Courses:PHYS341/2021/Project7

The full body of the contemporary Saraswati veena.

The veena comprises a family of stringed instruments from India, most commonly found in the form of a lute or zither.

A famous painting by Ravi Varma of the goddess Saraswati holding a veena -- note how she's holding it in the more common ancient fashion over her shoulder, rather than on the lap as it conventional now.

The Saraswati veena, specifically, is a plucked string lute with a long neck that connects to a smaller, melon-size gourd on one end and a much larger pear-shaped gourd on the other end. It is one of the more commonly used instruments in Indian music, but is mostly used for Carnatic (Indian classical) music.

History

The contemporary positioning of a veena as seen on artist Tirupati Srivani Yalla.

The Sanskrit word veena (वीणा) has generally been found in even pre-1000BC Indian literature and appears to be a basic word used for any sort of plucked string instrument. First mentions of the veena by name that appear to refer to this specific lute-style instrument began appearing between 500 BCE and 500 CE in Bharata Muni’s Natya Shastra (नाट्य शास्त्र), a comprehensive ancient text regarding music, performing arts and literary tradition. It appears to have been played closer to the style of a harp with the smaller gourd held over one’s shoulder rather than rested on the lap and played flat. It is currently unknown, but by the 6 CE, paintings of gods and goddesses holding the veena show the instrument constructed very similar to that of modern veenas, and are held in the modern fashion as well over the lap. This is where the Saraswati veena’s name comes from -- this particular style was most commonly found in paintings depicting the goddess Saraswati.

The second, smaller gourd, the tuning rods and the dragon engraving.

Construction and Measurements

Here, we can see that the hand goes under the bridge to press on the string to create a specific frequency.

The veena itself is traditionally crafted from jackwood, either as one full piece or in 3 sections. The instrument has 2 hollow resonant semi spherical spherical resonators, a larger head dome and a smaller gourd-like one. The larger head one is a hollow pear-shaped dome that narrows into the bridge all the way until the end, whereas the other dome is a smaller, separate melon-sized dome that connects up to the bottom of the bridge through a metal fluted fastening. Connecting the two domes is a bridge with steel bars running perpendicular and divots to indicate where a player would press down with their fingers to create specific notes. The bridge leads out to an intricately carved creature, usually a dragon, at the end past the second smaller sphere.

The veena has 7 stainless steel strings (4 melody strings and 3 drone strings) and 24 frets made of brass alloy. The strings measure about 83cm are suspended approximately 0.17cm above the bridge. They are connected to the body by being set into the head and pulled through the dragon end. There are also 5 knobs along the end of the bridge that are used to tune the strings and pull them taut.

Here are the measurements based on a 1960 Saraswati veena composed of jackfruit body and a plastic smaller resonator:

• The depth of the soundbox is 3.7cm.
• The length of the soundbox is 63.4cm.
• The length of the face of the larger head dome resonator is 35.7cm.
• The width of the face of the larger head dome resonator is 37.2cm.
• The height of the larger head dome resonator is 25.2cm.
• The height of the smaller gourd resonator (including the metal fluted fastening) is 27.0cm.

Playing Technique

The veena is played sitting down in a criss-cross position. The smaller sphere rests on the left thigh with the larger sphere on the ground. In order to play it, the player's left arm goes under the bridge and rests on the melody strings (their right hand is facing them). The right hand rests on the large sphere and rests at the strings between the soundbox and the bridge. To play it, the player first shifts the veena so that it is slightly forward leaning. The left hand applies pressure with their finger pads on the strings in the space between divets, so as to push the string closer to the divet and create a specific frequency. Once the string is pressed to that specific frequency, the right index and middle finger pluck at the string using their finger pads or a finger-pick. If one is also playing the drone strings, they are plucked using the little finger.

The Carnatic scale as played on a piano.

The veena produces a 3-octave range. It is designed to be able to perform portamento (sliding note) effects as is typical of the genre, so players commonly oil or otherwise lubricate their fingers so as to allow to easy gliding across the strings. Sound produced can differ based on whether it's fingerpads or a pick plucking at the string -- fingerpads can create a rounder sound, whereas a pick can create a sharper sound.

Carnatic Scale Basics

The veena is tuned in accordance to the Carnatic music scale, and therefore follows rules of swara and shruti. Shruti (ɕrʊtɪ) refers to the calculated smallest interval of sound a human can detect, whereas swara (स्वर) discusses how musicians arrange the tones in a scale. An octave contains 7 swara tones and 22 shruti tones, and base note sa functions as the tonic of the scale. When the veena is tuned, it is done in accordance to three shruti tones: the tonic sa (4th shruthi tone), halfway point of the octave pa (17th shruthi tone), and the last point of the octave and start of the next tonic high sa (22nd shruthi tone).

Acoustics and Spectra

Materials used to construct a veena greatly change how the sound comes off. While it is traditional to use jack wood for the entire structure, difficulty of upkeep and transportation have led to many veenas being created in multiple mediums, usually a mixture of wood and plastic. The way a player pulls the strings also changes the sound: the strings increase in thickness from bottom to top to represent differences in octave. The thicker a string, the lower of a sound it will produce due to the increase in mass of the string. Similarly, the more taut a string is pulled, the cleaner of a sound it will produce; experienced players will usually have a mixture of string thicknesses and taughtness to create various combinations of string sounds when played.

Fig 1.1. 70Hz C#2

Fig 1.2. 208Hz G#3

Fig 1.3. 273Hz C#4

Fig 2.1. Basic waveform diagram of sa being plucked with fingerpad (left) versus pick (right).

The veena is tuned in accordance to tonic, the middle note, and the upper tonic. This can be seen through the spectrum plots: as the veena used was newly tuned, the octaves are exactly apart. Fig 1.1 shows the sa at 70Hz (C#2), Fig 1.2 shows pa at 208Hz (G#3) and Fig 1.3 shows the high sa at 273Hz (C#4).

Fig 2.2. Spectral analysis of sa being plucked by fingerpad vs. pick.

Fig 2.1 examines sa as plucked with the pad of an index finger versus with a plastic pick through basic waveform, with the first waveform diagram being plucked with a finger and the second waveform diagram being plucked with a pick. Here we can see differences in amplitude, perhaps contributing to the differences in sound. However, once analysed as can be seen in Fig 2.2, the spectra diagrams look extremely similar and the harmonics are exactly the same at 70Hz (C#2). Therefore, musicians tend to use either pick or finger or when performing.