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Chitravina
The chitravina ( sa, चित्रवीणा) (also known as chitra veena, chitraveena, chitra vina, hanumad vina, or mahanataka vina) is a 20 or 21-string fretless lute-style veena in Carnatic music. Around the late 19th and early 20th centuries, it started to be known by another name, Gotuvadyam (often mis-spelt as gottuvadyam, and kottuvadyam etc.), which was bestowed upon it by Sakha Rama Rao from Tiruvidaimarudur, who was responsible for bringing it back to the concert scene. Today it is played mainly in South India, though its origins can be traced back to Bharata's Natya Shastra (200 BCE-200 CE), where it is mentioned as a seven string fretless instrument. Sarangadeva (1210–47) also made a similar reference to the chitravina in his work, Sangita Ratnakara. Recent history The ''chitravina'' was popularised in South India by Sakha Rama Rao before his disciple Gotuvadyam Narayana Iyengar (1903 - 1959), who was a palace musician of the erstwhile states of Travanco ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Chitravina
The chitravina ( sa, चित्रवीणा) (also known as chitra veena, chitraveena, chitra vina, hanumad vina, or mahanataka vina) is a 20 or 21-string fretless lute-style veena in Carnatic music. Around the late 19th and early 20th centuries, it started to be known by another name, Gotuvadyam (often mis-spelt as gottuvadyam, and kottuvadyam etc.), which was bestowed upon it by Sakha Rama Rao from Tiruvidaimarudur, who was responsible for bringing it back to the concert scene. Today it is played mainly in South India, though its origins can be traced back to Bharata's Natya Shastra (200 BCE-200 CE), where it is mentioned as a seven string fretless instrument. Sarangadeva (1210–47) also made a similar reference to the chitravina in his work, Sangita Ratnakara. Recent history The ''chitravina'' was popularised in South India by Sakha Rama Rao before his disciple Gotuvadyam Narayana Iyengar (1903 - 1959), who was a palace musician of the erstwhile states of Travanco ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Sakha Rama Rao
Sakha Rama Rao (Sakharam Rao) is an Indian musician credited with having re-introduced the south Indian chitravina (or "gotuvadyam") to the concert scene. However, it was his father, Srinivasa Rao, who made the pioneering effort towards the reincarnation of the chitravina in modern times. He was an ardent music lover and an amateur artiste himself. He started experimenting with a slide on the tanpura (a four-stringed instrument, usually used as a reference drone in Indian music). Sakha Rama Rao was drawn to this instrument since childhood. He was able to perceive its tremendous potential to produce high-class music. He re-designed this instrument as a fretless veena with its usual set of seven strings - four strings on the top and three in the side for drone and rhythm. He put in arduous practice on this instrument and gave occasional performances. Since he was not aware of the history of the instrument, he gave it a new name - gotuvadyam. This is because, he used to casually refer ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Chitravina Narasimhan
Chitravina Narasimhan (born 1941) is a gottuvadhyam player from India. He is the father of renowned chitravina player N. Ravikiran. Early life He was born in 1941 in Mysore, Karnataka in a family of musicians. His father Gottuvadhyam Narayan Iyengar The chitravina ( sa, चित्रवीणा) (also known as chitra veena, chitraveena, chitra vina, hanumad vina, or mahanataka vina) is a 20 or 21-string fretless lute-style veena in Carnatic music. Around the late 19th and early 20th ce ..., who was also his teacher was a renowned Gottuvadhyam player in South India. Career After learning from his father he continued his training in Gottuvadhyam under several musicians such as T. Brinda, G.N Balabsuramaniam, Budaloor Krishnamurthi Shastri and Musiri Subramaniam Iyer. Narasimhan performed extensively across India and won acclaim from many stalwarts of Indian music including such as Ariyakudi Ramanuja Iyengar, Allauddin Khan (mentor of sitarist Ravishankar), Flute Mali, M. B ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Sarod
The sarod is a stringed instrument, used in Hindustani music on the Indian subcontinent. Along with the sitar, it is among the most popular and prominent instruments. It is known for a deep, weighty, introspective sound, in contrast with the sweet, overtone-rich texture of the sitar, with sympathetic strings that give it a resonant, reverberant quality. A fretless instrument, it can produce the continuous slides between notes known as meend (glissandi), which are important in Indian music. Origins The word sarod, which comes from the Persian, is much older than the Indian musical instrument. It can be traced back to ''sorūd'' meaning "song", "melody", "hymn" and further to the Persian verb ''sorūdan'', which correspondingly means "to sing", "to play a musical instrument", but also means "to compose". Alternatively, the shahrud may have given its name to the sarod. The Persian word šāh-rūd is made up of ''šāh'' (shah or king) and ''rūd'' (string). Many scholars of Indi ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Narayan Iyengar
K. S. Narayana Iyengar (25 January 1903 – 11 January 1959) was a master Indian Carnatic musician of the South Indian instrument, the chitravina (also known as the gotuvadyam). He contributed heavily to the development of the instrument. Narayana Iyengar was a friend of film director A. V. Meiyappan; together they operated a gramophone record store in Madras in 1932. On 2 October 1939, the ''Malaya Tribune'' wrote: : "The highest flights of ecstasy to which Carnatic music can raise were revealed by the performance on the famous gotuvadyam by Professor Narayana Iyengar at the Town Hall of Kuala Lumpur , anthem = '' Maju dan Sejahtera'' , image_map = , map_caption = , pushpin_map = Malaysia#Southeast Asia#Asia , pushpin_map_caption = , coordinates = , su .... The extent of the profound effects he has produced on the audience numbering nearly a thousand can be gauged from the fact tha ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Hardwood
