The violin as cross cultural vehicle: Ornamentation in South Indian violin and its influence on a style of Western violin improvisation

This study explores the thesis that types of melodic ornamentation shared by South Indian and other musics can be matched with shared principles of violin fingering in these musics. This correspondence gives the violin its special power as a vehicle of cross-cultural influence and communication. In particular, there is a strong parallel between the three basic forms of left-hand movement which are intrinsic to the violin (shifts, oscillations, and fingerfall), and the three broad classes of South Indian ornamentation (slides, deflections, and fingered stresses).;A brief review of Indian theoretical writings on ornamentation from the thirteenth century onward sets the stage for discussion of modern music. An exploration of specific Carnatic ornaments and their grouping into types is followed by an overview of the violin's introduction into South Indian music, its typical role in accompaniment, and left-hand techniques used to execute the various ornaments.;Violin fingerings are assigned to highly detailed transcriptions of three views of one raga (two improvisations and one composition). The transcriptions are then analysed in terms of how the fingerings assist in realizing the essence of the raga.;The final chapter shifts focus to Western music. Artist-teachers and physiologists are invoked to develop the idea of a cross-musical substrate of left-hand violin technique. The correlation of specific ornaments from the Carnatic and jazz traditions helps to reveal the underlying bond between playing styles.;Relevant issues in ethnomusicology are discussed: bimusicality, the comparison of musics, influence between musics, and limits of objectivity in viewing an instrumental technique to which the writer came as a non-native. The raga under study, presented by several distinguished native artists, itself provides authoritative tests of any fingering schemes for its realization on the violin. The study documents a musician's inner process in learning a new music on his own instrument, and in uncovering the principles of technique which underlie and connect different playing styles.