This type of string termination results in a quite complex acoustic system (first discussed by Novel Prize winning physicists C V Raman in an article of 1921). It has a special overtone-rich sound, a sustained "buzzing" sound that is mainly the result of the wide and arched bridge on which the strings rests and of the cotton thread placed between the strings and the bridge. It normally has four wire strings tuned to the tonic of the soloist and its fifth, as PA-sa-sa-SA (sol do' do' do), and it is played by plucking one string after another in a regular pattern to create a harmonic resonance. It is the instrument used to play the drone sound throughout a performance. The tambura is a long necked string instrument that resembles a sitar, but it has no frets and only the open strings are played. However the voice is a very personal instrument, each singer developing specific qualities, for example each singer has a particular frequency range, and thus a specific tonic note (Sa), which means that the accompanying instruments in a performance have to tune to that tonic. These fragments show the differences in the melodic ornamentations that Carnatic and Hindustani have developed and the different ways that singers modulate their voices. In Kolkata, the capital of the Hindustani music tradition, I attended a concert at ITC Sangeet Research Academy by one of the voice students, Alick Sengupta, and I recorded a fragment of the opening section, alap, of the performance. Sownya, and I recorded a fragment of a song. For example, in Chennai, the capital of Carnatic music, I attended a concert by one of the well recognized Carnatic music singers, S. The voice is very much at the core of the indian classical music and most musical instruments have been developed to imitate the expressive characteristics obtained by the classically trained music singers. It is amazing the expressive control they have of their voice, obtaining sonic qualities far beyond what a normal person can produce. This is the case of the voice of the Carnatic and Hindustani singers. The singing voice is normally excluded when talking about musical instruments, but when a voice is trained and controlled beyond what a regular person can do, we should definitely refer to it as a musical instrument. Here I write about them and I link to some of the sounds I recorded. While talking with experts of both Carnatic and Hindustani music traditions and attending some concerts, I learned a bit more about some of the musical instruments, like tambura, veena, mridangam, violin, harmonium, flute, tabla, sitar, and sarod. In April-May 2011 I traveled to Chennai, Bangalore, Hyderabad, Kolkata and Mumbai in order to make contacts and prepare for CompMusic.
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