Hardwood is wood from dicot trees. These are usually found in broad-leaved temperate and tropical forests. In temperate and boreal latitudes they are mostly deciduous, but in tropics and subtropics mostly evergreen. Hardwood (which comes from angiosperm trees) contrasts with softwood (which is from gymnosperm trees). Characteristics Hardwoods are produced by angiosperm trees that reproduce by flowers, and have broad leaves. Many species are deciduous. Those of temperate regions lose their leaves every autumn as temperatures fall and are dormant in the winter, but those of tropical regions may shed their leaves in response to seasonal or sporadic periods of drought. Hardwood from deciduous species, such as oak, normally shows annual growth rings, but these may be absent in some tropical hardwoods. Hardwoods have a more complex structure than softwoods and are often much slower growing as a result. The dominant feature separating "hardwoods" from softwoods is the presence o ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Hawaiian Steel Guitar
The lap steel guitar, also known as a Hawaiian guitar, is a type of steel guitar without pedals that is typically played with the instrument in a horizontal position across the performer's lap. Unlike the usual manner of playing a traditional acoustic guitar, in which the performer's fingertips press the strings against frets, the pitch of a steel guitar is changed by pressing a polished steel bar against plucked strings (from which the name "steel guitar" derives). Though the instrument does not have frets, it displays markers that resemble them. Lap steels may differ markedly from one another in external appearance, depending on whether they are acoustic or electric, but in either case, do not have pedals, distinguishing them from pedal steel guitar. The steel guitar was the first "foreign" musical instrument to gain a foothold in American pop music. It originated in the Hawaiian Islands about 1885, popularized by an Oahu youth named Joseph Kekuku, who became known for playing ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Vichitra Veena
The ''vichitra veena'' ( sa, विचित्र वीणा) is a stick zither, a plucked string instrument used in Hindustani music. Similar to the Carnatic ''gottuvadhyam'' (chitra vina) it has no frets and is played with a slide. The structure The Vichitra Veena is the modern form of ancient Ekatantri Veena. It is made of a broad, fretless, horizontal arm or crossbar (''dand'') around three feet long and six inches wide, with two large resonating gourds (''tumba''), which are inlaid with ivory and attached underneath at either end. The narrow ends of the instrument are fashioned into peacock heads, the national bird of India. The strings There are four main playing strings and five secondary strings (''chikaris''), which are played openly with the little finger for a drone effect. Underneath them are 13 sympathetic strings tuned to the notes of the appropriate raag. The veena has a five-octave range. Two plectrums ('' mizrab'') identical to those used for sitar are wo ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Sitar
The sitar ( or ; ) is a plucked stringed instrument, originating from the Indian subcontinent, used in Hindustani classical music. The instrument was invented in medieval India, flourished in the 18th century, and arrived at its present form in 19th-century India. Khusrau Khan, an 18th century figure of Mughal Empire has been identified by modern scholarship as the originator of Sitar. According to most historians he developed sitar from setar, an Iranian instrument of Abbasid or Safavid origin. Another view supported by a minority of scholars is that Khusrau Khan developed it from ''Veena''. Used widely throughout the Indian subcontinent, the sitar became popularly known in the wider world through the works of Ravi Shankar, beginning in the late 1950s and early 1960s. In the 1960s, a short-lived trend arose for the use of the sitar in Western popular music, with the instrument appearing on tracks by bands such as the Beatles, the Doors, the Rolling Stones and others. Etymol ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Ebony
Ebony is a dense black/brown hardwood, coming from several species in the genus ''Diospyros'', which also contains the persimmons. Unlike most woods, ebony is dense enough to sink in water. It is finely textured and has a mirror finish when polished, making it valuable as an ornamental wood. The word ''ebony'' comes from the Ancient Egyptian ', through the Ancient Greek ('), into Latin and Middle English. Species Species of ebony include ''Diospyros ebenum'' (Ceylon ebony), native to southern India and Sri Lanka; '' D. crassiflora'' (Gabon ebony), native to western Africa; and '' D. celebica'' (Sulawesi ebony), native to Indonesia and prized for its luxuriant, multi-colored wood grain. Mauritius ebony, '' D. tessellaria'', was largely exploited by the Dutch in the 17th century. Some species in the genus yield an ebony with similar physical properties, but striped rather than the even black of ''D. ebenum''. Uses Ebony has a long history of use, and carved pieces have be ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Sympathetic String
Sympathetic strings or resonance strings are auxiliary strings found on many Indian musical instruments, as well as some Western Baroque instruments and a variety of folk instruments. They are typically not played directly by the performer (except occasionally as an effect), only indirectly through the tones that are played on the main strings, based on the principle of sympathetic resonance. The resonance is most often heard when the fundamental frequency of the string is in unison or an octave lower or higher than the catalyst note, although it can occur for other intervals, such as a fifth, with less effect. Description Sympathetic strings are used to enhance the sound of an instrument. Some instruments have only a few sympathetic strings such as the Hardanger fiddle (pictured above right). Other instruments which have more include the sitar with 11-13 sympathetic strings and sarod with 15 sympathetic strings, and the sarangi, which has a total of 37 sympathetics. In Western ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
