Nadaswaram
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Nadaswaram, also spelt Nadhaswaram, and also called Nagaswaram, is one of the most popular classical instruments of south India and the world's loudest non-brass acoustic instrument. It is a wind instrument similar to the North Indian shehnai but larger, with a hardwood body and a large flaring bell made of wood or metal.
In India the nadaswaram is considered to be very auspicious, and it is the key instrument which is played in almost all Hindu marriages and temples in South India. The instrument is usually played in pairs, and accompanied by a pair of drums called thavil.
The nadaswaram contains three parts namely, kuzhal, thimiru, and anasu. Traditionally the body of the nagaswaram is made out of a tree called aacha.
Some of the greatest early exponents of the nadaswaram include Thiruvavadudurai Rajaratnam Pillai and Sangita Kalanidi Thiruvizhimizhalai Subrahmanya Pillai. In more recent times Namagiripettai Krishnan, Karukurichi Arunachalam and Sheik Chinna Moulana are well known nagaswaram artists.
U.S. composers such as Lewis Spratlan and Carl Stone have expressed admiration for the nadaswaram, and a few jazz musicians have taken up the instrument: Charlie Mariano (b. 1923) is one of the few non-Indians able to play the instrument, having studied it while living in India; and Vinny Golia, J. D. Parran, and William Parker have recorded with the instrument. The German saxophonist Roland Schaeffer also plays it, having studied from 1981 to 1985 with Karupaia Pillai.[1]
[edit] Discography
- Sheik Chinna Moulana
- Nadhaswaram: Music of South India (1996), described on the back as, "Insular cluture, Hindu gods/Simple, exotic musical sounds./Reed horns and tabla." Interra Records 5273. Also Wergo SM1507.
- Woodwind Melodies (1996). Koel 46.
[edit] External links
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