Morsing: The Jew's harp

[jayaram]

Interesting article on the Jew's harp:
http://www.users.bigpond.com/apertout/Jew'sHarp.htm
[quote]In South Indian Carnatic music there is also a notable Jew’s harp tradition, and is highlighted within a percussion setting known as Thani Avartanam or percussion interlude, where the mridangam has the role as the principal percussion instrument, and side accompaniments include the kanjira (frame drum), ghatam (claypot) and morsing (Jew’s harp). Morsing maestro Srirangam S. Kannan explains the nature of his instrument, â€

[Nick H]

I think that I would disagree that the instrument came from Greece.

Rather as the drum is found all over the world, this idea of a vibrating spring in a frame held against the teeth is also very, very widespread. My guess is that it ha developed independently in different parts of the world --- and the very different physical forms that it takes might give weight to this suggestion.

There are many sites dealing with this fascinating kind of instrument and its worldwide manifestations. On place to start is http://www.jewsharpguild.org/.

Somewhere I have I link to a one-hour-long program devoted exclusively to Jews Harp music of the world, broadcast by a USA radio staion a few years ago.

I think it is this one: http://www.wfmu.org/playlists/shows/3361

[guru70]

[quote="jayaram"]Interesting article on the Jew's harp:
http://www.users.bigpond.com/apertout/Jew'sHarp.htm
[quote]In South Indian Carnatic music there is also a notable Jew’s harp tradition, and is highlighted within a percussion setting known as Thani Avartanam or percussion interlude, where the mridangam has the role as the principal percussion instrument, and side accompaniments include the kanjira (frame drum), ghatam (claypot) and morsing (Jew’s harp). Morsing maestro Srirangam S. Kannan explains the nature of his instrument, â€

[Nick H]

Compared to mridangam, ghatam and kanjira there are very, very few morsing artists.

[thinker225]

It's my honour to introduce you all to my ex-Guru Vidwan G.Omkar who is an exponent on the morsing. He is from Bangalore. He also plays the Ghatam. Incidentally, I was initiated into the mridangam by him and was tutored for 7 years. Having been a carnatic music scholarship awardee for many years, he toured Japan as part of a Indo-Japanese cultural entourage way back when I was in school. He was among the 10 or so people who went from the Karnataka College of Percussion chiefly under the guidance of Vid.T.A.S.Mani of Bangalore. An accomplished AIR artist, he also has a couple of Indo-Jazz albums to his credit.

He has to his credit many percussion related albums. He's part of a percussion ensemble in this album.
http://www.djangomusic.com/item_music.a ... mediatype=

The below one is a world music album.
http://www.djangomusic.com/item_music.a ... 43212&djc=

He's also part of an album called "Bangalore".
http://www.mmguide.musicmatch.com/album ... ID=1163979

Regards,

[cookmex]

Accomplished performance:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ojnI5bkugSY

[kssr]

Compared to mridangam, ghatam and kanjira there are very, very few morsing artists.

and even fewer good ones. I always wonder if morsing fits in a carnatic concert. A bad situation is when you have only mridangam and morsing as thala vadyams; mridangam accompanies the singer, whereas morsing is supposed to accompany the violin. Both being stringed instruments it invariably turns out to be a total flop.

[vasanthakokilam]

>Accomplished performance:

Indeed. It looks like Morsing was leading the koraippu, with all those different sounds the artist could make.

[smala]

A competent female artist on the morsing here, watch this rare video of an ALL women AMAZING creative ensemble in CM.
In fact, don't miss a single link below !!

Simply *riveting* this one :
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tmcquQhfbxc

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z5UWOp5G ... re=related


ALSO :

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rZFZP4G6 ... re=related

AND this one, you'll love it despite the poor shaky video...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4U2QDe3c ... re=related

AND here Sukkanya plays for M.S. Sheela :

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C1HMxPtPBhM

Way to go, Sukkanya Ramgopal, more power to you! Bangalore Doordarshan did well with this presentation. What Maestro Vikku Vinayakram has to say :
http://www.ghatamsukanyaramgopal.com/

[Nick H]

Thanks... I'll work my way through the links!

]and even fewer good ones. I always wonder if morsing fits in a carnatic concert. A bad situation is when you have only mridangam and morsing as thala vadyams; mridangam accompanies the singer, whereas morsing is supposed to accompany the violin. Both being stringed instruments it invariably turns out to be a total flop.

