Musicians are born, growing, ever evolving. Some see the light of the day while many remain just unsung….
For some of these musicians, they may be the youngest generation from the Musical family responsible in taking the coveted lineage ahead and always held high in the limelight with enormous expectations from the music lovers.
While some musicians are born to be the first ever musician evolving from a non-musical background and when such a prodigy, a brilliant musician and student develops on a very rare instrument or a unique style then world of music is taken in awe to visualize a PATH BREAKER in such a musician.
Realizing the potential path breakers, we could easily talk about three unique and beautiful instruments the mandolin, saxophone and the slide guitar.
For some of these musicians, they may be the youngest generation from the Musical family responsible in taking the coveted lineage ahead and always held high in the limelight with enormous expectations from the music lovers.
While some musicians are born to be the first ever musician evolving from a non-musical background and when such a prodigy, a brilliant musician and student develops on a very rare instrument or a unique style then world of music is taken in awe to visualize a PATH BREAKER in such a musician.
Realizing the potential path breakers, we could easily talk about three unique and beautiful instruments the mandolin, saxophone and the slide guitar.
MANDOLIN
The sound of mandolin, I remember to have first heard this phenomenon called U.Srinivas that I got awed by the repertoire and mastery over the mandolin. Carnatic Music on Mandolin has a synonym and that is U.Srinivas. Then as I always got quite inquisitive to know how this instrument might have evolved, its adaptation to Indian Classical Carnatic Music and also was much interested in getting to know how U.Srinivas has innovated Mandolin to sing Carnatic music.
Mandolin is a musical instrument descended from the lute and so called because its body is shaped like an almond (in Italian, Mandoria means almond). Mandolin is a pear shaped instrument with fretted finger board and has a head with tuning pegs which is often angled backward from the neck. The strings are plucked with fingers. An asset in its favour is the softness of its sound and has four pairs of strings.
Many stages of evolution changed the mandolin from an ancient lute to a modern American folk instrument. Mesopotamia originated a hollowed wood bowl with strings called the Oud, meaning "wood". Many European countries adapted this simplest chordophone, adding strings, frets, lengthening or shortening the strings, and changing the body's shape. Fifteenth century Italy saw the rise of the Mandola, Italian for "almond," the direct ancestor of the Mandolin.
Mandolin Srinivas (a) chose the electric solid block (Mandolin) as the basis; (b) used single strings instead of pairs, and (c) also added a fifth string (on the suggestion of his father U Satyanarayana), which enhanced the acoustic range of the instrument. As such the acoustic range of the instrument is now three complete octaves and a half octave. Besides the above, U.Srinivas also established a unique style in handling the instrument i.e. developed new fingering techniques and also established the hammer-on playing and also the gamaka playing techniques on the mandolin.
raga amrithavarshini - alapana - mandolin srinivas
Mandolin is a musical instrument descended from the lute and so called because its body is shaped like an almond (in Italian, Mandoria means almond). Mandolin is a pear shaped instrument with fretted finger board and has a head with tuning pegs which is often angled backward from the neck. The strings are plucked with fingers. An asset in its favour is the softness of its sound and has four pairs of strings.
Many stages of evolution changed the mandolin from an ancient lute to a modern American folk instrument. Mesopotamia originated a hollowed wood bowl with strings called the Oud, meaning "wood". Many European countries adapted this simplest chordophone, adding strings, frets, lengthening or shortening the strings, and changing the body's shape. Fifteenth century Italy saw the rise of the Mandola, Italian for "almond," the direct ancestor of the Mandolin.
Mandolin Srinivas (a) chose the electric solid block (Mandolin) as the basis; (b) used single strings instead of pairs, and (c) also added a fifth string (on the suggestion of his father U Satyanarayana), which enhanced the acoustic range of the instrument. As such the acoustic range of the instrument is now three complete octaves and a half octave. Besides the above, U.Srinivas also established a unique style in handling the instrument i.e. developed new fingering techniques and also established the hammer-on playing and also the gamaka playing techniques on the mandolin.
raga amrithavarshini - alapana - mandolin srinivas
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SAXOPHONE
Many Great musical innovations have seen the light of the day, Carnatic Music has been blessed with yet another Instrumental wonder the Saxophone. We Chennaiites would have come across the saxophone on western music played in some functions and hotels so feebly in the background that we do not really enjoy.
Bringing Saxophone to Carnatic Music had been taken up by Kadri Gopalnath amidst disputes and as an ultimatum; he has given saxophone its true stage and colour.
Carnatic Music has had its unique and powerful Nadaswaram masking any other wind instrument on stage. Nadaswaram has been and continues to be the king of wind instruments. Keeping in mind the Nadaswaram, Kadri Gopalnath has imbibed the power of former and has crafted the Saxophone to intone many beautiful raga’s. He has also adapted this western instrument so well to the Carnatic genre that Saxophone has its own stage.
We will now try and understand the origin of Saxophone and its adaptability to Carnatic Music.
The Saxophone consists of an approximately conical tube of thin metal, most commonly brass, flared at the tip to form a bell. At intervals along the tube are between 20 and 23 tone holes of varying size, including two very small 'speaker' holes to assist the playing of the upper register. These holes are covered by pads, which are capable of pressing the holes to produce an airtight seal; at rest some of the holes stand open and others are closed by pads. The pads can be controlled by a number of keys by the left and right fingers, while the left thumb sites under a thumb rest which helps keep the saxophone balanced. The fingering for the saxophone is a combination of that of the oboe with the Boehm system, and is very similar to the flute or the upper register of the clarinet.
