Indian Violin

Direct European contact with India dates from the voyage of Vasco da Gama in the 15th Century, when the inhabitants of Calicut laughed at the poor quality of the gifts that he had brought for the local ruler. It is a lesser known fact that Indian musicians played at the court of James I as part of a diplomatic exchange in the late 16th Century. It is not known how James reacted but it is known that the super-rich Moghul emperor Jahangir was contemptuous about the presents he received from the relatively cash-strapped English king.

It is likely that the British colonial armies (and especially their Irish and Scottish contingents) carried violins with them during their campaigns on the sub-continent during the course of the 18th century but it was not until the end of that century that the violin was adopted by Indian musicians - most notably by Dikshitar and Vadivelu. In the space of a hundred years the violin became almost de rigeur as an accompanying instrument for vocalists throughout the South Indian (Carnatic) musical sphere.

The indigenous sarangi was still the preferred accompanying instrument in the North Indian (Hindustani) arena but was gradually adopted by some musicians, primarily as a solo instrument.

Structurally the Indian violin is identical to the Western instrument but in India the playing posture is different (see photos below) and the tuning is also different. In the North the violin is usually tuned Pa, Sa, Pa, Sa (Sa being the tonic note and Pa the fifth above) in the South it is usually Sa, Pa, Sa, Pa. The absolute pitch is variable - Balu Raghuraman, for instance tunes his Sa to D# whereas Jyotsna Srikanth tunes to E. This low tuning puts the instrument more comfortably into the vocal range and gives it a more sarangi-like tonal quality. However, this is not essential for getting an 'authentic' Indian sound, Manoj Baruah, for instance, tunes his Sa to D.

Padmashree Dr. Smt. N. Rajam

Ornaments

I am indebted to Candida Connolly for the following page of South Indian ornaments, (see Bibliography). Indian musicians tend to assimilate ornamentation by osmosis and seldom refer to specific ornaments in any kind of formal way - as is done here. It is easy to be fooled into thinking that the ornaments are played by sliding with one finger but this is not always the case, sometimes a downwards gliss, for instance, begins with the second finger but ends with the first finger which has imperceptibly taken over in mid-flow. The Indian equivalent of the acciacatura is performed with one finger barely leaving the string as opposed to the Western way of doing it which makes the two notes quite distinct.

SELECT DISCOGRAPHY

HINDUSTANI VIOLIN