A first time for an Indian (Carnatic) Instrument

[uday_shankar]

The chitravenu has been short listed for the semi-finals of the Margaret Guthman Musical Instrument Competition 2014, the only competition of its kind anywhere in the world, aimed at musical instrument design. About the competition, you can find information here:

http://www.nytimes.com/2013/04/09/scien ... html?_r=1&

http://guthman.gatech.edu/

There are several unique aspects to the selection of chitravenu:

1) Chitravenu is the first entirely acoustic instrument to be featured in the brief history of the competition. Entries come from all over the world but they are all tilted towards funky/electronic/weird/outlandish/etc...

2) It is the first musical instrument conceived with purely Indian music, more precisely Carnatic music in mind (after all, my Darbari Kanada is all purely hearsay ). It would be sweet if other genres of music adopted the chitravenu someday. Historically we have adopted western melodic instruments like the violin and keyboard and electric mandolin into Carnatic music but not vice versa.

I have no intention of playing anything other than stuff like highly gamakam-oriented Bhairavi/Kamboji as far as I go. So all wish me luck in carrying Bhairavi and Kamboji past the world finals. Fortunately, not much musicianship is required, only a worthwhile instrument !

Here's excerpts from the email from GA Tech...one of the judges is somebody named "young guru" who apparently is a famous recording artist who has done Beyonce's albums, according to the wikipedia entry on him.

Dear Uday Shankar,
(Chitravenu)
Congratulations! You have been selected as a semi-finalist in the 2014 Guthman Musical Instrument Competition. We are excited to invite you to join us on the Georgia Tech Campus in Atlanta to share your instrument with judges Young Guru, Chris Moore, and David Zicarelli as well as with fellow contestants and the Georgia Tech community.

The competition will take place on Thursday, February 20, 2014 and Friday February 21, 2014. Because the competition runs from early morning through late evening each day, you should plan to arrive in Atlanta on Wednesday and depart on Saturday
…
…
This year’s competition received a record number of submissions, and the work of this year’s semi-finalists represents the very best in new instrument design, engineering, and musicality.
…
…

As always, this effort has been possible due to those who always believed in the cause right from the beginning - Maestro Ravikiran, my wife Radhika and all others who have helped in the process, certainly the Cleveland Tyagaraja Festival which was kind enough to feature the fledgeling instrument for a demo earlier this year.

On to the next step...

[Nick H]

Congratulations, Uday, and very best wishes for success

[Rsachi]

Uday,

Congratulations.
You're one of the few among people who enjoy and perform Carnatic music that wish to innovate and create new musical instruments. That's surely courage plus imagination.
To have a guru like Ravikiran is a huge advantage.

I am sure you will slide up the ladder of success blowing away all obstacles on the way.

Please do record the sessions in Atlanta and share. Hope the judges get to watch and interact with you at the best angle.
My advice is to choose a Shyama Shastri krithi in Anandabhairavi or Reetigowla.

All the best!

[SrinathK]

Dear Uday,

I am interested to know more about the instrument. Are there any vidoes available of the chitra-venu or is this the instrument's debut ? Can you please tell me a little about it and what it can do? And while I'm at it, wish you all the best!

On a side note, I would add the 22 sruti harmonium as another contender... If only someone could play Hindustani and Bach on it B-)

[uday_shankar]

Srinath, please see:
http://www.rasikas.org/forums/viewtopic. ... 44#p249172
It's not the best that could be but that's all we have apart from the even more prototypical Cleveland demo.

[Lakshman]

Congratulations on the invention of Chitravenu and wishing you the best in the competition.

[SrinathK]

Wow, I'm very impressed with it's potential. Like the chitra veena, the flute would now the same difficulty level as a fretless instrument such as the violin and probably will be challenging because the slider is as challenging as playing with a single finger on the violin. But as with the violin, in a really experienced hand this instrument should be able to do fantastic gamakas like the chitra veena. From the playability point of view, the naturally easy "trill phrases" that are characteristic of the flute (mainly because of the combination of 8 fingers in a very narrow range of motion) would be way harder to do with a slide like the chitra veena itself.

Can you try using Your tanpura or some app which could provide much finer tuning than a sruthi box?

[uday_shankar]

Thanks Srinath. Very insightful as usual, perhaps we should collaborate .

There are a couple aspects to the tambura problem. I used the Eswar because a) it has a concurrent shruti box and tambura feature b) it has a metronome. As you know wind instruments, particularly flute, blend better with the (reed) shruti box than tambura. Flute Mali always used one of those. The step granularity problem can be solved with patience...i.e., let the flute warm up and settle down and then put the markings for swarasthanas (I use a silver colored Sharpie on a strip of narrow black masking tape). But the other problem I have is that I benefit from a discernible strong third harmonic of the panchama (R2) and a strong 5th harmonic of the lower shadja (G3). I also use the strong G3 to aling my perception of D2 (actually a trishruti dhaivata at 5/3 if you will). In the absence of a strong G3 background, you'll notice in the video that I hit my D2's higher (perhaps instinctively 27/16) and perhaps the panchama too (this may also be due to the marking devil...if I close my eyes I would have settled at the correct swarasthana but not as quickly !).

