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Hindustan, vina

Hindustan, vina.jpg Indian dancing-girlThumbnailsBull and manIndian dancing-girlThumbnailsBull and manIndian dancing-girlThumbnailsBull and manIndian dancing-girlThumbnailsBull and manIndian dancing-girlThumbnailsBull and man
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The vina is undoubtedly of high antiquity. It has seven wire strings, and movable frets which are generally fastened with wax. Two hollowed gourds, often tastefully ornamented, are affixed to it for the purpose of increasing the sonorousness. There are several kinds of the vina in different districts; but that represented in the illustration is regarded as the oldest. The performer shown is Jeewan Shah, a celebrated virtuoso on the vina, who lived about a hundred years ago. The Hindus divided their musical scale into several intervals smaller than our modern semitones. They adopted twenty-two intervals called sruti in the compass of an octave, which may therefore be compared to our chromatic intervals. As the frets of the vina are movable the performer can easily regulate them according to the scale, or mode, which he requires for his music.

Author
Musical Instruments
Written by Carl Engel
Published in 1875
Available from gutenberg.org
Dimensions
504*600
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