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Looper's Delight
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Bill asked: >Talking about Karnatic music and Hindustani traditions, >is'nt a Serangi not a violn the melodic indtrument >(traditionally) and the ragas flow with the time of day, >like morning ragas, afternoon ragas, and evening >ragas in order to flow with the rhythm of life. A musician >has to be pretty tuned in to play them properly. Not to dwell too long on (OT) Indian music, but here are some quick answers: In the Carnatic (South Indian classical) tradition, the violin is *the* standard accompanying instrument in every recital, whether vocal or instrumental. The western violin was first brought into India by Portuguese explorers in the colonial era, and in South India it has been in continuous use since the 1700's. So much so that it's no longer even thought of as being a "foreign" instrument! In the North Indian (Hindustani) tradition, the sarangi had for years been the preeminent accompaniment for vocal music. Sadly, it has given way to the (western) harmonium, due to several factors such as the difficult playing technique, the near impossibility of retuning the 30+ strings for each separate melody, compared to the relative ease of harmonium technique. Unfortunately the harmonium cannot reproduce the microtonal nuances of the Indian tuning system. Violin is also sometimes used as vocal accompaniment in North Indian music. In both Northern and Southern traditions, the violin is tuned openly in fifths (e.g., d-a-d-a) and the instrument is balanced with the scroll resting on the player's foot, and the body held against the chest so that the left hand is free to move easily up and down the neck without having to support the weight of the violin. As far as the "time of day" and "seasonal" nature of melodies, this only occurs in the North Indian system. There's no time association with South Indian ragas. So even though there are some shared melodies in the Northern and Southern systems, for instance a melody that will only be played after sunset in the North may be performed at any time in the Southern tradition.