Only one electronic shruti device that has that overall rich sound with all three important tambura overtones (the third and the fifth harmonic of the panchama string, namely R2 and G3, and the 5th harmonic of the shadja, namely G3) is the Radel model that looks like an upright mini tambura of sorts. But it is not readily transportable and any of the smaller box-like Radel models don't have that harmonically rich sound.

[arunk]

Hi Uday,

Awesome and hearty Congratulations!! Wish you the very best of luck!

Arun

[rshankar]

Uday, congratulations! As RSachi says, it will be people like you who combine knowledge of CM, and technical and technological skills who will have the ability to push the boundaries of this divine music and take it to places where no man has gone before....so, a la kausalya from the rAmAyaNa, may your music carry you to many more such coveted awards!

[cacm]

Uday, CONGRAGULATIONS! GOOD LUCK. WIN IT ALL! VKV

[mahavishnu]

Uday, Congratulations! And all the best in Atlanta.

[Rsachi]

Uday,
Remembering that the judges would be more attuned to discern the quality of tones and microtones rather than the authenticity of Carnatic gamakas, I second Srinath's suggestion to have a richer and more harmonious tambura drone background. That will go a long way to enhance the instant musical appeal of chitravenu. Of course immediately after writing these words let me say that I am sure you know best.
Good luck.

[vasanthakokilam]

Uday, it is great to hear the news. Awesome indeed. Getting involved in that ecosystem itself should have its benefits.

Best wishes and congratulations!

[VRV]

Uday,

Hearty congrats on your selection. This is big. Looking forward in anticipation to your success

Vinod Venkataraman

[arasi]

'kuzhal inidu, yAzh inidu', aRivOm
Uday iSaikkum chithravENuvum inidE...

(we know the flute and chithra vINA sound sweet,
so does Uday's chithravenu).

Uday,
Great news! All the best in the finals! Before that, we will listen to you play at your guru's place

[vs_manjunath]

Uday- Hearty Congratulations for your new invention Chitra Venu. Extremely happy to know that you have been selected as a Semi Finalist in the World Musical Instrument Competition .

Success is waiting for you at Atlanta !!! Either Bhairavi or Kambodhi you will be the Winner.

Best wishes once again for your success at Atlanta!

[cmlover]

very good news Uday!
Even participating in the International competition is great, let alone winning.
I support R Sachi's idea of Anandabhairavi where you can play the nuances.
In addition play Sindhubhairavi where all the 12 notes can be freely exploited which
may be famlar to the Western judges.
Don't forget to play Jana Gana mana at the end!
Start preparing with the blessings of your Guru...
Good Luck

[cienu]

Hearty congratulations to Uday

[S.NAGESWARAN]

Best wishes.

As Suggested by cmlover, Sindubairavi will be understood well by the westerners.

Kirvani will also be appreciated well by westerners.

S.NAGESWARAN.
25.11.2013.

[uday_shankar]

Thank you very much everybody...I will certainly take my Carnatic responsibilties seriously while devising a strategy to put my best foot forward.

Meanwhile, listen to the hauntingly beautiful sound of another invention, conceived by Leonardo Da Vinci, but built only recently. I haven't been able to get its sound out of my head since I heard it last week. I keep going back to this website to listen to it:

http://www.theverge.com/2013/11/20/5125 ... instrument

[rajeshnat]

Best wishes Uday- hope to see another post where it says congratulations on chitravenu being selected for the final round. Please do record the proceedings and share it with us . Just curious how much time you have for presentation?

[arunk]

Thank you very much everybody...I will certainly take my Carnatic responsibilties seriously while devising a strategy to put my best foot forward.

Meanwhile, listen to the hauntingly beautiful sound of another invention, conceived by Leonardo Da Vinci, but built only recently. I haven't been able to get its sound out of my head since I heard it last week. I keep going back to this website to listen to it:

http://www.theverge.com/2013/11/20/5125 ... instrument

Indeed awesome.

Although I am a bit partial to this one posted by rsachi a while ago: http://www.rasikas.org/forums/viewtopic.php?f=9&t=21170. That just blows my mind - but it is also not a "real instrument" like chitravenu or this one, its more a "music processor".

Arun

[tkb]

Congrats!

[uday_shankar]

A question was asked via email by a fellow forumite about the material with which the chitravenu is constructed, as a precursor to a follow up conclusion that the “natural tone of bamboo can’t be produced”.

