http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KcN0dFmhj9A&feature=related
Doug’s link inspired me.
This is wonderful, she’s playing a G flute, I believe.
One can play along.
Lucky people. south Indian carnatic music
And this:
The Carnatic (South Indian) bamboo flute isn’t called bansi or bansuri. It is called venu which is a Sanskrit word for flutes in general.
This tradition (South Indian or Carnatic) is not my tradition of flute, very different from my own but I am entranced by it. Its like coming home in a way because it is the least “persianised” of the indic traditions. Or maybe it is its delightful childlike quality like little Krishna lost in the jungle that touches the child in me. This classical trad goes for the smaller flutes for its apex performances wheras the Hindustani one (North India) is into the larger flutes for classical virtuosity. (Of course, in folk, small flutes are used more all over the South Asian sub continent.)
(Jim, the second link in your post is not Carnatic but Hindustani trad.)
Thank you for this info. Do you know what the gourd like
(or maybe it’s potlike) drum is in the second clip?
Never seen this before.
Here’s something else very enjoyable.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YI7-329fdlk&feature=related
It is, in fact, a clay pot percussion instrument called “ghatam”. Clay pot percussion is also found in Africa under a different name (which slips my brain at the moment). I like to to think of these as vegan percussion.
Ghatam is a specialty in Carnatic music. Since the inroads made by Pandit Ravi Shankar in breaking down the barriers between the Hindustani and Carnatic trads a lot of Hindustani musicians will incorparoate Carnatic percussion for their accompaniment when musically appropriate.
The Carnatic tradition has a penchant for elevating, what other classical traditions might consider, a lowly or “unworthy” peasant instrument to concert stage heights. So, in Carnatic we have a history of little tambourines, clay pots and a kind of jews harp all sharing the stage prominently with the veena (ancient lute of India). Even the little bamboo flute has for centuries enjoyed classical concert status whereas, in the North it wasn’t until the pioneering musicianship of Pannalal Ghosh that the humble bansuri was accepted on the concert status. Prior to that the bansuri was considered only fit for folk and peasant music.
I am not into all that snobbery. I am just giving an account.
I like the hammered dulcimer in the last clip I posted.
Don’t these people know it should be reserved
for jigs and reels?
I have lots of regrets about the years I spent in India,
that I could have used it more wisely, especially
that I didn’t learn flute. Youth is wasted on
the young.
Jigs and reels did not turn up in time so reserve was opened up and others were accomodated for concert …
Jim, when I first watched the video this morning, I almost commented about the fellow who was playing the upside-down salad bowl with the sewing thimbles on his fingers. However, I knew that Talasiga would set me straight, so I decided not to say that at the time. I often see tabla players use a similar technique when they counterpoint the drum head rhythm with a metallic tapping on the side of the drum. It is fascinating to see how the different cultures of the world have devised unique ways to make music.
it’s interesting that the same rag sounds so different in the two traditions. i am more familiar with hindustani than carnatic, so it is a joy to experience both traditions.
if you are not from the carnatic tradition, what is your tradition?
I liked the video of the man with the larger flute. It sounded beautiful. I liked how at the end he made it sound like all the beautiful sound comes from the flute itself, as if it were a living thing.
I was in India a year ago. I did see one performance in one of our hotels with a tabla and another guy who sang and maybe strummed something. I loved the tabla. I wish I could play that. I loved their music. I asked them afterwards if they had any CDs for sale. They looked at me like I was crazy. Of course not silly Western lady!
Can you please tell me what key is the flute Rajendra is playing ?
Yes, Romulo this is difficult to work out with a tuner because there is so much sound happening in those links. However from my Hindustani music background (and singing along with the pieces) I reckon the Hamsadhwani piece is with E tonic and the last one Malkauns is with Eb tonic. Therefore, using the Western approach to describing diatonic and keyless flutes he is playing a B key flute and a Bb key flute respectively.
(That is the B and Bb lower than the Irish low D.) I think I am pretty right in my calculation with the tonics of the his rendition. I’ll edit if my review comes up with a difference. Also the size of the flutes is consistent with this reckoning.
But the keys aren’t important because you can play the raags in any key that you desire. You just have to understand the interval relationship of the scale of the piece and, of course this is transposable to any key.
Raag Hamsadhwani is a pentatonic raag that drops the fourth and the sixth intervals with all other intervals being major (Sa Ri Ga Pa Ni Sa).
(ASIDE:-It is, interestingly a major pentatonic raag but not of THE major pentatonic scale that we use a lot in Western music (to which Raags Bhoopaali, Deskar, Jet Kalyaan belong). The scale of these raags has the fourth and the seventh omitted - see also Auld Lang Syne/Amazing Grace etc)
Raag Malkauns is also a pentatonic raag. It’s intervals are what you have if you take the standard major pentatonic of western music and begin your mode from the major penatonic’s third interval. It is a minor scale pentatonic in which the 2nd and the perfect 5th are dropped. (S g m d n S)
Hi Talasiga
Is this the type of drum you were talking about?
Yes, thats a small exmaple of the African clay pot percussion. There are bigger versions. Your link calls it “udu”. But I know it by another name but its very summer and very humid where I am and my brain is struggling to remember it.
coming out of a train station I saw two boys sitting crosslegged
on the pavement. One was strumming a zither, the other
was playing a drum and both were singing a religious
chant, singing it loud. A little voice in my head said:
This is the best music you will ever hear in your life.