The Saxophone as it is used in Western music has a range of 3 1/2 octaves. It basically produces staccato notes as required in Western music.
The holes in the Saxophone are operated through metallic rods, which are manipulated by the fingers. Leather pads give an airtight coverage over the holes. But the operation of the keys which lift or bring down the pads produces distinct staccato notes. In addition, there is provision (by the operation of other levers) to open/close some holes. This enables one to traverse 3 1/2 octaves on this instrument.
Modifications
Some modifications were called for in order to produce gamaka-s and remove the superfluous attachments for enhanced range. Accordingly, Kadri had made the following modifications to the Saxophone:
Some openings which facilitate attaining base notes (mandra/anumandra) had been blocked because the levers operating them were interfering with the fingering and in any case, those notes were not needed.
The rigid metallic connecting-rods operating the keys have been replaced by tough, elastic rubber strings.
The leather pads at the bottom of the keys which open/close the holes had been replaced by felt pads with a convex surface.
raga mohanam - alapana - kadri gopalnath
Bringing Saxophone to Carnatic Music had been taken up by Kadri Gopalnath amidst disputes and as an ultimatum; he has given saxophone its true stage and colour.
Carnatic Music has had its unique and powerful Nadaswaram masking any other wind instrument on stage. Nadaswaram has been and continues to be the king of wind instruments. Keeping in mind the Nadaswaram, Kadri Gopalnath has imbibed the power of former and has crafted the Saxophone to intone many beautiful raga’s. He has also adapted this western instrument so well to the Carnatic genre that Saxophone has its own stage.
We will now try and understand the origin of Saxophone and its adaptability to Carnatic Music.
The Saxophone consists of an approximately conical tube of thin metal, most commonly brass, flared at the tip to form a bell. At intervals along the tube are between 20 and 23 tone holes of varying size, including two very small 'speaker' holes to assist the playing of the upper register. These holes are covered by pads, which are capable of pressing the holes to produce an airtight seal; at rest some of the holes stand open and others are closed by pads. The pads can be controlled by a number of keys by the left and right fingers, while the left thumb sites under a thumb rest which helps keep the saxophone balanced. The fingering for the saxophone is a combination of that of the oboe with the Boehm system, and is very similar to the flute or the upper register of the clarinet.
The Saxophone as it is used in Western music has a range of 3 1/2 octaves. It basically produces staccato notes as required in Western music.
The holes in the Saxophone are operated through metallic rods, which are manipulated by the fingers. Leather pads give an airtight coverage over the holes. But the operation of the keys which lift or bring down the pads produces distinct staccato notes. In addition, there is provision (by the operation of other levers) to open/close some holes. This enables one to traverse 3 1/2 octaves on this instrument.
Modifications
Some modifications were called for in order to produce gamaka-s and remove the superfluous attachments for enhanced range. Accordingly, Kadri had made the following modifications to the Saxophone:
Some openings which facilitate attaining base notes (mandra/anumandra) had been blocked because the levers operating them were interfering with the fingering and in any case, those notes were not needed.
The rigid metallic connecting-rods operating the keys have been replaced by tough, elastic rubber strings.
The leather pads at the bottom of the keys which open/close the holes had been replaced by felt pads with a convex surface.
raga mohanam - alapana - kadri gopalnath
SLIDE GUITAR
Slide Guitar Evolution
Four thousand years ago in India there existed an instrument called the swarabat sitar, literally ‘plectrum guitar,’ since it was plucked with a quill, Portugese laborers may have introduced steel-string guitars in the 1860s. Hawaii’s ‘slack key’ style is believed to have emerged in the 1880s, and ‘slack key’ elements (not the least of them chordal ‘open’ tunings) contributed much to the evolution of Hawaiian guitar.
Playing guitar lap style and fretting with a hard object may have been a native attempt to emulate the dulcimer’s sound. The slide style allows a guitarist to approximate the fluid tone of the violin and, even more importantly, the human voice. The vocal quality of slide guitar is everywhere evident in its many variants: in the Hawaiian approach and its country derivatives; in the African-American bottleneck blues style and its gospel relative where slide guitar often acts anti-phonally as a second voice; certainly in the Indian classical style in which the instrumental approximation of vocal nuances (called gayaki ang) is developed to a fine art. The archtop f-hole guitar, with its dual capacities for projection and mellowness, is well-suited to Indian music
Innovations by Pandit Brij Bhushan Kabra
Brij was the key to transformation of the Hawaiian guitar into a Indian classical guitar. Brij had modified an arch top guitar by adding some drone and sympathetic strings to it. He had also raised the guitar bridge and modified the stem to hold more strings.
rag puriya - alap - Pandit Brij Bhushan Kabra
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Inheritors
One of the most notable students of Brij Bhushan Kabra was Debashish Bhattacharya who met the Indian classical steel guitar legend in 1984.
Innovations by Pandit Debashish Bhattacharya
Kabra’s three primary playing strings (tuned D-A-D) became five (usually tuned A-D-F#-A-D). Inspired by sarod design, Bhattacharya added three ‘supporting strings’ (strings strummed for emphasis) to the left of the primary strings and two chikaris (tonic drone strings used rhythmically in a manner similar to a banjo’s fifth string) to their right (chikaris traditionally are on the left of the playing strings on Indian instruments). Finally, he added the dozen sympathetic strings which provide the echoic overtones common to many Indian stringed instruments.
With the knowledge on the evolution of such great musicians and their unique innovations on the instrument to sound the richness and flavour of the Indian classical genre, every enthusiastic rasika can immensely realize the musician and the Path Breaker in him.
