parallel), but Tuvans have started to use nylon fishing line as a modern replacement. Like the morin khuur of
Mongolia, the igil typically features a carved horse’s head at the top of the neck above the tuning pegs.
The igil’s teardrop-shaped body is held nearly upright when played, with the sound box of the instrument in the
performer's lap, or braced against the top of the performer's boot. Playing technique involves touching the strings
with the nails or fingertips, but without pressing them to the neck. The igil formerly had an entire genre dedicated to
it, with a repertoire of songs meant to be performed only on the igil. During the communist period in Tuva attempts
were made to ‘modernise’ the instrument to making it sound like a western cello. However the instruments and
playing style used by most Tuvan musicians today are largely the same as the original form of the igil.
Indian Violin
It looks exactly like a European violin, with the main differences being the tuning and its playing position – it is
traditionally played, i.e. sitting cross-legged, with the scroll placed on the artist’s right ankle and the back of the
violin resting on the left shoulder (collar bone, or chest), thus giving the performer an unencumbered left hand with
which to play musical ornamentations. Plus: ‘The violin is ideally suited for Indian music as it has no frets, so enabling
playing micro intervals, glissandi and long-sustained notes.’ (L Subramaniam) Therefore there is every right today to
call it an Indian instrument. Besides, it serves as a perfect musical bridge between Europe and India as it is the
European instrument that has best been integrated into Indian classical music.
The bow of the Indian violin is held more in the folk than western classical style. Vibrato is not used as in Western
music, though there are slow, deliberate oscillations (
andolan) and faster oscillations called
gamak. Grace notes
(sparsha svara or krintan) are frequently used. Hindustani music alone has over a hundred categorised ornaments.
There is extensive use of micro-tones, and a choice of alternative tunings to utilise drone notes. The standard tuning
in Karnatic music is D
♯-A♯-D♯-A♯ but as there is no concept of absolute pitch in Indian classical music, any convenient
tuning maintaining these relative pitch intervals between the strings can be used. Another prevalent tuning with these
intervals is F-B
♭-F-B♭ (which corresponds to Sa-Pa-Sa-Pa in Karnatic notation). In Hindustani music, the tuning is
usually Pa-Sa-Pa-Sa (which would correspond to B
♭-F-B♭-F).
The violin left its first – and to this day biggest – mark in Southern India where it was introduced in the court of
Travancore during the regime of Maharajah Swati Tirunal some 200 years ago. It may have been Portuguese Christian
missionaries who were the first to teach it to converts for use in church services. Or traders and sailors who swapped
it for other goods and left it behind. Or military bandsmen in the East India Company, many of whom of Irish flock. Of
these we know that Baluswami Dikshitar (1786-1858) learned the instrument from the army bandmaster at Fort St.
George in Madras at around 1790. Both, he and Vadivelu (1810-1845) studied the Western style of playing the violin
before going on to experiment with applying the instrument to their own music, developing new playing techniques to
suit Carnatic music along the way.
Today Baluswami Dikshitar is regarded as the most important pioneer in the development of Indian violin playing. He
is a brother of Muthuswami Dikshitar (1775-1835) who together with Syama Sastri (1762-1827) and Tyagaraja (1767-
1847) forms the holy trinity of Carnatic composers. In the first half of the 19th the baton was passed on to the Tanjore
Quartette at the court of Tanjore (today Thanjavur in Tamil Nadu). The musicians of the Quartette had learned from
Muthuswami Dikshitar; its violin player Tanjore Vadivelu (1810-1845) was a pupil of Baluswami Dikshitar―a succession
had been started.
In the early days, the violin was used as a mere melodic support in Harikatha performances. (Harikatha, literally
‘stories of the Lord’, is a composite art form of story telling, poetry, music, drama, dance, and philosophy.) Certain
musical passages sung by the main exponent were reproduced on the violin for the sake of effects. Later, violin
figured in devotional music concerts that featured musical lyrics and songs. The next crucial step was when the violin
gained its supporting role to the main singer―its closeness in timbre and range to the human voice made it an ideal
instrument for accompaniment. It is at this juncture that classical vocal concerts gained a formidable position in
Carnatic music. Slowly, the violin was regarded as being the prime melodic support due to its capacity for continuity
and to reproduce any sound, its adaptability and its pure support in maintaining the stability of a musical concert. In
fact, this must be seen as a welcome precedent as it helped other accompanying instruments (like the flute) to gain
prominence, too.
As Southern India had no bowed chordophone in its repertoire―contrary to the North with its sarangi―Karnatic music
took to the violin much faster than Hindustani. Today, the violin is seen almost ubiquitously in vocal, instrumental,
and dance concerts, and of course also in film music.
In the last century Lalgudi G Jayaraman, TN Krishnan and MS Gopalakrishnan formed the revered trinity of Carnatic
violin art. Brothers L Subramaniam and L Shankar gained special attention in the west due to their collaborations with
musicians such as Yehudi Menuhin, John McLaughlin (Shakti) or Jan Garbarek. Among the outstanding younger violin
players one should mention Jayaraman’s son GJR Krishnan and daughter J Vijayalakshmi, the duo Ganesh & Kumaresh,
A Kanyakumari, Jyotsna Shrikanth as well as TN Krishnan’s children, daughter Viji Krishnan Natarajan and son Sriram
Krishnan.
Pioneers for the acceptance of the violin in (recent) Hindustani art music were VG Jog and Dr N Rajam. The new
generation is best represented by N Rajam‘s daughter Sangeeta Shankar and niece Kala Ramnath.
Kamancheh