Comments on: Chitravina

Chitravina

flapjax at midnite — Wed, 23 Jul 2008 07:21:59 -0800

Ever heard a chitravina? It's a 21-stringed musical instrument from India, similar in appearance to the more widely-known veena, but with a sonic character all its own, due in large part to the fact that it's fretless, and it's played with a slide. Here's an NPR feature on the instrument's prime exponent, N. Ravikiran. [NOTE: embedded audio on that last link]

Here's the Wikipedia page for the gottuvadhyam, which is another name for the chitravina (there are several names, actually). You'll note the somewhat irritating promotion (self-promotion?) included in this page, though, of the indefatigable N. Ravikiran. But hey, whaddayugunnado? Ravikiran would appear to have a virtual worldwide monopoly on this 21-stringed beast! My previous posts on Carnatic music.

By: preparat

preparat — Wed, 23 Jul 2008 07:42:17 -0800

Very interesting. What I have sometimes wondered, is how they managed to make strings that were thin and strong enough to be played, two thousand years ago. Maybe it's less difficult than I imagine it.

By: ZenMasterThis

ZenMasterThis — Wed, 23 Jul 2008 07:45:03 -0800

prime exponent x⁷ /silly

By: chuckdarwin

chuckdarwin — Wed, 23 Jul 2008 07:50:11 -0800

preparat, they would have used animal intestines. They smelled bad and they don't stay in tune for love nor money.

By: chuckdarwin

chuckdarwin — Wed, 23 Jul 2008 07:50:52 -0800

Killer post. Yet another "guitar-like" instrument that I need to try out!

By: bonobothegreat

bonobothegreat — Wed, 23 Jul 2008 09:32:46 -0800

Another slide guitar with 22 strings was developed by Debashish Bhattacharya. You can see Bob Brozman playing one here.

By: invitapriore

invitapriore — Wed, 23 Jul 2008 11:00:06 -0800

The wonderful consequence of shifting focus entirely away from harmony to melody is that large numbers of sympathetic strings become a reasonable addition to any instrument. Those gentle swells start to sound like they come from an ocean instead of an instrument...

By: DecemberBoy

DecemberBoy — Wed, 23 Jul 2008 13:17:54 -0800

Man, how many string instruments does India have, anyway? Can someone point me to a good list of them all with short descriptions, etc.?

By: flapjax at midnite

flapjax at midnite — Wed, 23 Jul 2008 17:20:04 -0800

...how many string instruments does India have... This Wikipedia list might help answer that.

By: dhruva

dhruva — Wed, 23 Jul 2008 20:02:50 -0800

See also the atlas of plucked instruments.