To answer the question first: the main pipe is made of aluminum, the attachment pipes are made of wood and/or delrin (Acetal), the extender rod of wood, the head-joint and mouthpiece of brass, the slider of glass and the stands of anodized aluminum and plastic (actually cannibalized camera tripods). This combination of materials is purely a matter of engineering convenience and is subject to constant change and experimentation.

Now about the conclusion drawn – it is very likely erroneous. In general, in my own limited experience as well as in controlled scientific experiments and borne out by whatever theory that can be applied, the material has little bearing on the tonal quality of a flute, which is for the most part dependent on the shape and acoustic properties of the air column enclosed by the pipe and it various pathways and openings. The wall should be rigid, that’s the only requirement.

Of course, I personally do dream of migrating to a mostly wood and bamboo construction eventually (so long as we can find a way to machine them to some degree of tolerance?!), the reason being wood is aesthetically appealing and can be more environmentally friendly. For example, bamboo is a highly renewable resource while any kind of mining of any metal usually spells the death knell of some forest or mountain top somewhere .

Below is a link to a publication, admittedly pertaining to western flute, of a very interesting study that seriously questions any claims about the dependence of the material of the flute on the tonal quality.

https://ccrma.stanford.edu/marl/Coltman ... n-1.06.pdf

I reproduce below the conclusion from the above publication (and the very significant last line deliberately made bold):

No evidence has been found that experienced listeners or trained players can distinguish between flutes of like mouthpiece material whose only difference is the nature and thickness of the wall material of the body, even when the variations in the material and thickness are very marked. Of course, it is possible that individuals exist whose discriminatory senses are keen enough to find a distinction, but if so, they are certainly not common. Moreover, the results suggest that even careful attempts to produce identical sounds on the same instrument produce variations that are more perceptible than any that might be associated with the material.
One player did, correctly, point out that one of the three instruments appeared at first to be slightly flat. This effect is due to the high thermal mass of the heavy copper tube, which causes it to warm up more slowly than the others. This is an example of a reason to prefer certain materials for flute construction, and there are many others. Tone quality or ease of response are not, however, among them .

[cmlover]

Whatever way be it made, what is inside is clear CM nectar (in the right hands

[Always_Evolving]

Chennai vaasis can have a preview of Uday's chitravenu during the December season! He will present a lecture-demo organized by Carnatica and Madhuradhwani
9.30 AM SUNDAY 22nd DEC (tomorrow!)
at Arkay Convention Centre
Oms Lakshana, 146/3 Royapettah High Road, Mylapore
Chennai 600004

The hall is on the 3rd floor of the 'Shahs' appliance store building, opp. the Vidya Mandir primary section lane.
Arkay convention centre does live webstreaming of their events: http://www.arkayconventioncenter.in/live.aspx

Regards
Radhika (the missus)

[cmlover]

Happy to hear that.
Photos/videos if possible will be appreciated.
Good Luck Uday!

[Nick H]

Can't make it, but hope that a decent numbers of others can, and that it goes down well

[mahavishnu]

Same here. Can't make it, unfortunately
Wishing the event all success!

[Ramasubramanian M.K]

Regret not being able to make it. Bravo!! Udhay!!! Wish the debut every success.

[rshankar]

Good luck, Uday! Hope the presentation serves to prepare you for the real thing!

[Sivaramakrishnan]

Nice discussion. Congrats and best wishes!

[S.NAGESWARAN]

Sri Uday Sankar have a soft corner always in his mind about the U/S.
Even though I was not able to attend his lec-dem of his novel instrument invented by him at the Arkay convention center on 22.12.2013, Sri Uday was kind enough to share the highlights of his lec-dem with me.

Sri Uday was happy that Sri Madurai G.S.Mani and Sri V.S.Narasimhan had attended the lec-dem. Sri G.S.Mani was very appreciative for the invention of Chitravenu and spoke for a few minutes during the lec-dem.

I am happy that the lec-dem went off well.

S.NAGESWARAN.
23.12.2013.

[uday_shankar]

Thanks everyone for the good wishes. The event was well received. Nice to see rasika rajumds at the event.

Indeed it was a honor a great boost to have veteran vidvan Shri Madurai GS Mani sir there. I am particularly grateful for his open mindedness and glad to receive his blessing for the effort. I was particularly touched by his remark that "Tyagaraja Swami's anugraham" will certainly be there for this "nalla karyam". I certainly hope so.

I was also happy and honored to see the great violinist Shri V S Narasimhan (probably thanks to Shri Nageshwaran's recommendation ??!!) with whom I had a useful conversation after the event.

On to the next challenge in this journey...

[Rsachi]

Uday,
Kudos. You're going from strength to strength!

[uday_shankar]

Thanks Sachi. It's a very difficult path but there's also the strong motivation to rise (to some level at any rate) to the occassion, regardless of age or life circumstances .

[cacm]

GOOD LUCK! DON'T FORGET TO TALK SOME PHYSICS....VKV :-BD :ymapplause: