Mandolin
मैंडोलिन
The five-string electric mandolin that U. Srinivas brought to Carnatic concerts
The Carnatic mandolin is a five-string electric mandolin that U. Srinivas (1969-2014) adapted to play South Indian classical music and its gamakas.
History & Evolution
The mandolin entered Carnatic music through U. Srinivas, who adapted it and took it onto the Carnatic concert stage. He was born on 28 February 1969 in Palakollu, Andhra Pradesh, son of U. Satyanarayana, a band musician. His first guru, the vocalist Rudraraju Subbaraju, did not play the mandolin: he sang phrases and the boy worked them out on the strings. The guitarist Vasu Rao, who introduced him to Western music in 1976, recalls building his first solid-body mandolin.
Recognition came early. Mint reports that the first issue of the music magazine Sruti put the 14-year-old on its cover in 1983 beside the singer D. K. Pattammal, and from 1981 he played for the Indian Fine Arts Society in Chennai every December for more than three decades. He also passed the instrument on. At his Srinivas Institute of World Music in Chennai, students and colleagues say, many pupils paid no fees, and his younger brother U. Rajesh learned from their father and from him and joined him in duet concerts.
- Pre-1970s
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Western Origins
The mandolin takes shape in 18th-century Italy as a plucked instrument with four pairs of strings. In India it is heard in film and light music, often in linking passages, and has no Carnatic concert career. - 1970s
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Srinivas Emerges
Srinivas takes up his father's mandolin as a small child and learns by ear from Carnatic singers. In 1978 he gives his first public Carnatic concert, at the Thyagaraja Aradhana festival in Andhra Pradesh. - 1980s - 1990s
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Classical Recognition
Srinivas debuts in Chennai in 1981 and, through the 1990s, becomes a fixture of the Music Academy's evening slot. He plays the Berlin Jazz Festival in 1983, receives the Padma Shri in 1998 and joins John McLaughlin's band Remember Shakti. - 2000s - Present
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Legacy
Srinivas dies in Chennai on 19 September 2014, aged 45, from complications after a liver transplant. His brother U. Rajesh, who had recorded with John McLaughlin on Floating Point, keeps playing the mandolin in Carnatic and collaborative concerts.
Technical Aspects
Five Single Strings
Srinivas's instrument has five single strings where the European mandolin has four pairs. Doubled strings made gamakas hard to produce, so he replaced them and added a fifth string for the lower register. His 1999 paper lists the strings as E, A, D, G and G. Suresh Kumar's paper at the same conference records a change to C-G-C-G-C: tonic Sa and fifth Pa across several octaves, on open strings.
Playing Gamakas
Gamakas come from the left hand. Suresh Kumar describes a set fingering pattern that gamakas break: a pressed finger slides along the string, shakes between neighbouring frets for kampita, the oscillating gamaka, or hammers on without a fresh pluck. Single strings gave up the Western tremolo, rapid repeated plectrum strokes. The goal is gayaki, a line that sounds like the voice.
Electric Amplification
Srinivas moved from the acoustic mandolin to an electric solid-body instrument because it sustains notes, so gamakas and slow phrases hold. Unamplified, the solid body is audible only close by. Suresh Kumar reported in 1999 that Carnatic players hardly use effects, and that Chennai makers built instruments to Srinivas's design.
Journey to Mastery
Follow this structured journey to master this discipline
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Posture and basic technique
This stage covers the playing position: the side of the mandolin rests on the seated player's lap, the left hand stops the strings and the right hand plucks single notes with a plectrum. The left hand learns the basic fingering pattern, in which the index, middle and ring fingers each take set notes, with Sa and Pa on open strings.
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Sarali varisai and alankaram
This stage covers the graded exercises credited to Purandara Dasa. Sarali varisai are the first scale exercises, and much of the material is set in the raga Mayamalavagowla. Alankarams follow, note patterns set in the main talas, or rhythmic cycles. Geetams, simple songs used in teaching, come next. Varnams and kritis follow only after all of these.
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Gamaka and Slides
This stage turns fixed fret positions into raga music. The learner practises the gamakas each raga needs, from slow slides to kampita, the fast oscillation between neighbouring frets, and learns to keep a single plucked note alive through each movement. Ragas Srinivas explored in concert, among them Sankarabharanam and Kiravani, make suggested listening.
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Varnams and Kritis
After the exercises the learner moves on to varnams and then to kritis. The tana varnam presents its raga's ornaments and characteristic phrases and teaches the student to play and improvise in it. Varnams are practised at double speed, and tana varnams open a concert. The kriti became the main concert item in the early 20th century, and kritis sat at the heart of Srinivas's own programmes.
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Improvisation and concert practice
This final stage turns to improvisation. The learner studies raga alapana, an unmetred exposition of the raga; niraval, variations on a line of a song's text; and kalpanaswaram, improvised note patterns in sol-fa syllables. Ragam-tanam-pallavi joins alapana, tanam (a pulsing exposition of the raga) and a developed pallavi line in one suite. In concert Srinivas played raga exposition and kalpanaswaram alongside kritis.