Would you expect me to agree? Anyway, morsing is not a string instrument, but a spring instrument!

I would say that morsing sound blends extremely well with veena and very well with violin. Although we do not play melody on the morsing (they do on some of the European equivalents!), the nature of the veena sound seems to alter that of the morsing, enhancing the appropriate harmonics, and making it seem like it is sometimes able to follow the melody

Of course it depends on the musicians. Morsing accompaniment can be anything from basic rhythym to full-blown konnakkal. My view, of course, is that it should be the latter: that the actual "words" (sorry, the real "word" for that escapes me just now) should, as far as possible, be there. The artist should also exploit the dynamic range of the instrument --- although it is true that he depends on the sound man to be heard at all, and should also bring out the high and low harmonics as appropriate.

It is almost a cross between percussion and sruti. It is the only percussion instrument we have that produces a long sound (making it the most forgiving if slightly off beat!). It adds texture to the total sound of the performers.

There is no reason at all why it should not hold its own in a tani. The greatest difficulty in playing this percussion music is mental, rather than physical!

[mankuthimma]

Morsing . Jews Harp ?
It will always be Nick's Harp , for us. Who have watched him play beautifully.

Nick.And his lovely little box of Morsings.

[kssr]

A competent female artist on the morsing here, watch this rare video of an ALL women AMAZING creative ensemble in CM.
In fact, don't miss a single link below !!

Simply *riveting* this one :
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tmcquQhfbxc

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z5UWOp5G ... re=related


ALSO :

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rZFZP4G6 ... re=related

AND this one, you'll love it despite the poor shaky video...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4U2QDe3c ... re=related

AND here Sukkanya plays for M.S. Sheela :

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C1HMxPtPBhM

Way to go, Sukkanya Ramgopal, more power to you! Bangalore Doordarshan did well with this presentation. What Maestro Vikku Vinayakram has to say :
http://www.ghatamsukanyaramgopal.com/

Sukanya Ramgopal has been definitely creating waves with her Ghata Tharangam. Music Academy recognised it and gave her a prime slot in last year's season. Incidentally the morsing player is none other than the great maestro Bheemachar's daughter- Bhagyalakshmi.

[Nick H]

Morsing . Jews Harp ?
It will always be Nick's Harp , for us. Who have watched him play beautifully.

Nick.And his lovely little box of Morsings.

Valued words! Much appreciated

Realistically (I'm not modest!), and confirmed by an elder mridangam vidwan, my tone etc is quite good, but I lack the memory power and mathematical/laya discipline to go much further than Adi talam, samam edupu.

I'm proud of my lineage and class mates on this: they don't feel any kind of snobbery about picking up morsing, and many of them play extremely well. One of them, who is now a regular member of Ravi Shankar's "troupe", playing mridangam, is actually one of my favourite morsing players. You will hear every "word" he plays .

I will be immodest enough (because it is to do with the instrument's capabilities) to say that I got a rave vote of thanks from a priest in a London Siva Temple who said he was amazed to hear that I made the instrument follow the raga as well as the tala. Well, I certainly could not sing that raga, but I was familiar enough with the song. It is this veena/morsing thing that sometimes happens: the veena harmonics accentuate the morsing harmonics.

Had I remained in London (and unemployed), I might have asked my teacher to train me up for dance accompanying. I find Bharatnatyam much more interesting from the musicians' platform than from the the audience, and the pool of pro morsing players there was still quite small compared to other instruments. But hey, I didn't...

[arasi]

Nick,
Because you couldn't sport your vEshTi outside of the concert hall in London
I may be wrong, but the Brit scene has changed much since the time I used to live there. A vEshTi in the streets of London may not be an eye turner now after all.
Oh, you know a composer who specializes in Adi tALam! If we have another rasikAs session during the season, I'd be honored if you accompany Sumitra on her singing a few of my songs. With some luck, even Neela Ramgopal

[prashanth12]

Accomplished performance:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ojnI5bkugSY

What also impresses me is the balanced and pleasant way the thavil has been mic'd.

If only that was true for the thavil-inclusive concerts I have been too...

[Nick H]

Whoa, Arasi... getting up early and accompanying real live professional musicians, nay, vidwans! Scary stuff!

[smala]

Is Neela Ramgopal related to Sukanya Ramgopal?

[kssr]

Is Neela Ramgopal related to Sukanya Ramgopal?

