too strange to believe."[2] Many writers are categorized as "magical realists," which confuses the term and its wide definition.[3] Magical realism is often associated with Latin American literature, particularly authors including Miguel Angel Asturias, Gabriel García Márquez, Jorge Luis Borges and Isabel Allende. In English literature, its chief exponents include Salman Rushdie and Alice Hoffman.

Reality

Ted Hughes

Ted Hughes (1930-1998) is a brooding presence in the landscape of 20th Century poetry, not unlike the six hundred feet-high Scout Rock which overshadowed his Yorkshire childhood. Hughes' early experience of the moors and his industrially-scarred surroundings were the keynotes of his later poetic imagination: an unflinching observation of the natural world and the shaping, often damaging, presence of man. Also important in moulding his sensibility was the strong dissenting tradition of this part of the world which would later feed into Hughes' critique of the utilitarian rationalism of Western culture. Hughes grew up in Mexborough, a coal-mining town, and in 1948 won an Open Exhibition to Cambridge University. He began by studying English, but switched to anthropology: his encounter with the poetry and folklore of primitive societies would also be an important influence. Whilst at Cambridge Hughes met the talented but already emotionally vulnerable American poet, Sylvia Plath, and after a passionate romance they married four months later. Plath's drive and faith in her husband's ability hugely contributed to the publication of his ground-breaking first collection, The Hawk in the Rain (1957). This made an immediate impression, not least because it constituted such a profound shift away from the restrained language and ironies of the Movement generation of poets that preceded Hughes. With its harsh rhythms and diction, influenced by Anglo-Saxon, and its vivid, grandiose imagery, The Hawk in the Rain showed Hughes was prepared to risk greater claims for poetry and to celebrate what the Movement poets thought should be repressed; primitive energy and the power of the unconscious. After a period spent teaching and writing in the United States, Hughes and Plath returned to England in December 1959. The following year saw the publication of Lupercal which sealed Hughes' reputation as a major poet and includes many of his most popular evocations of animals, including the Archive-featured 'Pike'. His growing professional success was, however, at odds with his personal life; by now Plath and Hughes had had two children, but her jealousy and mental instability had begun to drive a wedge between them. Hughes began an affair with a married woman, Assia Wevill, and separated from Plath. Left alone with the children in a London flat, Plath's growing despair is immortalised in her final book, Ariel, and she committed suicide in February 1963. Further personal trauma was to follow for Hughes when Wevill also committed suicide, taking their daughter, Shura, with her in 1969. These events and the furore around his relationship with Plath in particular never died down, and perhaps explain Hughes' reluctance to live in the public eye, even after his appointment as Poet Laureate in 1984. It's not surprising that his fourth book published in 1970 is also his darkest: Crow, with its greedy, violent protagonist is written in a slangy vernacular and draws on the dark fabulist tradition of Eastern European poetry which Hughes did a great deal to bring to British readers' attention. In 1970 Hughes married Carol Orchard and finally settled in her home county of Devon where he became a farmer and began to enjoy the domestic peace which had eluded him previously. His passionate belief in writing for children prompted a collaboration with Seamus Heaney on two best-selling anthologies, The Rattle Bag and The School Bag. Hughes was also the presiding influence behind the establishment of the Arvon Foundation to promote creative talent through residential writing courses. Hughes' creative energies remained high, producing acclaimed collections including, just before his death, The Birthday Letters (1998), which revisited the fraught territory of his first marriage with searing honesty and tenderness.