Knowra Veena Veena The veena is a family of Indian plucked string instruments, including fretted lutes used in classical music. Its members differ in construction, playing technique, and regional tradition.
Saraswati veena : A South Indian fretted lute with a large resonator, a long neck, and fixed frets. This is the best-known veena in Carnatic classical music.
Plucked string instrument : A musical instrument whose strings sound when plucked by fingers, picks, or other devices. Veena belongs to this broad family, though its members use varied designs.
Ancient Indian music : Musical practices and theories documented in the Indian subcontinent before the medieval period. Texts and images from this history record instruments called veena, though their forms varied.
Veena Dhanammal : A celebrated Carnatic vocalist and veena player of the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. Her restrained style helped establish a model for veena interpretation.
Rudra veena : A large North Indian stick zither with a tubular body, movable frets, and two gourd resonators. Its design shows how a veena can differ sharply from the South Indian lute.
Gamakas : Ornamental pitch movements that shape notes and melodic phrases in Indian classical music. Veena technique renders gamakas through string pulls, slides, and plucks.
Natya Shastra : An ancient Sanskrit treatise on performance, drama, dance, and music traditionally attributed to Bharata Muni. Its musical discussion includes early classifications of string instruments.
Emani Sankara Sastry : A twentieth-century Indian veena player and composer associated with Carnatic music. His performances and compositions brought the veena to wider concert audiences.
Frets : Raised divisions on a string instrument’s fingerboard that define pitches when strings are stopped. Fixed or movable frets shape the pitch choices available on different veenas.
Tuning peg : A fitting turned to adjust the tension and pitch of a string. The pegs set the melody and drone strings to the chosen musical pitches.
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