Spotlight
Pocket guide to Carnatic music The violin

One of the major legacies of the
British Empire in India has been the gift of western music, starting mainly
with church music and military and police bands. It was through this route that
Indian musicians started playing western instruments, first as members of
western music orchestras or bands, and later as innovators who borrowed some of
these instruments such as the violin and the clarionet for use in Indian music.
Baluswami Dikshitar (1786 – 1859), musician, scholar, composer and a brother of
the great vaggeyakara Muthuswami Dikshitar, introduced the western violin to
Carnatic music, learning it from a European.
Baluswami Dikshitar, who could also play the veena, sitar and mridangam,
adapted the violin to the Carnatic style, playing it seated on the floor,
cross-legged and cradling it between his ankle and chin. That it could produce
the nuances of gamakas, the continuity across microtones that distinguishes
Carnatic music from other forms, encouraged Dikshitar, and generations of
musicians after him to invest a western instrument in concept and construction
a distinctly Indian character.
The Carnatic violin, like other Carnatic stringed instruments, applies modal
tuning that changes with the pitch (sruti) that is constant for a concert. The
strings are tuned to the panchamam and the shadjam and their lower-octave
counterparts.
By the end of the 19th century, the violin had become the prime instrument
accompanying vocal music in a concert. It continues to be so. With the arrival
of the next generation of violin virtuosos in the early 20th century – Dwaram
Venkataswamy Naidu, Tirukkodikaval Krishna Iyer and T. Chowdiah, to name a few
–the violin, or fiddle as most musicians here used to call it, also began to
make its presence felt as a solo instrument.
The quite amazing violin techniques
in vogue today—in particular that of playing it to closely resemble the human
voice (the gayaki style of violin playing) as opposed to the earlier manner of
playing relatively discrete notes—were largely developed by the great artists
of the 20th century, at least three of whom are still with us: T.N. Krishnan,
Lalgudi G. Jayaraman, and M.S. Gopalakrishnan. They are musicians of
contrasting styles and temperaments, but all of them are of the highest calibre
and pedigree.
T.N. Krishnan, a child prodigy, learnt his art from his father Tripunitura
Narayana Iyer, a martinet of a teacher. Krishnan’s talent was burnished by long
association with the great vocal masters of the era. He is known for his
ability to present the most complex nuances of Carnatic music with disarming
simplicity, and his strong bowing technique that produces ringing clarity and
purity of sound.
Lalgudi G. Jayaraman, musician, teacher and composer par excellence, is another
violin great of impeccable pedigree. The son of Lalgudi Gopala Iyer, a
masterful figure of his time, for whom music was a mission, he built on his
father’s meticulous, regimented training, through the perfection of his own
quite extraordinary creative instincts. The perfect accompanist of his era,
Lalgudi in time developed an altogether more flowing, lilting style.
M.S. Gopalakrishnan, legatee of yet
another violin tradition handed down from father to son, is proficient in both
Carnatic and Hindustani music. He too learnt his art from a strict guru who was
also his father. Parur Sundaram Iyer was an extraordinary pathbreaker who
introduced the violin to Hindustani music. MSG is known to play long passages
on the same string, essaying intricate passages of beauty with accuracy.
Senior violinists like M. Chandrasekharan and V.V. Subrahmanyan have built upon
these techniques to evolve their own styles.
The Carnatic violin continues to evolve, with its electric counterpart and a
double-headed version making appearances at classical concerts. Contact
microphones are changing the way the violin sounds.
Posted by Sruti Magazine , June 21, 2012