T.C. SATYANATH, our Cochin Correspondent who has written this article, has been closely observing violin and violinists in India and abroad for many years. He plays the violin himself. The violin is classified as a bowed stringed instrument and, in a stringed instrument, the tones are produced by vibrations of a taut string. An important rule in violin playing, which is not always observed by our violinists, concerns bowing, which is that the bow should be held at an angle with the wooden stick facing away from the player and the hair facing him.

He can, occasionally, hold the bow at a right angle to the strings to get all the hair in contact and apply some pressure but, in order to get the maximum modulation of tones from the violin, it is important to ensure that not all hair touches the strings. Bowing plays a very vital role in determining what texture and quality of sound a player can extract from it. For instance, he can just caress it. By drawing the bow smoothly and slowly and, if he so requires, increasing the pressure or decreasing it as the hand moves, he can produce several connected (legato) notes with his left hand in one single continuous bowing movement of his right hand. He can strike on the strings and produce staccato notes. By a vigorous and determined lateral movement, he can produce a powerful single note either on the downstroke or the upstroke. The possibilities for variations are infinite and the bowing technique alone assumes considerable importance in the individual style of a violinist. It is astonishing, however, to see some of our prominent violinists allowing the bow to stray away from the position it should always move on, namely between the bridge and the fingerboard.

T h e various notes are produced on the violin by pressing the fingers of the left hand against the fingerboard, starting with the index finger. (The thumb is not used, although it is in the case of the cello). In Western music, this operation is called stopping. The pitch of the note is determined by the length of the string which is allowed to vibrate between the finger and the bridge. Violinists in India have so well mastered the instrument that, with a single finger moving up and down the fingerboard, all the required notes are produced without a break. M.S. Gopalakrishnan, for instance, is sometimes wont to perform a whole varnam on a single string, sometimes using a single finger to cover a whole gamut of gamaka notes. The most difficult feature of the violin, which makes it at once a unique and challenging one even to experienced violinists (and exasperating to beginners and to those out of practice), is that it has no frets and, therefore, one has to know the placing of the fingers from memory, or almost by instinct, to get the correct pitch. And the distances between notes contract progressively as the fingers move higher and higher up the fingerboard!

A millimetric deviation is enough to produce the wrong note and ruin a whole sequence. While, in Western music, the violin is held up with the aid of a chinrest attached to the body of the instrument and the player performs standing up or seated on a chair, in Indian music the player sits cross-legged and rests the scroll-end of the violin on his inside ankle. This enables the free movement of the wrist of the left hand which is so necessary to produce gamaka-s. T h e technical proficiency of a violinist can truly be judged to a great extent by the tonal quality he can extract from his instrument through superior bowing and fingering. In assessing the techniques used by violinists of the Carnatic music persuasion, a serious problem is presented by the varying but generally inferior quality of the recordings of the artists made over the years or of their concert hall performances as heard through the ubiquitous loudspeakers which distort as much as they amplify.

The old 78 rpm gramophone records and the recorded tapes of the music of violinists of the past which are still available to listeners, or which can be heard broadcast by AIR, were not produced with the advanced and improved techniques available today. Anyone who has had the opportunity to listen to violin performances in the concert halls of Western countries, which rely on natural acoustics to produce good and ample sound, or the pleasure of listening to Compact Disc records which use the most advanced laser technology for playback and offer the true tonal quality of the violin in all its glory — with notes from each of the four strings shining brilliantly and a calibre of sound from each string which is not only distinguishable but indeed astonishing — can testify to the problem of assessing tonal quality under Indian conditions. T h e observations that follow, based on recorded and live performances heard over the years, are therefore somewhat like an impressionist painter's view of things, rather blurred and soft at the edges. They relate, moreover, only to a few violinists, selected for comment for purposes of illustration. Mysore T. Chowdiah was one of the most popular violinists of the past. He made his impact through an innovation of his, the seven-stringed violin. The seven strings were made up by adding three parallel strings fitted close to the second, third and fourth strings and tuned to the respective lower octaves.

