"In the culture of Carnatic music in Madras (Chennai), the term Katcheri is used for a large concert with an ensemble. Briefly, the ensemble consists of various levels of leadership and accompaniment: For example, a solo singer is the principal, a virtuoso in singing technique and improvisation, and a master of the complex musical system. He or she is accompanied by a violin, which follows along, repeating and recapitulating the singer’s improvisations, and a mridangam (drum), which accompanies the metric passages. The violin, which occasionally gets to improvise, is accompanied by a second violin, which also follows, and assumes the main accompanying function when the first violin plays solo. The mridangam, too gets to improvise to solo and is accompanied by a second percussion instrument, a ghatam (actually a pot of fired clay). It is a complicated structure, but the principle is that there is always leadership and accompaniment, various levels of it, and that the leader (or temporary leader) gets to make musical decisions and must be followed by the accompanist. The tamboura, a large four-string lute, which plays drone throughout, performs an essential function but outside the system."