Eternal India Encyclopedia

Eternal India encyclopedia

MUSIC

The best exponents of the sarod are Ali Akbar Khan, Amjad Ali Khan and Sharan Rani. Ustad Allauddin Khan (1862-1972), fa- ther of Ali Akbar Khan, who was born 1871, in Shibpur village in Comilla District of East Bengal, learnt his music from his guru, Ustad Wazir Khan, court musician at the court of the Nawab of Rampur. After many years of rigor- ous training he went to Maihar in Madhya Pradesh where he became the principal court musician and stayed there till his death. He created many new ragas, namely, Hemant, Hembehag, Prabhakali, Subhawati and Kaushik Bhairava. He not only developed but greatly enriched the art of sarod playing. He enriched the Sarod Baaj by adding Krintan, Zamzama and other ornamentations mainly used on sitar by some sitarists. He also added four strings on the side for special effective resonance. He designed several new instruments- the chandra sarang, sitar banjo and nal tarang which were used in orchestra experimentation on the Maihar Band, a small chamber orches- tra created by him at Maihar in the 20s. He was also a sitar player and Pandit Ravi Shankar, who later married his daughter, Annapurna, learnt the sitar from Allauddin Khan at Maihar. Ustad Ali Akbar Khan, one of India's greatest living musicians and the foremost exponent of the sarod, was bom in 1922 in East Bengal. He used to accompany his fa- ther, Ustad Allauddin Khan to music confer- ences and played for the first time at the Al- lahabad music conference in 1936. He estab- lished the Ali Akbar College of Music in Calcutta in 1956. He has performed in Lon- don, Edinburgh, New York, Washington, Brus- sels, Paris and other capital cities. His LP Gramophone record was introduced by Yehudi Menhuin.

VEENA

Eminent Veena players : Karaikudi Sambasiva Iyer, L. Subramanya Sastri, K.S. Narayanaswami (L), Devakottai A. Narayana Iyengar, Emani Sankara Sastri, S. Balachander, Tanjavur K.P. Sivanandam (L), Raajeswari Padmanabhan (L), R. Pichumani Iyer (L), Chitti Babu (L), M.K. Kalyanakrishna, Bhagavathar (L), Kalpagam Swaminathan (L), Veena Seshanne (L), M. Dhanammal (L), Mayuram Sabesa Iyer (L), V. Gayathri (L), Dr. Suma Sudheen- dra (L) . gottuvadyam of South India is similar to the veena but without frets. There are four main strings on which melo- dies are played. There are three more strings on one side meant for giving the drone and tala. The plucking of the strings is done as in the veena. A small cylinder of ebony or wood is moved along the strings for playing a melody. This-piece is called the kodu or batta (slider). The name of the instrument is derived from this. It is an extremely difficult and delicate technique to adjust the pressure of the kodu as even the slightest change in pressure introduces de- viations in pitch. In ancient times this in- strument was called Chitra Veena. GOTTUVADYAM The VIOLIN The violin, a Western instrument, has be- come popular in India especially the South, since its introduction in the 19th century by Baluswamy Dikshitar, the brother of Muthuswami Dikshitar. The violin in North and South India has emerged as a solo instru- ment. 1. The first string from the extreme left or the thickest one Ma or Pa (lower F or G). 2. The second string from the left, Madhya Sadja (C of the middle octave). 3. The third string from the left. Madhya Punchama (G of the middle octave). 4. The fourth string from the left or the first string from right. Tara Rsava or Sadja (C or D of the third register). Some of the greatest violin maestros have come from South India. Dwaram Venkataswarni Naidu, Mysore T. Chowdiah, Rajamanickam Pillai, Mayavaram Govindaraja Pillai, Lalgudi Jayaraman (L) T.N. Krishnan (L), M.S. Gopalakrishnan (L), M. Chandrasekhar (L), Chalakudi Narayanaswamy (L), V.V. Subrahmanyam (L), R.K. Venkatarama Shastri. It has four strings of different thickness and they are tuned as under. Eminent Gottuvadyam players Krishnamurthi Shastri, Ravi Kiran (L) : Budalur

The South India veena has seven strings and 22 fixed frets. It is an instrument of great virtuosity, subtlety and restraint. The veena, an ancient musical instrument, is associated with Saraswathi, the Goddess of learning and music who is invariably shown playing a veena. The Sangita Ratnakara speaks of 10 dif- ferent kinds of Veena and its species prevalent in India from 11-13th C. A.D. They are known as 1. Eka-tantri, 2. Nakula, 3. Tri-tantri, 4. Chitra, 5. Vipanchi, 6. Matta-Kokila, 7. Alap- ini, 8. Kinnari, 9. Pinaki, 10. Nishanka-vina. It is one of the oldest musical instruments of the past and was in great use even in Vedic age for the fulfilment of chants of hymns of the Vedas. The veena of South India (also known as the Saraswati veena) is made entirely of wood. The long hollow finger-board is also of wood, though separately made and attached to the neck. But in special cases the whole instru- ment is carved out of a single log of wood. A veena thus made is of very high quality. The South Indian veena has strings to play the raga, it has the drone and. these strings are so placed that tala can also be played on them. It is a self-contained instrument having in itself swara, raga and tala.

The veena is held horizontally. The musician sits crosslegged on the floor. The large kudam is placed on the ground with the other gourd resting on the lap. Miraj is famous for the manufacture of Saraswati Veena. Mysore and Tanjore are noted for the production of Rudra Veena.

Sharan Rani is the first woman to take up sarod professionally and is also India's first ranking woman sarod player. She is India's first woman instrumentalist to receive a civil- ian award, the Padma Shri, in 1968. Other Eminent Sarod players : Hafiz Ali Khan, Zarin Sharma (L).

Vioiin (Hindustani) players : Gajananrao