The first string, known as the G string, had to be left in isolation perhaps because no string thick enough to be tuned to the lower octave of that could be attached to a standard violin. There were inherent pitfalls in this scheme of things. Fingers had to fall all the time vertically on the double-strings for each note at exactly the same spot to obtain a perfect simultaneous octave. But the very posture in which an Indian violinist squat is such that the fingers generally tend to touch the strings laterally except perhaps on the lower, scroll-end of the fingerboard. There is no doubt that Chowdiah got the best out of this string arrangement which he had improvised and that he was a master violinist. It is, however, a matter for conjecture whether he would have risen to greater heights had he used a traditional fourstringed violin. Dwaram Venkataswamy Naidu, another violinist of the past who was admired for the excellence of his technique was a conservative. His bowing was steady, the bow always moving at the point between the bridge and the end of the fingerboard. He made no attempt at the unattainable, never resorted to acrobatics, and his range of notes seldom exceeded two octaves. He was note-perfect. His gamaka-s seldom covered more than three notes with a single finger movement.

Nobody who listened to a concert of his ever came away with the feeling that there was anything lacking or incomplete with regard to technique. He treated each raga according to its overall structure. That he had the quintessence of a raga well crystallised in his mind was obvious from just the opening few notes he played. He also took no liberties with a raga and there were no frills. The only moments of levity for him were when he indulged in some contrapuntal notes or produced a few natural harmonics in a brief sequence somewhere at an appropriate time. 58 But he never overdid this. T.N. Krishnan and the equally famous Lalgudi Jayaraman have been holding the centre of the stage for several decades. There are more similarities than differences in their respective distinguishable styles. The y have both risen to great heights when accompanying some of the all-time greats of a couple of generations.

They both have a flexible style, which is the hallmark of any good accompanist and they have put it to effective use and played with the great accord, accompanying musicians with varied styles, such as Madurai Mani, Chembai, GNB, Semmangudi or Ariyakudi. No wonder, therefore, that they received all the encouragement from these greats in their time. Through slides and gamaka-s and their own individual styles of bowing, they could bring out tones of much richness and resonance from their violins. Their styles are eminently gayaki — to use an expression borrowed from the North, which means the instrument is played to approximate the vocal style in every respect, be it the rendering of alapana, tana, swara or the kriti itself — to such an extent that they seem to make their violins almost sing. Perhaps, Lalgudi tightens the bow a little more than Krishnan and also holds it in a firmer grip. He uses the vibrato a little more often, but not too frequently as to make it a mannerism, while Krishnan has what seems to be an endless bow and his playing has a generally mellifluous quality. M. Chandrasekharan's style, on the other hand, is marked by a restless wrist, rapid gamaka-s, frequent vibrati and crisp bowing.

His gamaka-s would appear to emanate more from the movement of the wrist than from the glissando movement of his fingers. He has superb control of the left hand and his coordination between the fingering and his bowing is remarkable. His tempo during the alapana and the exposition of the kriti tends to be slightly faster than that of most vocalists. He gives the impression that he is really in his element when playing the solo, but there is no doubt that he belongs to the top draw as an accompanist today. Amongst all the Indian violinists, one cannot think of a more complete artiste than M.S. Gopalakrishnan. He has mastered almost every bowing or fingering technique, whether indigenous or Western, and uses them, when the right occasion comes, or when the mood takes him (though happily, he doesn't seem to use the pizzicato).

Thus he is quite an at ease when playing several staccato notes in one single down or upstroke. He uses the ricochet, the bouncing bow. He uses both the vertical and lateral finger positions, sometimes using the double joint and sometimes the single joint. Regardless of the speed, there is perfect synchronisation between the bowing and the fingering. Moving a single finger over one string, he can with much ease, play tana-s and gamaka-s, sometimes covering an octave and a half (much as N. Rajam does playing Hindustani music on the violin). Often he keeps his virtuosity in abeyance while accompanying lesser vocalists, but it can be easily realised how much he has restrained himself when he unleashes his prowess in solo sequences.