Yes. To the extent that the names of their husbands happen to be Sri.Ramgopals!

[arasi]

s_p,
Both are vidUshis from Bengaluru, but Neela comes from tamizh nADu kAvErik karai and has been living for a long time in the state where kAvEri originates and flows through.

[mahakavi]

It also has to be mentioned that Neela Ramgopal is the disciple of the doyen (late)T K Rangachary.

[Nick H]

Arasi... I'll put the morsings in the car and see how awake I am --- but no problems if this does not happen. We have many members here with far more musical ability than mine. I'll always play for jams, but we haven't had one in a while.

[Sreeni Rajarao]

Just thought I would add two more names whose music I have enjoyed : B Rajashekar (Morching Bhimachar's son) and Morching Gururaj (Bellary Venkateshachar's son)

[arasi]

Sreeni,
Rajashekhar is top notch. I haven't heard the other vidwan.

Nick,
It needn't be a morning session. Did you note that since Sumitra Nitin cannot make it both days (she has a concert too), there is no chance for me to share my thoughts about composing at Nageswaran's place. Let's plan on an afternoon session. After all, Neela is a Rasikas member too. Let me see if I can coax her into singing a few songs. Believe me, she's such a sport and will certainly put you at ease. We will try for a session after we know their free dates.

MK,
Her father played the violin and according to a neigbor of theirs, he loved the violin and played it all the time. No wonder, Neela grew up with music surrounding her. I do not know if her mother was musical too.

[Nick H]

OK Arasi.... I am most certainly not up to playing a tani, but some accompanying I can do, and will be very very happy to have the chance.

I am very bad at "putting 2 and 2 together"... now only I realise that she is the teacher of my good friend in London, Balu Raguraman!

[Pratyaksham Bala]

Impressive morsing support:
'dorakuna' by Chittor V. Nagaiah in 1946 movie Tyagayya.

http://www.mediafire.com/?jhmyqnqzwmn

[mankuthimma]

http://www.esnips.com/doc/3dbc23b5-2b9b ... /kunnakudi

On the Death Anniversary of Kunnakudi Vaidyanathan , Here is a vintage track of his . With the proverbial full bench accompaniment.His concerts always sported the Morsing Man.
Nick
This file is a bit big 48mb but please do download . The kinds of sounds (read melodies) created by the Morsing artist ... I have never heard elsewhere. Of rare vintage caliber.
It is from a vintage concert of Kunnakudi V and has a lot of brilliant moments - His peculiarities , notwithstanding.

[Nick H]

My favourite song too!

For some reason, nothing happens when I click download on e-snips --- but I'm listening!

... ... ...

(Wonderful alapana...)

... .... ...

(with some peculiarities!)

<even later>

(Hmmm... with a quite a few peculiarities! Interesting; never heard him before)

<live appreciation going on here!>

(Maybe too many peculiarities for me...)

(No... not for me. Maybe I should skip to the tani! or the swara.)

By the way, wasn't there a rock band that used to play something like this? ELO perhaps?

[mankuthimma]

Something like that ?
You must have heard an album of his with Zakir Husain , which had the same sang in Shanmukhapriya- Valli Nayakane.
Get back to us after the Tani

[Nick H]

Interesting. The guy has very good sucking (that's how you get the l o n g sound) technique and very good breath control and I would expect to feel light headed if I sucked that much!

Here's a thing. According to me, those who play mridangam without "proper" nadam for chapu might as well be playing a block of wood; those who play kanjira without gumaka are not using an entire dimension of the instrument. On top of the "standard" array of sounds and gumakas that these instruments can produce there are the extras, perhaps special to a particular musician. As an instance, my guruji plays different notes on the right face of the instrument --- but he will never do that or any other fancy stuff for longer than it takes to think "duhhh... what was that?" and leaving one not finding out until another concert (or dance performance, perhaps more likely for that one). So, as I'm being invited to criticise, I'd say technique somewhat overdone --- but I guess that was just in keeping with the main artist.

Thanks for, once again, extending my musical horizons

[cookmex]

New video:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-Vn68xdMuaY

[prashanth12]

I thought the English for morsing was "Jaw Harp". Seemed sensible to me....

[Nick H]

I think it is uncertain. It was called a Jew's harp, until some people thought that might, for some unaccountable reason, be politically incorrect. It was suggested that Jew had only been a corruption of Jaw anyway. Pick whichever you like best!