vasanthakokilam wrote:preferences like sitting, lying, standing etc. are finicky but ephemeral.
Indeed ! Then there is the God/Goddess factor... Images/Idols/etc... are powerful in Indian culture. So the Saraswati / Krishna images hold sway. In fact, my friend Rsachi's first suggestion in rasikas was to somehow make this look like a veena AND make it electronic, being able to switch sounds/between flute and veena
. I don't want to belittle the aesthetic power of an image, but the first consideration is the sound. Here too, the disconnect between CM theory and practice is rather unfortunate. Musicians, rasikas, musicologists, etc., waste no time getting into a swoon mentioning "nada bramham", and much time is spent discussing it (in THEORY
). But no system of music has shown a more lackadaisical and cavalier approach to "nAda" than Carnatic music. Age old instruments are "electronified" in a heart beat without a pause and the use of an actual tambura is very sparing. Now some artistes have also started using a contact mike for the violin (!) making it sound like a weird electric clarinet. There is nothing wrong with that but an honest understanding of ourselves and our key motivations might lead to a richer musical experience. The key driving factor in Carnatic music is melodic shape - shape, shape, shape. The actual sounds making that melodic shape - the timber, the richness, the quality, the "feel", the loudness (louder the better) are a distant secondary consideration, usually requiring no more than lip service. That is why we have a superb Carnatic artiste, perhaps one of the greatest in history, (electric) Mandolin Shrinivas, someone who I have enjoyed immensely, playing a rather crappy sounding instrument (by any aesthetic consideration of sound/nAda/etc.). Sound doesn't matter.
vasanthakokilam wrote:It is a pity that a lot of times such things affect the construction of musical instruments.
True but player comfort and long term side effects ergonomics is a very serious consideration. A yOga specialist was the one who enlightened me on the use of a chair... any posture will have long term negative effects on the back, arm, etc... For traditional instruments, these difficulties have worked themselves out through historical trial and error.
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