He is a violinist without an Achilles heel, to use a rather misplaced metaphor. Kunnakudi Vaidyanathan, gifted though he is, is destined to be a lone ranger. In concert, he needs no warming up. He starts and plays with a frenzy which must be unparalleled since Paganini but, alas, the comparison must stop there. Kunnakudi's bowing is flawed. His wayward bow goes perilously up and down and when it goes down and out of bounds over the finger-board, it is instantly registered in the form of a squeak, or multiple squeaks if he presses on relentlessly. Furthermore, his bow goes up and down alarmingly at a forty-five-degree angle.

His bow is so tightened and he would appear to be applying so much resin on it that, when he then proceeds to scratch it over the strings, the fallout on the belly of his violin and the deposits on the top portion of the finger-board are quite conspicuous. His fingering is rigid, and so is his left wrist. His left thumb seems to have the violin in a tight strangulating grip. He is, no doubt, a very talented person and he has obviously worked hard to arrive at this stage. Unfortunately, he has a penchant to go in more for gimmicks than gamaka-s and he burns u p a lot of energy at each performance. His playing brings to mind a review of a piano concert by a not-very-well-known pianist in New York, which appeared in a respected magazine some years ago. It merely said: "Mr A... played Brahms at the ... Hall last night. Brahms lost."

Glossary Of Technical Terms

The following arc technical terms used in Western music which has special reference to violin-playing.

Vibrato is essentially a Western technique of fingering in the holding of a note. It is produced by rocking the finger on a note in a to-and-fro motion, slightly flattening and sharpening the pitch. The non-stop vibrato used by some is a fairly recent adjunct to a performance and a contentious iinie in authentic performances where it should be treated more as a special effect than constant feature. Vibrato helps to hide any imperfect intonation since the undulation touches both the higher and lower pitch than the absolute. thus leaving the ear slightly uncertain.

Staccato is a technique of playing in which the notes are discontinuous or abruptly disconnected. On the violin, the effect is brought about by bringing the bow to a stop. before attaching the next note — or by bouncing or springing the bow against the string. Chowdiah used it in his rendering of tana.

Legato means smooth and connected notes. without any breaks. In violin this calls for playing several notes on one bow stroke.

Glissando is a gliding or sliding from one note to another. The distance between the notes may be very small or maybe large. This is quite easy to do on the violin since there are no keys or frets to interfere with the movement. Glissando is used to produce gamaka-s by Carnatic violinists.

PilZlCatO means plucking the strings with the fingers instead of using the bow and achieving staccato sound. Kunnakudi employs the technique frequently.

Ricochet generally refers to the rebounding of an object from the surface it hits. In violin playing, it refers to the technique of the bouncing bow.

Paganini's Innovations

Paganini's Innovations Nicolo Paganini (1784-1840), the legendary Italian violinist and composer, made a lasting and incalculable contribution to the technique of playing the violin. There is no doubt that there has never been a greater virtuoso before him or after him. To enumerate them (but without meaning to be exhaustive, as the legal beagles are wont to add), it was Paganini who innovated the following:

• The scordatura or deliberate mistuning. Paganini applied this only to a limited extent. For certain compositions, he tuned the violin one-half Hep up. enabling him to play on a "flat" key with an open string fingering so that the soloist rang out brilliantly while the orchestra remained relatively subdued.

• The richochet. Paganini played a number of bouncing notes on one bow-stroke. either up or down. The richochet is different from the 'sautille.' which describes single bouncing bows up or down.

• The left-hand picricato, where the player tears the fingers of the strings sideways. instead of lifting them.

• Double harmonics, where he used rather thin strings to facilitate this.

• Playing entire pieces on the first or "G" string which entailed acrobatic control and lightning speed.

Paganini also employed some unusual fingering by stretching the fingers. His personal physician who published his findings in 1831 said: "Paganini's band is not larger than normal, but because all in parts are so stretchable, it can double its reach.... Essentially Paganini's art is based on the physical endowment, increased and stretched by ceaseless practising." No wonder, therefore, that Giacomo Mayerbeer said: "Paganini begins where our reason stops." And no wonder also that violinists with small hands like Sarasate and Elman have avoided the Paganini repertoire altogether. But Jascha Heifctr, one of the greatest violinists of our time, succeeded in achieving a Paganini-like perfection through constant practice.

T.C.S